Adventure Gamers - Forums

Woo, our Steam store page and community hub are now LIVE!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/230210/ASYLUM

Features an updated look, fresh new screenshots and this particularly gruesome trailer

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Hey all!

It’s a bit of an understatement to say Asylum has been long in production. We definitely went overboard with the content and scope of the game, and that’s because I wanted to improve everything Scratches had to offer in every regard: better graphics, bigger location, actual characters, a more mature and complex storyline, and loads of little details and secrets. You know I’m a huge fan of adventure games and want to make the best possible game we can—the kind of adventure with endless rooms to explore, challenging but fair puzzles and an intricate mystery that hopefully, if Scratches and Serena were any indication, will be debated for years to come.

I’m happy to report we made a lot of progress this year and things are looking up. Settling with Unreal Engine 4 gave development a big boost, while greatly improving quality and performance. Bottom line is, if you managed to play Scratches Director’s Cut, you should be able to play Asylum. The game looks and feels great, and today we released this brief gameplay video:

We expect to reach GDC with a solid and lengthy demo that we may be showing to the press, and a full beta might happen shortly after. This means 2018 may truly be the year of Asylum. But you know the drill, I’m going to confirm this as soon as we can, possibly around GDC.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear your feedback on the above gameplay video. So far we received good responses, but I’d like to know what the hardcore adventure community thinks about it. Feel free to tear it apart

Also, you may have missed our recent “rebranding”, with more than a nod to vintage horror movies, in particular a certain 80’s grindhouse feel. Take a look at the intro video:

People really seemed to like our “fake” posters as well, the kind of stuff you’d see in your local VHS store:

I hope you like this, because I really, really do. I think we’re onto something special here. Here’s a few more test videos we did with characters and complex scenes with particles and special light sources:

Anyways, just letting you know that we’re seeing the light at the end of a very long, dark and creepy tunnel. Enjoy these sights and sounds from Asylum. As always, thank you for being so patient, and have a Spooky New Year!

I have been waiting since 2007 for Half Life 3, since 2010 for Asylum and 2011 for The Winds of Winter. Will I see any of those in 2018? Only Agustin knows…

Abnaxus - 29 December 2017 08:37 PM

Only Agustin knows…

From the most recent Kickstarter update: “We’re tentatively aiming to release the game around September 2018”. The word “tentatively” probably means 2019 at the earliest.

Arrh it’s the annual Asylum tease…..Looks great but just come out already.

At this pace even Spaceventure might beat you to market.

nomadsoul - 29 December 2017 05:33 PM

-Are there going to be Voiceovers?
-Do you feel that restricting control to click for movement adds anything to gameplay?
If going UE4(great decision) why not give full movement control like other walking sims? or like last Texmurphy game?

Yes, definitely recording voice-overs for most texts in the game, except occasional diaries and journals. We’re trying to avoid long reads like those you used to find in Scratches—there will be reading of course, this is a classic adventure game after all, just better paced

So, here’s the thing about allowing 3D realtime movement in a game like Asylum: we honestly considered that at some point, but it would have dramatically increased either the development time or our budget. And truly, Asylum doesn’t need it—I find that the pacing and level of detail we can achieve with this “dated” technology, not to mention how it goes great with the retro vibe of the game, is perfect. Consider that with pre-rendered graphics we’re allowed to go crazy with high quality textures, complex lighting and size. Just as well we can get away with very little repetition between rooms—that is, almost every location you explore, even a small corridor, has its own distinctive look and feel. The entire building as it is now in full 3D would also multiply the size of the game (I’m talking about a 25+ gb download as opposed to 6-8gb) in addition to insane hardware requirements. So we’d have to sacrifice much quality should we go that route. Put simply, Asylum benefits from that quality more than it benefits from realtime movement.

But who knows, maybe in a few years there will be a realAsylum down the road. But it’s not just feasible now, as we’d need a budget in the order of millions to pull it off. The Q&A alone would be insane.

