Snake Oil Syndicate

Starting Screen
The bounty hunter's request
The Sheriff presenting his problem
The kitchen area
An ingredient's break down in the store
The general store for ingredients
The sick townsperson
The Sheriff
The bounty hunter
The bandit
The cowboy
The gambling prospector
The cowgirl

Inspiration

Our game is inspired by the snake oil salesman, a classic wild west trope where a con-man sells miracle elixirs to cure any ailments. Our team wanted to really embrace the Wild West theme and highlight the many character types that make the genre iconic, from cowboys to outlaws. We decided to make characters to fit the many classic Wild West archetypes and make a story of a snake oil salesman on the run to make the game, allowing players to be immersed in the story and truly interact with each character type.

What it does

In our game, you play as a snake oil salesman who’s new in town. In order to make enough money to get to the next town (and to stay on the run from your previous clients), you must raise enough money over the course of 3 days. Various townspeople will come to you with their problems, and it’s up to you to interpret what they may need and to make an elixir that can cure their woes. Purchase ingredients in the shop and make combinations to increase key stats such as luck and healing. Just make sure the townspeople don’t find out about your tricks and make sure your elixirs don’t get too toxic!

How we built it

We built this game in Unity. We hand drew all of our assets in Ibis Paint X and Procreate, as well.

Challenges we ran into

We faced several challenges throughout development. Early in the competition, we lost a teammate and had to quickly adapt by redistributing responsibilities and reconfiguring our workflow. Another major challenge was designing the scoring algorithm. We wanted the game to feel open-ended and encourage experimentation, allowing for a wide range of ingredient combinations. To support this, we developed a system that evaluates each recipe based on its proximity to an “ideal” solution, enabling flexible and creative outcomes rather than rigid success/failure conditions.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of our teamwork and ability to persevere, as we were able to split tasks efficiently and checked in on each other throughout the hackathon. We also had a lot of fun brainstorming and made exciting characters and storylines that we’re proud of, as well! All of our assets are hand drawn, and although it took a while, we are proud of the final stylized look.

What we learned

This project taught us a great deal about working in Unity, especially since it was only our developer’s second project using the platform. One of the biggest learning areas was managing persistent objects across scenes. We relied heavily on systems that needed to carry data between scenes, which required a deeper understanding of patterns like singletons and scene management in Unity. We also gained valuable experience in software organization. As the project grew in scope, it became increasingly important to separate responsibilities across systems like game management, UI, and data handling. Learning how to structure scripts clearly, avoid tight coupling, and maintain readable, modular code made development smoother and debugging far more manageable.

What's next for Snake Oil Syndicate

If we had more time, we would love to continue the story of the game and make a second town. After successfully completing the first town, players can stay on the run and explore other iconic character archetypes, such as lawmen and robbers, in a new town!