Scratches: Director's Cut News

Hi all! 👋

This is a brief update to show you our new gameplay video. A collection of greatly improved, familiar locations and new ones, focusing on interactions and things to do — including speaking with the mysterious denizens of the asylum! Take a look:

https://youtu.be/2-YgD6FhsmI
The game is working remarkably well. In fact, any stuttering you may notice in the video was our recording software behaving erratically 🙄

But, what you see here is 100% in-game stuff, no processing, no tricks. Asylum is running with a stable 60fps in fullscreen High quality on a 3-year old computer. It's even perfectly playable on Very High quality with extra sharp graphics!

So this is how the game looks and feels, and we hope you like it 😊 Just a tiny glimpse of many more locations you'll have to explore!



I'm really sorry about this one. I should've posted more updates here. The promised livestream was postponed due to an incredibly nasty acute bronchitis I got a few weeks ago. It was sheer Hell 🤢 And all because I didn't get a flu shot 💉

Thankfully, I'm back in action and the livestream is totally happening this Friday 22 at 8:00 PM (UTC) on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/Senscape



If you can't make it, don't worry, I'll record everything. It would be great to see you there! I'll be happy to answer all your questions.

And that's it for today, but hopefully see you soon!

—Agustín

Hello, dear fans of Scratches! We trust you've been enjoying our ASYLUM updates. As we describe in our latest post, the game is coming along very nicely and a release date is looming on the horizon. Also, tons of interesting tidbits behind its development (and why the darn thing is taking so long):

https://steamcommunity.com/games/asylum/announcements/detail/1776011874558802996
We're positive it's a game you're going to love, as it has all the elements that made Scratches such a memorable game, and then some.

As for Scratches, unfortunately there aren't many news we can share — due to an annoying and complex legal situation, it can't be sold anymore and there's no immediate solution in sight. For the time being, let's be happy that there's a place where the game can be discussed and hope that, eventually, we'll be able to put this beloved cult classic back in the spotlight. As soon as we're done with ASYLUM, we'll do everything we can to achieve this!

Greetings, esteemed Steam community! We hope you're off to a terrific 2019! As promised, we come bearing a series of exciting news from the sinister corridors of ASYLUM (and of course eye candy, because we know you love it).

Here we go!



Things are progressing speedy and smoothly, so we feel comfortable to disclose our plans. To recap, since December hundreds of Kickstarter backers have been playing a good chunk of the game with overwhelmingly positive reactions. We can confirm ASYLUM is performing great and no major issues have shown their ugly face. Even better, we seem to have hit a stride, meeting milestone after milestone: we're wrapping up an even larger segment of the game now, and expecting to hit beta around May.

A beta in May means our goal to release the game later this year is doable. We're not officially confirming this yet, but you'll be the first to know. So this is really happening after all this time, and we couldn't thank you enough for your understanding and support! ASYLUM is exactly the kind of game we wanted to make, and the follow-up we just know fans of Scratches will love 👌



And speaking of support, wow... We're now at a whooping 23K wishlists milestone, and it feels 30K may be just around the corner.



This is all very, very exciting! For reference, only the top and most highly anticipated games in all Steam reach 50K and beyond. It's an ambitious goal, but what if we can make it? What if?! 🤞



We're thrilled (so to speak) to have wrapped up work in one of the scariest environments of the game, the High Risk corridor where the most dangerous inmates are kept, fondly referred to as the "Tunnel of the Damned". And yet, it's not even one of the top 5 scariest locations you'll find 😮



For now we'll keep working on this lovely basement concealing dark secrets. Yes, of course there was going to be basement in the game!



We've also prepared some charming night scenes for you. There's people who swear they see hidden scary faces in this gloomy sky, but we did nothing of the sort (at least not yet):



And since we can't get enough GIFs, let us show you the kind of visual trickery we're doing to maintain that old school adventure tone and feel in ASYLUM:



Yes, that's cute... but what if we told you the record, arm and knob are the only 3D elements in this scene? Just think about it: the whole background and turntable are FLAT 😮



Finally, we got access to a fairly pro MOCAP installation in Buenos Aires yesterday and did some tests for the game. If this works out, the amount of work for remaining animations we need to do will be dramatically reduced!



It would be quite exciting if we can include this technology in the game. Not that our handmade animations are bad, mind you, but this would certainly make our lives much easier. It's pretty fun, too!



