''Asylum'' is a horror

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by Senscape, an

independent video game developer An indie video game or indie game (short for independent video game) is a video game created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A ...

located in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. The game was authored by Agustín Cordes, who previously designed the game '' Scratches'' for the now-defunct developer

Nucleosys Nucleosys was a video game developer based in Argentina specializing in the adventure genre. History The company was founded in 2003 by Agustin Cordes and Alejandro Graziani. The studio' s first release was Scratches in 2006. After this rel ...

. Taking place in a fictional

insane asylum The lunatic asylum, insane asylum or mental asylum was an institution where people with mental illness were confined. It was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital. Modern psychiatric hospitals evolved from and eventually replace ...

called the Hanwell Mental Institute, players are able to fully explore the institute, which is partially based on elements of real asylums. The game was described as having "twisty storytelling" and "horrifying revelations", and an atmosphere-focused style of horror, much like ''Scratches''. The game was officially announced on July 9, 2010 after a previous

viral marketing Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product mainly on various social media platforms. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people, much in the same way th ...

campaign that involved a series of online videos posted on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

alleged to be posted by an escaped inmate called Leonard Huntings. A fake website for the Hanwell Mental Institute was also created. The first official screenshots were posted on August 12, 2011. On January 29, 2013, Agustín Cordes opened a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

campaign to raise , which would be used to accelerate the game's development. On February 28, 2013, it successfully raised , thus securing additional fundings to port the game to

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

and Android. On October 31, 2024, It was announced that ''Asylum'' is currently scheduled for a March 6, 2025 release. The game was officially released on March 14, 2025.

Reception

''Asylum'' received mixed reviews from critics upon release. The game received praise for its atmosphere and soundtrack while also being criticized for its dated gameplay and derivative writing.

References

External links

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Developer Senscape website
2025 video games Indie games Kickstarter-funded video games Psychological horror games Adventure games First-person adventure games Point-and-click adventure games Single-player video games 2020s horror video games Unreal Engine 4 games Video games developed in Argentina Video games set in psychiatric hospitals Windows games Linux games MacOS games {{video-game-stub