Merek's Market

About this game

Merek’s Market is a chaotic crafting game about running a medieval shop.



We’ve all been that adventurer throwing down bags of gold to buy swords and shields, but what about the poor souls rushing around behind the shop counter? Strange customers? Yes. Over the top crafting challenges? You bet. A shop cat? Absolutely! Take ownership of Merek’s Market as you haggle, barter and craft your way through a comical single player campaign or team up with friends to supply the whole town.

Craft

Do you have the skill and craftsmanship to make beautiful artisanal items? Neither does Merek but putting a few items on a crafting table and hitting them with a hammer seem to turn up decent results.

Haggle

Skilfully negotiate your way into heady profits. Unethical side note, richer folk will pay through the nose for any product. Do with that information what you will.

Big...Customers

Battle absurd bosses and craft custom items for them. If you can't manage that then at least try your best to keep your shop in one piece.

4 Player Local Co-op

• Can't invite your friends round? You can play with your parents who will most definitely quickly grasp the controls and be useful team mates.
  
• Has the spark gone? Save the relationship with some quality time together.
  
• Do you struggle with the most basic of video games? Look like you’re doing something useful while your 3 friends carry you.

Latest news

• Announcements·25 Jan 2022Official

  Designing the Haggling Mechanic

  We’ve spent the last 2 years working on Merek’s Market, a game about running a medieval shop and I thought it might be fun to do a deep dive on the development of the haggling mechanic and how that mechanic changed over the course of development. We’ll be looking at it from a design perspective so don’t worry, this won’t get too technical. This post is also available in video format here: Let’s look at haggling from a high level. What should this mechanic be? It should start with an introductory chat with a customer. There should be an element of reading the customer, either what they’ve said or what they’re wearing before you pick a price. It would be fun to get strong responses too. Perhaps a customer starts shouting if you try to overcharge them before they counter with a lower offer. And if we convert this into some sort of rule set we’d get: A customer comes in and requests an item. Either directly or by talking some silly mumbo jumbo around the topic. You decide what item to pick for them and tell them the price you want. The customer can accept your price or counter offer. The longer a negotiation keeps going, the more upset a customer gets and they will eventually storm out. Once you agree on a price, the customer hands over the money and everyone is happy. Little disclaimer: The below videos are development footage. You may see things which offend your eyes. Version 1 We started with this basic but clunky set up. There’s a log of what the customer has said on the left, a menu for picking different items and a slider to set a price. It works, it’s a good start but there’s so much information on screen at once it’s hard to tell what you should be looking at. There’s also a lot of clicks to get through and menus to open. On the whole, we can do better. To Do: Camerawork. A static camera shot of the customer is drab, we can frame Merek and the customer better. Lead the player through the negotiation. Focus on what is happening at the minute and make it obvious ...
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• Announcements·2 Nov 2021Official

  What are Boss Crafts? - The Statue

  Hey there shopkeep! One of the features in Merek's Market that players love is bosses but with only limited real estate on the store page they're not showcased in much detail. So let's take a dive and see what makes up a boss craft. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40367782/e86f7d5b2d72e5064f307f70abcacde75f1b5139.png Short Description: "Boss crafts are challenging multistage crafting challenges under time pressure". Taking the first boss craft, the statue, as an example. An eccentric customer rocks up and asks Merek to make a lifelike statue of him by the end of the day. Merek has to start by making some wooden shoes, then a chest piece and so on, building up a hefty statue. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40367782/a2272a29a4900b8da8a25e44c4f67014d577cac1.jpg All boss crafts feature minigames to give you that little extra challenge when trying to get things done as fast as possible. For every statue piece Merek crafts and places he's shown a button pattern than must be memorised and repeated. Easy enough but also easy to make mistakes if it's rushed too much. Even with all this going on, it's still a regular day at the shop and customers need to be served. Serving customers while you are building a boss craft rewards you with time freezes to help you get the lowest time you can. Ignore them at your peril. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40367782/8f0b1e75dfb1cc8ca193c2ecb278b0c09e81b0ac.jpg When you've finished your marvelous creation, check out the global leaderboards to see how well you've performed. If you can't quite get to the top, you should still be able to get an achievement for completing your masterpiece quickly. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40367782/ca654feb972b148d337a99704fa685243c14c829.jpg There's a lot that goes into a good boss craft run. Get your scores up on the leaderboards!
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• Announcements·24 Sept 2021Official

  Review Round Up

  {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40367782/5e71a2ad6dccea3f653a8b71410927c8bf4183f9.png It's been just over a week since launch and we've been lucky enough to recieve our fair share of good reviews and impressions for Merek's Market. Here are a few of our favourite quotes: "One of my favourite indie games I've had the pleasure to play this year" XboxEra - 8/10 "If you're looking for a fun arcade-style crafting game with a hectic gameplay loop then Merek's Market is just what you need" PS4Blog.net 8/10 "Filled with a lot of bad puns" Geeky Hobbies 8/10 Brimming with pride from that last one.ːsteamhappyː We're interesting in what you have to say too. Drop in the Discord and chat to us! Until next time. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40367782/ad18555b91263242618cd3c751f2a9af68a52887.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40367782/87cb683a85d455cb47a41724bf79769294b2902f.jpg
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• Patch Notes·17 Sept 2021Official

  New Patch!

  What's Changed? 1. The colouring of the sandstone icon has been tweaked to differentiate it a little more from the sand icon. It was easy to get confused when making glass for the first time. Hopefully this should help. 2. Button remapping scroll view now has a sensible scroll speed when being controlled by a mouse wheel. 3. Fix for final boss not pathing correctly when playing in some regions. We've still got a few very minor issues to patch up but if you see anything that isn't right, get in touch on the forums or come jump in our discord. See you on the shop floor! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40367782/ad18555b91263242618cd3c751f2a9af68a52887.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40367782/87cb683a85d455cb47a41724bf79769294b2902f.jpg
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• Announcements·15 Sept 2021Official

  Developer Stream Starting Now!

  Hey there shopkeep! Come along and watch the developers play Merek's Market. Over the full stream there will be both singleplayer campaign and co-op campaign playthroughs. If you want to watch us be absolutely awful at the game we developed and communicate incredibly poorly with each other make sure to catch us in co-op!
  Read full article on Community Announcements (Big Village Games)