St. Mary's 1985

YOUR AWAKENING

A red chair. Fluorescent lights humming. St. Mary's Psychiatric Hospital.

The hospital is closed, but I know this place. I'm back here again. I'm wearing clothes that aren't mine. On the table, old magazines and a medical file stamped "CLASSIFIED".

My hands are shaking. Why is this place empty now?

What happened to me? Where did the other patients go? And why has the front door disappeared?

THE HEARTBEAT DOESN'T LIE

Nobody is chasing you. The danger is inside you.

Every painful memory speeds it up. Every good memory slows it down. Darkness drives it wild. When your flashlight flickers on its last battery, the panic grows. If it climbs too high, you hear it pounding in your ears, your vision closes in, your breath breaks, your mind gives way, and you wake up again on that red chair.

Some memories calm you. Some memories destroy you. You have to choose which ones to face.

THE GARDEN AND THE PILLS

There is only one place in St. Mary's where Ethan can truly rest: the garden. Sit down and his heartbeat settles, giving you a quiet moment before you go back inside.

Pills, on the other hand, are scarce. They calm you a little, but you won't always find one when you need it. Use them wisely.

A HOSPITAL THAT DOESN'T WANT TO BE REMEMBERED

Locked doors, secret archives, hidden laboratories, dormitories, recreation rooms. Every floor tells a different story: forgotten patients, experiments no one was meant to find, doctors who knew too much.

You'll find keys, codes, flashlight batteries and pills. But above all, you'll find the stories of those who passed through here: medical records, diaries, photos, staff notes. Other lives intertwined with yours. Every piece you find changes what you think you know. But some truths come at a price.

FICTIONAL PATIENTS, REAL TREATMENTS

Besides Ethan, the protagonist, you'll meet three kinds of patients: those with a name, those known only by a code (the SMH patients), and a mysterious Patient X.

The SMH patients are fictional, but inspired by real archival records of people admitted before the Basaglia law. What was done to them, however, is not fiction: in the documents you find, you'll read about treatments that were really used in psychiatric hospitals of the time, such as electroshock, hydrotherapy, lobotomy, and many more. Some of them were called care.

For each SMH patient you'll find their medical records, which show the treatment they endured and what it did to them, along with a few personal belongings that show who they were before.

THREE TRUTHS

The game doesn't end when you survive. It ends when you understand. Understanding is the only way out of this place.

Three completely different endings, based on how much you've uncovered and how much courage you had to read. Some memories can heal you. Others can trap you forever.

But only one shows you what really happened.

IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK

St. Mary's 1985 is a story about depression, grief and guilt, and about what happens when the mind tries to protect itself from pain.

The deeper you dig, the more you realize that nothing is as it seems. Not every document tells the truth. Not every memory is real.

Some answers heal. Others hurt more than the questions.