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The Town of Light is an upcoming first-person psychological experience from indie studio LKA.it. Its locations and characters are inspired by real events.

The goal of the game is to recreate the experiences, anguish and human drama of patients living in mental institutions up to the end of the last century: both the pain of mental disease and the horrors patients underwent within the walls of the institutions where they were being “treated.”

The story of The Town of Light takes place in one of the biggest asylums that ever existed in Italy, located in the city of Volterra. The asylum once counted more than 5,000 internees. It’s an asylum with a controversial but little-known history.

Developer LKA.it is faithfully recreating a notorious area of this asylum — which includes two pavilions called Charcot and Ferri — by carrying out “authorized” inspections of the abandoned site and by gathering the testimony of former patients, doctors and nurses.

The horror component is strong in The Town of Light, but there will be no zombies, Nazi conspiracies or suddenly-appearing monsters. Instead, the horror will come from the mingling of the pure and harsh reality of the history of mental suffering and mental distress. The game’s real monster is mental illness.

LKA.it has been working on the game for almost a year. The plan is to release a first demo for Windows, Mac and Linux, compatible with Oculus Rift, before the end of the year.

An Indiegogo campaign is in progress until May 12, 2014. If The Town of Light appeals to you, please consider supporting it.