InterfaceX26, a recent virtual expo on Steam, showcased more than 150 games falling under the niche subgenre “FakeOS”. Also known as Interface Sims, Interface Dramas, and Found Device games, the stories they tell include horror, romance, mystery, comedy, and even educational elements. What they have in common is that a major part of the gameplay “simulates an actual device and/or operating system (desktop, phone, browser, console, etc.) as a major gameplay mechanic,” as defined on the InterfaceX website.
Well-known games like Pony Island, Emily is Away, and Simulacra were featured under the expo’s “Hall of Fame”, but there are plenty of new titles waiting to be discovered. Whether you’re looking for a scare or just a hit of nostalgia, keep an eye out for these games coming out in the second half of 2026!
New Folder
Releasing at the end of May, this horror/mystery puzzle game has you logging on to a strange computer, attempting to discover who it may belong to and how it fell into your hands. From Evicted Games, this title has already drawn positive critical acclaim at the 2025 Swedish Game Awards as a nominee for Best Outside the Box in the New Talent division.
The self-described pixelated art style looks incredibly detailed for desktop backgrounds, photo attachments, and website graphics, although there are hints on the Steam page and in a video on the Evicted Games YouTube channel that some FMV will be integrated as well. If you’re up for a scary story and some light (pretend) hacking, keep an eye out for New Folder releasing on May 29, or download the demo now on Steam!
Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division
Have you ever wanted to put “Knows SQL” on your resume, but you didn’t actually want to learn it? Do you have no idea what SQL is, and you’re afraid to ask? Developer Thomas Hsu has you covered. Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division casts you as a new detective working (from home) for the city of Los Zorangeles, combing through massive data tables for clues to help solve cases. With a “loyal assistant” and an instruction manual pre-installed on your computer running “CopOS”, you learn SQL as you play.
The hand-drawn graphics are simple, brightly colored, and show Hsu’s sense of humor, which should balance well with the programming element of the gameplay. Hsu also stated outright on the game’s Instagram page that none of the data used for the game is AI-generated. He either used open-source databases or created the massive data tables himself, line by line. The demo for Database Detective is already available on Steam, but the full game is slated for release in July.
I.T. Never Ends
If you never want to see a line of code in your life, but you’d really like to experience an I.T. office sim with a cosmic horror flair, this is the game for you. You take on the role of the Systems Administrator at a company “where printers develop personalities, networks achieve sentience, and Ticket #666 is just another Tuesday.”
From Dadbod Games, I.T. Never Ends is a horror comedy game that has you process support tickets by choosing one of two ways to respond, attempting to keep Budget, Morale, Productivity, and Entropy balanced. You’ll also play minigames, including redacting company-wide emails and running a packet routing protocol that looks suspiciously like Frogger. The game boasts 81 unique endings, some associated with the overarching storyline, but many falling under categories “Office Phenomena”, “Transcendence”, “Digital Nightmares” and more. The demo is available on Steam as well as itch.io, with the full game coming in August.
Antivirus Survivors 2003 Professional
Hitting every millennial with potentially traumatic flashbacks, this game perfectly replicates the family desktop circa-Y2K, now infected with a virtual army of malware. However, unlike all the viruses we once downloaded through LimeWire and Napster, these viruses can be fought off in a more literal sense.
Antivirus Survivors 2003 Professional is an action roguelike where you are your cursor and your battlefield is an infected computer folder, using weapons like firewall, quarantine, pinball, and mines to clear your computer of malicious software. Some of the files you come across are powerups, but some of them are, appropriately enough, Trojan horses that temporarily crowd your screen with pop-ups. This is the first solo project New Zealand-based developer Shaun Hammond, and it’s scheduled to come out sometime between July and September.
Shutter Story
Also slated for the third quarter of this year is the latest from Frostwood Interactive, Shutter Story. Rather than discovering the story piece by piece as they explore the in-game computer, you interact with your friend Eli as, with your help, he attempts to convince his family that their house is haunted. The primary method of gameplay takes place through an in-game computer software called SpectralAware.
Ostensibly, this is a tool for analyzing photos and videos, allowing you to find evidence of paranormal activity. In practice, it’s very reminiscent of the “editing” my high school friends and I did to our photos before posting them on MySpace: altering contrast and exposure, applying some basic filters, and, obviously, identifying what, if any, haunted entity exists in the photo. The breaks between photo editing sessions to interact with the family and explore the house really complete the spooky atmosphere and make this a unique instance of the FakeOS genre.
