An arcade game about the queue at the clerk's window

The Counter

Three shifts, six documents, one stamp. Citizens queue up, each with their own patience, and you are the clerk handing each of them exactly the paper they asked for — the ID card, the certificate, the fiscal stamp — before they grumble out of the door.

Deterministic game, same order every time · Scores measure nothing but your own skill · Reading time: about 4 minutes

The gist. The Counter is a playable satire about time lost in queues: pick the citizen, then the right document, against the clock and against human patience. Meet the quota in all three shifts and the counter closes victorious; let more than 5 people walk out in one shift and it jams.

Open the counter

3 shifts · quotas of 8, 12 and 16 · at most 5 walkouts per shift

Pick a citizen from the queue, then press the document they ask for: with mouse, touch or keys 1–6. Arrows or A and D move the selection, P pauses, Enter starts the shift. A wrong document costs 25 points and patience; exhausted patience means a person walked out.

Without JavaScript, the counter stays shut. The rules: citizens arrive in a queue, each asking for one of six documents — ID card, Certificate, Certified copy, Binder file, Fiscal stamp, Standard form. Everyone has a patience bar that drains over time; when it empties, the person walks out. The shifts demand quotas of 8, 12 and 16 citizens served, and more than 5 walkouts in one shift jams the counter. Scoring is 100 points per citizen served, plus a patience bonus of up to 50, minus 25 for each wrong document. Keep reading below: the explanation does not depend on the game.

Shift 1 / 3 Quota: 0 / 8 Score: 0 Best: 0 Walkouts: 0 / 5

The queue at the counter

The documents under the desk

The counter opens Monday at 8:00.

Three shifts, six documents, one stamp.

After the game

What a shift at the counter teaches you

In the game, everyone asks for one thing and asks clearly, with an icon attached. In real life, the person in the queue asks for "a paper", the clerk asks "which paper?", and the answer is "the one you need". The patience bar is the only realistic part: it drains just as fast in both worlds.

The quota rises from shift to shift because pressure does too: on Monday you are polite, on Tuesday you are efficient, on Friday you are a stamp with a pulse. And the 5-walkout rule states a management truth: speed is not what kills you, it is the people you lose along the way.

The patience bonus rewards fast service, and the wrong-document penalty reminds you that haste without attention costs. It is the only productivity lesson in the game, and it is free, no certificate required.

Rules and scoring

How the score is kept

Every citizen served brings 100 points, plus a patience bonus of up to 50, proportional to the patience left. Every wrong document takes 25 points off and melts a quarter of the person's patience. The best score stays in your browser, on your device, and goes nowhere.

The shifts demand quotas of 8, 12 and 16 citizens served, with arrivals getting faster. A shift ends when its quota is met. If more than 5 people walk out without papers in one shift, the counter jams and the game ends. Game scores are not a measure of anything but your own skill with the stamp.

Sources

Where the documents come from

The Counter is an original satire: the citizens, names, queues and the stamp are invented, and the game quotes no statistics and describes no real institution. Any resemblance to the counter where you last queued is, regrettably, coincidental.

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