The Meter is Running
You inherited a taxi dispatch business but it came with debt attached. Hire drivers, dispatch fares, navigate Istanbul’s chaos, deal with bad customers and worse luck. You have 15 days to pay it off or lose everything. The meter is running.
The Meter Is Running is a short management game about trying to keep a taxi dispatch alive when everything is stacked against you.
You run a small taxi dispatch in Istanbul with limited resources and debt hanging over your head. You assign drivers to customers across a physical city map. So distance and deadhead matter. A bad call early in the day can cost precious time.
Each day brings new fares, difficult decisions, and unexpected events. When drivers encounter a situation they will call back to base and you’ll face narrative events with choices shaped by who’s involved. You have 15 days to earn enough money to stay afloat or your dispatch shuts down and you lose everything.
Every morning you can see the new pool of drivers available to hire. Each driver has a different combination of traits and stats. More importantly, each one comes with their own personality, totaling over 1200 unique lines. Pick your favorites and assemble your fleet.
Each shift takes roughly 15-20 minutes, you can buy permanent upgrades to your garage between shifts to increase your chances of paying off the debt in 15 days.
Paying the debt is one side of the coin. The other question is, how far are you willing to go for money? That forgotten wallet looks a lot juicier when the debt is right around the corner. But some choices run deeper than others, and the community remembers. The meter is running!
