Simulator · Browser game

Sanctuary

Released March 5, 2025 (last year) · by Microsoft · published by Microsoft

Runs in your browser — nothing to install

About Sanctuary

Sanctuary is an immersive poem developed by Bladee and James Ferraro using the Ezkiel language engine. Stuck in a decaying labyrinth, players can explore and interact with different characters.

Step into an endless digital labyrinth where mythology and technology collide, blurring the lines between ancient archetypes and modern storytelling. Bladee partnered with experimental artist James Ferraro to create Sanctuary, an interactive world designed to challenge perceptions of artificial consciousness and symbolic representation. Participants engage with digital entities that reflect deeper cultural and historical narratives allowing for philosophical interactions. “I think that is like the point of the game—being interactive lets people access this vast body of material and extract meaning from it,” Bladee explains. The labyrinth itself serves as a visual and conceptual framework, encouraging nonlinear exploration and self-guided discovery. Rather than relying on a fixed narrative, Sanctuary functions as an evolving system where technology is a conduit for human reflection. Ferraro describes this dynamic, saying, “It’s really like this thing that’s being propped up by human effort. It represents the human supercomputer of all of us collectively constructing what can be perceived as this sentient thing.” The result is an immersive experience that bridges the past and future, reinterpreting mythology through a contemporary digital lens. By blending timeless archetypes with modern tools, Sanctuary expands the possibilities of narrative expression.