BoxShift (Offical)

BOXSHIFT – A Short Horror Experience About Routine and Control

Boxshift is a short first-person horror game set inside an industrial cargo facility operated by a shipping company that has long outlived its purpose. What begins as a quiet, procedural work shift slowly transforms into a tense survival experience where routine becomes the source of fear.

The game opens inside an elevator accompanied by soft background music, establishing a sense of normality and control. Upon arrival, the player is instructed to read a note on the wall. The note outlines basic tasks: cleaning assigned areas, retrieving a key from the office, and entering the main facility. These early moments are deliberately uneventful, designed to make the environment feel functional rather than threatening.

Once inside the facility, the tone shifts. The warehouse reveals itself as a maze of conveyor belts, storage rooms, and narrow service corridors. The player’s primary objective is deceptively simple: locate five cargo packages scattered throughout the facility and place them onto the main conveyor system. Each delivery brings progress — and increases the tension.

The facility is not empty. Two animatronic mascots patrol the warehouse: Brody and Bailey. They are identical in design — twin entities resembling oversized cardboard boxes — yet they move independently, creating constant uncertainty. Their mechanical behavior, unnatural speed, and exposed teeth make it clear that they are not part of the facility’s safety systems. Encountering one is dangerous; encountering both at once is often fatal.

Boxshift is built entirely around stealth and awareness. There are no weapons and no way to fight back. Survival depends on understanding the facility’s layout, listening carefully to audio cues, and reacting quickly. Lockers placed throughout the map allow players to hide, but hiding is temporary. Being seen leaves very little time to respond, forcing players to make fast, often stressful decisions.

The game offers multiple modes designed to extend replayability. The standard mode focuses on atmosphere and controlled tension. Speedrun Mode encourages route optimization and mastery of the environment. Impossible Mode removes nearly all margin for error, dramatically increasing animatronic speed and reducing reaction time. This mode was not tested for fairness or beatability.

Visually and sonically, Boxshift adopts a restrained, minimalist style. The user interface is subtle, environmental storytelling replaces direct exposition, and sound design plays a critical role in building fear. Light background music fades into silence as the player progresses, replaced by mechanical noise, distant movement, and sudden audio cues. Headphones are strongly recommended.

A first playthrough of Boxshift typically lasts between 15 and 25 minutes. Rather than focusing on length, the game prioritizes intensity, aiming to leave a lasting impression through its pacing, atmosphere, and constant sense of vulnerability.

Boxshift is a game about control slipping away, about familiar work routines becoming hostile, and about a shift that was meant to be ordinary — but was anything but.