There's something strange about the estate on Echo Bluff.

After months of seeing the place in haunting visions, Cassie Thornton has finally found the real thing, overlooking the ocean in Gloucester, Massachusetts. And now, she's taking the chance to explore it, despite the fact that she's blind.So goes the description for Perception Kickstarter project from The Deep End Games. The studio is composed almost entirely of developers who worked on Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite, including Bill Gardner, The Deep End's founder. He was design director on Bioshock, and lead designer on Infinite, both of which garnered critical praise in their own right for their first-person storytelling. With Perception, though, Gardner wants to change how horror games are played.As of this writing, Deep End has launched a Kickstarter campaign for Perception. It's coming to PC initially, with release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One slated as stretch goals."In a lot of ways, it's sort of a continuation of the work I did at Irrational," Gardner told IGN. "It's part of the pieces I picked up. But it's also our own spin on things. I think feeling outgunned is important for horror, and as a blind character, Cassie brings a different set of tools to the equation."But Perception's protagonist isn't completely outgunned. Similar to Marvel's Daredevil, Cassie can map out environments using echo location. So as players proceed through the melancholy house in Gloucester, they can tap Cassie's cane on the floor, or hear distant sounds from other rooms in the lonely estate. What results is a pitch black environment, punctuated by ethereal waves of blue.This quasi-sight is important because, like any good horror story, there's something sinister underlying every second of Perception. Echo Bluff is an old house, built in one of the oldest regions of the U.S., and a plethora of people have called it home. Cassie's visions bring her to the abode during a wide array of time periods, so everything from the decor to the architectural layout are prone to change. This sort of time travel imparts a new mystery on players each time they walk through the front door.But one thing in the house's old interior is constant. The Deep End calls it The Presence. And the name is appropriate, because as Cassie paces through each temporal version of Echo Bluff, this lurking creature is always there, pitting itself against her as she investigates. Its cloud of moths and schizophrenic ramblings can be heard somewhere downstairs, or behind dark doors, always waiting to pounce."The Presence adds a lot to what we're aiming for," Gardner says. "You're seeing ghosts, finding audio logs, and we're using the mise en scene to help you piece together what might have happened here throughout the years. But by using The Presence, we're adding this persistent threat that is always at the back of your mind. It helps merge the gameplay and the narrative."For as much as The Deep End wants to scare you around the dark corners of this mysterious house, the studio also wants to tell a good story. Amanda Gardner, urban fantasy novelist and Bill's wife, is penning the story that unfolds around Cassie. As with Bioshock or Gone Home, another game that influenced The Deep End's first title, Amanda's story will place players at the center of the narrative, and let them figure out the plot themselves.But then again: The Deep End still wants to scare you. As author Stephen King described terror: "It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there...”In Perception, there may well be something there.

Mike Mahardy is a journalist based in New York. You can follow him on Twitter at @mmahardy , where he's likely ranting about Stephen King novels or John Carpenter films.