“Asylum” The Spiritual Successor to Cult Classic Game “Scratches” Finally Upon Us After 15 Years!

Asylum, the spiritual successor to the cult classic video game Scratches, is finally upon us after 15 years. Will people notice this long-delayed follow-up to Argentina’s first commercial adventure game?

Among the horror game community, some games achieve a certain status. They may not be perfect, but they have something unique, or memorable. Something that stands out and makes for a special, bizarre reckoning with the horrors beyond. Among these cult classics, there is a point-and-click adventure game from 2006 called Scratches. It’s got all the classic staples of horror: a writer going to a remote location, a bad climate cutting him off, and the feeling that someone else is moving around the place he’s in.

The game was made by the Argentine studio Nucleosys, founded by Agustín Cordés and Alejandro Graziani. Besides Scratches and its Director’s Cut, Nucleosys’ single other game was a classic point-and-click adventure for… Argentina’s tax collection agency. Despite its odd source material, it is a nostalgic memory for many Argentinian children.

Their planned third game sadly didn’t materialize, and they eventually disbanded, with Cordés, Scratches‘ director, then founding his current studio Senscape.

Asylum was announced in 2010, following a similar mold to Scratches with a focus on exploring a specific location, the Hanwell Mental Institute. According to Cordés, the place was designed by taking notes from the blueprints of real vintage asylums.

In 2013 Senscape opened a Kickstarter, raising $119,426 for the game. Checking the page nowadays seems like visiting a distant reality, with stretch goals for iPad and even Ouya versions planned.

Despite the successful crowdsourcing, the game struggled to get to the finish line and remained in development for many years to come, although it was always clear that development work and beta testing were being done in the background. During this time, the studio worked on the free adventure game Serena, and most notably the cinematics for Silent Hill: Ascension.

Asylum‘s development process has seen many generations of hardware pass and numerous trends in the industry come and go. By now, the game almost seems like a transplant, a time capsule, designed in a time when Amnesia: The Dark Descent was brand new and Freddy Fazbear was not a staple of horror gaming. How much would it differ from modern horror games? The idea of it coming out seems like a fantasy.

… but last Halloween Senscape published a new trailer for Asylum, along with the much-desired release date of March 6, 2025. Now built on Unreal Engine, the long-awaited successor to one of Argentina’s most famous games is near release. But will it catch on like Scratches did so many years ago? It’s hard to tell.

Nevertheless, Agustín Cordés said on X/Twitter:

“Also, speaking about rushing things, ASYLUM took its sweet time, yeah, and everyone made fun of me, but we’re managing to wrap up the game without crunching AND I’M DAMN PROUD OF THAT. 

So there.”

It’s heartwarming to know that, unlike the asylum the game depicts, Senscape has a great deal of care for its people. With a lot more experience under their belts, and more than a decade of anticipation, it seems like Senscape is ready to unleash this new horror upon us.

Author: Walker M

Aspiring game developer and hobbyist writer. Perpetually doing too much. Chronically burnt out.

Argentinian. Passionate. Unbearable?

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