Hello everyone,
Welcome to our first official DevLog!
We are Neon Ghost Studio, and we're thrilled to introduce you to Shelf Life, a game that takes the familiar setting of a late-night supermarket and twists it into a unique horror deduction experience.
A Nightmare on Aisle Six
Shelf Life puts you in the worn-out shoes of a store employee trapped on the graveyard shift. The fluorescent lights are buzzing, the aisles are empty, and every sound is magnified. This is a game about atmosphere and escalating anxiety, where the monsters are less about claws and more about the persistent dread of being truly alone when things start to go horribly wrong.
The terror in Shelf Life is embodied by the Nightmare Supervisor, and relentless entities that patrols the store. Survival is not about fighting; it’s about observing anomalies, deducing tasks, and executing the perfect plan.
Deduction is Survival
At its core, Shelf Life is a first-person horror deduction game. To break the loop and escape the store, you must discover and complete a specific, five-step sequence of mundane supermarket tasks. This sequence is the store's code, and it changes every time you play.
Solve the Code: You will not guess wildly. The sequence is revealed through subtle environmental anomalies. You'll need to meticulously check for bizarre clues that tell you which task must be completed next.
Execute the Sequence: Once you've deduced a step, you must leave the safety of the back room and perform the task, whether it's securing the Orange Juice Bottle or restocking the Milk Carton.
Consequences of Failure: The moment you perform a task out of order or pick the wrong task entirely, the Manager will be alerted to your location. Your mistake doesn't just cost you time; it escalates the nightmare, forcing you to flee and re-evaluate your deduction.
Stay tuned for our next update, where we will dive into the specific design of our unsettling environmental clues!
Sagar Saha,
Game Director
NeonGhost Studio