This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through links. I will only recommend products that I have personally used or thoroughly reviewed! Learn more on my Privacy Policy page.

An uncanny, fun experience into dream-like anomalies

Key Takeaways

Good Aspects

• Unnerving psychological atmosphere with surreal visuals
• Dreamlike anomalies that mess with perception
• Simple yet tense gameplay loop
• Strong thematic focus maybe hinting at guilt or memories

Bad Aspects

• Very short runtime (under an hour)
• Controls feel floaty and imprecise at times
• Story is open to interpretation, but may frustrate gamers who want concrete answers
• Models or plain and simple, don’t expect in-depth details

Introduction

You ever have one of those dreams where everything feels familiar or mundane but slightly off, like your brain is trying to send you a message wrapped in static and fear? Well, Dream Prison, an indie horror from developer Budai, leans hard into that feeling and doesn’t let go.

This isn’t your typical with monsters jumping at your face every five seconds. Nope, Dream Prison is slower, quieter, and way uncannier with anomales.

In just under an hour, it’ll make your focused and ask you to relive your mistakes in a looping purgatory. Sound fun? Good. Let’s dive in.

Overview

Dream Prison is a short, psychological indie horror game developed and published by Budai on Steam in 2025. Upon initial drop in, you can really feel the anomalous vibe.

You’re placed in a dreamlike prison where you’re trapped in a church, full of anomalies, by a strange cult and mysterious deity. It doesn’t spell out exactly what exactly is going, which is kind of the point.

The horror here is more than about what’s in the shadows, it’s about getting free.

With stripped back mechanics and eerie, surreal anomalies, Dream Prison plays more like an experimental experience than a traditional horror game.

Think Exit 8 with simpler graphics to get the overall feeling of this game. Loop through four corridors, spot the anomaly, and escape the cult.

The Story

So, let’s get one thing straight, the story in Dream Prison is vague. At best, you are held in a dream by this cult deadest on making you abandon the material world and transcend.

You’re not spoon-fed a plot. Instead, you’re thrown into a looping dream where the environment whispers hints to something. Time doesn’t move straight, and you keep running loops, literally until you find anomalies and the way out.

Spoilers

There are some bits in the environment hinting that you’re in this dream prison. It you defy the cult, the goddess will condemn you to punishment. The dream keeps resetting if you fail, and the “ending” per se, just an escape that might not be real.

The game leaves you guessing if you’ve actually left the prison, or if the prison and these anomalies are your own mind.

Spoilers End

The story sits in the realm of simple but vague. Even if you’re not totally sure what happened, it invites speculation.

The Gameplay

Mechanically, Dream Prison is not complex. You walk, you read some anomalies, and you pass through dungeons. Sounds basic, right? But Budai uses this simplicity to create some tension.

You’re always wondering, “What’s going to happen in this room?” Sometimes nothing. Sometimes a weird sound, peculiar anomalies, or outright death if you pass through the wrong corridor.

You’re mostly exploring tight corridors and rooms, triggering certain anomalies you find. However, it’s not about complexity. It’s about mood.

Game Guide

Not much is needed here, but for those stuck:

• After entering one room, if no anomalies occur, explore the next room. At 24 levels with 4 corridors, you got 96 areas to explore.
• Some “anomalies” aren’t don’t jump out at you, so pay attention to visuals.
• If you’re stuck, retrace your steps, you can go back to the main hub.
• When in doubt, just walk toward the unsettling noise. This is a horror game, after all.

Graphics and Audio

The graphics aren’t ultra-high-res, but they don’t need to be. Everything has this VHS-dream vibe, think gritty textures, shadowy corners that might be hiding something (or nothing).

Environments feel handcrafted. There’s a sterile, institutional look that bleeds into surreal spaces. Familiar spaces turn alien. So, it all plays into the “prison of the mind” theme. Models, or guardians, are plainly designed.

This is kind of interesting because the uncanny, often misaligned models, add to the uncanny and absurd dream-like theme. Not going to lie, some anomalies are just plain hilarious to me – my humor is terrible.

Sound design? Silence is utilized with minimalism here. There’s no music most of the time, just ambient hums, or footsteps and voices that echo too loudly.

When the music does kick in, it’s haunting and lowkey… 90% of the time. The voices are translated by AI, which is mentioned on the Steam page.

Performance and Technical Aspects

On a technical level, the game’s solid for an indie project offered for free. I played on PC and didn’t run into any crashes or game breaking bugs. That said, the controls are a bit floaty.

What I mean by floaty is that you character feels like they’re walking on a waxed floor. Not a huge deal, but it adds to that disconnected dream feeling. Maybe intentional? I don’t know.

Some gamers might find the interface clunky. There’s no objective marker. It’s just you and the world. That can be disorienting, but again… maybe that’s the point?

If I had to nitpick, the loading between dream resets can be a little jarring. It is quick but the transition is abrupt. Nothing scared me but this could just be my threshold on fear. I found it more fun than scary.

Also, resolution settings were limited, but it didn’t impact gameplay too much.

Length and Replayability

Here’s where Dream Prison will split players. This game is short. Like once you figure out the mechanics, you can speed through detecting anomalies. You can finish it in under an hour, maybe 40 minutes if you’re not poking into every corner like me.

For some, that’s perfect. For others, that might feel like not enough. Give it’s free, this is not a big deal.

Replayability is… limited, mechanically. Once you’ve seen the story, the key events don’t change much. But if you’re into environmental storytelling, symbolic horror, or curious to see all anomalies it’s worth another run to pick up missed details.

Closing Thoughts

Dream Prison isn’t going to be everyone’s jam. If you’re looking for hardcore gameplay, complex puzzles, or a neatly wrapped plot, you’ll be left wanting.

However, if you’re down for a short, atmospheric psychological horror with anomalies, Budai delivers something quietly simple but fun.

It feels like a strange dream made playable. You’re in a looping punishment, where the scariest part is what’s behind the next door.

It’s experimental, it’s raw, and it’s the kind of thing that reminds you why indie horror hits different. Definitely a title worth checking out if you’re into the weird or just uncanny.

Score? I don’t score much but I’d slap a 7.5/10 on it based on overall gameplay, experience and it being free. Maybe an 8 if you’re in the right headspace.

Want more bite-sized indie horror breakdowns like this? Stick around Gravenox Horror Gaming. I got you covered with the eerie, the underrated, and the straight-up twisted. If you want more content, check out my latest review here!

Drop your thoughts in the comments. What was Dream Prison like for you?