SHOWMAN’S: The Awakening Review

My third FNAF fan game review is on a game that has a surprisingly small community for how high quality it is. The game is called SHOWMAN’S: The Awakening. Unlike the other games I’ve reviewed thus far, SHOWMAN’S was developed and runs in the Blender Game Engine. Released by Iz in May of 2025, SHOWMAN’S: The Awakening is technically a reimagining of their original FNAF fan game based off of the Australian children’s music group, The Wiggles. That game was called Phobia: The Awakening before Iz decided to give the game its own identity. A good call, considering there’s currently a side chapter game, AND a sequel game yet to be released at the time of me writing this review. I must admit, before playing the game, I didn’t think much of it considering how tiny the community is, and how little I’d heard of it until I actually played it. Now I can say that this game deserves a lot more love and recognition than it’s already received. I say that because there was clearly a ton of love and effort put into it that really shows.

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Similar to the Bubba’s Diner review, I’ll be using the wiki for a little help story wise, as it can be hard to tell what’s actually happening at times. You play as Mark Ward, a new security guard for the Showman's Pizza Place warehouse. Jason Baker, the founder of Showman’s Pizza Place, is the one who hired you. It’s stated that Showman’s was forced to shut down after some “unknown incident” happened. After shutting down, Jason had to store everything related to the Showman’s in one big warehouse after he was able to secure a deal through a sketchy company. 

Anyway, Mark begins working at the warehouse after multiple security guards who worked there before him had made reports of the animatronics moving around at night. Mark is asked by a co-worker named Matthew, to report about any new behavior the animatronics may have to Jason. Once Mark reports his findings after the first night, Jason says that the animatronics A.F.R.S. was possibly tampered with by a male employee. As the nights go on, Matthew gets increasingly anxious explaining how the animatronics have each been doing things they were never programmed to do.

I was never able to find them, however there are apparently secret tapes in each night going deeper into the lore. To keep this review as spoiler free as I can, I will no longer elaborate any further on the story. I will say one more thing that I recently found out, there’s technically a secret ending that could be activated as early as night one. I’ve said the bare minimum about the story and with that being said, I can say it’s definitely one that’s heavily shrouded in mystery. You can tell Iz wants you to come back to the series with how much they don’t elaborate on certain things. There’s definitely a lot of unanswered questions by the end of the story which is in no means a bad thing at all. All it does is make me want to know more and dig even deeper into the game as well as its sequels or prequels to come.

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When it comes to presentation, this game absolutely delivers in almost every aspect. Starting off with the menu, it’s presented with a simple black background, the words “Showman’s” in neon red like a sign over an establishment and “the awakening” in simple white text, all on the left side of the screen. To the right side of the screen are the different animatronics fading in and out of the menu, with very subtle animations. The music on the menu invokes a very eerie feeling combined with everything. SHOWMAN’S menu screen sets up the atmosphere very well for the entire game.

The models for the game are unique, and fit well for the atmosphere Iz has already set. They’re very creepy, and I believe the designs of the animatronics are based off of the Wiggles puppets. The human models are cartoony, but it gives the game its own identity even if they can be a bit rough around the edges. The animations are the game's biggest strengths. I believe they help carry the models a lot in this game. I haven’t seen any other developers weaponize animation as much or as subtly as Iz has here. It fits the game and just adds onto that eerie atmosphere even more with how absolutely uncanny looking the animatronics are. Iz did a great job implementing these models into an environment and setting that matches the style very well.

Before I mentioned that Iz weaponizes the animations and that it’s one of the games biggest strengths. I wasn’t kidding. The major thing I’d like to point out about this game that I don’t see many fan games do at all is the fully fleshed out animations for nearly anything during gameplay. Whenever you look down the hallways, you’ve got animations for the characters moving to your office. An animatronic is about to get into your office and jumpscare you, there’s an animation just for them appearing in your office. Even the jumpscares and gameoverscreen cutscenes are each uniquely animated depending on which animatronic killed you. Every animation this game has is meticulously crafted. It’s all very smooth, perfectly robotic for the animatronics, and nothing looks off or out of place. I can confidently say that Iz knew exactly how to make the experience more terrifying by using the Blender engine to its fullest. All of this however, is merely the surface for how truly amazing the presentation for SHOWMAN’S is.

You should know by now that I’m a sucker for good sound design and this game definitely doesn’t disappoint in that department either. I love everything from the voice acting during cutscenes and over the phone, to the insane background music playing during each night that subtly gets more intense as the night goes on. Even the ambient noises heard throughout the night are really good at doing their job. I remember the intense feeling of paranoia I’d get hearing something shifting and moving down one of the hallways, only to find out the animatronic hasn’t even reached it yet. The only thing I don’t like about this game’s sound design is it doesn’t have any audio options. Other than that, the game’s soundtrack and ambient noises perfectly compliment everything I’ve previously mentioned before in this section. You have to truly experience it yourself to fully grasp just how well it all comes together to create the amazing unsettling atmosphere presented here.

