Backstage: Murdered Sleep

Backstage: Murdered Sleep is a 2D psychological survival horror adventure. You explore ordinary locations that shift unpredictably into Backstage, a twisted mirror world, solve puzzles and fight monsters while managing scarce resources and trying to distinguish reality from delusion. Its story follows college student Anna Molly Grace, whose severe sleep terrors lead her to an experimental sleep clinic on Santa Cassilda island, where occult forces threaten to bring something out of her dreams.

Story and characters

Anna is a 19-year-old Stanford art student who has struggled with serious mental health problems since witnessing her birth mother's murder by the eye-collecting killer known as the Beholder. Her sleep paralysis demon, Mask, appears as a faceless killer with a scalpel and blood-red eyes. Anna believes he is a manifestation of her trauma, while Mask insists he is real and threatens to take her eyes.

At the clinic, Anna's psychiatrist, Dr. Everett Grossman, oversees her sleep trial. He has treated her with medication and therapy for seven years and is concerned about her magical thinking, paranoia, self-medication and inconsistent use of prescribed antipsychotic medication.

The story also follows Jack Chambers and Christopher Marlowe, modern-day witch hunters and members of the Knights Templar. Chambers is a Jesuit priest, Marine veteran and veteran of a secret war against the Magna Mater Cult, an occult conspiracy that has infiltrated the Catholic Church and US intelligence community. The cult seeks to bring about Hell on Earth using genetically and magically engineered vessels called Midwives. Chambers and his order burn those they identify as witches to prevent demonic incursions.

Marlowe, a former member of organized crime and a private military contractor, converted to Catholicism after Chambers saved his life in the Second Battle of Fallujah. He later joined Chambers's secret Templar order and has taken part in its campaign against the cult, but remains troubled by the killing of people who appear to be innocent teenage girls. His and Chambers's story eventually collides with Anna's.

Explore Backstage

As you explore, real-world locations shift into Backstage, a liminal nightmare world carpeted with rot, rust and dried blood. You scavenge ammunition and improvised weapons, solve simple puzzles, and face warped monsters. The game expands the Backstage universe's mythology and explores the consequences of the original game's events.

Fight and survive

Combat takes place in real time. Anna can defend herself with sharp objects, tasers, firearms and a speargun, while armor and sacred charms improve her stats. You dodge projectiles and traps by sprinting, which uses a limited Stamina Meter; Anna is fragile, so fighting requires care.

The Nerve system measures panic rather than a general state of sanity. When Anna runs out of Nerve, she hallucinates, her attacks can miss, her Stamina stops regenerating and she takes extra damage until she calms down and catches her breath. You also manage Health and Nerve with scarce supplies and limited-use first aid cabinets that fully restore both. Ephedrine restores Health but affects Nerve; cigarettes restore a little Nerve at the cost of Health; alcohol restores Nerve without damaging Health, but makes it harder to see and aim.

Play as Marlowe

Interlude episodes let you play as Templar witch-hunter Chris Marlowe. These sections focus more on action, with specialized weapons for fighting witches and their demonic servants, including shotguns loaded with rock-salt shells and a consecrated silver sword.

Campaign and endings

The campaign takes about eight hours and has six distinct endings. Your choices and actions determine the fates of major and supporting characters, as well as the Backstage universe. Easy Mode triples Anna's base Health and gives her an infinitely reusable Sharp Object for self-defense.

Sound and music

The soundtrack combines layered ambient soundscapes with music by DavidKBD, monoaudze, Scott Arc, Joel Steudler and others. Its styles range from lo-fi drones and dark ambient to doom metal and darkwave.