Flesh Made Fear: Interview with Michael Cosio of Tainted Pact Games
Developer Michael Cosio gave us insight into what’s behind his latest survival horror, Flesh Made Fear.
Flesh Made Fear. Credit: Tainted Pact Games / Assemble Entertainment
Flesh Made Fear from Tainted Pact Games is a PSX-flavored survival horror game very much in the mold of the early Resident Evil games. It takes great pains to be faithful to the formula of the classics—fixed camera angles, tank controls, inventory management, puzzle-driven exploration, and item-driven saves. The narrative is about elite commandos investigating a town to find a target, only to find it overrun by zombie horrors created by science. Two playable characters offer diverging paths.
When I found out about the game, I immediately knew it was right up my alley. We live in a golden era for PSX horror homages, where we get to play games that feel like lost classics, and Flesh Made Fear is one of these.
From Steam:
Take on the role of an elite operative in the Reaper Intervention Platoon (R.I.P.), a covert task force deployed to neutralize Victor “The Dripper” Ripper—a brilliant but deranged former CIA agent. His sinister experiments have turned a desolate backwater town into a nightmare filled with grotesque monsters and mind-controlled thralls. Your mission is clear: eliminate Ripper, unravel his chilling secrets, and survive the horrors lurking in his mansion-turned-laboratory.
Playing the game made me want to pick developer Michael Cosio’s brain about his vision. After learning about it and the influences behind it, I appreciate it even more. If you’re a survival horror fan, check this one out. I’ve only made minor edits to the interview below for clarity.
Flesh Made Fear is available now on Steam.
Flesh Made Fear. Credit: Tainted Pact Games / Assemble Entertainment
Sam Kahn, for The Geekly Grind (GG): Could you introduce yourself? Tell us who you are, your company, and what you do.
Michael Cosio (MC): Heyo! I'm Michael Cosio, a solo indie developer for my game company, Tainted Pact Games.
GG: Tell us about Flesh Made Fear. What is the game, and what were your goals in making it? What were the key horror moments you knew Flesh Made Fear had to achieve?
MC: Flesh Made Fear is a throwback survival horror game with a retro PSX style, classic tank controls, and an 80s grindhouse slasher horror aesthetic. Going into the creation, I knew I had to make an atmospheric game that aimed to bring tense combat moments, combined with limited inventory space and a focus on resource management.
Flesh Made Fear. Credit: Tainted Pact Games / Assemble Entertainment
GG: Flesh Made Fear features tank controls and fixed camera angles. In an era when most horror games have abandoned these mechanics, what drove you to resurrect them? How do you balance the deliberate disempowerment created by tank controls with modern player expectations?
MC: I was just upfront with these things from the game's description and even the trailers. I knew from the start that it wouldn't be a game everyone would want to play. But it wasn't my goal; my goal was to recreate a piece of my childhood and make something I'd always wanted to make.
GG: The debate around tank controls often centers on whether they were a technological limitation or a deliberate design choice. Having now chosen to implement them when you don't have to, what's your perspective on that debate?
MC: For the kind of style and game I wanted to create, tank controls were a must. Well, I understand they are not for everyone. They add to the horror of classic survival horror. Having the player not battle against the creatures and horrors of Rotwood, but also rage against the game's mechanics, adds to the game's oppressive nature and makes enemy encounters even more tense.
Flesh Made Fear. Credit: Tainted Pact Games / Assemble Entertainment
GG: Why not include modernized controls, even with fixed camera angles? Can you walk me through how you decided which classic mechanics to preserve versus which to modernize?
MC: It was a design choice. I grew up with classic tank controls, and I remember how struggling with them added so much more fear to my playthroughs. I wanted to capture that feeling and recreate it so others could experience it, or so old veterans of survival horror could get a taste of their childhood again.
GG: The original Resident Evil trilogy clearly looms large over this project. What specific moments or design decisions from those games felt essential to recapture? More importantly, what aspects did you feel needed to evolve?
