Inkle offers free invitation to The Forever Labyrinth

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Surreal art-themed browser-based game created in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture

We could all usee a little more arts and culture in our lives, couldn't we? Google certainly thinks so, as does inkle, the acclaimed developer behind popular titles like 80 Days, Heaven's Vault, Overboard! and last year's A Highland Song. To help make that belief a reality, the two have combined forces to release The Forever Labyrinth, a surreal free browser-based game intended to broaden our cultural horizons.

You're due to meet your friend Professor Sheldrake, but when you arrive the professor is nowhere to be found. It seems she's been lost in the titular labyrinth, an "ever-changing maze of halls, rooms, clifftops and cellars" that exists beyond time itself. The labyrinth is "filled with the collected works of the entirety of the late human race," but it's also home to a "monster" that threatens to seal your fate just as it did Sheldrake's. To find and rescue your friend, you must follow in her footsteps with help from mysterious notes left behind as you try to stay one step ahead of "the collapse that is coming" to the labyrinth with you still trapped inside.

Presented in a simple but stylish, largely monochromatic pen-and-ink aesthetic, The Forever Labyrinth is a first-person slideshow adventure with a bit of clicking and dragging to scroll individual screens. Each room contains real works of art on display in world museums, representing "an eclectic mixture of the classic and the modern, the well-known and the obscure, the beautiful and the weird." From "Ancient Egyptian masks to modern photography" and a plethora of paintings in between, you can learn more about each exhibit from the in-game art gallery once examined in their environments. Where to go is up to you, whether you choose to "explore the labyrinth room by room, or travel through the very paintings on the walls" according to cryptic clues found in rare interactive items. The game is described as a "replayable rogue-like adventure," which can be completed in as little as twenty minutes to an hour, but with much more content than can be experienced in a single playthrough, the game could take "many hours" to fully explore and uncover all of the labyrinth's secrets.

Made in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, with the aim of "taking players on a personal journey of artistic discovery, telling a great story that allows people to discover art in a whole new way," The Forever Labyrinth is completely free and available to play in your browser. While not necessary to play, your progress will be saved if you're logged in with your Google account, allowing you to return later to continue playing.