Scream Operator: Haunted House Manager puts you in charge of a theme park ride with a twist
Independent game development studio Japhet Interactive today officially announced Scream Operator: Haunted House Manager, a pixel-art management simulation game coming to PC in Q1 2027. A public demo will debut in October 2026.
In Scream Operator, players step into the control booth of an industrial haunted attraction.
Unlike traditional tycoon games focused on building track layouts, Scream Operator tasks players with managing the real-time logistics, power grids, and customer psychology of a dark ride. From the gritty control panel, players must manually dispatch ride vehicles, trigger pre-shows, and route empty carts back to the depot, while balancing the attraction’s power capacity against heavy animatronics to avoid critical system breakdowns and safety fines.
Credit: Japhet Interactive
"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."
Key Features:
The Control Booth: Trigger pre-shows, dispatch vehicles, and automate operations directly from your real-time control panel.
Animatronics, Props & Decor: Place and combine a wide variety of items in empty scare rooms to maximize the attraction's Scare Score.
Queue Logistics & Shops: Upgrade stations and queue lines to slash wait times while unlocking merchandise and vending shops to maximize revenue.
Power & Safety: Balance station power capacity against heavy machinery to avoid critical system failures and costly fines.
Scream Operator: Haunted House Manager is a 2D top-down, pixel art haunted house management simulation. Players design, operate and upgrade their own horror dark ride, managing the balance between maximum terror and operational efficiency. Balance heart-pounding scares with smart business choices to grow your profits and upgrade the ride to create the ultimate haunted experience for your guests.
