“Don’t lose your head…“
The LORE: Static Dress piece can be found here.
Years in the making, Static Dress’ video game feels like a fitting send-off to the Rouge Carpet Disaster era in which fans have been living since the album’s initial teasing back in 2020. With all orders fulfilled, and fans all over the world expressing their amazement at the band’s dedication, it feels like there is no better time to, finally, dive into the lore and easter eggs hidden within.
Before we begin our deep dive, it feels fitting to call out that we have already produced a speculative lore article based upon the band’s lyricism, music videos, comic book, and general branding. The content of Rouge Carpet Disaster: The Game seemingly confirms a large number of assumptions and speculation that had already been made, and as such, this article will refrain from discussing the lore in much detail. Please read the initial lore article here should that be the content that you are looking for. In this article we focus on the game’s release variants, their differences, and other easter eggs, avoiding any game spoilers. Finally, huge respect and admiration for Alex Constante, whom Static Dress worked with to create the game.
Now, onto the secrets.
Cartridges
There were two different copies of the game, each being available at different stages. Upon the game’s initial release, three colourways were available; red, blue, white. These initial copies were limited to approximately 40 of each colour, and sold out within mere minutes. Following this, three additional colourways became available as an open pre-order; green, pink, black.
The initial drop’s copies shipped much sooner than the pre-order copies, and contained some additional secrets which were restricted to these initial cartridges. Notably, the cartridge’s shell includes braille, which translates to “OPEN CART”. Upon opening the cartridge, a silk-screened QR code is exposed on the black PCB, which when scanned leads to various secret, exclusive goodies. Due to the band’s clear desire to keep the content found via the QR code exclusive, we will not be divulging further information on this secret. Copies shipped as part of the second release do not include this QR code, and the PCB is white instead of black.
Fans with copies of the open-preorder variant(s) of the game may notice one key easter egg sitting on the main menu. In the top left corner of the display, the version revision is shown. What many may not have realised, is that this value is tied directly to the colour of cartridge being played at that moment in time. Black copies of the game display version 2.0.SB, whereas green cartridges show 2.0.AG, and the pink copies show as 2.0.FP. The build number for each correlates with the initials of the cartridges colour i.e. Shadow Black -> SB, Acid Green -> AG, and Foxglove Pink -> FP.
The main menu is not the only place where this is important though, as there is actually a notable difference on one of the stages dependent upon the revision being played. Those who have already played the game may recall a stage in which the player is traversing across CTR televisions with each TV containing a different themed puzzle. What you may not have noticed is that on the second revision copies, there is a single TV within which the theme and layout is different. Players with the FP copy will find a stage filled with pink clouds, whereas AG players see a room made up of binary, and SB players see a hellish black room in which the floor resembles overgrown roots.
In-Game
The band also seemingly hints at new music within the game. Within what has been dubbed as the crucifixion room, the stained glass windows can be interpreted as braille.
Once converted, this braille reads “EPILOGUE”, which seemingly teases a follow-up release to close out the RCD plotline that began with Prologue. Another thing to note is that the character upon the cross has been seen before. At Slam Dunk festival 2023, the band’s original bassist, Connor Reilly, appeared dressed as the in-game character. For the duration of the set, Reilly shook on the cross along to the music. This also marks one of the initial performances of the now notorious “death to the overground” breakdown, and was also the only opportunity for fans to get a hold of the limited How I Hurt Myself limited CD, which contains three tracks, one of which we now know to be an early version of “Crying”.
One secret took players months to solve due to requiring a unique add-on peripheral to access. Keen-eyed players quickly discovered that during the locked doors stage, the middle door’s room featured a hole in the wall. Should players look into this hole, they are shown an 8 bit rendition of music video scenes displayed on a CRT TV. What many players failed to notice however, was the inclusion of braille text hidden on the background wallpaper.
When converted from braille, this text read “GBPRINTER”. What may seem to many to be complete gibberish is actually another clue though, as the GameBoy Printer is an existing peripheral which can be plugged into the GameBoy device. When revisiting this scene with a printer plugged in, the printer automatically starts to print a message. This image output shows the band through a hole in the same wall, with binary text beneath, which translates as “love”.
Thank you to Ade from the band’s discord for kindly helping with their own printer for this!
Another easily missable secret can be found within the blue laboratory room. At first glance, there’s not too much going on aside from some signature Static Dress CRT TVs being scattered in the background. It’s only when you start to pay attention to these that something of note can be found. If you look at the arrangement of which TVs are showing static and which are turned off, another braille message can be discovered.
Upon translation, the message “coming soon” is revealed; a direct statement that fans can expect new material imminently.
And with that, we conclude our deep-dive into Rouge Carpet Disaster: The Game. There is, without a doubt, a plethora of secrets still yet to be discovered, and we implore you to investigate for yourself should you be one of the lucky few who owns a copy. With the amount of love and time that’s been poured into this game by both the band and Alex Costante, the developer behind the programming, one thing is evident – Static Dress are not going anywhere, and wherever they take us next, they want our attention every step of the way.
Static Dress are supporting Underoath across the US now! Tickets and other shows are available here.