Development History

Probably Stolen began as Bei Ning Pan's solo project at Questing Goose Studio, grew out of a shelved game called Space Looter, had a demo called Deepspace Emporium that peaked at 28 players, and was reworked with publisher tinyBuild.

Probably Stolen started as a solo project by developer Bei Ning Pan, who built it on a shelved turn-based sci-fi station crawler called Space Looter after returning from a trip with the idea of a shopkeeping simulator.

The studio

Questing Goose Studio has since grown to Bei Ning Pan with 4 artists and 3 audio developers. Pan's past work includes internships at The Coalition, Ubisoft Montreal and Eidos, and his favorite games include The Witcher 3, Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Space Station 13. DualShockers calls this the studio's first title.

From Deepspace Emporium to Probably Stolen

The game's earlier form was a demo called Deepspace Emporium, which peaked at 28 concurrent players. tinyBuild's chief executive, Alex Nichiporchik, says the publisher loved the concept and worked with the developer to reimagine the visuals. PCGamesN credits that rebrand for the success, and the announcement post calls the renamed game a "Cyberpunk Pawnshop Simulator"; the store now says Cyberpunk Shopkeeper Sim.

Playtests and feedback

Over 100,000 people tried the playtest and filed reports and surveys, which the studio says shaped version 1.0. Their requests for more customers, perks, items and machines, and more store customization are on the record, and features like multi-item selection, sorting and the Toolbox came from that period, the Toolbox's equip mode credited to a player.

Frequently asked questions

Who made Probably Stolen? Probably Stolen was made by Questing Goose Studio, begun by solo developer Bei Ning Pan, and published by tinyBuild.

What was Probably Stolen called before? Its earlier demo was called Deepspace Emporium, and it was built on a shelved project called Space Looter.