Night of the Consumers

About Night of the Consumers

Night of the Consumers is a horror game about working in a shop, made by the developer germfood. It first appeared on itch.io in March 2020 and has been updated since, most recently with version 1.05 in 2023. It is sold on itch.io for Windows at $5 or more, and a Steam page lists it as coming soon. Its tagline is three words: retail is hell.

You start a new job as a store employee. The shop must be kept in pristine condition: you stack items on empty shelves, mop up puke and look after the store's standards, and The Manager will not tolerate empty shelves. The clock on screen ticks down as you work through the night's list, carrying boxes marked for the right aisle.

The trouble is the customers. They are maniacal, with an unrelenting thirst for service, and they come at you across the shop floor with outstretched arms and gaping mouths. A grandmother wants to know where the toys are, a man in a suit wants the suits, and a crowd of dark silhouettes waits at the doors. Once one locks on, you have to deal with them or get away. You can hurl a box to stop a customer for a moment and run for it, or retreat into the staff-only rooms, which work as temporary sanctuaries until you have to go back out.

Its look is bright and garish rather than dark: yellow walls, sale signs and stacked tins, with shoppers drawn as blocky PSX-style figures whose faces are stretched into pixelated grimaces. The fear is in being chased in a place that should be ordinary, and the game is also openly funny about it; PC Gamer called it bizarre, unsettling and hilarious at the same time.

It suits anyone who has worked in a shop or a service job, and players who like fast, anxious chase horror more than slow dread.

How to play Night of the Consumers

1. Buy Night of the Consumers on itch.io, download the zip for Windows 64-bit and extract it.
2. Open the extracted folder and run the game's executable.
3. Pick up boxes and carry them to the matching aisle to fill the empty shelves before the clock runs out.
4. When a customer comes for you, throw a box to stop them for a moment and run.
5. Retreat to a staff-only room to catch your breath, then head back out to finish the night's tasks for The Manager.

Tips

• Read the label on each box before you set off, so you do not carry it to the wrong aisle with customers on your tail.
• Keep a box in hand when you can: throwing it is your only way to stall a customer.
• Know where the staff-only rooms are, but do not rely on them; you cannot stay there for ever.
• Keep an eye on the clock as well as the shoppers; The Manager will not tolerate empty shelves.

Questions