Dead Format
A downloadable game for Windows
Dead Format is a survival horror game set across iconic film eras. It's late 90s Scotland, and your brother has gone missing after becoming obsessed with a mysterious new video tape format called GHL. Follow his trail through the tapes and uncover why the government wants to ban the "Video Ghastlies".
This is the demo of the full game!
Wishlist the full game on Steam!
If you have any feedback or bugs to report please put them in this form!
Survive the cursed tapes
Your apartment is the hub. Here you can review clues, catch your breath, and prepare for the journey ahead. Use the television set and insert GHL tapes to open the door to new worlds, each one with its own inspiration. Search for clues and face the nightmares in universes inspired by Silent Era Cinema, Italian Giallo films, 80s Body Horror, Found Footage and more.
Classic Film meets Survival Horror
- Scavenge and Solve: Search for supplies to stay alive and uncover key items to solve puzzles, unlocking your path forward.
- Unusual Arsenal: Arm yourself with weapons and tools inspired by the film worlds you’ll explore.
- Live-Action Video: Discover eerie live-action footage that blurs the line between fiction and reality.
- Classic Survival Design: Your apartment is the only place you can save the game. Find shortcuts and new paths to progress on your journey.
- Survive Twisted Worlds: Each world comes with its own enemies, puzzles, and bosses to defeat.
A Mixed Media Game
Unique blend of indie film-making and game. The live action footage, which was recorded and edited by myself with friends and family (thank you so much for being a part of it!). I experimented with all sorts of techniques including stop motion, sculpting, latex mask making, green-screen, puppetry, VHS signal distortion and abstract water-tank fx. Each tape provides a nostalgic window into the worlds players will explore and tips for gameplay.
Controls
| ACTION | MOUSE KEYBOARD | CONTROLLER |
|---|---|---|
| Walk | WASD | Left Analogue |
| Interact | E | Cross/A |
| Inventory | Tab | Triangle/Y |
| Crouch | Ctrl | R3 |
| Sprint | Shift | L1/LB |
| Peak | Space+WASD | R1/RB+Left Analogue |
| Aim | Right Mouse | L2/LT |
| Fire | Left Mouse | R2/RT |
| Reload | R | Square/X |
| Quick Item | 1-4 | D-Pad |
| Menu | Esc | Start |
What is in this demo?
- Investigate the apartment of your missing brother
- Explore the early parts of the silent era and the body horror 80s
- Watch live action film clips with home-made practical fx all recorded through real VHS!
Recommended Specs: Please Read!
| Processor | Ryzen 7 2700X / Intel i7-9700K |
| RAM | 16 GB |
| Graphics Card | AMD RX 5070 / Nvidia 2060 |
| OS | Windows 10 or 11 |
If you have any feedback or bugs to report please put them in this form!
Download
Install instructions
Download and extract the .zip file. Double click the DeadFormatDemo.exe file to run the game.
If you have not previously installed them then you may have to install the UE5 prerequisites. You can find the installer in the folder DeadFormatDemo\Engine\Extras\Redist\en-us\UEPrereqSetup_x64.exe
Any issues or questions, please email me katanalevy@gmail.com
For feedback please put them in this form!
Development log
- Dead Format Demo Now Available!8 days ago
Comments
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For being a demo, this was rock solid indeed! Amazing concept for far and cannot wait for it to become a full game with many more tapes to explore! Made a video on it.
I have 2 words for you Dev, bloody awesome! I am so excited for the full release of this game :)
Very awesome game. I got it on my wishlist.
really creepy game
I love the nostalgia for the old film.
Thanks very much for playing and sharing on your channel! I think the performance issues might have been causing a lot of the glitches and crashes you ran into. Might be worth lowering some settings to get a better experience.
i loved the aesthetic, the graphics looked great & it was genuinely creepy
i got past the violin dude but couldnt figure out how to progress past the two women that came up from the ground or the lab puzzle, however i would never claim to be the best at puzzles in games so there is that haha i usually just look at the walkthrough to get past the puzzle and get back to experiencing the story but i still had fun. i did however play it while streaming on twitch and every time i put the first tape in the vcr my obs studio crashed and my stream went offline. i tried 2 or 3 more times and the same thing happened. then i finally switch from game capture to display capture to show the game and closed out all other programs i had running at the time (stream deck, SnapCam, voicemod, etc) and it played fine after that.
i think it has alot of potential and i would love to play the finished version in the future
Thanks for playing! Sorry to hear you had some issues with the capture. It's probably something to do with it streaming the video media file from the hard disk to play it, if OBS is trying to write to that same hard drive at the same time. Or perhaps even a codec conflict. Glad you managed to get it working in the end and hopefully there will be some alkthroughs up when the full game comes out as there will be a few more puzzles in the game!
