BROKEN TAPE — a short PSX/VHS horror game made by one developer
Hi! Today I finally released a game I’ve been working on for about three months.
BROKEN TAPE is a ~30-minute story-driven horror game where you play as an archivist working for a corporation called System-7.
Your job is fairly simple: sort cases, operate archival equipment and get through your shift. But as you work, you start discovering things that clearly shouldn’t be there.
The story is mostly told through newspaper clippings, documents, recordings and other details that you encounter naturally while doing your job, rather than through long dialogue sequences.
The game features:
- PSX-inspired visuals with a VHS recording aesthetic
- An archival work-based gameplay loop
- System-7’s own lore and history
- Case sorting and equipment repair
- Newspaper clippings, documents and other story details
- Several scripted scenes and encounters
- A cinematic ending
The archive itself is located inside a massive underground complex. You don’t freely explore the entire facility, but its scale can occasionally be seen through windows and during transitions between departments.
This is my biggest game so far, and the first project I’ve spent around three months developing.
The game is free to play.
🎮 https://txkizxwx.itch.io/broken-tape
I’d love to hear what you think!