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Luca Dalcó: The inspiration came from studying the history of Italian mental health institutions, which are culturally very different from today's practices despite the last asylum being shut in 1995 and the criminal ones only this year. It is a story full of pain and controversy that is never mentioned enough, but one I believe is really important to not forget.To various levels, mental illness affects a large percentage of the worldwide population. It is something difficult and too often treated without respect. Our aim is making the player more aware towards those themes, allowing them to live, in first person, through a story of discomfort and internment. We tried to avoid representing mental illness like something distant or too oneiric, but like something that we own, that is near us.
I believe games have reached a stage of complexity, acceptance, and maturity that it's only normal that these kinds of themes are appearing. The indie scene helped and will keep helping people to express themselves about topics that big studios are not comfortable to cover, for various reasons.
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That is correct. Our intention is not to scare the player, but to explore the protagonist experience contextualized in an historic context. I have been asked many times if this is a horror game or not. I believe it all depends on the definition you give to horror. If it's jump scares and zombies, definitely not. But mental illness is one of the most atrocious illnesses a human being can experience, and in The Town of Light we are trying to make people aware of that through the eyes of Renee.As a new company, making this kind of ambitious game, what would you say the biggest challenges so far have been?
I believe researching and tackling the topic with respect is a big challenge we are facing daily. As a new company, as a small team, there are also a lot of production challenges with timeline, delivering assets, and debug. Every day, of course, we discover something new we want to add, but obviously at some point you have to decide to stop adding features and focus on delivering the best possible experience within the time you have.The Town of Light will be released in February 2016. More information at the game's official website.Follow Mike Diver on Twitter.