Parcel Zero

PARCEL ZERO

The night shift at Booth Zero, a one-person inspection booth in a freight depot, 1989.

The hatch buzzes. A box rolls in with its manifest riding on top. You clip the manifest to the board, put the box on the scale, and it reads 400 grams more than the manifest says.

So you pick up the cutter and run it along the tape. You fold the flaps back, lift out the packing paper, and take out what's inside, one thing at a time. When you are done, you fold the flaps shut and retape the box with the tape dispenser. You turn a gearbox over in your hands to read the serial. You slide the x-ray tray out, load the box, and watch the scan come up on the monitor while the slip prints. You flip the lights off at the breaker and sweep the UV lamp across a permit that should have a watermark.

Then you decide: CLEAR, RETURN, HOLD, or QUARANTINE. Stamp the manifest. Put the parcel and its paperwork on the outgoing tray. Pull the lever.

Everything is physical. Nothing is a menu. Every parcel is generated with its own contents, paperwork and lies, and every inspection costs time while the bay fills up behind you.

WHAT YOU DO

• Weigh, cut, open, unpack, repack. Envelopes, tubes, padded mailers, cardboard boxes, latched cases, coolers and clipped crates all open differently.
• X-ray parcels you don't want to open: the monitor shows what is inside and what it is made of. Sweep UV over seals and permits. Scan waybills, serials and permits: the registry knows about stolen consignments and recalls that the paperwork never mentions.
• Read the regulations on the wall, and read them again tomorrow, because they will have changed.
• Answer the phone. Some of the callers want something from you.

SIX NIGHTS, TEN ENDINGS

Each night brings new regulations: tape colours, permit watermarks, recalled serial numbers, x-ray zones, embargoes, battery limits. Parcels arrive faster. The booth changes around you. Three stories run quietly through the parcels and the calls: a supplier whose shipments never quite match their paperwork, a hospital that needs medicine the rules won't let through, and a parcel that keeps coming back. What you stamp, what you keep, and what you let go decide which of ten endings you reach.

Finish the campaign to unlock the Endless Shift. There is also a Daily Seed, the same nights for everyone that day.

A night takes about ten to fifteen minutes. The campaign takes a bit over an hour.

ACCESSIBILITY

Text size, subtitles for every phone call, adjustable field of view, invert Y, mouse sensitivity, an optional high-contrast interaction highlight, a colour-blind friendly palette for the x-ray and the scanner, and separate volume controls. Tape colour rules never depend on telling colours apart: the colour name is printed on the tape, and x-ray items and scanner verdicts carry letters and symbols as well as colours.

A WORK OF FICTION

The depot, the Authority, the companies, the hospital and everyone on the phone are invented.

PLAY HERE OR DOWNLOAD

Play it right here in a desktop browser with a keyboard and mouse: click into the game to capture the mouse; Esc pauses, and Resume (or P) carries on. Or download the Windows build, which has the sharper lighting and smoother edges.

Made with Godot. All 3D models are original. Sound by FilmCow and Chequered Ink (credited in the game). Saves stay on your PC (in the browser version, in your browser).