MC: I tried to bring design elements from all three games into Flesh Made Fear, including ammo mixing, resource and inventory management, and the classic limited save system. I added some quality-of-life improvements where I could with the laser sight system, better reload mechanics, and a new dodge mechanic. But ultimately, I tried to stay as accurate as possible to the originals.
Flesh Made Fear. Credit: Tainted Pact Games / Assemble Entertainment
GG: I understand you were a musician before becoming a game developer. How does that musical background influence your approach to game design and creating horror?
MC: It plays a massive role in my design choices for the game, whether I'm designing a level, a cutscene, or even a boss fight. I often write the music for it first, as it helps me feel the vibe and atmosphere as I am crafting the 3D environments. It also helps me with timing in cutscenes and with knowing when to let scenes breathe or flair up. It is a great tool to have in my toolbox.
GG: In Flesh Made Fear, the player characters have different stats. This echoes Chris and Jill from the original Resident Evil. What drew you to this kind of asymmetric character design?
MC: I wanted to give players a chance to explore Rotwood from two different perspectives, and I didn't want them to be the same gender, so I went with the classic male and female archetypes. This just felt like the natural choice when I was making the game.
Flesh Made Fear. Credit: Tainted Pact Games / Assemble Entertainment
GG: What are some of the influences outside of gaming that influenced Flesh Made Fear? Were any particular movies, books, or other works important points of reference?
MC: Flesh Made Fear draws heavily on classic horror movies from the 1980s and 1990s. All my games do really. I wear my influences on my sleeve, almost to a fault sometimes. I am a massive nerd for things from my childhood and want others to experience what I did. As for direct references, Victor Ripper is a play on Victor Frankenstein, and Herbert West heavily influences his personality from the Re-Animator films. The creature designs and dialogue choices are also inspired by Hellraiser and Evil Dead. John Carpenter played a considerable role in shaping my writing of all the music for the game.
GG: There's something uniquely terrifying about PSX-era horror. Beyond nostalgia, what do you think that aesthetic brings to horror that photorealism can't?
MC: Imagination plays a huge role in. The retro style leaves room for the player to interpret things for themselves. The style, while simple, can be extremely graphic and terrifying. Sometimes you don't need to have the most beautiful graphics possible to scare people.
Flesh Made Fear. Credit: Tainted Pact Games / Assemble Entertainment
GG: You've built quite a catalog of horror games: Terror at Oakheart, Suffer the Night, Weeping Falls Massacre, Massacre at the Mirage. How has your philosophy on what makes effective horror evolved across these projects?
MC: I think over time, I have just learned to make what I love. I could focus on trends and make games I believe will be popular or played by many influencers, which is totally fine, but I find it much more fulfilling to create games I want to make. Players can identify a game made with real passion for the project from one thrown together to make a quick buck, and, in the long run, will be more loyal to a developer who works hard to bring their vision to life.
GG: Other horror devs I’ve spoken with discussed the importance of balancing tension and release in horror. What’s your philosophy on creating tension and maintaining a balance that doesn’t exhaust players?
MC: I like to incorporate comedy into my horror games. It's an excellent tool for easing tension and helping the player feel safe again. Which in turn makes the next tense moment hit hard again. Just allowing space between tense and scary moments is sometimes enough, but I like to make people smile or laugh as well as make them jump or scream!
Flesh Made Fear. Credit: Tainted Pact Games / Assemble Entertainment
GG: What's a question you wish I had asked about Flesh Made Fear or your journey in horror game development, and what's the answer?
MC: Hmmm, how one gets started in the horror genre as a developer these days would be a good question for aspiring developers. My answer would be to start small and simple, learning the basics of game design, choosing an engine, and sticking with it until you feel you've got the hang of it. Once you've done that, make a couple of small, free games so you can get people to play them and get feedback. From there, the world is yours, and your creative spark will guide you into creating stories and worlds that others can experience and love!
