You are worth every penny.
Presentable Liberty is an indie horror game. You play as an unnamed prisoner in a near-empty cell with nothing to do but read the letters a myriad of enigmatic characters slide under your door.It can be downloaded here
on GameJolt.
Even the names of tropes on this page could be considered massive spoilers, so many end-game plot twists are unmarked. Playing the game before reading this page is advised.
For the prequel game, see Exoptable Money.
An improv driven fandub of the game was completed by the Let's Dub Project.
Remakes of both this game and Exoptable Money were announced on Kickstarter, but it failed to reach its goal, as did a second and third attempt. Sadly, the games will never be remade, as the creator, Robert Brock (aka Wertpol), committed suicide sometime in early 2018.
This game provides examples of:
- Apocalyptic Log: Charlotte and Salvadore write to you as The Plague slowly turns the city around you into a ghost town.
- The Bad Guy Wins: In either ending, Dr. Money manages to infect the whole world and killed off most of the population. In the alternate ending, he manages to sell off the player's organs for millions of dollars.
- Big Bad: Dr. Money, who is not only the one keeping you in your cell, but also created the virus that's killing everyone.
- Bittersweet Ending: If you choose to leave the elevator, you escape to Charlotte's cake shop where you find her suicide note. Whether or not you contract the virus is left ambiguous until you play the alternate end, where Doctor Money reveals that you had been injected with the real cure this whole time.
- Bland-Name Product: "Doctor Money's Portable Entertainment Product™, a rip-off of the Game Boy.
- Blood-Stained Letter: Charlotte's penultimate letter.
- Body Horror: The people who take Dr. Money's antidote suffer from organ failure soon after, so Money begins offering transplants. Charlotte notes that there's "something wrong" with the makeshift organs, but never elaborates.
- The makeshift organs seem to be from the money box in the previous game Exoptable Money. Dr. Money remarks that the organs failing can be blamed on coming from dubious origins, but he (and you) keep getting money for them anyway.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Mr. Smiles buys you a video game by selling his house, his food, and one of his lungs — but you really shouldn't worry about him.
- Chekhov's Gun: The cable hanging from the wall of your cell next to the door. It doesn't have any meaning until the very end of the game, where you find and replace the buttons that were originally wired to it… revealing your cell was actually the building's elevator all along.
- Controllable Helplessness: The Game.
- Cosmetic Award: Completing any of the minigames nets you a medal to hang up on your cell wall.
- Downer Ending: If you choose to stay in the cell on day five, you remain isolated from the rest of the town and safe from the disease. The only person left to write to you is Doctor Money, who explains you were immune to the virus the whole time. Salvadore's sacrifice was useless, with you not leaving the cell that he gave his life to open. Twelve days pass and he sells your organs off for an extremely high price.
- In the normal ending, you're alive, but Salvadore, your only remaining companion, is dead. Charlotte commits suicide, and you're left to wander the town alone as one of the few immune to the virus.
- Dramatic Irony: Salvadore writes that he's excited to return to his hometown after traveling for so long. Unfortunately, there's no way for you to tell him how bad an idea that is. Then again, he was the only thing that could help you in the end, but it came at a heartbreaking cost.
- Driven to Suicide: Charlotte, at the end of the game, after you were unable to visit her in time. Also, Mr. Smiley can count, considering he sells every single organ of his after finding out his daughters are dead.
- Dying Town: By the time Salvadore returns from his travels, the city is abandoned to the point where he can sleep in a stranger's apartment without fear of consequence.
- Emphasize EVERYTHING: Mr. Smiles tends to use so many exclamation marks, they go into the border of his letters. He drops the forced enthusiasm when he finds out his daughters were already dead.
- Everybody's Dead, Dave: Only the player character and Dr. Money survive to the end of the story. Whether or not the player contracts the virus is left ambiguous. Exoptable Money reveals that Doctor Money would later become the richest man alive, until he dies of the virus as well.
- According to the alternate end, the person Dr. Money locked up had been vaccinated against the virus, so even if they do contract it, they should be fine… if they chose to leave the cell, anyway. Staying ends with them dying by the twelfth day, presumably from having all their organs "donated".
