Red Barrels, a new Canadian indie dev studio founded by several Ubisoft Montreal colleagues (of Prince of Persia, Assassin’s Creed, and Splinter Cell heritage), has announced its first project, a "true survival-horror" game titled Outlast.

In the remote mountains of Colorado, horrors wait inside Mount Massive Asylum. A long-abandoned home for the mentally ill, recently re-opened by the “research and charity” branch of the transnational Murkoff Corporation, has been operating in strict secrecy… until now.

Acting on a tip from an inside source, independent journalist Miles Upshur breaks into the facility, and what he discovers walks a terrifying line being science and religion, nature and something else entirely. Once inside, his only hope of escape lies with the terrible truth at the heart of Mount Massive.

“There are already a lot of great games out there about terrifying monsters that eat brains; we want Outlast’s to be scary because you’ll know the enemies you face still have them,” said Philippe Morin, co-founder of Red Barrels.

“Our team has a lot of previous experience creating big, blockbuster games,” said co-founder David Chateauneuf. “We’re all really excited to see what kind of fear-based emotional rollercoaster we can build on our own!”

Outlast is slated for a 2013 release as a PC digital download.