Why Fear the Spotlight is a must-play queer horror game
Of the many horror games we’ve seen in recent years, few have managed to snag LGBTQ+ players’ attention as effectively as Fear the Spotlight.
The premise alone makes the game stand out; Fear the Spotlight focuses on the bookworm Vivian Singh and the goth Amy Tanaka, a pair of teen best friends interested in their high school’s unnerving history. Two decades before, a mysterious fire claimed the lives of many students, with the girls sneaking in at night to hold a seance and see if any of these unfortunate classmates still haunts the halls.
Their occultism works a tad too well, though, and the game starts with our duotagonists getting separated and yanked through time to a ghastly version of their school in 1991 before the tragic fire.
Fear the Spotlight instantly sets itself apart with its blocky style, harkening back to early horror games like the original Resident Evil by portraying its pulse-pounding story through polygon-heavy assets. Yet this non-realistic style doesn’t detract from the genuine unease that playing this game brings. Taking on the role of Vivian and then Amy, players navigate this new version of the school, playing retro puzzles (shoutout to payphones and VCRs!) and stealthing past the many twisted spirits that fill this haunted reality.
Its classic appearance is so endearing that audiences will quickly find themselves engrossed in the setting, an immersion that is only furthered by the great characterizations of our two main characters. The game uses these aspects to gently bring you into its spooky narrative — making it all the more abruptly horrifying when you get spotted, and you have to watch as one of the girls’ souls is consumed by the many monsters lurking around them.
As a horror project, this game excels, with its retro appearance offering not only nostalgia but an enjoyably eerie approach to its plot. But it’s not really the scares that make Fear the Spotlight so good. Rather, it’s the game’s main characters, and the love story intertwined within all this horror, that makes it such a true highlight.
It is quickly apparent just how much Amy and Vivian love each other. Through each character’s internal thoughts and the adorable moments between them, players can easily glean how much they care about each other (and how much their youthful awkwardness keeps them from confessing their feelings). This kind of romance isn’t as uncommon as it used to be; in recent years, games like Lost Records: Bloom & Rage have offered stories about young queer girls finding their pride.
While this is great, it’s horrendous how few of these projects feature queer girls of color! This intersectional identity is glaringly absent from modern gaming, and while Fear the Spotlight doesn’t delve deeply into the characters’ culture — both teens are Asian-American — it recognizes the importance of providing well-rounded characters that marginalized gamers can see themselves in.
Because throughout Fear the Spotlight, players learn about Amy’s scarred life; after being abandoned by her father and watching her mother struggle to support two children, the young girl lost her older brother in a tragic plane crash. The game sees her grapple and eventually recover from this trauma, never using the pain to completely define Amy as a character, but instead skillfully using it to further enrich her personality. It’s an inspired act of storytelling that is all the more resonant because we play not just as Amy, but as the girl who cares about her so deeply, Vivian.
Fear the Spotlight is a horror project that not only centers queer characters of color, but it also grants them a happy ending with one another. It does this after a whole game’s worth of effective horror, exciting gameplay, and a beautiful exploration into the two heroines at its center, making their eventual love-filled confessions feel all the more deserved narratively.
It’s an uplifting ending for an unsettling game. And it’s a huge part of what makes Fear the Spotlight not just a standout in the genre, but an absolute must-play for LGBTQ+ gamers who love nothing more than a good scare. It also shows why Fear the Spotlight was nominated for Best LGBTQ+ Indie Game Award at the Gayming Awards 2025.
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