With Steam Next Fest falling in the middle of October each year, it goes without saying that there are a lot of horror demos to play during the event. It has been no different in 2025, but one horror game that stands out from the rest for all the best reasons: Dead Format. 

Created and developed by solo developer Chris Evry (otherwise known as Katanalevy), Dead Format is a horror game that throws you into the heart of multiple different classic horror tropes, leaving you to fend for yourself against demons, ghouls, and other creepy creatures. It’s utterly gorgeous and a classic waiting to happen in its own right.

I miss the days of VHS

There’s something incredibly nostalgic about watching VHS tapes, with their gritty images and occasional glitching that acts as a balm to my ageing soul. I’m a ’90s baby, and I grew up watching horror movies on VHS, so those imperfections remind me of the nights I spent in my room, way past the time I should have been asleep, scaring myself senseless with some horror movies.

In Dead Format, your brother has gone missing, and now you need to find him, so you’ve ventured to his apartment to see if you can find any clues. As you explore, you find VHS tapes that can be played in the living room (why is the player chained to the ceiling?). Each time you watch a tape, the world beyond the apartment transforms into that of the video you just watched, and you need to go and explore (and survive) this new environment. 

In the demo, you’re thrown into two different environments: A graveyard that feels like the classic black and white horror movies of the early 20th century, such as Frankenstein or Dracula, and what seems to be a more 50s-centric B-movie inspired sewer system inhabited by aliens out to bring you down. The two environments are wildly different, but each is packed with tiny details that will lead you to distraction. The atmosphere in each is different, too, but what else would you expect from these two juxtaposed eras in horror movie history?

A fly on the wall

Everything in Dead Format has been created and produced by Ketanalevy to be used solely in the game, but they’re made in such a way that it’s easy to forget that fact. The first movie, the one that throws you into the monochromatic and incredibly spooky 1920s, is edited in a way that shows Ketanalevy has studied movies of the time to recreate them, and it’s a detail that I can definitely appreciate as a fan of movies from the era.

I can imagine how fun it was to film those scenes, especially when you consider the fact that he and his co-stars had to venture out into the modern world dressed in vintage clothing to get the shots. I love those small details, and they shine in Dead Format. The mixed media setup for each new environment is a stunning love letter to the era of horror cinema in which it is set, and I can’t wait to see more when the full game releases. 

According to the Itch.io page for the game, it’s not only live action scenes that will feature in the full release; there will also be some stop-motion and some puppetry alongside the friends and family who feature in the faux-vintage filmed scenes. 

Horror through the eras

Horror cinema has come a long way since the birth of the genre at around the turn of the 20th century, and some would say it has come a long way even since VHS tapes were the norm before the turn of the 21st. However, as much as we now have a huge number of horror movies to binge through, filled with special effects that are difficult to separate from reality at times, there’s something special about those old classics that stays with you long after the credits have rolled. 

In a way, Dead Format is not only paying homage to those cinematic eras, but it has the potential to become a classic horror game in its own right, thanks to the trip through horror history that it provides on top of the already creepy story laid out. You never have time to settle into one environment, so you constantly feel like there’s a surprise around every corner (not helped by the inclusion of a lean mechanic that sets me on edge every time), and that’s a key proponent in any successful horror production. 

At the end of the day, the fact that Katanalevy has single-handedly created something that stands out as brightly as Dead Format does is massively impressive, and I know that the demo is just a brief glimpse of what will eventually be included in the full game. As a horror fan, I can’t wait to immerse myself in those cinematic eras and scare myself stupid all over again, just like the good old days watching VHS in my bedroom late at night. 

There is no set release date for Dead Format just yet, but it is scheduled to be released at some point before the end of 2025. If you’re a horror fan, I cannot recommend playing through the demo enough. It’s available through Steam right now.