Zeitglas and Shoreline Games have announced that Sanatorium: A Mental Asylum Simulator is set to release on November 6, 2025.
Sanatorium: A Mental Asylum Simulator puts players in charge at an early 20th-century mental asylum. Players take on the role of a journalist who’s investigating Castle Woods Sanatorium. To break in, they take on the role of a medical graduate, and they’ll treat patients while looking for the truth behind the mental institution.
The psychiatric practice being utilized in-game is inspired by phrenology. Phrenology is a 19th-century pseudoscience that thought that bumps and ridges on a person’s skull determined their mental capabilities and character traits.
In the process, players will have to make decisions about patient care that range from barbaric or gentle through a series of cards — at least, as gentle as mental asylums of the era were. This grapple between ethics and the practices of the era is part of the game’s driving point. As the developers put it, the game is “an interactive thought experiment seen through the lens of historical critique,” pushing players against their own morality to find the truth.
Sanatorium: A Mental Asylum Simulator is being developed by a two-person team. It was initially meant to be a university thesis that explored how mental healthcare and psychiatric practices have changed over time, though it’s turned into a game that explores the procedures used during the early 1900s.
Fabian Hunziker, cofounder of Zeitglas Games, shared a statement on the game’s release date announcement:
“Sanatorium has been a passion project for years. Our goal has been to craft a deeply immersive experience that challenges players to question their decisions and reflect on the history of mental health. Announcing makes all of this very real – both scary and exciting – and we can’t wait to see players explore it on November 6.”
Sanatorium: A Mental Asylum Simulator will be released on November 6, 2025, for PC (via Steam). Players can watch the release date trailer for the game below:
For more news on upcoming simulators, check out the latest on Jurassic World Evolution 3 and Europa Universalis 5.
