Ghost Tape

Developed in RPG Maker MZ for Indie City Games' Chicaghoul 2024 Jam, Ghost Tape: Demo Tape Edition is a prototype for a horror game inspired by Silent Hill and the found footage segments from Resident Evil VII: Biohazard. I've had brewing in my head for a while.

This prototype is mostly meant to evoke the vibes and core mechanic of the final game I eventually intend to make, one that is largely driven around the idea of finding video tapes left behind, re-living the content of those tapes, and then solving puzzles in the present day based on the events of the found footage.

In this early version that mostly means, walking through hallways as you relive the final moments of peoples' lives, then find their bodies to unlock doors with keys conveniently left in their belongings. The narrative is also mostly just random odd moments that largely pay homage (let's be real - outright references) to horror I love - Silent Hill, The Substance, the work of Junji Ito, etc. A full version will have a different, more cohesive narrative that blends a variety of horror styles through the found footage element with a surrealist, "nightmare realism" present-day plot.

In developing this prototype for the jam I had a lot of learnings. Namely: RPG Maker MZ, even with the fantastic CutieVirus's MZ3D isn't going to be a tool that lets me build the full version the way I want. And so, I've already started a new prototype in UE5.

This game is best played with a mouse and keyboard.