An upcoming indie horror game, TheStore is Closed,will trap players inside a demonic version of IKEA. The Swedish furniture chain is renowned for its flat-pack kits and gigantic store locations, as well as for its cuddly toys, including the viral sensation that is Blahaj, a soft-toy shark. The IKEA stores, prominent in their scale and service, and known to children for their Småland play areas, take a horrifying liminal form in this anticipated game.

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The unusual concept of The Store is Closed is based on a popular story written on the creative writing website the SCP Foundation, titled “SCP-3008”, also known as the “Infinite Ikea.” When visited, the website provides users a collection of popular stories detailing the SCP Foundation, which is a fictional institution housing and containing everyday objects and other oddities that just aren’t quite right. The SCP universe has been a popular setting for many indie horror games, videos, and other forms of online media. The established lore of the SCP Foundation’s mysterious supernatural entities gives game developers and creative minds a good foundation to start their writing without having to build their own setting from scratch.

IGN posted the Kickstarter trailer for The Store Is Closed on Twitter featuring content from the project that had been revealed in the past. Displayed in the trailer is the player character making use of their surroundings to keep themselves alive. This includes new twists on survival horror tropes such as borrowing food from the cafeteria and destroying furniture to harvest materials later used to build a fort. All of these efforts are dedicated to surviving in a store that never ends, where the staff turns into hostile monsters as soon as the lights shut off. The game’s developer, Ziggy, highlights aspects of exploration, progression, and survival. If the trailer is anything to go by, it appears there is considerable variety in the enemies that will hunt the player down after closing time. The game is slated to come out in late 2024, according to the FAQ page on the game’s Kickstarter.

The Store Is Closed Is A Terrifying Ikea-Flavored SCP Spinoff

Another game based on the same SCP, this time a horror game hosted on Roblox, follows a very similar design to Ziggy’s upcoming game. In recent years, the concept of SCP has proven to be a highly popular one, even inspiring high-profile AAA action games like the paranomal mystery of Control. It shouldn’t be a surprise when the collective universe garners further popularity as it finds its way into other forms of media. The aforementioned game on Roblox, simply titled 3008, has over 1.1 billion visits.

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The upcoming indie title itself has proven to be quite popular with audiences, with YouTube videos amassing hundreds of thousands of views showcasing the game date back to 2021. Developer Ziggy has his own YouTube channel detailing his story in creating the game, describing the technical and personal processes that continue to go into the project. The Store is Closedhas proven that SCP content can elevate past the realm of internet memes and into horrifying reality, despite origins as a lighthearted story of a cursed IKEA store.

Sources: IGN/Twitter, Kickstarter, 3008/Roblox