DEAD LETTER DEPT.
Factsheet
Developer:
Belief Engine
Based in Redmond, Washington
Release date:
TBD
Platforms:
Demo Available:
Steam Store
Haunted PS1 Demo-Disc: Spectral Mall
Website:
beliefengine.com/deadletterdept
Description
After moving to the big city, you got yourself an apartment, and secured a temp data entry job- just to keep you afloat till something better comes along. Your official title is a Data Conversion Operator, but you’re really more like a warm body who types up all the junk computers still can’t read.
Day to day, you go to work & process the images displayed on your terminal, and type up whatever text is in front of you. Whatever can be made out, that is. Letters and lost mail, some mangled and twisted, that have travelled from place to place with nowhere else to go. Sometimes the mail you receive is a little strange. Sometimes, it feels like it’s talking to you directly through the screen…
DEAD LETTER DEPT. is a short horror game mystery experience, where you use your computer keyboard to type in various prompts, and attempt to decipher damaged images as oddities begin to appear.
History
Mike Monroe had been wanting to work on a horror game again for quite a long time, but wasn’t sure what sort of premise to go with. DEAD LETTER DEPT. was inspired after hearing about Scott McKie talk about his weird work-experiences doing data entry for the US Postal Service in the early 2000s. Because Scott would attend college during the day, he regularly would go to the facility (out in the middle of nowhere) in the dead of night.
An early protoype was developed, with a focus on keyboard data entry and atmosphere, after which it was decided to bring the concept into a longer form game taking place over multiple nights.
The game is additionally loosely inspired by the (formerly named) Dead Letter Office branch of the United States Postal Service, in which mail is stored and sometimes sold away after all attempts to deliver it has failed.
Features
- Bizarre and sometimes intense typing challenges.
- Mysterious and largely obfuscated storytelling, in the form of letters you process in your daily work.
- Rich dark & moody grain encrusted atmosphere.
- Storylines discovered in the mail change every playthrough, no two-playthroughs are the same
- Prominent audio and ambient sound design.
- Multiple endings, depending on circumstances followed in the game.
Videos
Teaser Trailer
YouTube Link - Download Video Link
Screenshots
GIFs
Logos & Icons
Transparent With Envelope
Transparent Logo Only (White Version)
Transparent Logo Only (Black Version)
Press Coverage
Kotaku
https://kotaku.com/indie-penance-day-resurgence-1847231469
“Dead Letter Dept. looks so creepy, just in the screenshots, which already have me hooked. But then I find out it’s described as “atmospheric typing horror” and I am contemplating violating long-held anti-pre-ordering beliefs. It stars you as someone working a data entry temp job, processing mail. But that mail starts to get weird."
-John Walker
PC Gamer
https://www.pcgamer.com/eek3-2021-was-another-treasure-trove-of-indie-horror-games/
“Dead Letter Dept., another entry for the typing games sure got strange list. You’ve got a job in data entry, typing up letters that for whatever reason couldn’t be delivered. A classic, soul-destroying dead end job. The letters shouldn’t sound like they’re written to you, right?"
-Jody Macgregor
‘Dead Letter Dept’ is an indie horror mystery about data entry.
Data entry never sounded so appealing
-Jack Grimshaw
Credits
Mike Monroe
Development, Belief Engine
Scott McKie
Additional Writing, Belief Engine
Contact
General Inquiries
press-contact@beliefengine.com