Beta 0.1.2 · Windows

Within Reach Lucky Strike

You have the keys, the roster, and four hours to close up alone. The lanes do not stay empty.

Download the beta Play Serpent 3.95 GB · Windows 10/11

The premise

A closing shift
that does not close

Lucky Strike Bowling has been trading since the fifties and looks it. You are Lawrence, and tonight the late shift is yours: run the floor, clear the lanes, kill the lights, lock the back, go home.

The work is ordinary and the building is not. Sweep the concourse. Bag the rubbish. Reset the pinsetter when it jams, because it always jams. Every task is the kind of small, dull thing that keeps your eyes on the floor and your back to the room.

By the time you notice you are not alone, you are four rooms deep and the front doors are behind whatever is between you and them.

There is no weapon and no fighting. There is a torch with a failing battery, a set of keys that opens some things, and a service alley that might get you to your car. What there is a great deal of is distance — between rooms, between lights, between you and the way out.

The bowling alley seen from the road at night, its neon sign lit above an empty car park

The night, in order

Four hours,
one way out

The shift runs in sequence. Each part of it takes you further from the front door.

01 — Floor

Cleaning tasks

Sweep, bag, wipe down, restock. The roster is on the board and every item on it is somewhere else in the building.

02 — Lanes

The pinsetter

Lane machinery from another era, still running because nobody replaced it. Clearing a jam means climbing in behind the pins.

03 — Rear

The back alley

Bins out, gate shut. The gate has not been oiled in years and the sound carries a long way down a wet alley.

04 — Out

The stalker

Something has been following the route you took. It does not hurry, and it does not lose you. Your car is across the lot.

From the office terminal

Serpent

Serpent
Press a key to start Best: 0

WASD or arrow keys to steer.

There is a computer in the back office, and somebody left this running on it.

It is a real machine in the game — you can sit down at it mid-shift and play, which is either a small mercy or a way of not going back out onto the floor for another minute.

This is the same toy, in the browser. Click the window and steer with WASD or the arrow keys. Your best score is kept on this device only.

Get it

Play the beta

This is an early build handed out for testing. It is complete from the first task to the last shot, and it will have rough edges.

Download on itch.io — Windows

Prefer a direct file? Download the zip · 3.95 GB

  • VersionBeta 0.1.2
  • PlatformWindows 10 / 11, 64-bit
  • Download3.95 GB zipped
  • Installed4.3 GB
  • EngineUnreal Engine 5.8
  • LengthOne sitting
First run

Windows will say “Windows protected your PC”. Click More info, then Run anyway. The build is not code-signed — that is the only reason the warning appears. Extract the whole folder before running it.

Minimum

  • OSWindows 10 64-bit
  • ProcessorCore i5-8400 / Ryzen 5 2600
  • Memory8 GB RAM
  • GraphicsGTX 1060 6 GB / RX 580 8 GB
  • DirectXVersion 12
  • Storage6 GB available

Recommended

  • OSWindows 11 64-bit
  • ProcessorCore i5-12400 / Ryzen 5 5600
  • Memory16 GB RAM
  • GraphicsRTX 3060 / RX 6600 XT
  • DirectXVersion 12
  • Storage6 GB on an SSD

These are estimates for a beta, not measured figures — the game has not been profiled across a range of hardware yet. It runs on DirectX 12 with virtual shadow maps, which is the heaviest thing in it; if you are near the minimum, that is what will cost you frames indoors.

What changed

Version history

Only the current build is downloadable. Older entries are here so you can tell whether something you hit has already been dealt with.

  1. 0.1.2 Current
    • The game saves itself. Chapters unlock on the load screen as you reach them, starting from your first night.
    • Dying returns you to your last checkpoint instead of the title screen.
    • New Game and Load Game are now separate, and Load Game actually lists what you have reached.
    • Settings split into Display and Controls, with resolution and display mode added.
    • Escape opens the pause menu. It was Tab.
    • Camera speed fixed. The sensitivity setting was never being applied — turning was slow no matter what you set it to.
    • The death screen is shorter. It was running for the full length of the death audio.
    • The figure no longer walks into walls when alerted early — he takes his route round instead.
    • Returning to the menu no longer shows the level reloading.
  2. 0.1.1
    • The store clerk is visible. He was being drawn with no animated pose, which collapsed him to a single point — you could talk to him but never see him.
  3. 0.1.0
    • First beta. Complete from the first task to the last shot.