I recently watched the InterfaceX26 Showcase which was highlighting upcoming and recently released FakeOS games. What’s a FakeOS game? These are games that provide a facsimile of an operating system as a main part of the game, some may involve using the file system as a dungeon or searching through a strangers PC. Many games within this genre trend toward horror, however there are plenty that don’t. Anyway, here is a brief look at the FakeOS games that caught my attention.
Directory Dungeon
Developer: JuhrJuhr
Publisher: JuhrJuhr
Release When?: 9th March 2026
In this game you play as a character that you name and explore files within your computer system. I should note that the game specifically gives you a whole directory to explore and if you try to explore beyond the bounds of it nothing happens apart from some unusable files being left wherever you put them.
When you start the game two screens open at the same time, a system console screen and an explorer window. The system console screen acts as a sort of dungeon master, explaining what’s going on, giving descriptions and showing a log of it all. The explorer window is how you move your character and the objects they find. You simply drag your character like you would any file and drop him through a door etc. The combat is completely automatic (at least in the demo) and will resolve after a while, hopefully with you being alive.
I have to say, I’m really liking this one. It’s simple and a really creative way to use a very familiar system. I’ll absolutely be getting this quite soon.
I.T Never Ends
Developer: Dadbod Games
Publisher: Dadbod Games
Release When?: August 2026
If you’ve played Reigns (or used Tinder) you’ll likely recognise the main mechanic behind this game, swiping left and right. Similar to Reigns you’re trying to keep four meters in balance and your choices impact them. However, there is a bit more to this, mini-games for example and many strange events that can sometimes mean an early end to your run.
It’s definitely an interesting game and from what I can tell it seems to have a lot of different endings available, most of them not being good. I also think that the full release will have more going on as there were many features that seemed to be off limits.
Shutter Story
Developer: Frostwood Interactive
Publisher: Frostwood Interactive
Release When?: Q3 2026
As much as I like anomaly hunting there are only so many times I can wander through a repeated location and play spot the difference. That’s where this game is a bit different, in this game you look through various photographs and videos with the aim of trying to find what’s anomalous with them. Do they show a face that shouldn’t be there or is it a reflection? That’s up to you to determine. As you examine the photographs and videos you can increase or decrease the contrast and expose, or apply a negative filter (plus more). Once you’ve found something you believe to be anomalous you submit it, but you also need to choose the correct category.
What makes this game look to be quite interesting to me is that there’s a storyline happening as you do it. From what the games store page says it seems that you can influence what happens, though that remains to be seen as the demo doesn’t show that.
Omi Oh My AI
Developer: EverySecond Studio
Publisher: EverySecond Studio
Release When?: 28th January 2026
This game is a bit of a weird one, as it has taken inspiration from old ARG’s such as I Love Bee’s. In some ways it reminds me of an old game called In Memoriam that used the ARG format to great effect.
I love that it’s taking on the subject of AI, though until I play the full game I don’t know how indepth it goes since all I had was a demo. This is definitely a game I’ll be getting soon.
My Helpers
Developer: PauloH*
Publisher: PauloH*
Release When?: Q4 2026
This one is really interesting, you have to search for ‘helpers’ that have hidden themselves on your PC, think Clippy from Microsoft Word. Finding them can be tricky though, you’ll need to use the clues they give to think outside the box. There’s definitely something much darker going on though.
What I find really interesting about this game is that it seems to create a clone of your desktop or maybe a clear overlay. That’s why the screenshot has a black background, because the what would be shown was my desktop (I didn’t censor it, this is just how the screenshot comes).
Desktop Explorer
Developer: Recurring Dream
Publisher: Recurring Dream, Outersloth
Release When?: Q3 2026
These games keep making me hark back to old ones I played over twenty years ago, in this case this game reminds me (slightly) of notpron. To explain, notpron is a website that is a puzzle game that forces you to think differently in order to progress. Like looking at source code, changing the url of the website and using specific tools to analyse pictures to get passwords. This game does that, except there’s no need to look outside of the fake Windows 3.1 style desktop this game provides.
This demo had me taking extensive notes, which says to me that it’s right up my alley. I love when a game has me doing that and the fact that I felt invested enough to do that for a demo… I think this might be something special.
Cocoboy
Developer: Cocoteam
Publisher: Cocoteam
Release When?: 2026
Funnily enough I played something recently that was slightly similar to this but was a horror game rather than a puzzle platformer. You can use mod cartridges to your ‘totally not an N64’ to apply different effects to the game, such as making things go much slower or becoming tiny. There are coins scattered in the levels that if collected can be used to buy further mod cartridges as well as little cosmetics to go in your room.
I have to say I really like this and wonder what else the devs have in store down the line. Consider this on my wishlist.
MyDear.Exe
Developer: Falling Leaves Studio, ClemiSoft
Publisher: Falling Leaves Studio
Release When?: Coming Soon
Once again we’re given a false desktop to work with however on this occasion the genre (or perhaps sub-genre) of this game has changed. This isn’t a horror game or a detective game. No, this is a game that is a celebration of love and life.
The game follows the life of Eli and Lucien from the moment they met. With each step of their life story you’ll play a small mini game and sometimes will need to do some digging to find the way to the next part.
Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division
Developer: Thomas Hsu
Publisher: Thomas Hsu
Release When?: July 2026
This game was silly in a way I very much liked. You play as a Detective, specifically a Database Detective. What this basically means is that you look through databases searching for evidence. A version of this in the real world would be something like Forensic Accountancy (though Forensic Accountants do much more important work).
In this case you work on minor crimes, like littering, loitering and vandalism. Because if you let the small stuff go, who knows what they’ll be emboldened to do next.
While playing this demo I began to realise something. This game was attempting to teach me SQL (Search Query Language) which was not something I expected.
