I don't play a lot of horror games, but I happen to be into horror. My older brother is a big horror fan so yeah. Feel like this is a topic I should talk about here on Subeta, so why not.

In 2014, someone by the name of Scott Cauthen released a horror game by the name of Five Nights at Freddy's, where you are a security guard of an abandoned children's entertainment restaurant, called Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. This was the most creative horror game in quite a while. Most games at that time involve something stalking you in a haunted house or whatever, but this time, it's basically a kind of horror that we never thought of. Mascot horror. Basically something from your childhood gone wrong. However, this was oddly appealing to children, with merchandise like t-shirts, books, plush toys, etc, being released Of course, more games following this idea would come. Stuff like Hello Neighbor, Tattletail, Bendy and the Ink Machine, and Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning would come.

Now these days, it seems that these types of horror games would get out of hand. There are three games release right now during the 2020s that would be considered as the fall of mascot horror. These three games are, Poppy Playtime, Rainbow Friends, and Garten of Banban.

Poppy Playtime: Poppy Playtime is a game released by Mob Studios, where you are a formal employee, returning to an abandon toy factory, only to find that the toys made here have turned into killer machines. This is the game that's home to the infamous "Huggy Wuggy" character kids are obsessed with. The game itself is decent, but the main problem is the creators. They also happen to run two YouTube channels, dedicated to Minecraft animations, seemingly targeted at a younger audience. One of these channels in particular had a rough history. Also worth mentioning the NFTs, which they ended up regretting and merch that was produced. (Also worth mentioning those knockoff plush you would see at both in a local mall.) To learn more, check out this video by Daggz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnLq_KztKLI&t=816s Overall, I think Poppy Playtime is fine, just wish it wasn't made by such shady people.

Rainbow Friends: Okay, so this is when things start really getting downhill. Rainbow Friends is a Roblox game made by Fragment Studios where you were going to go on a school field trip, but ended getting interrupted by some guy who asked to do tasks for five nights (Sound familiar?), with a bunch of color monsters waking up to stalk you down, with a new one introduced each night. Blue, who is like the star of the game, that will move slowly and chase you down, (You can use a box to defend yourself from this things) Green, a blind inflatable tube man looking creature that doesn't follow you, but can still attack, (Even when you're still inside your box) Purple, a long armed creature that hides in vents, but be carful, if you get close, he will grab you and Orange, a small raptor that must be fed or he will run around. I am not going to talk about how bad it is, just because it's a Roblox game, but for a Roblox game, it skyrocketed in popularity, and now there's tones of Elsagate type videos on YouTube and stockpiles of unofficial merch on Amazon. So yeah, this crappy game has gotten popular for worse.

Garten of Banban: Out of all of these games I'm talking about, Garten of Banban is probably the most controversial. This is a game made by Euphoric Brothers (Just two brothers) where you are at Banban's Kindergarten, a kindergaten school with a huge cast of mascot characters. looking for a missing child. There's so many things that make this game crap and I don't know where I should get to first. From the merch link, to the drone mechanic, to the Opila Bird chase sequence, to how the background has some used assets here and there. It sort of blew up on Twitter with people making memes about Opila Bird, tagging , as a reference to a reoccurring sketch from the Eric Andre Show. What's worse is that the Euphoric Brothers would block anyone who criticizes the game and it ain't pretty. They also decided to leave Twitter because of that criticism. A YouTuber called UniqueGeese created a game called, Garten of Banban: Reincarnated in a week, which is a remake of the first game/chapter, exept he did a much better job than the original. The brothers asked to change the name of the game to just, Reincarnated, to prevent people from getting confused. They were overall fine with this game.

(Update: Starting to release how hard people were on the Euphoric Brothers. Sure they didn't make a good game, but I am starting to feel bad for them. Also GOBB III is pretty decent NGL. Like the randomness of it, especially the part with Stinger Flynn driving his car out in the middle of the Desert) That's all I got to say right now, so yeah, this has gotten out of hand.

I have to agree that the indie horror scene is kinda in shambles rn. A lot of the most popular horror games are really geared towards kids, which means they want to make merch money. I dunno if you've heard of it, but Amanda the Adventurer seems pretty promising. I watched a playthrough recently and thought it was pretty well done

It's kinda sad that these games are being targeted towards kids, what on earth happened to the days when kids' favourite characters were Mickey Mouse and Spongebob?

P.S: I've seen teddies of characters from the game Piggy at a Claire's once

Kids tend to be enthralled by thrilling and spooky topics. FNAF especially is what I'd call "safe horror" for kids: there's no explicit gore nor swearing, and the colorful designs are appealing to them. What makes it even "safer" for lots of kids is that they don't have to play it themselves and anxiously wait for the next jumpscare all alone. They can watch Let's Players who break the tension by cracking jokes. Back in the day kids used read the Scary Stories book series and watch Are You Afraid of the Dark?, then they got into creepypasta stories and Slenderman fangames, and kids nowadays enjoy mascot horror and spooky stories told through Minecraft and Roblox. Not all kids are the same. There's still plenty who are into Mickey Mouse and Spongebob.

Heheh, good to know!

Oh heres the other post you mentioned