Politically, I am very much in favor of decriminalizing weed, but on a personal level, I absolutely can’t stand it. I feel bad about this–who hates weed?!--but after years of trying not to feel like the world’s biggest dork, I’ve learned to just quietly slip away when people are using it. Given this, recent early access drug-dealing game Schedule 1 should in no way be my thing, but somehow I’ve been playing the hell out of it.
I hadn’t heard of Schedule 1 until Aftermath pal Javy Gwaltney mentioned it on Bluesky over the weekend, but it rocketed to Steam’s top seller slot as of this writing and has reportedly been wildly successful for its solo developer. It’s a simple-looking, cartoonish game where you play as a small-time drug dealer who flees your desert town for a modestly-sized city, where you have to rebuild your supply chain and customer base from scratch, steadily crafting a bigger and bigger empire while evading cops and rival dealers.
Lest this sound like Grand Theft Auto or similar flashy, high-octane games, Schedule 1 is scratching my survival game itch far more than any desire for shootouts and action. A day in my game is full of wonderfully tedious chores: skateboard over to the hardware store to buy some more soil and baggies, head across town to pick up some different weed seeds from a dead drop, trek all the way back to my shitty apartment above a Chinese restaurant with my haul. Growing weed requires pouring soil, planting seeds, and watering them, all with the need to slice the tops off bags and pop the lids off containers and make sure to throw all that stuff away in the trash when you’re done. Weed needs to be harvested and then packaged by hand, in a wonderfully physical assembly line of placing nuggets in bags and sealing them up. The game is on a day/night cycle that often feels way too short for all the things you need to get done, though time stops at 4am until you go to sleep, in effect pausing the clock to let you catch up on things.
At first, you deliver your goods by yourself: accepting orders on your phone, arranging a meeting time, and even haggling on price, amount, or strain. Buyers have connections to others; by strengthening your relationships with customers and handing out free samples to new ones, you slowly build a customer base that can connect you to new suppliers. It can also connect you to dealers, who can sell drugs for you–once you manually deliver the product, decide which specific customers they can sell to, and then remember to come back to top them up and collect your money. Later, you can hire workers to do some of your chores and buy machines that can automate the process, all of which will require more space and money as you work your way toward building a grand operation.
In the early hours I’ve played solo, Schedule 1 is a decidedly unsexy game. (It also has co-op, though I haven’t checked that out yet.) Games like this often want to be about becoming untouchably powerful, but my most memorable experiences so far have been times I’ve had to escape the cops like any small-time hood. While the trailer suggests car chases and shootouts, I’ve mostly faced challenges by fleeing. Cops patrol the streets and institute a nightly curfew, which I get around by sneaking through alleys and clambering through ditches. In the game’s intro area, the cops wanted to frisk me; thinking fast, I ran behind a dumpster and smoked all my weed so they wouldn’t find it, only to learn you can hide it on your person in a clever little mini-game. In another instance, the cops busted me when I brilliantly made a drug deal right in front of them; I fled into a taco shop and hid under a booth until they stopped looking. There are cars and guns to buy, but I kind of like the idea of seeing how small I can keep things.
This desire extends to the kinds of drugs the game lets you make, too. So far, I’ve mixed weed with mouthwash and painkillers to make new strains; on the horizon is the ability to make harder drugs like meth and cocaine, but I feel uncomfortable with that idea. I’m curious to see if the game will let me avoid it; I might not like weed, but at least it generally isn’t hurting anyone. I like the idea of playing the game like a regular person, just trying to get by and survive the (relatable) challenges of scaling a business, rather than some kingpin introducing dangerous drugs into my new community.
Schedule 1 is obviously a game about drugs, but I appreciate how low-key it is about them so far. Characters have bloodshot stoner eyes, but I haven’t encountered any over-the-top drugs jokes or other stuff I’d find too off-putting. I feel like I could be running almost any kind of business and a lot of the game would play the same, minus all the running from the cops. I’m surprised to find myself liking it so much, and I think that’s down to all its mundane moving parts and unexpectedly soothing chores. (I love the idea of being a drug dealer who spends a chunk of his day picking up street litter; you can exchange your trash for money, which is a great way to help finance your operations.) The early access roadmap sounds full of cool stuff to look forward to, including more side activities that will hopefully keep me from losing all my money in the game’s casino in my rare downtime.
