FEAR FA 98: 'Silent Hill x FIFA' dev talks horror, punk and Evangelion – "I really wanted to see my friends playing games. My games."

Despite his lack of football fervour, Jacob Jazz is the mind behind FEAR FA 98, an unlikely and off-kilter mashup of '90s FIFA and PS2 horror stylings.

As part of 2025's London Games Festival, I asked what possessed him (get it?) to make a football title if he doesn't even particularly like the sport.

"All these years, I really wanted to see my friends playing games. My games. My own games."

Under the name Celery Emblem, Jazz has been a rather prolific indie developer, and upon seeing his previous titles, Mezmeratu, Baobabs Mausoleum and Tamarindo's Freaking Dinner, his inspirations are obvious, but equally obvious is that his games are not exactly for a general audience.

To bridge the gap, Jazz sought to meet them where they are, and what better way to do that than with an experience practically ubiquitous among younger football fans?

Jazz sat down at his computer and got to work crafting a game his friends could and would play, but one that still incorporated the style and vision that he had developed over the years.

"I started developing stuff and I said, 'Maybe I can make something like survival horror into football', and I start uploading things to Twitter." A fan of cult horror, B movies, Lovecraftian literature, finding inspirations to draw on was no challenge.

Jazz takes the gameplay of late '90s FIFA and begins, quite literally, to tear it apart. Players decapitate their opponents, using their heads as the ball, throwing knives and axes and summoning demons directly onto the pitch. FIFA may have been the blueprint, but there's an air of Mario Strikers about how the power-ups impact play.

Silent Hill FIFA, as many have dubbed it, unsurprisingly begins to go viral – incidentally, this is how I first hear of the, at the time, untitled game. I tell Jazz that it's been lodged in my brain ever since.

"It was impressive for me because I uploaded a GIF, and I go to sleep and the next day I see it in the press.

"[The game] was in Marca, the most read sports newspaper in Spain, and I woke up to a message from a friend of mine saying 'Isn't this the game you made?'"

While the game was born out of a desire to get his friends playing his games, Jazz had developed a style, and one that he wasn't going to water down. If anything, his use of football as a way of getting his friends playing a horror game aptly became a means of getting horror players to play a football game.

"They are very separate communities, the sports fan and the horror fan," he continues. "I'm trying to make something that mixes players."

To that end, FEAR FA 98 has continually evolved, going from a kick-off style arcade mode to now having a campaign further embodying the PS2 horror classics that have so heavily informed the game's style.

"All my games are in the same universe," Jazz explains, "It's a little bit surreal."

Story mode is still under construction. It marks the most significant undertaking yet for Jacob, not only with regard to effort to actually implement it, but to weave it into the Jacob Jazz universe as it were.

The story and universe are key for Jazz, as a means of building a following, creating a community of players of this new horror sports genre, opening up angles for a future Golf FA or Tennis FA with their own strange tales to tell.

Although Silent Hill has been the go-to comparison for many, Jazz is keen to discuss Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hideaki Anno's deeply psychological anime masterpiece, and one that has inspired, not only the story of FEAR FA, but also its presentation.

Promotional material for the game is plastered with Japanese characters. The same Christian imagery so prevalent in Evangelion, demons, angels and seas of crosses – all find their place in FEAR FA 98 in one way or another.

Even the game's first trailer features a roaring Japanese indie tune that would fit seamless into an anime's opening credits.

On which note, Jazz understands implicitly how integral a good soundtrack is to a football game. The FIFA soundtrack has effectively solidified itself as a genre of its own for many, and Jazz is determined that horror sports will have one too.

"I really want to make some punk or Oi!, like 'hooligan' music, but right now I want to make something very eclectic." His enthusiasm for music is evident, and infectious.

"If you play FIFA, you know that you have many kinds of songs. I'm talking with a lot of artists, groups, musicians with different styles."

Jazz plans to create a radio of sorts that lets players choose which genres and songs they listen to in game. The artists he is in contact with span everything from punk to electronic and synthwave.

He's aiming for the same international vibe that FIFA soundtracks achieve so well: "I have two [artists] from England, two from Spain, and one from the United States," he explains.

I tell him I've been hunting for some of the songs online but haven't been able to find them. "Right now, they are not available," he replies. Fans of the music will have to wait for the soundtrack to drop alongside the game. "I like telling people, 'Patience'," he laughs.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of FEAR FA 98 that's unavailable at the moment. I say unfortunately, because I cannot live up to Jazz's standard of patience and am desperate to play what he's been cooking up.

It would have been easy to release FEAR FA 98 quickly, pushing out a gimmicky title to capitalise on some social media hype.

Thankfully, Jazz recognises that this has the opportunity to be something bigger – a potentially genre-bending new indie title along the lines of Cruelty Squad or How Fish Is Made.

I will endeavour to have a bit more patience – Jazz is a solo developer, after all – but I am very excited for this game.

FEAR FA 98 is coming soon to PC.

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