Dead Format

“If we don’t publicly execute these depraved individuals in the manner they deserve, then we run the risk of potentially exposing this country’s children to violence on film, which certainly leads to violent behavior.”

This week’s recommendation is Dead Format, a survival horror game created by Katanalevy (Chris Evry), a Scottish solo dev. Despite having plans for your birthday, you haven’t heard from your brother in weeks, leading you to investigate his apartment. You discover that he is seemingly trapped in a collection of GHL, (“Ghoul”) tapes — a haunted video format. With no other option, you follow him into the tapes, braving the horrors of the films they contain.



Dead Format has classic survival horror gameplay, in which you solve puzzles and fend off threats to unlock new areas and progress the story. The key difference is that rather than traversing parts of a haunted mansion, a school or a space station, you’re going back and forth between eras of film. These include silent horror, gritty 80s sci-fi and giallo, with a little nod to found footage.



It is clear that Evry has a lot of love for the horror genre and put a lot of care into making the game. The different sections all have a unique feel that makes switching between tapes feel like stepping into a new film. Each of the featured eras is accompanied by one or more original live action “clips” from the fictional film that the level is centred around. These clips were made by Evry, featuring his friends and family, and do a great job of mimicking (and poking some light fun) at the genres they represent. The fictional films have mixed influences, but if I’d have to guess, I’d say that say they are loosely representative of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922), Susperia (1977) and Videodrome (1983).



Dead Format can be found on Steam here and Itch here.