Greetings, fans of all things horror! I figured it was about time to deliver a proper update instead of glorified patch notes. Heartfelt as they were (and believe me, coming up with all those sneaky movie quotes was a major mental strain), I'm sure you were yearning to feel the warm, albeit distant, touch of a broken human being amidst the pervasive atmosphere of social decay and AI-driven apocalypse threatening our lives these days.
So if you're tired of having your butt kicked by a Silksong boss, you may spend some time making sense out of these words...
How did the launch go?!
Ah yes, the question pounding in everyone's minds in a world where success is measured by the number of concurrent players and media buzz. When Scratches was released in 2006, there was virtually no data to work with — publishers had to pay handsome chunks of cash to acquire sales figures, and us poor indies were kept in the dark. It was very unfair. Come 2025 and data is everywhere. Everybody has access to everything and quick assumptions are made.
An epiphany after all this time is that perhaps neither end of the spectrum was entirely convenient: democratizing data —a side effect of shifting to digital distribution— was a great and profoundly transformative step for the industry: the playing field was leveled between publishers and developers. The downside is that we're all becoming so data-driven that it's this same data what shapes the kind of games we make, how we make them, and even how we sell them: it's no secret that Steam largely operates based on vast amounts of carefully collected and analyzed information (aka the "algorithm") and developers are trying to decode what products stand a better chance to become popular on the store.
Since everything is out in the open, anyone can take a look at SteamDB and peruse our data snapshot like one of the X-rays in the Rehabilitation room of the Hanwell Institute. One of the observations that surfaced in our community was that the number of concurrent players was low, hence impopular, hence failure. Mind you, that's not a proper read, especially not for adventures which tend to have unique lifecycles compared to other games. Ironically, whereas the challenge 20 years ago was getting a hold of the data, the challenge today is making sense out of the overwhelming amount of information at our disposal.
But you know what? Hardly anything makes sense. It's incredibly difficult to predict what makes or breaks a game, even if you hit all the bullet points. I've seen indie titles with plenty of press buzz and bearing shiny Metacritic scores barely causing a splash on Steam. At the same time, games with zero hype suddenly become unexpected indie hits. The Operator comes to mind, which I found almost by accident. How many of you did you know that game? It's excellent!
Press buzz does not equal success. Even the best marketing plans can fail. A low peak number of concurrent players is not indicative of anything if the game is regularly played each day for years to come. And that's the conclusion after this digression, my dear friends: in the world of game development, nobody knows anything. A point further illustrated by this meme which circulated recently:
Anyway, I'm glad to report that ASYLUM is performing about as expected, hitting the Steam "musts" and precious data points, such as 50 reviews in under 48 hours... which feels weirdly similar to a 20% of the Kickstarter goal that had to be achieved in under 48 hours (patterns everywhere 👀). Reviews keep coming —we even saw a healthy spike recently— and at 300+ averaging a Very Positive Steam score, I consider the launch a solid success. For a game with barely any press or marketing fanfare upon launch, or dedicated publisher at that, ASYLUM has performed admirably, and it's all been thanks to a wonderful community of amazingly supportive fans 🤗
Truth is, most adventure games released this year seem to have performed about the same, with the notable exception being The Drifter which killed it and seems like a GOTY contender. I really need to play that one next. Interestingly, in our case the amount of wishlists keep growing steadily. I don't know if this is a common occurrence, but we're nearing 90.000 even after 6 months out in the wild. I do hear that 500 reviews is a sort of magic number, and it would be incredible if we hit that mark around Halloween (wink, wink).
Overall, it's a good balance. Will we make another game like ASYLUM? Hell no, certainly not in this 90's pseudo-3D format. It's curious how a pipeline that was cost-effective back then has become so disproportionally complicated these days, but perhaps that's a conversation for a full-fledged post mortem in the future. For now, we're very satisfied with the end result. I always imagined this was going to be a divisive game; few remember this, but Scratches was highly criticized upon launch, especially when it comes to its ending.
Ah, yes... the ending
(be warned: slight spoilers ahead)
By far the biggest criticism ASYLUM has received to date is the nature of its conclusion. And to me this is a good sign: it's sincerely the data point I care the most, because it means players were invested enough in the story so that the ending caused a major impression (be it positive or negative). I can't think of any other genre but adventures in which the conclusion can be so critical. Yeah, and that's also the reason why they can be so risky to produce.