Of course not, there's lots more coming, but we're concluding this update for now. We hope you enjoyed it, and let us know in the comments if you have any questions. We're thrilled that things are progressing so well, and we honestly can't wait to see you finally playing ASYLUM!

Have a spooky weekend 👻

Phew, following a couple of very intensive weeks, we're happy to announce that we have a playable and fully featured demo of ASYLUM working great with top-notch performance and minimal loading times! It's a huge milestone after all this time!

This is an internal demo that we're sharing with Kickstarter backers, and so far initial reactions have been hugely positive: players are in love with the atmosphere and agree that, even after this short glimpse, "what we can expect was worth the wait" and they are "very excited to delve deeper into the dark, decaying corners of ASYLUM!".

Did we say short? Yes, it's only a fraction of the final game, yet backers reported playing 60 minutes, as much as 90! This means our estimation of 10-12 hours for the final game is either spot on or quite conservative. Fans will also be happy to hear that performance is solid even on older computers, and we still have more optimizations to do!

All in all, the outlook is very positive as we now work towards beta status and get ready to suggest a release date. We just ask you a bit more patience, but rest assured: ASYLUM is happening!



Of course, it wouldn't be a proper update without sights and goodies from the game! First, we'd like to share with you this extended gameplay video that we showed last month in the Argentinian game expo EVA 2018 and got great reactions from the audience:

https://youtu.be/KwaPvJiGPgs
(please note it was recorded in 720p, hence some blurriness in the video)

Improvements to the game include tabs in your trusty notepad, so that you can clearly keep track of the stuff you must know, from tasks to inventory items:



Speaking of which, can fans of Scratches detect the Easter Egg in that scene?



And then there's the gorgeous menu system, essentially a patient record (the patient being YOU!):



Yes, we always try to maintain the mood of the game. Even on the menu.





We know it's a bit late for Halloween, but we sent our previous update just before Halloween. Anyway, we're still giving away Scratches keys to all Whisperers in Darkness of our Discord community: https://discord.gg/senscape

Rumor has it it's quite easy to become a Whisperer (mere minutes, in fact) — but hurry up, this won't last longer.



And last but certainly not least, a big THANK YOU from the whole Senscape team for your patience and understanding as we strive to complete this game. Things are looking extremely good and we hope to be sharing more exciting news soon. For now, rest assured that ASYLUM ACTUALLY EXISTS and PEOPLE ARE LIKING IT.

Salutations to our wonderful Steam community!

It’s been an exceptionally busy month for ASYLUM and it’s not over yet. Things are progressing fast and we’re happy to report that we’re just about to wrap up a big playable chunk of the game — in near final form, truly polished and ready for public consumption. Exciting times ahead, and the momentum on Steam keeps getting better! We’re now nearing 14.000 wishlists, mere days after we reached 10.000. Wow, just wow!



Most work on the project now amounts to adding interactive stuff and implementing the remaining puzzles. It’s taking time, though, because we’re going out of our way to add as many details as possible. We plan to reward your observation as you unlock the mysteries concealed by the dreadful Hanwell Mental Institute.

For instance, we created a full maintenance schedule for our janitor, complete with an easter egg for fans of Scratches:



If you pay attention, you’ll find that every element in the game is very consistent with each other. There’s a huge timeline of events and intertwining storylines leading to a big finale you won’t forget, and every detail counts. We really can’t wait to share our monstrous baby with you!



We also added a crosshair to the game. Yes, we wanted to avoid it because it breaks the immersion, but it doesn’t hurt as much as we expected and greatly improves the gameplay. Don’t worry, ASYLUM is still a classic adventure game and you don’t need to shoot zombies! Inmates maybe, but not zombies.

(just kidding)

https://youtu.be/MOa3nFaOnIE

Please note the mouth-watering atmosphere complete with subtle fog. And yes, there are tons of items you can pick and investigate in great detail.

Of course there's been more progress on this front and we're happy to report that its interface and overall presentation of the game are pretty much done. We'll need to do testing and tweaks but it's already playing smoothly. Yay!



We also had a bit of fun doing promo materials:



Funnily, a lot of people asked where they could buy the book. We wish!



Regarding our previous update where we showed a glimpse of the dialogue system, we want to clarify that there will be voice acting in the game. We just haven’t recorded voices yet, but that’s planned.

As for the eternal question (is ASYLUM ever going to be released?), we must quote Jerry Dandrige:



Thank you for your continued support and patience, and have a spooky weekend!

—The Senscape Team