Independent game development studio Japhet Interactive has officially announced Scream Operator: Haunted House Manager, a pixel-art management simulation game coming to PC in Q1 2027. If you want a taste of the tactical stress early, a public demo debuts this October.
Unlike traditional tycoon games focused solely on building layouts, Scream Operator drops players straight into the gritty control booth of an industrial dark ride. From the master control panel, you’ll handle real-time logistics, manage volatile power grids, and manipulate customer psychology. Players must manually dispatch ride vehicles, trigger pre-shows, and route empty carts back to the depot—all while balancing power capacity against the demands of massive animatronics to avoid critical system breakdowns and safety fines.
“With Scream Operator, I wanted to capture the tactical stress and nostalgia of running a classic dark ride,” says Niels van der Ven, founder of Japhet Interactive. “It is a balancing act between operational efficiency and psychological terror. As a player, you are operating a complex machine where guest safety, queue times, and maximum scare scores collide.”
In addition to managing the attraction itself, players will be able to place and combine a wide variety of animatronics, props, and decor in empty scare rooms to maximize the attraction’s Scare Score. They’ll also be able to upgrade stations and queue lines to slash wait times while unlocking merchandise and vending shops to maximize their revenue.
Scream Operator: Haunted House Manager is available to wishlist now on Steam.
