I.T.C.B – Interstellar Trade Compliance Bureau

I.T.C.B. – Interstellar Trade Compliance Bureau is a management simulation with a comedic premise. The Zorbonians, a struggling world within a vast galactic empire, win the Imperial Lottery and are granted the right to abduct one person from anywhere in the galaxy to repair their economy. Having mistaken the player’s background in moving shipping containers for logistical genius, they install them at Trade Terminal 7-G and expect results. The game is now released on Steam.

Play takes place on a single terminal screen. The player constructs production facilities, manages resources and works to keep the alien population fed, clothed, housed and content. Surplus goods can be sold on a galactic market whose prices shift over time, so timing purchases and sales is part of the challenge. New resources appear as untranslated alien glyphs, and the player must work out what they are, either before or after they cause difficulties.

A continuous feed of news headlines influences prices, demand and the occurrence of disasters. According to the developer, much of this information is irrelevant while some of it can end a run, and distinguishing between the two is central to the game. There is also a corporate progression element overseen by the player’s supervisor, Vellum Quex-9, who contacts them regularly. The developer describes the tone as dry bureaucratic comedy, citing Papers, Please, Cultist Simulator and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as reference points.