Fear the Spotlight hands-on preview [SGF] – Blumhouse Games starts their journey with a masterclass in horror by CozyGamePals

I play a lot of scary games, from indie horror to AAA horror, I love either playing myself, watching others play, or watching videos around the unique lore behind games like Five Nights At Freddy’s and The Backrooms. So when Blumhouse, creator of some of the most amazing horror movies like Get Out, Firestarter, Insidious, M3gan, Paranormal Activity, and Whiplash (which isn’t horror, but as a drummer it’s one of my favorite movies and can be considered horror with how some of those characters treated each other), announced not just that they’re entering the gaming realm, but showcased an entire slate of upcoming games, I was EXCITED to say the least.

I ran, not walked, to my appointment to meet with Blumhouse Games at Summer Game Fest and got to take a look at their first release coming soon, Fear The Spotlight. During my preview, I got to play about 20 minutes of the beginning of the game. It’s a love letter to all of the 90’s scary teen movies including a grainy VHS filter and loads of scary atmosphere.

When I say I’ve played a lot of horror, I have, and I tend to not be overly scared by much of it. “I laugh in the face of danger, ha ha ha ha.” That being said, when a game can set up an atmosphere so well that I’m on my toes and nothing has even happened yet, they’re doing it right, and dear readers, they’re doing this right.

The creators of the game, Cozy Game Pals (ironic, right?) are just two developers. That in itself blew my mind because this game is polished and the feel is just right. You take on the role of Vivian who is sneaking into her school with her friend Amy to do a spooky seance with the Ouija Board locked up in the school library that Vivian works at.

My gameplay started at them entering the school and ended about five minutes after… things happen during the seance. I won’t be giving anything away, but there’s a moment your curser is holding over the planchette and I was sitting there saying to myself, “you have to let go, no don’t let go, you have to let go, don’t let go because then bad things will for suuuure happen.” I even got scared as people walked by in my area just because of how perfect the atmosphere was for a spooky vibe.

The game controls are very simple with, as of my gameplay, nothing to fight back or even attack. It was mostly me with a light source. It feels very point-and-click with the setup, allowing you to collect items as you go and find where those items are used in the world. For instance, to get the board, you’ll need a key. Where do you find the keys in a library? The office. How do you get into the office? And so on… It was again, extremely intuitive and all my little gamer instincts were loving every second of it.

The preview ended and up comes Cozy Game Pals creators to thank me personally for playing the game. They were some of the nicest people I met during Summer Game Fest. They talked to me about their desire to make the game and what their roles are in their work. I then asked about their relationship with Blumhouse Games and if it was a positive experience and how their work changed after signing on to be part of their first slate of games. They had nothing but nice things to say, in short, saying Blumhouse allowed them to fully realize their dreams of this game when things were getting harder for them near the end of their development. They were able to get the game where they wanted originally and Blumhouse Games was supportive the entire way.

I loved hearing this and hope Blumhouse Games continues the trend they’ve started and the bar is HIGH moving forward since Fear the Spotlight is their first game of the slate to release. I cannot wait for this game to be available. You can waitlist the game now on steam.

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