Why retail shifts are the perfect canvas for indie horror games

Indie horror fans have been treated to a variety of retail-themed games in recent years – ranging from The Boba Teashop to the nightmare fuel that is Shift at Midnight’s demo. Despite taking place in mundane settings, these games are memorably frightening. 

What makes these games so unsettling, though? As someone who’s worked a fair few of these jobs, I’m convinced it’s not just the customers. Here’s a breakdown of why retail and hospitality jobs pop up so frequently in the indie horror community.

The Escapist recaps

• Indie horror games can take place in any number of locations, ranging from haunted castles to apocalyptic wastelands. Some of the most memorable titles in recent years are set in more recognizable locations, such as coffee shops or gas stations.
• These games tend to place the player in the shoes of a retail or hospitality worker, tasking them with restocking shelves, serving customers, and mopping the floors, aiming to create a sense of normalcy at first. 
• It’s this normalcy that makes these games so unnerving. Chances are, you’ve worked a retail job or fast food gig before, so you can easily lose yourself in the monotony of an opening list and connect with the protagonist.
• It’s a personal and relatable approach to horror, particularly with games that focus on feasible threats like killers or stalkers. Fantasical approaches can still be scary – Alien: Isolation, anyone? – but this brand of horror can get under your skin. 

Retail horror blends normalcy with dread

Retail horror games feel akin to classic slasher horror films. They place an unsuspecting person in what appears to be a regular coffee shop or gas station, then slowly dial up the horror and reveal the main threat – or what appears to be the main threat, in some cases. 

This threat might be a serial killer, a doppelganger, or a stalker; the actual threat itself arguably isn’t the important thing, it’s the presence of the enemy or dangerous being in an otherwise normal location.

It’s one thing to see a killer in a forest camp full of cultists or a mansion full of zombies, but it’s another thing to see them pop up while you’re trying to restock shelves or clean up after messy customers. It’s more unnerving – the protagonist feels like they could be you. 

Most people reading this will likely have worked jobs in retail, hospitality, or both; I’ve got a few retail and bartending jobs in my CV, and I do not miss clopening shifts. Playing through retail-themed games as a horror lover has been a strangely personal experience. 

There’s something uniquely haunting about closing the bar on a solo shift. One bar I worked at was in a huge warehouse, where the lights only covered half of the room and every noise echoed a little too loudly, particularly in the early hours of the morning. Sometimes, I’d be convinced that someone had snuck in while I was locking up. 

The solitary terror of The Boba Teashop felt a little too real for me because of this. Yes, the lights were on in the store and customers would pop in frequently, but there was a real sense of isolation that permeated the game. 

It’s not just the mundane atmospheres that retail horror games can encapsulate, either. The best examples of this admittedly niche horror subgenre also capture the particular anxieties of working in a customer service role.

Games like The Boba Teashop and The Convenience Store nail this. There were several moments in the former game where I felt myself biting my tongue when speaking to the customers – I took thirty seconds to make this drink, why on earth are you yelling at me? – and this added to the overall tension nicely.

It’s an experience that’ll be familiar to anyone who’s worked in a service role. Some customers were absolute delights and I loved speaking to them, but I’ve also received threats over pints and been yelled at over a snow globe being out of stock on Christmas Eve.

The combination of slow-burning dread, recognizable locations, and admittedly irritating customers can make retail horror games particularly unsettling, especially if you’ve worked a similar job before. 

Even if you haven’t, games by developers like Chilla’s Art and Mike Ten are worth adding to your library. Horror games that feature otherworldly aliens and ferocious vampires can be a hell of a lot of fun, but sometimes, the scariest experiences can be found in between storeroom shelves and coffee machine manuals. 

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References

1. Download the latest indie games (Itch.io)