Skip to content
The video store at night: a pink neon VIDEO CLERK sign over windows of invented film posters, OPEN LATE glowing in the window, a red hatchback parked outside, and blocky players walking in across a rain-wet car park.
Announced

VIDEO CLERK

Twelve customers, five clerks, one video store that never closes. Win the rounds, earn the VETO, pick tonight's tape.

About the game

It's Friday night and the video store on the corner is still open. Roger rings the bell on the counter and says two words: "Floor show." The wall of old televisions asks a question, and a dozen customers stampede across the confetti carpet to four glowing corners. One of them stands alone in Vincent's red corner. The bell locks the answers, the red corner lights up, and the lone runner scores double. Vincent, deadpan: "Hm. Lucky."

VIDEO CLERK is a party game where the store is the board. Five clerks in plum vests run the night. Roger hosts from the counter. Margo judges from her armchair and keeps a notebook. Vincent guards the back wall under a flickering tube. Joey runs the popcorn and the arcade. Ash hosts the wall of TVs and breaks every tie. Every shelf is stocked with an original catalogue of 77 invented films, more than 1,400 tapes face-out, from Turbo Grandma to The Pajama Detectives.

A night is five rounds, each picked by a quick vote between three games, with a short intermission between them, then the big finish: about 22 minutes, for 2 to 12 players, in your own avatar. In FLOOR SHOW. you answer by running to the right clerk's corner. In THE BOUNCER. you creep up on a cardboard wax figure that turns without warning. LAST COPY. sends everyone after one fewer copy of the hot new release than there are players. HOLD STILL. hides you among the promo standees. REWIND RELAY. puts two teams behind the counter, rewinding returns before the tray overflows. NOT IT. is tag, and nobody knows how long the round lasts.

The twist is that you play for the remote. Win a round and you earn a VETO, and a VETO is good for exactly one thing: THE VOTE at the end of the night. The top three scorers each carry a tape to the counter, the clerks weigh in, VETO holders strike the ones they can't stand, and everyone votes on what the store watches tonight. The winning tape's trailer plays on the TV wall, and the night's top scorer takes home the GOLDEN REMOTE.

The store is also a little strange. The back of your membership card lists the House Rules: Be kind. Rewind. It never closes. Nothing here is lost; it's out. Promo standees change pose when you look away. Twenty-four Oddities hide in the aisles between rounds, from the popcorn machine that has been on since 1994 to the wax standee you really shouldn't nudge three times. Ash never denies anything, and the other clerks deny everything. Each night the store also changes format, VHS, Betamax, LaserDisc or DVD, and repaints itself to match.

Between rounds, clerks hand out errands and the TAPE RUNNER arcade cabinet dares you to beat their high scores. Every night fills in your membership card: Stubs to spend on staff vests, name tags, card designs and emotes; card levels from REWINDER. to THE MAIN ONE.; stickers like LONE WOLF and the GOLDEN REMOTE. Votes, VETOs and answers can only ever be earned.

VIDEO CLERK is in design for Roblox. The store, the five clerks and the six launch games are designed and modelled, and the prototype comes next.

Gallery

  • Concept art: FLOOR SHOW.

  • Concept art: the five clerks

  • Concept art: the store is the board

  • Storyboard: the opening of a night

  • Character sheet: Roger, the host

  • Concept art: props and tapes

  • Render from the game's models: the stampede to the corners

  • Render from the game's models: FLOOR SHOW.

  • Render from the game's models: THE BOUNCER.

  • Render from the game's models: LAST COPY.

  • Render from the game's models: HOLD STILL.

  • Render from the game's models: REWIND RELAY.

  • Render from the game's models: NOT IT.

  • Render from the game's models: THE VOTE

  • Render from the game's models: intermission

  • Mock-up: the phone screen

  • The catalogue: 77 invented films on the shelves

  • Model kit: clerks, players and props