A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux

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An empty shopping mall after closing time.

Lost and alone inside a pristine relic of the past.

As sunset slowly approaches, navigate between surreal stores with only two cheerful PA announcers to keep you company. Can you unravel the mystery of your journey before it's time to say goodbye?

"Thank you for choosing Wilson Center Mall—a single stop for everything you'll ever need!"



Inspired by the 8-circuit model of consciousness, the mallsoft/"dead mall" genre, and the book Prometheus Rising, Self-Checkout Unlimited is a unique exploration of both mind and matter.







Genre: Walking sim, philosophical, surreal
Length: Short (~1-2 hrs, replayable)
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux

Features:

- Explore a nostalgic late 90s/early 2000s indoor mall
- Relaxing atmosphere with minor puzzles and no time limits
- Different story elements based on your choices
- Voice acting 
- "Free Mall" mode—free exploration mode unlocked by beating the game
- A slushwave/vaporwave & smooth jazz OST by desert sand feels warm at night and Sebastien Zunino

CONTENT WARNING: This game contains bright lights and flashing images that may cause discomfort or seizures for players with photosensitive epilepsy. It also contains sequences of eerie gameplay and minor jumpscares/startling moments, but it is not a horror game.






Design Lead/Writing/Programming: Dovah
Management: Gamma
3D Modeling/Textures: Alec Ziskind
Music: Sebastien Zunino, desert sand feels warm at night
Voice Acting: Katie Flamman, Michael Schwalbe
Concept/Promo Art: Jarid Scott, Axiom Design 









Purchase

Buy Now$7.99 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $7.99 USD. Your purchase comes with a Steam key. You will get access to the following files:

Self-Checkout Unlimited [Win64] 2 GB
Version 1
Self-Checkout Unlimited [Win32] 2 GB
Version 1
Self-Checkout Unlimited [Mac] 2 GB
Version 1
Self-Checkout Unlimited [Linux] 2 GB
Version 2
(Demo) Self-Checkout Unlimited [Linux] 544 MB
Version 1

Download demo

Download
(DEMO) Self-Checkout Unlimited [Windows] 491 MB
Version 3
Download
(Demo) Self-Checkout Unlimited [Mac] 546 MB
Version 2

Development log

Comments

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Was at the "I'm okay you're not okay" puzzle and my mouse cursor got eaten by the game. Could only click things in menu.

As an unrepentant mall rat, I absolutely loved the combination of nostalgia and mystery found here.  I'm bad about finishing games, but I enjoyed this one all the way through.  Nice job, team!  

(+3)

I probably recommend this game to someone new at least every other month since I played it. It's so good! I've never enjoyed being psychoanalyzed more! I am currently reinstalling it to play it again, instead of putting more hours into BG3. I. Love. This. Game.

(+3)

I had fun with this game, felt very uneasy with it at first, wondered if it was a horror game. It really transported me to times where I've been in a decrepit mall at closing. Fear of being alone, unable to escape. As the game went on it became my own space. I spent quite a bit of time on the escalator. Overall a fun experience! 

(+2)

I wish i could play the game but every time i boot it up it shows argent games' logo + an epilepsy warning but then just black! im playing the linux version on a slightly older intel nuc if it matters, maybe my specs arent up to snuff? im not sure, i hope i can figure this out but if anyone has the same issue or the devs see this PLZ tell me you know whats going on here

I have a similar issue, but no epilepsy warning. 

(+1)

I played the demo and let me tell you I really liked the environment. I am going to purchase the full game to experience the full games vibe. It was so nostalgic and pulled my heart strings ;_; 

(+1)

I have played this game numerous times with my partner and it never gets old. It took me a time or two to figure out what was actually going on  but only because the game look so amazing! I couldn't stop looking at every level and the details.

(+2)

The concept is fun, determining what the overall purpose of the game is was interesting. It looks and plays well (minus a few mouse tracking issues). If you want to explore a mall while asking who am I and why am I exploring a mall? Then this is definitely the game for you. If you're unsure feel free to check out my first playthrough.


(+2)

Had a blast with this game, though the motion blur did seem to make me a bit motion sick. It would be nice to be able to turn it off. Or maybe there is a way and I'm just dumb. 

(+1)

You can try to follow similar instructions for other Unreal games, such as this or this. We've tried disabling it ourselves but somehow the settings refuse to stick... 😅

I went into this thinking it was some kind of horror game... i wasn't expecting to cry, what you all did here was truly amazing and has made me reflect a lot.


                                        Thank you so much

I really loved this game! The only problem I ran into is when I ran it at a lower setting some of the puzzles couldn't be solved (like the animal one) as the textures would become to blurry to read. 

(+2)

This game is a masterpiece.

Remember, existential crises limited to one per person :)

(2 edits) (+3)

This is such an amazing game, I start it up to play free mode all the time. I love that I can change it to night time and just sit at the fountain. I play it on Steam but found it here first so just thought I would leave a review :) I was not sure what to expect but I loved every minute of it. I REALLY wanted to swim but that was not an option, that is not a deal breaker though. My favorite parts are the fountain in the mall, the swimming area, outside with the swing, and I often make it dark so I can go look at the cinema lights before walking in. It is so beautiful to look at, especially the hanging lights inside the theater. I adore games like this and always will. I appreciate the effort that was put into this. Great job!

(+3)(-1)

Thank you so much!! We made free mode with the exact idea in mind of sitting at the fountain and relaxing. :) So happy to hear that you enjoyed it! 

