Hello Skullboy,
The game is set within the "Scythe Saga Universe," so it's not really tied specifically to any decade...not real life decades, anyway. The game takes place on the planet Scythe.
But here's a few things to note...
If you check out the music festival sign for Rock the Warehouse, it's got a much more modern vibe to it. It also mentions a surplus of DJs, which happened a bit later in history. Raves were more prominent on the underground for quite some time. It was actually a reference to the real-life festival, "Rock the Resort," thrown in NY back in 2009. (I performed there. Nice little personal Easter Egg. "Mrs Trees Festival Needs" is a reference to a frequent vendor at music festivals, "Mr B's Festival Needs." Pretty sure they were at Rock the Resort, but not 100% on that.) But again, this game is only tied to the continuity and universe we build, so the technology is a bit different.
The "VHS is all the rage right now!" was a reference to the current nostalgia wave throughout movies, TV, and games. AAA games like Outlast have that found-footage aesthetic, as do some of our great Indie Dev peers like Puppet Combo and 98Demake. But we were also referencing the huge push towards '80s nostalgia that we first saw with Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Hotline Miami, Hobo With a Shotgun, Turbo Kid, Lieutenant Jangles. The stuff that lead two of our dev team members into the synthwave music scene 5 or 6 years ago. It's a nod to all those things, to our brothers and sisters who also love nostalgic culture and grew up with the same stuff as us. In short: Nostalgia driven content is really big right now, and we personally love all of it.
Also, the reason for the camera in the first place, is because Connor is at the festival as a volunteer. His job happens to be documenting the event. There will be a bit more backstory into all of the characters from both Northbury Grove and King's Comfort in our next game.
Cheers,
Jon