No Umbrellas Allowed
Hoochoo Game Studios · 2021 · Simulation, Indie, Strategy, Pixel Graphics, Choices Matter
PC
Very Positive81% · 1,38125playing now
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About No Umbrellas Allowed
✦ AI summary
Run a secondhand shop in a mysterious 2080 city where you negotiate prices, uncover item histories, and build your reputation by reading customers and the city's secrets. Balance shrewd buying and selling with careful negotiation skills while slowly uncovering the truth about your amnesia and the strange obsession gripping Ajik City.
No Umbrellas Allowed is a second hand shop simulation game set in Ajik City, 2080.
In Ajik City, you're a total stranger. Because you were rescued few days ago at a beach losing everything, even your memories. The person who saved you is Darcy, who has been operating a 30-year-old one-and-only secondhand shop 'Darcy's' in the city. He has set you as a manager of his shop and gave you the name of his son, Bob.
However, the city seems odd. People don't seem to know how to reveal their thinkings or feelings, or maybe, they're hiding them. They all seem so obsessed, whether in a favorable manner or the opposite, with something called 'Fixerain'. And some people in dark uniforms are calling themselves civil activists, while everyone calls them police-mimickers.
Anyway, Let's Focus On Your Job Here.
Begin a tug of war with a customer:
When you're confident with your information, you can start negotiating the price back and forth. The information you've collected build up a price, which you can use as a guideline. Since just a guideline, you'd better cut if off when making an offer.
However, the customer is a ‘human-being’ that has as much expectation, knowledge and emotion as you. Every time you make an offer, if your fingers were not slipping, they will say “no” or “more” with a bit of annoyance. Or even they can think of an exact amount they want. And don't forget. When you either pull or push really hard during a tug of war, your opponent may get freaked out and rush outside the field.
In case you don't have enough cash at a moment when you meet quite a charming item, loan options offered by Darcy, banks, or foreign lenders are ready.
Sell much higher than you paid
If you made it, now you can sell the item. By displaying it on the showcase, one of the prospective customers may come in and decide whether to buy it or not depending on its price that you set when displaying it.
The basic rule here is BUY LOW and SELL HIGH. But don't get too greedy. If your selling price is unreasonably high, customers mostly give up and items will stay in the showcase for too long.
Of course, you should consider your reputation too. Big and small fights with customers can lead to a bad reputation, and it leads to fewer customers, fewer profits. Check your reputation via Reputation Board and try to make a good impression on each customer.
Guess what item they are looking for:
Sometimes, there may be a customer who's looking for a certain type of items. For example, art lovers may look for art-related items, history lovers may look for history-related ones. Don't try to guess what will happen if you let them down. \
There’re much greater opportunities outside the store too. Visit a neighboring flower shop to buy some charming flowers to attract customers, or go to a repair shop to fix items undervalued due to their poor condition.
And this is optional but strongly recommended:
Listen carefully to what your neighbors say. Get around the city and pay attention to what they're talking about. There may be some hints you can use to satisfy your customers as much as possible to prosper the shop.
Somehow, if lucky, you can even get a clue to your past days and find out what is really happening in this city to change its tomorrow.
In Ajik City, you're a total stranger. Because you were rescued few days ago at a beach losing everything, even your memories. The person who saved you is Darcy, who has been operating a 30-year-old one-and-only secondhand shop 'Darcy's' in the city. He has set you as a manager of his shop and gave you the name of his son, Bob.
However, the city seems odd. People don't seem to know how to reveal their thinkings or feelings, or maybe, they're hiding them. They all seem so obsessed, whether in a favorable manner or the opposite, with something called 'Fixerain'. And some people in dark uniforms are calling themselves civil activists, while everyone calls them police-mimickers.
Anyway, Let's Focus On Your Job Here.
Key Features
- Reveal the true value of a strange item
In Darcy's, your job is to both buy and sell items. When a customer is trying to sell their item, they never tell everything. So you must reveal the true value of it digging what is behind it and adjust the buying price of it.
It's okay you're not an expert. You can use several tools to get some data: the item's material and condition, the year it was made and any signs of ups and downs of its value.
But what if the data tells the fact but not telling any valuable information? Here's a know-how book. It contains knowledge and backgrounds such as: the city's history; the signatures of celebrities one of which may be written on an item; the popular brands and the unpopular brands, and more.
When you're confident with your information, you can start negotiating the price back and forth. The information you've collected build up a price, which you can use as a guideline. Since just a guideline, you'd better cut if off when making an offer.
However, the customer is a ‘human-being’ that has as much expectation, knowledge and emotion as you. Every time you make an offer, if your fingers were not slipping, they will say “no” or “more” with a bit of annoyance. Or even they can think of an exact amount they want. And don't forget. When you either pull or push really hard during a tug of war, your opponent may get freaked out and rush outside the field.
