Outpost 13 at dusk: a small supply shop behind a scrap fence on a red alien desert, a ringed gas giant in the sky

Outpost 13 · Shop sim × survival

Open Till Dusk

By day you trade. By night you survive.

A first-person shop simulator and base defense game on a hostile alien planet. Stock the shelves, serve the colony, build your fortress – and be ready when the sun goes down.

Coming soon to SteamWatch the trailer
  • PC · Steam
  • Single-player
  • Gamepad support

The game

A shop sim
with teeth.

Open Till Dusk is a first-person shop simulator and survival game set at the edge of a mining colony on a hostile alien planet. You order stock, fill your shelves and serve miners, researchers and scavengers. Then you bar the gate, grab your shotgun and defend everything you built against whatever comes out at night.

The shop pays for the fortress.
The fortress protects the shop.
100
nights to survive
14
alien species
1 km²
of open desert to explore
4
ranks from shop to fortress

08:00 – 20:30 · By day

By day
you trade.

You start with an empty room, a cash register and a handful of credits. What becomes of it is up to you.

Customers queue at the counter of a small colony shop with stocked shelves
01

Stock it. Price it. Sell it.

Order crates at the terminal, carry them in and fill shelves you placed yourself. Set the price of every item, open up and ring up your customers at the till. Ammo, medkits and energy cells sell well – but you might need them yourself tonight.

  • Shelves and furniture placed freely
  • Your own price for every product
  • Reputation and a balance sheet every evening
A scavenger with a backpack is served by an employee behind the counter
02

Hire a crew.

Put a cashier behind the counter, a stocker in the storeroom and a guard on the wall. Your staff work day or night shifts, and every hire needs a bunk in your quarters.

  • Sales, storage and security roles
  • Day and night shifts
  • Guards man towers, turrets and the gate
Shop interior with display case, plants, lamp and a lit shop window at dusk
03

Make it yours.

Furnish the sales floor with display cases, plants, lamps and neon signs, dress the shop window and hang trophies of your kills on the wall. When space runs out, add new wings to the building – and a cellar.

  • Display cases and a shop window
  • Trophy wall
  • Building extensions and cellar

Four ways to fill a shelf

  • Wholesale

    Order goods by the crate at the terminal. Deliveries are dropped at your door during the day.

  • The trader

    A travelling trader drops by with goods nobody else sells – and buys what you dig up.

  • The workbench

    Craft ammunition, tools, build kits and weapons from blueprints you have found.

  • Scavenging

    Search wrecks and ruins for stock, spare parts, blueprints and trophies.

Beyond the fence

A square kilometre
of trouble.

Climb into your hover rover and drive out yourself. Three sites are waiting in the desert – each one full of loot, and each one with residents who were there first.

A hover rover glides across the red desert past power pylons, a wrecked ship on the horizon
The rover: boost over dunes, load up to six crates, be home before dark.
  • Abandoned mine buildings with a headframe in the desert

    The old mine

    Headframe, processing hall, silos. Somebody left in a hurry and left everything behind.

  • A broken freighter lies in the sand, aliens between cargo containers

    The crash site

    A freighter broke apart on impact. The cargo is still there. So is something else.

  • Tall glowing crystals and a nest mound in the desert

    The crystal field

    Glowing spires, pools and nests. The rarest finds on the planet are here.

Lightning strikes the ground next to the rover during an electrical storm

The planet doesn’t keep business hours.

  • SandstormVisibility drops to nothing. Customers still want their rations.
  • BlackoutThe power fails. Get the generator in the yard running again.
  • ThievesNot everyone at the shelf intends to pay. Catch them before they bolt.
  • Distress callSomeone is stranded out there. Whether you go is your decision.
  • Electrical stormLightning walks across the desert. Dangerous – and it leaves crystals behind.
The closed steel gate of the outpost under a deep red evening sky

Dusk.
Gates close.

The last customer leaves. Count the till, load the turrets, bar the gate. Everything you did not prepare today is a problem now.

21:00 – 06:00 · By night

By night
you survive.

They come in waves. Every wall you built, every turret you loaded and every round you kept instead of selling decides whether there is still a shop in the morning.

The fortified outpost at night seen from above: floodlights, turrets firing, aliens storming the walls under an aurora
Night 30-something. The walls hold. Mostly.
Steel walls with ladders and a heavy gate, the sun behind it

Build the fortress

From scrap fence to steel wall to battlements you can walk on. Add watchtowers and a steel gate. Walls and towers go on fixed plots – everything else you place freely.

