First details spilled for Inkblood

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Macabre hand-drawn occult deduction mystery coming to Steam for PC in 2026

History tells us that many innocent people suffered terribly at the hands of Inquisitors who saw evil everywhere they looked, so perhaps assuming such a role doesn't seem like a natural choice for an adventure game. But sometimes there really is evil to suss out, and we'll get our chance to do just that in indie developer Hey Bird!'s upcoming deduction mystery, Inkblood.

When Inquisitor #0133 disappears while investigating a mysterious cult, you are abruptly thrust into the fray to follow in his footsteps on a "trail of death." The cult has wreaked havoc wherever it's been, and now "wicked sorcery abounds, rotting the minds of people and the very fabric of reality itself." As the region "teeters on the edge of chaos," it's up to you to "steel the righteous rule of Inquisition" by investigating ten distinct cases. They may "seem like random occurrences at first, but they’re all connected to a grand conspiracy" that only you can expose. To succeed you'll need to employ all your natural skills of "deduction, observation [and] intuition," as well as your trusty carriage that serves as your mobile base of operations and a supernatural magnifying glass that "has a rather peculiar ability to see not only what is, but what once was." Just remember that your superiors are watching, so you had best not "look into things that are none of your concern."

Inspired by games such as The Room, The Case of the Golden Idol, and Strange Horticulture, Inkblood promises an "occult detective adventure game filled with murder, mystery and deceit, blending horror with the strangely cozy vibes of escape room-style puzzle solving." Its gothic world is depicted in a delightfully macabre hand-painted art style, navigated in slideshow-styled point-and-click fashion. Throughout your assigned cases, you must travel between a variety of "unsettling locations" via the overhead coachman's map, including the "city of Inqburg, deadly swamps, abandoned villages, [and ritual] sites," though you'll also want to closely examine the inside of your carriage, which acts as both "your home, as well as your prison." Rumour has it that it "might contain hidden secrets of its own," though the Inquisition strongly exhorts you not to "tamper with things you don’t understand." 

As you explore the area exclusively through your carriage window in non-linear fashion, you will discover puzzles to solve and other "clever obstacles to overcome." You'll find that "no detail is insignificant, and sometimes even the smallest may lead to the greatest of revelations," so you'll have to thoroughly "inspect the clues, take photos of everything important," and compile a case file with the help of your deduction board. Since "nothing is certain in the present until the past is untangled," your unique magnifying glass is vital for uncovering the truth, as it allows you to see in retrospect what can no longer be observed with the naked eye. Once you've formed a hypothesis for each case, it's time to "dial your overseer" to report your results. Don't be hasty in your judgments, however, as the Inquisition does not take kindly to failure such as your predecessor's.

No firm release date has yet been revealed, but Inkblood is due to arrive sometime in 2026 on Steam for Windows PC.