A new horror game on Steam lets players burn it onto a disc and play it on an actual DVD player, complete with old-school DVD menus.
Buitopia DVD was released on October 9 by animator Ben Wheele and publisher Nondoon. It’s a short, surreal piece of interactive fiction in which you hunt for a birthday gift for a character named Jess.
Wheele built his game around the limits of a DVD player
The game runs on PC through Steam, but it’s built entirely as a DVD. Its store page says you navigate classic DVD menus and see lo-fi, interlaced visuals as you go.
The DVD file is included with the game as a bonus, so players can burn it to a disc themselves. The store page promises you can “enjoy the whirring, chugging sounds of your DVD player struggling through the menus” if you do. A collector’s physical edition DVD, which comes with a Steam key, is also sold separately.
Wheele has been posting surreal horror animations to his YouTube channel for the last 17 years. He started Buitopia DVD in 2006 but abandoned it for years after losing the project on an old PC.
Speaking to Final Weapon, he explained that working within the limits of a DVD player shaped the whole game.
“The biggest design challenge was the lack of a save-game feature. For me, the solution was designing an interesting ‘password save’ system,” he said. “I also took some inspiration from The Outer Wilds, albeit on a much smaller scale; the player gains knowledge, and then has the ability to complete the game.”
He also found that DVDs have their own programming language, and said he was surprised how deep it went.
Releasing on disc came with one obvious drawback. “If there are bugs or errors, there’s no way to patch everyone’s discs!” Wheele said. “I can’t guarantee I tested it for every possible bug… but I did a LOT of testing… oh boy…”
Buitopia DVD costs $4.99 on Steam, with a 10% launch discount bringing it to $4.49 until October 23.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