- Featureless Protagonist: Salvadore's letters imply that you might be male, but even that is questionable.
- Foreshadowing: Peer down the corridor through your door and you'll notice a white, homely door that absolutely does not belong in a prison. The building was never meant to be a jail — Dr. Money repurposed it to house you.
- Game Within a Game: The Portable Entertainment Product is fully functional and can play up to five games. They're intentionally rubbish, but help pass the time between letters.
- Gave Up Too Soon: Charlotte ultimately commits suicide just before Salvadore manages to free you.
- The Ghost: Everyone. The only character you actually see is your pet bug. You don't even get a mirror.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: The lack of any activity except for the Portable Entertainment Product and the letters from the other characters may lead to this for the player, and is the likely fate of the protagonist, should you choose to leave when the power goes out.
- Gone Horribly Right: It's implied that The Plague was artificially created so Dr. Money could sell his antidote to the townspeople. People got sick, but the antidote was completely ineffective.
- Either that, or the antidote is working exactly as intended, causing multiple organ failures and forcing people to literally sell An Arm and a Leg just to remain alive a little longer, until they meet their inevitable end, and possibly be harvested for more organs to be sold. The ultimate supply and demand arrangement.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Invoked by Charlotte, who goes to the backroom of her pastry shop to commit suicide so if the player character comes by, he doesn't have to see it.
- Greed: Five words: You are worth every penny.
- Heroic Mime: You can't even reply to any of those letters. The senders even start to wonder if you're still alive after a while.
- Hope Spot: Salvadore and Charlotte almost find each other, and both of them also nearly last long enough to meet the player character face-to-face.
- I Have Your Wife: A letter from Dr. Money that you accidentally receive early on reveals that he's forcing Mr. Smiley to work for him by holding his two daughters hostage. Unless he somehow manages to lower the suicide rates in the prison, he won't get to see them again. On the final day, Mr. Smiley stops pretending to like you because he found out that they had died to the virus two days prior, meaning he has no more motivation to continue working for Dr. Money.
- The Immune: Charlotte, who never contracts the virus at any point, even after leaving her shop. She does eventually die, but of suicide out of sheer loneliness.
- This is the reason why Dr. Money is keeping the character locked up. They were injected with the real antidote and are being kept in the elevator until the value for their organs is incredibly high.
- Impeded Communication: The main character is constantly being sent letters from people he cannot respond to, about problems he can't solve. Being stuck in a small room alone, the inability to reply underscores the unfortunate situation, while the characters on the outside are left to wonder if their letters are even being read at all.
- Late to the Tragedy: Unlike everyone else, Salvadore was on a long travelling trip before the virus spread. By the time he comes back to his hometown, it's a barren wasteland.
- Left Hanging: You never do find out why you were imprisoned, who was delivering the letters, or why the building you were trapped in was so tall.
- Well, you don't know why of all people you were chosen, but you do find out why you were imprisoned in the alternate end.
- Madness Mantra: Mr. Smiley was promised that so long as the player remains happy, his daughters will stay safe and healthy. As the weeks go on, his letters dissolve into thinly-veiled begging.just stay happy for me for the love of all that is holy stay happy they're watching
- Manipulative Bastard: Dr. Money. Oh so much.
- Missed Her By That Much: At one point, Charlotte plays her gramophone in hopes that you'll hear it. You do, and it turns out that Salvadore did as well. He even attempted to find the source of the music, but Charlotte turned the gramophone off before he could work out where exactly it was coming from. Even worse, Charlotte considered playing it again, but decided against it.
- What rubs extra salt into it is when you leave the cell and consequentially the building. Charlotte's store is right in front of your door. She was still alive when Salvadore was searching the lobby for a way to reach you. He walked past her shop without either knowing of the other's existence, leading to Charlotte killing herself.
- Meaningful Name: Everyone. Aside from the obvious Dr. Money and Mr. Smiley, Salvatore means "saviour", with a strong reference to Jesus; Salvadore dies to free you. Charlotte is the only character explicitly identified as female, and her name means "free woman". This might be intended as ironic, as she locked herself up in her shop to keep from contracting the virus, or it could possibly reference her suicide, finding freedom in death.