Heated discussions keep going in our Discord channel, and I'm fascinated with the shrewd observations shared by the community. Some are beginning to catch metaphors and double meanings behind certain passages (such as a very strategically placed "communed" word in the yard), or wondering if some plot points are a commentary on established Lovecrafian tropes (indeed they are). This is not a game that should be taken for granted, and while far from perfect, what happens at the end at least is intentional.
There were people disappointed that the conclusion was too obviously supernatural and went "meh". Some die-hard fans are still yearning for a Scratches-like Thalidomide moment too. While a cute clue with far-reaching implications once you see it, that little bottle was obvious, and rest assured I didn't want to repeat the trick. If someone is still expecting a similar "aha!" rush of insight, you will be disappointed. That was never the goal. The Thalidomide moment in ASYLUM may have already happened, and the discussions ensuing are as important as the game itself.
Is there more to discover? I believe so, but probably not in the way you expect. To be clear: I'm not saying you all should like the ending. I'd honestly consider the game a failure if that was the case. But since there was backlash which I consider unfair, for example accusing us of rushing the ending, or changing it multiple times for no reason, I must stress that the last moments in the game happen pretty much as originally intended. Do keep in mind that all games (or any creative media for that matter) go through multiple iterations; plot points are massaged and further developed as production reaches completion. Case in point, since comparisons are inevitable, the Scratches ending many of you got to play had nothing to do with the originally intended one. And I'm so glad that was changed.
Anyway! As promised, the plan is to release the original ASYLUM script around Halloween and I'm taking the time to add copious notes. Not only comments on relevant plot points, but an addendum with design notes collected over the years, quirky bits of trivia, and some unused stuff. Sorry to crush hopes, but you should not expect a flat-out explanation of the ending. That won't happen. Like, ever. But I still believe you'll enjoy the read, similarly to the Scratches design document that was shared and dissected by fans many years ago.
What's next?
Since many of you have been wondering, the Senscape team has new projects on the work, so I thought about sharing some tidbits here. Please take these blurbs as friendly info for now — nothing is being formally announced, especially since we're still in the prototyping phase. I'll use mysterious codenames too, because why not:
Limen. Our next major game will be a sort of back to the roots affair but only in terms of melancholic mood akin to Scratches, in which you get to investigate a countryside estancia lost in the Argentinian Pampas. However, while slow-paced, narrative-driven, and of course single player, it won't be a traditional adventure. It's an ambitious design which has evolved quite a bit since its original inception and there's a working prototype even. But we're also aiming high in the visual department, embracing full 3D this time, meaning it will be an expensive development. For now it remains in a "we'll see" status until proper funding is secured. If all goes according to plan, it should be unbearably scary.
Prowler. This is the one that may come first actually and is under active production. It's unlike anything we did before and (in line with the previous conversation about the Steam algorithm) designed to "appease the market". In fact, it was meant to be a more trashy thing to get it done quickly, but we couldn't help ourselves, so the whole game is looking quite polished already. Way too much animation and eye candy than planned, but we like high stakes. Not sure how well it's going to work yet — we need to play it (lots and lots of times) and tweak accordingly. Who knows, the elevator pitch is so ridiculous it just might work. Of course, it's going to be pure, unadulterated horror. Also, "appeasing the market" doesn't mean we can't have lots of fun and weirdness, right?
Boom. Which almost qualifies as a hobby. Actually, it's more of a personal project. If Limen is a back to the roots affair, Boom is an unabashed time capsule: a self-imposed challenge with technical restrictions and limitations. To give you an idea, portions of its code are in x86 Assembler. The visual style is highly inspired by Dark Seed, but the game has more in common with Wasteland. I don't know when it will be finished, if ever, but so far it's providing much joy.
Speaking about restrictions, a cool development was just announced: a fan project by DeafonicsGameStudio which is an actual demake of ASYLUM... as a Game Boy ROM!
It's the perfect opportunity to buy an actual Game Boy. Surely my wife will understand.
See, this is the only measure of success I care about. Not Metacritic or SteamDB data. The fact that someone is doing a fan game of ASYLUM is more than enough ❤️
Last, but not least!
We're 28% off for a few days. Tell your family and friends. And see you around Halloween with more goodies! 👋
—Agustín
PS: Just remembered the last patch didn't have a matching update here on Steam. It was a small one, though:
Fix: Seems like we celebrated victory too soon and another issue persisted with that cursed film projector in the Therapy Room. All should be good now.
Build string: version 1.3.3071 (test with CTRL + V).
And the codename: "The boat can leave now, tell the crew" 🧟