An automatic turret on a tripod fires at an alien in the floodlight

Arm the yard

Automatic turrets, floodlights, spike traps, electric traps and mines. Every defence only covers what it can see – placement is everything.

First-person view with a shotgun from the wall at night, aliens in the yard below

Fight for it yourself

You are not a spectator. Pistol, shotgun, energy rifle and shock baton – find the blueprints, build the weapons, hold the line.

Arsenal

  • PistolPistol
  • ShotgunShotgun
  • Energy rifleEnergy rifle
  • Shock batonShock baton

Bestiary

14 species.
14 ways to lose a shop.

New species join the waves as the days go by. Each one tests a different weak spot in your defence.

The long game

100 nights. One shop.
No second chance.

Survive until the morning after day 100. Every tenth night is a blood moon, every twenty-fifth brings a boss.

  1. Day1An empty shop
  2. Day25Alpha Breaker
  3. Day50Swarm Queen
  4. Day75Colossus
  5. Day100The finale

Blood moon every 10th night

Four ranks

Work your way up: Shop → Fortified Store → Outpost → Fortress. With every rank, blueprints for better weapons can turn up.

Permadeath

Start a run with a single life. If you go down, the save is gone – and your run goes on the leaderboard.

After day 100

See the morning after the finale and you have won. Then the game simply carries on. How long can you stay open?

27 achievements

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Three captured aliens in glowing cages in the cellar of the shop

Take them alive.

Stun an alien, drag it down to your cellar and lock it in a cage. Captured specimens yield samples for the workbench – as long as the cage holds.

Media

See it move.

Trailer “Day and Night”, 30 seconds. Captions currently in German.

  • Outpost 13 at dusk with the ringed gas giant
  • The hover rover on a dune in front of the gas giant
  • Fighting aliens at the crashed freighter with the shotgun
  • Aliens attack the yard under an aurora
  • Two pack hunters in the floodlight
  • The outpost under attack, seen from above
  • Lightning strikes next to the rover
  • Glowing alien plants at sunset
  • A colossus at the steel gate
  • The shop front of Outpost 13 at night
  • A glider against the night sky
  • A shipwreck under an aurora
  • Customers in the shop during the day
  • The trophy wall above the shelves

At a glance

Key features

  • Shop simulator in first person: order, unpack, stock shelves, set prices, run the till.
  • Survival base defense: nightly alien waves, boss nights and blood moons.
  • Base building: walls, towers and gates on fixed plots, turrets, traps and furniture placed freely.
  • Open world: drive your rover to a mine, a crash site and a crystal field.
  • Staff management: hire cashiers, stockers and guards and assign their shifts.
  • Crafting: build ammunition, tools, defences and weapons at the workbench.
  • Dynamic day: sandstorms, blackouts, thieves, distress calls and electrical storms.
  • Capture and collect: cage live aliens in your cellar, hang trophies on the wall.
  • Distinctive low-poly sci-fi look with a full day-night cycle.
Genre
Shop simulator, survival, base building, tower defense
Perspective
First person
Mode
Single-player
Platform
PC (Windows) on Steam
Controls
Mouse and keyboard, gamepad
Languages
German – English planned for release
Developer
NXTWAVE Studios
Release
To be announced

FAQ

Questions before closing time

What kind of game is Open Till Dusk?

Open Till Dusk is a single-player shop simulator and survival game in first person. By day you run a supply shop on an alien planet: you order goods, stock shelves, set prices and serve customers. By night you defend the shop and the fortress you built around it against waves of aliens.

Which genres does it combine?

Shop management simulation, survival, base building and tower defense, with first-person shooter combat. If you like running a store and you like holding a wall, this is both in one day-night cycle.

On which platforms will it be available?

Open Till Dusk is being developed for PC (Windows) and will be released on Steam.

When will it be released?

There is no release date yet. Add the game to your Steam wishlist as soon as the store page is live to be notified at launch.

Is there multiplayer or co-op?

No. Open Till Dusk is a single-player game.

Can I play with a controller?

Yes. The game supports gamepads, including menu navigation, alongside mouse and keyboard.

How long does a playthrough take?

The goal is to survive 100 in-game days. After the finale the game continues in endless mode. For an extra challenge there is a permadeath mode with a leaderboard.

Which languages are supported?

The game is currently in German. An English version is planned for release.

Who is making the game?

Open Till Dusk is developed by NXTWAVE Studios, an independent game studio.

The outpost gate opens in the morning, the sun rising behind it

Morning.
You are still open.

Sweep up. Restock. Unlock the door. Day two starts now.

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