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SHOWMAN’S: The Awakening is one of those fan games with a classic FNAF one style gameplay. The gameplay loop created is simplistic but not boring in the slightest. It’s different, unique, and stress driven enough to make it actually enjoyable. Let me break down what that gameplay loop is like and how positively terrifying the gameplay experience can be for each night.

As soon as you load in, the first thing you’ll notice is an animatronic sitting directly across the desk from you and an electrical box with a massive lever on the front. It’s quite jarring at first, but you don’t have to worry about her just yet, despite what the phone guy says about “Peggy.” Looking at your surroundings you’ll notice two hallways with an option to turn on the lights for each with a button and a mask under your desk. When you look directly behind you, there’s a clock above a door. For the first night, you come to find out the only thing you need to worry about are the two animatronics that move down your hallways. After going through four different phases in your hallways, both Harry in the left hall and Johnny in the right hall will enter your office. The only way to stop them from jumpscaring you is by equipping the mask as soon as they enter. They’re the only threat to deal with on this first night so now is the best time to familiarize yourself with the cameras and office surroundings because you’ll be managing a lot on later nights. It only gets more difficult from here.

Once the first night is complete, a cutscene will play before returning you to the menu. For night two, a new threat is mentioned by the phone guy, however two threats are actually introduced. The one mentioned is Cap’n Cackle, the pirate animatronic on CAM 6 whose gameplay mechanic involves watching him diligently. If he ever leaves CAM 6, you’re meant to search every camera until you find him and stare at him until he leaves. The second animatronic who was actually introduced in night one is Peggy. Peggy will occasionally activate in two phases where she stares at you before violently twitching, giving the player one last chance to shock her. You shock her using the electrical lever box on your desk, however doing this too many times before she’s active will cause her to jumpscare you. These two new mechanics now being added to the gameplay loop, make the night significantly harder than the first.

Moving into night three, there’s one more addition to this gameplay loop that ties all the mechanics together very nicely. You now have to handle Tony, the animatronic who will attempt to enter your office either through the left or center vent. When he’s seen in any of those vents, you double click the camera for whichever vent he’s in, to block it off. Sounds like a simple addition and not a very hard threat to handle, however combined with the rest of the mechanics it creates a balancing act that can be tricky to handle. Within the time frame of you putting on the mask to stop Harry or Johnny, you leave yourself open to Cap’n Cackle if you’re not watching him enough, Peggy if you’re not paying attention or using the cameras too much, and finally Tony if you’re not paying attention or only keeping your attention on Cackle. You can be put into often stressful moments and the game plays off of that by allowing you a decent amount of time between mechanics or right before someone makes another move. It’s a very effective way to invoke fear into the player when mixed with the previously mentioned animations.

On night four, the only one added to the gameplay loop now is the man himself, Showman. He can only enter through the right vent. This is where you have to be super careful when monitoring the vents since you can only block off one vent at a time. With that being said, if you’re not careful and end up preemptively blocking a vent you saw either Tony or Showman in then the one whose vent is closed off may slow their pace, allowing the other one to end up a lot closer. It’s yet another great addition to this balancing act that just adds onto an already intense gameplay loop.

Night five doesn’t introduce any new mechanics, but instead intensifies every existing mechanic already established while also having the animatronics be way more aggressive. In night six however, due to story reasons, this game has an amazing boss battle. All I’m going to say as to not spoil anything is that the mask mechanic is now replaced with a flashlight meant to be rapidly flashed into the eyes of the boss. Also the entire night is done in the dark meaning you may have to use your flashlight to see a certain character across your desk as well.

From my experience with the gameplay, I love how such simple mechanics can be implemented in a way that creates such stress and fear inducing gameplay. It’s the exact feeling I look for in these types of games. The gameplay loop is quite easy to get used to, but difficult to balance when put together. I certainly hope Iz can replicate this same feeling in any future titles in the SHOWMAN’S series or in any FNAF fan games they create in the future.

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To conclude this review, SHOWMAN’S: The Awakening is a fantastic game with an engaging gameplay loop, golden presentation, and a mysterious story yet to be concluded. With everything combined, it forms a perfectly eerie atmosphere that matches the style of the game so well that it might as well be called Phobia: The Awakening again for the genuinely terrifying experience that Iz put together. It really is a shame that this game doesn’t have a larger audience because it definitely deserves way more recognition then it currently has. I had a lot of fun writing a review on this game and I encourage anyone reading this to go check it out for yourself. I give SHOWMAN’S: The Awakening a well deserved 9/10.

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Sources:

https://gamejolt.com/games/showmansch1/858698

https://the-fnaf-fan-game.fandom.com/wiki/SHOWMAN%27S:_The_Awakening