Music and sounds are good
And 80s vintage horror is greaat decision, hope you use some post processing effect in gameplay sections too, to give that feel(like intro)

Very happy everybody seems to love this new approach, and I see the music is receiving great compliments too. We have a lot to live up to with Cellar of Rats’ legendary soundtrack in Scratches, but I believe fans will love the work my brother is doing in Asylum

As for the post processing effect, I don’t want to overdo it; you’re going to see some crazy stuff in our promo materials, such as really cool fake TV spots, but I don’t want to kill the immersion in the game. On the other hand, an easter egg that unlocks a special VHS effect would be pretty neat

Are there more than one “Asylum” games being developed? Perhaps under slightly different titles? Reason for asking is that my good friend Josh Mandel seems to be involved in a consulting role with an “Asylum-ish” titled game. Yet I have not seen him mentioned in any of your posts. So either he is a non-indicted co-conspirator, or he is working on a different game entirely.

rtrooney - 04 January 2018 10:02 PM

Are there more than one “Asylum” games being developed? Perhaps under slightly different titles? Reason for asking is that my good friend Josh Mandel seems to be involved in a consulting role with an “Asylum-ish” titled game. Yet I have not seen him mentioned in any of your posts. So either he is a non-indicted co-conspirator, or he is working on a different game entirely.

Agustin mentions working with him on the kickstarter comments

Agustín Cordes 2-time creator on February 21

@Dablue: Oh dog, you’re incorrigible!

@Row: Thank you so much, although I won’t lick your lips. With few notable exceptions, I try not to become romantically entangled with backers *stares at invisible222*

@Lurker: It will be revealed in the game itself

@Jonathan: Thank you! We’re working with Josh Mandel to deliver a more emotional performance, but everything has a reason to be, even the narration

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/agustincordes/asylum-kickstart-the-horror/comments?cursor=2296449

Josh has also a part in Asylum kickstarter video (4:39 - 5:26) and they revealed ages ago that the main character in the game is voiced by Josh Mandel.

rtrooney - 04 January 2018 10:02 PM

Are there more than one “Asylum” games being developed? Perhaps under slightly different titles? Reason for asking is that my good friend Josh Mandel seems to be involved in a consulting role with an “Asylum-ish” titled game. Yet I have not seen him mentioned in any of your posts. So either he is a non-indicted co-conspirator, or he is working on a different game entirely.

It seems you’re not interested enough in the work of your “good friend” to visit the Asylum Kickstarter page and search for his name. I played a sort of demo five years ago (not a very good one) during the Kickstarter campaign and your good friend’s voice was in it.

Karlok - 05 January 2018 07:45 AM

It seems you’re not interested enough in the work of your “good friend” to visit the Asylum Kickstarter page and search for his name. I played a sort of demo five years ago (not a very good one) during the Kickstarter campaign and your good friend’s voice was in it.

I was interested because my “good friend” told me Asylum was one of the projects he was currently working on. And when I didn’t see his name in the Trailer credits Agustin recently posted, I wondered if I misinterpreted what he said.

Yes, Josh is voicing the main character for Asylum and its planned sequel titled Asylum-ish. He’s not in the old trailers when we didn’t do the casting, but note he’s mentioned right here in the above poster. It plainly says “Starring Josh Mandel”

rtrooney - 05 January 2018 12:03 PM

Karlok - 05 January 2018 07:45 AM

It seems you’re not interested enough in the work of your “good friend” to visit the Asylum Kickstarter page and search for his name. I played a sort of demo five years ago (not a very good one) during the Kickstarter campaign and your good friend’s voice was in it.

I was interested because my “good friend” told me Asylum was one of the projects he was currently working on. And when I didn’t see his name in the Trailer credits Agustin recently posted, I wondered if I misinterpreted what he said.

Yeah, you already said that. No problem, my response is still the same too: you could and should have checked yourself whether he was doing work for Asylum.