Psychological horror Stairs descends through Kickstarter

Written by Pascal Tekaia — February 16, 2015 at 13:11

Back in 2013, you may have come across an online demo of a game called Stairs, a psychological first-person horror adventure in the vein of Amnesia. Now indie Swedish developer GreyLight Entertainment has turned to Kickstarter to complete work on a full-fledged commercial game by the same name. Though not a remake or extension of the original demo, it expounds on the concept of telling dark tales of man’s inhumanity toward man, all in the context of a chilling horror narrative.

Stairs tells the story of Christopher Adams, a journalist tracking three missing persons whose disappearances all appear to be connected to an old, abandoned factory. Upon examining the site, Christopher comes across some enigmatic stairs, leading down… but down to where? The team is hesitant to give away too many details, but as Chris descends further, he (and the player) will experience various dark and creepy stories, a new one on each floor. These surreal vignettes are set in various locations and will all be based on disturbing real-world events. As the developers claim, “We want to remind you of just how disturbed and depraved humanity can be. Stairs is that reminder.”

Adding another wrinkle to the gameplay, players will be able to utilize three tools to help them get the most out of the gameplay-driven narrative. Christopher’s photo camera lets him see otherwise invisible things and interact with objects in the environment via some supernatural influence. His video camera and tape recorder have more of a storytelling function; players may choose a location in each level to leave the camera or recorder, and retrieve them later in the hopes that they’ve chosen wisely and captured something of interest.

With a release date planned for July 2015, GreyLight has their hopes set on raising $30,000 via Kickstarter by March 18th. All those interested in making the descent this summer will be able to reserve a digital copy of the PC-only release starting at $7 for a limited time.