In case you don't have enough cash at a moment when you meet quite a charming item, loan options offered by Darcy, banks, or foreign lenders are ready.
If you made it, now you can sell the item. By displaying it on the showcase, one of the prospective customers may come in and decide whether to buy it or not depending on its price that you set when displaying it.
The basic rule here is BUY LOW and SELL HIGH. But don't get too greedy. If your selling price is unreasonably high, customers mostly give up and items will stay in the showcase for too long.
Of course, you should consider your reputation too. Big and small fights with customers can lead to a bad reputation, and it leads to fewer customers, fewer profits. Check your reputation via Reputation Board and try to make a good impression on each customer.
Sometimes, there may be a customer who's looking for a certain type of items. For example, art lovers may look for art-related items, history lovers may look for history-related ones. Don't try to guess what will happen if you let them down.
There’re much greater opportunities outside the store too. Visit a neighboring flower shop to buy some charming flowers to attract customers, or go to a repair shop to fix items undervalued due to their poor condition.
And this is optional but strongly recommended:
Listen carefully to what your neighbors say. Get around the city and pay attention to what they're talking about. There may be some hints you can use to satisfy your customers as much as possible to prosper the shop.
Somehow, if lucky, you can even get a clue to your past days and find out what is really happening in this city to change its tomorrow.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
This game is a real gem once you get past its rough edges. Some of the translations aren’t perfect and a few mechanics aren’t fully explained, so a little of the original intent feels lost along the way. That said, revisiting in 2026, the translation is noticeably better than it was around the time of the initial release when I had originally picked this up. Once you do understand the mechanics it is a very fun game however. The story, lore, and world‑building are fantastic. Quite disappointed to see the developers have moved on from the idea and have released very different games since, it’s hard not to feel like a great opportunity was left behind. Some further instalments like prequels exploring earlier events, or games set in the neighbouring cities and nations mentioned throughout the story; would have been fantastic. The world feels big enough and interesting enough that expanding it would have been a natural next step.1 found this helpful
No Umbrellas Allowed has players managing a shop in a city where greed is considered a punishable crime. Players must appraise items and apply tags from their manual to identify various details. The number of appraisal tools and tags increase as the game progresses, making it feel very reminiscent of Papers Please. The core gameplay loop seems promising, but the fun of it is repeatedly spoiled by unclear language, likely due to a sub-par English translation. Character dialogue is often clunky and unnatural, while using the manual can sometimes just feel like a pure guessing game. I often found myself struggling to understand what details were coming from the game’s lore vs just poor translation. Playing the game became an increasingly frustrating experience, which overwrote any attempt I made to engage with the moral dilemmas the story put forward. If you understand Korean, you might want to read some Korean reviews to see if it’s just a translation issue. If you just understand English though, I really can’t recommend this game. 4/101 found this helpful
Overall fun, though I think more specific feedback for when the player makes a mistake is necessary Because what do you mean this bag that I appraised as 1600v is "not a knockoff, but not worth the full price." the customer wants to get it for 16v????? It just becomes a gamble when buying expensive things because I never know what I got wrong and just keep making mistakes without knowing what the mistakes are.
Fun game but sure wish there were clearer instructions in the game. Luckily there are good guides online. Also please please have a pop up confirmation when you click quit. I keep thinking that's the close menu button 😩
This game is what i exactly want from this type of genre a compelling story with fun relaxed mechanics the way you aim to play is to avoid consequences as much as possible and although that is like any game this one makes you think about them more. in my opinion this game is my favourite in the genre i love pawnshop's so the idea of being one in the way this game does it is perfect my only issues with the game is even though its quite tough already if you do end up doing well you get even more punished is how i see it which i do not like as im the type that if i do well i should be able to enjoy it not get annoyed that the game decided to take 28k of which it gives me back after a week to then do it again but this time take 79k out of all i saved and worked for i literally only just hit big at the auction and boom all gone and not a scrap of it back but im assuming that was my only choice if i didn't want to be ripped apart from angry protesters on the bride. but other then that specific problem this game is perfect and i recommend it to anyone who is into cosy genre i really hope they make another one day but with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ endless mode i know its difficult to implement with …
FINI-PETE IT Solid "cozy paperwork" game with an interesting story. Charming pixel art style. Being a pawnshop owner in a world where greed is outlawed is a great narrative & gameplay hook. Player desires (fat stacks of cash) and the game world are at odds, forcing the player to strike a balance. The game progressively introduces new tools/concepts you must check for each item, keeping the player on their toes and rewarding expertise.
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