- It could also be a reference to her cake shop, since a charlotte is a type of dessert.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Money starts off morally ambiguous, and then the game rapidly removes any ambiguity concerning the unparalleled depths of evil this individual has sunk to.
- Multiple Endings: Believe or not, there are two endings available to the game:
- If the player chooses to leave the cell, they'll discover the elevator buttons and install them on the cell. They will leave the building and discover Charlotte's bakery along with one final letter. It's unknown what happens after they read the letter.
- If the player chooses not to leave the cell, the generator will reactivate and lock the door again. Dr. Money will send a few more notes, explaining the situation: the player is a cure for the virus created by Dr. Money. Now that a few select people are immune, Dr. Money will be able to sell their healthy organs to the public at an outrageous price. The twelve days go by and the character is one day approached by a mysterious figure before they die.
- Nobody Poops: Your cell doesn't have a bathroom, even though your character can still eat.
- Nothing Is Scarier: You can't reach the window in your cell, so you only have your imagination and the letters of others to fill you in on what's happening in the outside world.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Your Happy Buddy always talks to you in CAPSLOCK and an obviously pasted on over happiness. So on day five when his first letter to you not only changes font but states that he no longer cares if you are happy or not, you know something is wrong.
- Paint the Town Red: Unseen, but seems to occur when the antidote causes the townspeople's organs to start failing en masse.Salvadore: ...do you know what's going on out here? The virus? The organs? ...the blood?
- P.O.V. Sequel: To Exoptable Money, a Cookie Clicker style game about a box that makes cash.
- Playing Card Motifs: In the game's promotional images, as seen above, each of the four card suits is associated with one of the letter-writers (the spade has a forced smile for Mr Smiley, the club has a Salvador Dalí style mustache which presumably represents Salvadore, the heart bears a striking resemblance to the poster Charlotte sends, and the diamond has a High-Class Glass to represent the wealth-obsessed Dr. Money).
- Red Herring: A few notes from Salvadore hint that he may have contracted the virus, and another few make it sound as though he is about to succumb to it. He ends up successfully reaching the prison you're in and even manages to free you, only to die in the process of doing so.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Charlotte kills herself out of loneliness an hour away from your possible freedom. Mr. Smiley loses his daughters and kills himself to buy you a new game with his organs. Salvatore dies trying to free you. Dr. Money, responsible for the infection and your unjust imprisonment, outlives all of them. In the best ending you are free to leave to a barren world where everyone you care for is dead and your only company is a pet bug.
- The Smurfette Principle: Charlotte is the only known female character in the game.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Charlotte's gramophone plays cheerfully over her suicide note.
- Stepford Smiler: Though you never actually see him smile, your Happy Buddy is clearly this. He acts overly cheerful for the sake of keeping you happy and prevent you from killing yourself out of despair. He does this not because he cares about you, but because his daughters were kidnapped by Dr. Money and Dr. Money promised that he would see his daughters again if he complied with his demands. Mr. Smiley drops the act on Day 5 and tells the player why he was writing to them before he sells his organs.
- Suicide by Cop: Your Happy Buddy sells off all their organs for upfront cash once they discover their daughters are dead.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: The resident Sweet Baker is Driven to Suicide out of despair on Day 5.
- Trade Snark: Your very own Happy Buddy™ is introduced this way.
- Wham Episode: Day Five, in which all your non-insect friends die.
- Wham Line: Several, in fact. There's "You will only get to see your daughters again if you manage to lower the suicide rates in prison" in a mis-delivered letter from Dr. Money early on. On Day 5, you get this cheery message from Mr. Smiley: "GOODY GOODY MORNING! ALL GOOD? ALL FINE? I don't care." Then, later, you get "I'm sorry" from Charlotte. Later still, the game prompts give you an excellent one in "PRESS SPACE TO INSTALL ELEVATOR BUTTONS".
- You Wake Up in a Room: A jail cell, to be specific.
