Madison

The story follows a teenage boy named Luca, who receives a cursed instant camera for his sixteenth birthday and uses it to solve puzzles and uncover the truth behind the camera. Development of the game started in 2016, and was announced with a demo released on itch.io in 2017, which received universal acclaim. A commercial success and earned positive reviews for the handling of the quality of the puzzles and the balanced tension. It would win multiple awards from different video game publications, while critics were divided on the lack of originality.

• Title — MADiSON • Developer — Bloodious Games • Publisher — * Bloodious Games • Perpetual Games • Engine — Unity • Platforms — * Windows • PlayStation 4 • PlayStation 5 • Xbox Series X/S • Nintendo Switch • Released — Nintendo SwitchAugust 26, 2022 • Genre — Psychological horror • Modes — Single-player • Director — Alexis Di Stefano • Composer — Ramiro Touron

• Illustration — In Madison, the player character has no means of defense against any hostile entities. Madison is a first-person psychological horror game that primarily focuses on the use of an instant camera. Players must solve puzzles that allow them to discover objects and items that are unable to be seen with the naked eye, while simultaneously driving away demonic entities. The game showcases a variety of creepy locales, including subterranean tunnels, dingy storerooms, gloomy churches, and long, dimly lit hallways.

Madison centers on a sixteen year-old boy named Luca, who receives an instant camera for his sixteenth birthday. However, the camera belonged to a serial killer 30 years earlier, and through the camera the spirit of the killer plans to use Luca to put an end to a macabre ritual. Throughout the game, Luca uses the camera to solve puzzles, navigate a shifting, haunted house, and interact with the spirit world to uncover the truth behind the seven-sacrifice ritual required for the demon to fully inhabit a human vessel.

Madison was inspired by the psychological horror games P.T. (2014) and Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within (1998). The idea for the game's concept was provided by Argentine video game developer Alexis Di Stefano. Di Stefano had originally began development of MADiSON in 2016, and released a demo version released on game distribution platform itch.io in 2017. The demo was well received by players, and surpassed over 100,000 downloads on the platform. In an interview with Shacknews Sam Chandler, Stefano noted that while developing MADiSON, he had multiple goals—including that he wanted to make a game as scary as possible. The studio continued with development and announced a launch for Windows PCs in June 2021. The second trailer was released during the Gamescom trade fair in July 2021. MADiSON was set to release on January 7, 2022. Bloodious Games was met with inconveniences of publishing MADiSON under their previous trade name, Nosebleed Games. The game was first released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on July 8, 2022. In August 2022, developers announced that a Nintendo Switch version for MADiSON would be released. On January 30, 2023, Stefano would officially announce the development of a virtual reality version at a Perp Games Showcase via IGN called MADiSON VR. MADiSON VR was ported to physical PSVR2 platform editions and PCVR in 2024.

• Year — Award — Category — Result — Ref • 2018 — Expo EVA 2018 — People's Choice — Won • 2022 — Expo EVA 2022 — Best Game — Won • NYX Game Awards — Best Narrative — Won • Moscow XII DROP Festival — Best Horror Game — Won • Shacknews — Best Horror Game — Won • Rely On Horror — Community Game Of The Year — Won

• Year — Award — Category — Result — Ref • 2023 — Expo EVA 2023 — People's Choice — Won