Survival comes to Ikea in indie horror game The Store is Closed

We’ve all been there. Ikea – the store that takes you through a convoluted one-way system as you see room mockups full of everything you could possibly need for your own home, and then before you know it you’ve bought 100 tealight candles and a packet of meatballs.

But what if you tossed a charge of zombie-like monsters into this experiment, then turned off the lights, leaving the exit nearly impossible to find? Well, a developer decided to answer this question in his next game: the store is closed.

The Store is Closed is a haunting mix of Endnight Games’ The Forest (which incidentally saw its recently delayed sequel, Sons of the Forest) and the routine of everyday life, and comes from indie developer Ziggy (thanks , PCGamesN).

It takes place in a store that, OK, isn’t really Ikea, it’s “Styr” – but there’s still no doubt what the developer wanted here. The blue and yellow badge is instantly recognizable.

Ziggy has shared a short teaser for The Store is Closed which sees you, the player, as a lost consumer trying to get out of a seemingly benign but endless store filled with chairs, chairs, more chairs and a few bookcases. .

“Have you ever gotten lost in one of those great furniture stores? Well, I’ve been stuck in this one for days,” the teaser begins. “I tried to find help… but there is something wrong with the staff. Worse still, at night the lights go out.” Cut to a demonic looking store manager abruptly informing you that the store is closed as they sweep for you.

Now the player must use what they can find in the store to build shelter and makeshift weapons (although you can find a chainsaw in the garden center).

Most gruesome, at least for me, includes making your way into the kids’ section, which sees the playfully brightly painted furniture house Biters – a creature that Ziggy says hunts in packs.

Luckily, there will be the ability to play The Store is Closed in online co-op.

For those interested in learning more about The Store is Closed, Ziggy has set up a Kickstarter page, which is slated for release for PC, Xbox Series XS, and PS5. You can now list it on Steam.