(+3)

Played the whole game through on a twitch stream, loved it a whole lot but did expect a mall sim. I would have appreciated perhaps a content warning or 2 when the game was booted up, as I didn't see any other than epilepsy. Plus, game was unbeatable on the default graphic setting for my computer (medium), would have liked a warning for this too. All in all, fantastic game! 

(+2)

I’m stuck on circuit 7 in the mac version. I read all the circuit documents and then… nothing happens. Can’t progress. Anyone have this problem?

Game crashes due to losing D3 device whenever I go into the theater... what should I do? I am on a Windows PC.

Hi,

Can you try updating device drivers, tweaking graphics card settings, slightly lowering the clock settings on your graphics card, and reinstalling the game (you should be able to make a backup of your save files so that you can use them in a fresh copy of the game)?

Some articles that might be helpful

https://appuals.com/how-to-fix-the-error-unreal-engine-is-exiting-due-to-d3d-dev...

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Other-STAR-WARS-Games/Constant-crash-Unreal-Engine-is-...

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/143813/unreal-engine-is-exiting-d...

Thank you, I'll try that!

(+1)

This was beautiful.

(+4)

This game was way heavier existentially than I expected wandering into it but really cool. I'm so glad I decided to check this out, definitely one of the more unique story driven games I've played for sure.

(+3)

i absolutely love this game. it was not what i was expecting in the slightest, and i am so impressed. i really enjoyed this in every way. It is gorgeous, and it genuinely makes you think. Some of the art in the game i genuinely want to have on my walls in real life. The sound design is lovely. everything about this game eally surprised me, im so glad i was able to play this. 10/10 experience 

(+4)(-20)

I'm 12 and this is deep.
Literally the only thing appealing is the graphics and I fully expected an actual mall sim. Extremely baseline store-brand "lovecraftian" take on consciousness and life and yadda yadda yadda.

(+2)

Hi, I got the Linux version through the Ukraine bundle, but I can't run it because it requires libsteam_api.so.

(+1)

Same. If anyone has a workaround, please let me know.

(+1)

Hi,


We have uploaded a new Linux build. We're unable to test it (no access to Linux machine). If you decide to update the game to try it out, please let us know if it works ok!

(+1)

Thanks! I made it as far as the splash screen and the photosensitivity warning this time, but after that I got a blank screen, sadly. (It's probably something on my end, though. Such are the travails of the Linux gamer. Hopefully sysyme has better luck.)

(+3)

It's not on your end. It just locks up on a black screen after the photosensitivity splash screen fades out, hogging up some 85% of my CPU (Ryzen 3700x) until I kill the process.  I did leave it running for a couple of minutes in case it was just precompiling some complex shaders or something, but no luck. Couldn't get any useful debug output out of it either. I guess I'm giving up for now.


The game looks like something I might enjoy, so I'll definitely keep an eye out for updates. Let me know if I can help with testing.

(+1)

Shucks! This is the only game we've built with Unreal, so we just hit the button to build for Linux and hoped it would work.

May require some deeper dives into renderer issues :( What are your device specs and OS?

@tuubi Thanks for the offer to test! We may have to take you up on that offer later.

awh crap, good news im not alone in this issue, bad news i dont think its something the devs can fix rm but im not sure.

(+1)

I was able to get it to work (at least for the five minutes so far that I've played it) using Proton with the following steps:


1. Download and install the Windows build.

2. Add it to the Steam launcher as a non-Steam game.

3. In Steam, right-click on the entry and select Properties.

4. Edit 'TARGET' to point to SCU.exe and "START IN" to the installation directory.  (This may have been done for you automatically but I had to go back and do it by hand.)

5.  Select "Compatibility", check the "Force the use..." checkbox and select "Proton 6.3-8". (Other versions may work as well or better; YMMV.)

6. Launch the game from Steam.

The one thing that doesn't work is the menu backdrop.  That's apparently a video playback issue in Proton.  Other than that, I was able to walk around the mall pretty well.


I also tried it using stock wine (Ubuntu 20.04, Wine 5.0) and it runs (including the video, oddly enough) but a lot of the textures are missing during play.

Trying to download this for mac and I keep getting an error that says "Unable to expand [file] into "Downloads". (Error 1 - Operation not permitted." :( the demo downloaded fine, though

Are you getting the error when you download or when trying to unzip? Because that sounds like an unzipping error to me. Have you tried unzipping via Terminal or alternate unzipping software? (I use Unarchiver for example.)

(-1)

oh yeah my bad! i meant to say unzipping. i haven't since usually my computer can just unzip things with no extra program, but I can give it a try and get back to you

hi! just got this yesterday and having a real hard time playing it because of the motion blur. is there a way i can turn this off since there's no option for it in the settings?

(+2)

Hi, there shouldn't be motion blur...it's been a while, but we vaguely recall spending a while trying to debug how to get rid of it.  The game engine has some config files that you could try to tweak if it looks like it's still there; this post might help.

thank you, editing the engine.ini file worked!

(+6)

wow, that was wonderful, and a lot more emotional than i was expecting. definitely one to file away in the "suggest friends check it out but also not read too much about it before they do" pile.

(+7)

At the risk of sounding overly-emotional I have to admit I nearly cried playing this game. The parking lot scene made my chest hurt with a weird feeling of longing. I did not think I would find transcendence in an abandoned shopping mall and yet here we are. The graphics are simple but stunning. This game reminded me what it is I want to create in my own work and what I want to make others feel. An absolute gem, I would highly recommend this one.

(+2)

I have played through your game on Twitch. It was very fun. I enjoyed how you combined talking about life while exploring a dead mall. I will definitely have to replay it again sometime. I give it a 5/5 rating.

(+3)

COOL and Aesthetic

(1 edit) (+5)

Gave it a nice relaxing longplay -