My Helpers
Everyone remembers Clippy’s reign of terror from the late 1990s and early 2000s, but I don’t know how many people remember that the Office Assistant program in Microsoft had multiple assistants to choose from, each had their own set of animations and flavor text. Perhaps inspired by this and enthusiastically embracing the aesthetics of the era with a weirdcore twist, My Helpers has players using clues to search their own computer’s files and programs for a fugitive group of virtual assistants.
Although the main “helper” has a design and dialogue sound effects reminiscent of the Pixls in Super Paper Mario, it’s clear even in the demo that something darker lies just below the brightly colored surface. Described by its Brazilian developer PauloH as an experimental horror game, the My Helpers demo is available now on Steam, with the full release scheduled for Fall.
Folder Dungeon
Lithuanian game developer Ravernt brings a Game Jam creation from 2023 to full maturation later this year with Folder Dungeon. Keeping with the hand-drawn style of graphics and retro arcade color palettes of the rest of Ravernt’s work, this is a turn-based dungeon crawler with all combat and exploration done within the neon OS.
The main game takes place in the Dungeon Explorer window, showing loot, enemies, and exits into the next room of the dungeon as icons and folders. Stats and equipment are shown in separate windows that can be arranged to player preference, with the ability to switch to other “programs” including minigames while exploring a dungeon. Folder Dungeon is currently in playtesting on Steam, and will be fully released later this year.
COCOBOY
Another interesting twist on the FakeOS genre, COCOBOY puts you in a bedroom in 2005, sitting in front of a CRT monitor with an ancient “joyfunco” cartridge console playing the titular retro platformer. You’re provided at the start with two mod cartridges which affect the platformer’s environment, making levels easier to beat. On the other desk is a more modern (for 2005) laptop open to a browser dedicated to discussing COCOBOY‘s levels as well as buying and selling related merch. The merch can be used to decorate your room, and you can occasionally purchase new mods.
While it is implied that there are some story elements to discover by exploring the forum and obtaining all possible collectibles, this largely seems to be a platformer with a unique puzzle-solving mechanic, as well as an atmospheric element with the framing device of the customizable gaming space. This was also originally a game jam entry, a joint effort by developers Adrian Kellman and Cameron Werner for Vinesauce’s Shroomjam in 2024. The demo is available on Steam now and includes the original game jam level, with the full game releasing later this year.
Murder Meet Cute
With dialogue options like “I have 6 furbies and I’m going to use them to summon a demon”, it’s hard not to be intrigued by this Point & Click Mystery game, which promises to absolutely saturate players with nineties nostalgia. This is an international collaboration between several developers, including Crybaby Studios based in Northern Ireland, LABORARE in Canada, and Kitico Games in the Netherlands.
You play as Amy, a 21-year-old tech genius investigating the recent death of her best friend. Most of the gameplay seems to be exploring the customers’ computers, including repairing them (by solving puzzles) and interacting with characters over instant messenger, but Amy will encounter some in-person interactions as well, with a funky collage-style interface inspired by FMV games of the era, using photos of actors rather than illustrations. There is currently no downloadable demo, but you can visit murdermeetcute.com to learn a bit more about the characters and story, as well as potentially unlock some additional content. The full game will be released on Steam later this year.
SYNTAXIA
Lastly, a cozy 2D puzzle game that has you, an adorable anthropomorphic fox and writer by trade, exploring a dream world called the Sensoria Komplex. Appropriately, you can manipulate your surroundings through the Word doc on your laptop, with many branching paths based on how you decide to solve the problems presented to you. And of course, what cozy puzzle game would be complete without cosmic horrors from beyond, lurking ever closer with unknown intentions?
This is the first game from developer CANCAT Games, described in a post on X as inspired by the atmosphere of Yume Nikki and the mechanics of Baba is You. A demo is available on itch.io, with the full game releasing on Steam later this year.
And there are even more FakeOS games coming up in 2027! Which ones piqued your interest? Are you in for the nostalgia, the aesthetics, a novel gameplay mechanic, or a good story? Let us know in the comments below!
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