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Press release:
BOSTON, MA – August 29, 2020 – The world premiere of “Lab Rat” was showcased earlier today during IGN’s Awesome Indies show at gamescom 2020.

Lab Rat is a hand-crafted narrative puzzler masquerading as a machine-generated puzzle game. This satirical adventure stars a metrics-obsessed AI who will monitor, profile, and taunt you as you progress through more than eighty puzzles. Over time the AI will develop its hilariously-misguided understanding of humanity based on your puzzle performance and survey response data.

While Lab Rat pokes fun at the absurdity of algorithmically-generated interactions, the game’s puzzles are lovingly hand-crafted by a team of expert human developers.

This game is directed and primarily crafted by Gwen Frey (creator of Kine & co-creator of The Flame in the Flood). It features environment art by Mike Snight (Lead World Builder, Bioshock Infinite), writing by Matthew Burns (creator of Eliza), and puzzles by Lucas Le Slo (beloved experimental puzzle designer).

Lab Rat will launch on PC this winter. Beta sign-ups are available now at labrat.study.

Key Features:

Maneuver objects, divert lasers, and manipulate electricity to overcome 80+ satisfying and surprising puzzles

Outwit a metrics-obsessed machine intent on heckling you for your humanity

View and contribute to in-game analytics that are updated in real time with real player data

“Do you ever feel like a rat in a Skinner box, pushing levers to feed an algorithm?,” questioned Gwen Frey, Creator of Lab Rat.

“I do, so I made Lab Rat because it’s more fun to laugh at our current situation than cry about it.”

Follow Lab Rat:

Sign up for the closed beta at labrat.study
Wishlist on Steam
Follow development on Twitter

About Gwen Frey
Gwen has been developing games since 2009. She was the Senior Technical Animator for BioShock Infinite, a co-founder of The Molasses Flood, and one of only six developers on The Flame in The Flood.

These days Gwen is combining her AAA and indie experience to create projects that push boundaries in both gameplay and storytelling. Lab Rat is Gwen’s second project under her self-publishing studio Chump Squad, which launched Kine on PC, consoles, and Stadia last year.