If you thought facial recognition was a horror story in the making, indie Japanese developer/publisher Smiley Dog Studio is making it a reality with DON’T STOP SMILING. Coming to Steam Q2 2026, this first-person psychological horror game makes the player’s own face and their expression the core mechanic for survival.
The premise is deceptively simple: using your PC’s web camera, DON’T STOP SMILING tracks your smile. If your smile fades—even for a moment—you die. While this might seem easy, the game takes inspiration from looping corridor horror mechanic from titles such as P.T., requiring players to navigate an ever-changing dimly lit Japanese high school while you’re showing off your pearly whites.
Along the way, you’ll be solving puzzles and confronting some disturbing situations. Luckily, there’s no combat or chase sequences to make it totally unfair, but it’s not so easy to maintain a smile when you’re scared, is it?
The developer’s goal with this simple rule is to create “a uniquely disturbing experience built on tension, guilt, and forced emotion.” The more the situation makes smiling impossible, the more your body and emotions become directly tied to the horror unfolding on screen.
Those puzzles you’ll be solving aren’t meant to make you feel clever or have a feeling of satisfaction when solved, either. Instead, the actions required to progress—such as being complicit in harmful acts involving others or making morally troubling choices—are intentionally crafted to evoke guilt, disgust, and psychological discomfort.
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