It’s not very often that an indie game falls in my lap and its concept takes me aback. Most of the time, I think “that’s crazy, but awesome.” But reading the description for Sanatorium: A Mental Asylum Simulator had my jaw on the floor.
It’s tricky subject matter to tackle for sure. However, the game’s origins and overall purpose make me feel that this is a worthwhile experience.
I had no idea how to take this game. But as I read the email detailing it, one part stuck out to me. “The game itself is fundamentally an interactive thought experiment through the lens of historical critique.”
Sanatorium is set in the 1920s and, as such, features some of the clearly outdated treatment methods of the time.
SANATORIUM TACKLES THE HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRIC AND MENTAL HEALTHCARE
However, the developers aren’t presenting this as something to trivialize or game the system. The lead developer, Sebastian Riedi, and Fabian Hunziker, the art lead, created this game as part of a thesis that “revolved around the evolution of psychiatric and mental healthcare over the decades, and how a professional may conduct themselves in this environment given only familiar systems and control mechanisms.”
From what I’ve read about the game—and seen in the trailer—it’s an interesting concept that reminds me of the Stanford Prison Experiment. The devs are giving the player the tools and power to operate in these ways. They’re also presenting the moral and ethical complications that exist.
You can choose to be gentle in your treatments, but you are still limited to the techniques of the time. So, what does that look or feel like? I love the choice the devs took in making this a card-based game.
The idea is not to glorify these things, but to provide a platform for examining how these conditions existed. I’m genuinely interested in Sanatorium and hope to see more whenever it releases.