First details offer glimpse into Looking for Fael 

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Surreal first-person 3D labyrinthine puzzle adventure to be released on Windows and Mac in 2025

Most of us probably don't live a home big enough to get lost in, but that's precisely the case – in a way – in Swing Swing Submarine's upcoming surreal first-person mystery, Looking for Fael.

Fael is your friend and roomate, who left a confused message on your answering machine claiming that he's "gotten lost inside the apartment and recognizes nothing." Upon your arrival home to find out what's going on, you discover "the door open and the apartment almost empty, as if someone were moving out." Rummaging through the few remaining things, you find a GameLeaf, a "makeshift Game Boy-like device that can connect to various electronic devices and activate them." When you make your way back to the front door to leave, what lies beyond is not the staircase as expected, but "an alternate version of Fael’s apartment overrun with plants." This is just the first of a number of different variations as the "ordinary confines of your apartment transform into a surreal labyrinth." To find your friend and "decipher the mysteries that have twisted your home into an enigmatic maze," you must first understand the logic behind it. This can only be done by moving ever forward, but "the further you venture into other realities, the harder it will be to find your way back."

Presented in a free-roaming first-person 3D, Looking for Fael promises an "immersive and mind-bending escape game" of nested apartments. The common denominator of each iteration "seems to be Fael, his fascination with experimentation, and his pet phasmids, with whom he appeared to be trying to communicate." Inspired by titles like Myst, The Witness and Fez, the game encourages manipulation and combination of objects, and careful observation of even the smallest details for clues to solving puzzles. Your newfound custom handheld device will be required to "make sense of the interconnected doors and corridors, leading you further and further into the unknown," and each minigame it enables will provide "a piece of the puzzle that brings [you] closer to the truth about Fael's disappearance." Along the way you should expect the unexpected, as "the world of the flat is full of surprises," and overcoming its challenges will require thinking outside the box to progress. As you do, you may even come to "question the very nature of reality itself."

No firm target release date has been announced just yet, but we can begin Looking for Fael sometime in 2025 when the game launches on Steam for Windows and Mac. 

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