The Fabulous Fear Machine combines an audacious social simulation with pulp horror roleplaying.

A single-player, real-time strategy game with a retro horror comic style, The Fabulous Fear Machine casts the player as a newly minted “Master of the Machine.” To pursue their goals, players must generate and spread fear through the careful cultivation of various Legends—those scary stories, urban myths, and conspiracy theories that lurk in the dark corners of the mind.

The game’s campaign is structured around distinct chapters that follow the exploits of several new Masters, each with their own ambitions. As the player’s power in a home region grows, missions gain an increasingly grand scale, and the pressure from other characters increases. The forces of good fight back by reducing Legends to sanitized fairy tales, and randomly occurring social events force players to modify their strategy constantly.

AMC Games and Fictiorama Studios announced that The Fabulous Fear Machine has debuted its first public gameplay demo on Steam as part of the London Games Festival.

Download the new demo for The Fabulous Fear Machine until April 15, 2022.

The gameplay demo features several newly revealed mechanics in the game, as well as a tutorial and a preview of the game’s first major storyline. Players will learn how a Master selects their goals for a region and strategically places their agents. The demo also teaches how Legends work and the process of evolving them to grow their power. Finally, it introduces the game’s first “Rival,” an NPC with the ability to deeply impact the game’s narrative and strategy elements.

Key Features:

• Horror evolved. Plant the seeds of fear in fertile ground. Watch and listen to how the media reacts to your Legends. Feed them, then see them grow more powerful and effective.
• The job done right. Your strength is in strategizing; leave the dirty work to your Agents. Send them to explore new locations and infiltrate your enemies, making interesting choices along the way. 
• An equal and opposite reaction. Rivals and the forces of good alike seek to undo the Machine’s influence for their own ends. Plan accordingly, or you may find your own Legends twisted into inspirational stories, mascots, or other sugary-sweet clichés.
• Think globally, scare locally. Many Legends are drawn from the unique cultural history of specific countries. Travel the world, and learn what terrors each populace delights in.
• A tale as old as time. Across one playthrough you’ll direct the stories of several Masters operating in different regions of the world. Along the way, explore the history of the Machine, its enemies, and the Agents who aid you.

Partnering with AMC Games and Fictiorama on the title is AMC Networks’ premium horror streaming service Shudder, whose expertise at spreading fear proved invaluable for the developers.

The Fabulous Fear Machine is coming to PC (Steam) in Summer 2022.