Can you upload it to google drive or some other. I facing downloading issues for this link?
Sorry to hear you are having issue with it. Normally Filen is a very good premium service but since you are the 2nd person to mention issues I have moved it over to GDrive now. Let me know if you are still getting issues.
Very nice 👍
Amazing Game , Here is the Turkish Gameplay!
Great video! Tanks for playing and for translating for your audience!
I particularly liked that each GHL has a particular style, will be interesting to see if you can flit between the worlds when you get back to the hub. If you're a fan of schlocky horror from the 80's then you'll definitely get a buzz from 'Sewer Smile.' I loved the John Carpenter reference and that each 'zone' has its own mechanisms and puzzles.
WHEN IS THE FULL GAME OUT??? SHUDDUP AND TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY!
Thanks so much for playing and for sharing on your channel! So glad you enjoyed it and love it when someone gets the John Carpenter references. Aim is to have the game out by the end of the year so I'm working like crazy on it at the moment.
Congratulations to the creators of "Dead Format" a great action-puzzle game. I'd like the creators of this game to please subscribe to my channel. Thank you. I'm really excited for your help. Best regards!
Thanks for playing and sharing on your channel!
Thank you, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, it is very important to me, greetings
Next time be so kind to upload the game to gofile or mediafire. It took me two days to download the archive properly as it kept dropping the download too many times.
Sorry to hear that! Typically Filen is really good as it's a premium service compared to the free ones. I'll test the download speeds later and make sure the service is working correctly tho, thanks for letting me know.
This is about the coolest idea for a horror game I've come across, and it's implemented really well here. I seriously can't wait for the full game. I need more now!
Seriously amazing demo, showcasing the game's core mechanics, looks and played great, and the monsters in the game are extremely creepy. I ran into the same bug as previously reported, where the GHL couldn't be interacted with, but somehow managed to get it to work so I could complete the demo.
Thanks so much for playing! Thanks for pointing out the bug, it's good to know these things. I've already updated the demo build earlier today so hopefully others playing shouldn't get the same issue. Thanks again for checking it out and sharing on your channel.
Hi, the concept of the game is very cool and unique. I've found some bugs with the interactions. For exemple, after a reload, I was unable to interact with the puzzle that give you access to the elevator. The lever puzzle was fine, but it was impossible to interact with the second one. I had to restart the game from scratch. Same after I came back to the apartment and watched the VHS with the question mark on it. Then it was no longer possible to interact with the VHS reader to check the next one. I managed to do it by using the store box, then I tried again the VHS and it worked. It's the only kind of bug I've encountered but it was really annoying. Apart from that, the gun could be a little more responsiv, anyway, the game looks very promisiing, can't wait to see more !
Thanks very much for playing and your feedback spotting those bugs! I've managed to solve both of them so I'll be updateing the demo soon. It's wild that in months of testing those puzzles hundreds of times I've never seen that interaction issue before but at least two people saw it here within 24hours! It was a really tiny window of oppertunity when certain variables were set that caused it but thanks for pointing it out so that I was able to plug that hole.
What was feeling unresponsive about the gun to you? Was it the aiming feeling sluggish or perhaps the fire rate too slow?
No prob, I'm glad it helped. For the gun, it was the speed for aiming and shooting. It was a bit frustrating, but it's not a big issue.
Thanks! No worries, it really helps me to know how it feels for other people.
Great game so far! I love the realism and old school film style horror elements you've added, I'm actually blown away. As stated before, I had an issue with the pressure guauge and was unable to continue, here is my playthrough and where I got stuck. Thanks for sharing the game, and please let me know how to proceed, thanks!
Thanks for pointing out the issue. I've managed to reproduce it on random rare occasions but still not sure what is causing it. I'll update the build as soon as I manage to fix it.
Hi, the demo zip file wont open, it says its corrupted
Sorry you're having an issue. I've just double checked the file and they are extracting correctly so it was most likely because your download did not complete. If you try again it should work fine.