
Dead Format is a survival horror game set in iconic film eras. It's 1990s Scotland, and your brother has gone missing after becoming obsessed with a mysterious new VHS format. Follow his trail through the tapes and uncover why the government wants to ban "Video Ghastlies".
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
Discounts
Every price cut of more than 20% we have observed, in each market that quoted one, with this game's chart position on either side of it. These are episodes, not a model: a sale is one event, and one event cannot tell you what the next one will do.
Reviews, worldwide (the counter carries no country): 0.14/day in the week to Aug 23 → 0.86/day in the week after.
For scale, across Steam · Top Sellers · Brazil over the last 30 days: the 25 chart moves that followed a price cut of more than 20% went a median of 10 places towards #1, and the 2,413 moves with no price cut behind them went 2 away. One store, one chart, one country — it is the only place we have enough observations to say even that.
Prices outside the United States have been collected since 6 August 2026 and chart positions since 19 July 2026, so a cut older than that has no market to compare and a market that joined later has no history yet. Nothing here is converted between currencies.
About
A lost brother. A cursed VHS format. A government cover-up.
Dead Format is a survival horror game that takes you on a nightmarish journey through iconic eras of film. Set in 1990s Scotland, you play as a desperate sibling searching for their missing brother who was last seen obsessing over a mysterious VHS format. Dive into the tapes, fight your way through cinematic worlds, and find your brother before it’s too late.
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 VHS 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, and 80s Body Horror.
Search for supplies to stay alive and uncover key items to solve puzzles, unlocking your path forward.
Arm yourself with weapons and tools inspired by the film worlds you’ll explore.
Discover homemade VHS footage that blurs the line between fiction and reality.
Your apartment is the only place you can save the game. Find shortcuts and new paths to progress on your journey.
Each world comes with its own enemies, puzzles, and unique areas to explore.
Everything in Dead Format is created just for the game. This includes the VHS footage, which is recorded and edited by Katanalevy. Each tape provides a nostalgic window into the worlds players will explore.
Chris Evry (Katanalevy) is a Scottish solo developer drawn to creating experiences that are a blend of the darkly visceral and gothic sublime. He is the creator of Cardiac, Symphony of Seven Souls and Daemonologie.
Genres
Engagement
Reviews
Themes across 58 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
Finished in about 3 hours and, honestly, I loved it! There is a lot of passion that can be derived from just looking at it, I can tell. As a former film student and long time voice actor, seeing all the different genres of horror and how they were translated to gameplay and aesthetics was a massive joy. I especially was a fan of sewer smiles. something about the entire look and feel was so fantastic. i derived some form of symbolism regarding film regulation and how, in the modern day, its hard for a lot of indies to get their stuff published for the mass markets to see. especially since everything is so uniform and plays to a playbook of "marketability" vs creator inspiration and freedom. My only gripe was that the ending felt a bit rushed? especially since it really didnt feel like a climactic ending. the rest of the game's pacing was phenomenal but i was definitely hoping for [spoiler] some more conflict out of the huge secret you learn after picking up the purple ring. [/spoiler] Definitely rooting for a sequel for this one and god if voice actors are needed I would kill for an audition <3
Great game with a great quirk, just challenging enough to be fun. Highly recommend. If you are on the fence dont be
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Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English
Hours played at review time, across 59 reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
x-- 7.5 / 10 --x Really good horror with minor nuisances. Aesthetically I loved the design of this game, but the drop in frame rates and the continuously having to hide, from the vulture woman, was very frustrating.
Genuinely such a good game, the aesthetics, the sound design, the creature, THE LEVEL DESIGN. Overall so good and I hope to see where the dev(s) go. Feels like a good ol first person puzzle solving survival horror where stealth is key and your weapons look awesome.
If you love classic horror movies from the 80s like Invasion of the Body Snatcher, Videodrome, and The Thing you'll probably love this game
Nice game izkeri W dev
Che bella idea per un gioco che non da nulla sotto tutti i punti di vista. La trama all'inizio mi stava intrigando tantissimo, con quest'atmosfera davvero carina fusa a queste aree di gioco nate da GHL(VHS) fan made abbastanza carini. Il gioco in se per se nel complesso è abbastanza bruttino e non porta a nulla per un gameplay che ho trovato estremamente banale e facile, e con una meccanica puzzle SUPER lineare. Unica cosa "carina" per me è stato il finale, che anche li potevano farlo finire direttamente quando vedevi "quella cosa", e invece ci hanno messo una pessima animazione di saprete cosa quando ci giocherete e lo finirete. Sconsiglio, ma metto il pollice in su perché sono degli indie developer che nonostante tutto si sono impegnati davvero tanto e si vede.
this was fun but it really loses me at the last half. i really wish the ending also wasnt such a let down. i never used this games shotgun equivalent because i thought it would come in clutch near the end but,,, nothing happens at all to warrant using it??? i feel like nothing comes close to the really creepy and unique violin man sequence in the beginning. it fit the film it was set in and i loved it. the rest of the game is a really basic monster with no real theme that just spawns when it feels like it, and one note enemies killable that barely show up. i liked the concept of the game, and it was really great in the beginning, but man im disappointed because this game's idea is up my alley
I watched the trailers and had a pretty good idea I would be interested. I thought it was a very creative idea for a game and would like to see it get updated with more tapes as I really think this idea itself has a lot of potential. I will say though , the stalker enemy needs adjustment. I think it might be better off it you can outrun it or is only in certain areas. I say that because once you get used to it, it only slows the game down and makes it less exciting. Other than that I can say I had an enjoyable time with game. This idea has a lot of potential with how much horror movies we have out there.
A really good idea with great visuals that just overstays its welcome. The idea of going through different horror movies each representing an era of the genre is fun and when the game sticks to that, it is awesome. However, partway through the game a generic stalker is introduced that takes the place of what SHOULD be the movie's killer/monster in each film. Combat wasn't great and should have been skipped or more work should have been done to make it feel good. Inventory management also kinda sucks, increasing stack limits or adding a couple extra slots would fix it. There are also too many instances of backtracking to another film, it was a good idea the first couple times but was done too much. Every film also played the same in terms of gameplay, why not have the creature feature be focused on combat instead of sneaking? They all devolved into hiding from the stalker. 7/10 Pros: + Awesome Art Design for each film + Fun idea + Music is great, especially the last section of each film + Nice worldbuilding/story + Some good scares + One good puzzle with outside the box thinking + Flawless performance Cons: - Too long - Too much backtracking - Combat sucked - Overuse of generic stalker - The gameplay of each film was the same - Most puzzles are extremely simple
Players by region
Where this game's players are, estimated from review languages.
Players also reviewed
The games this title's players most often review too — audience affinity.
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