Sarawak
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Sarawak is a short literary mystery game set in Oxford and Borneo.
A university professor is found dead on the steps outside your hotel. The police arrest someone very close to you for his murder. The dead professor has left behind him a web of secrets that you alone can unravel.
Sarawak is a narrative adventure game that takes you from the dreaming spires of Oxford to the jungles of Borneo as you make interactive choices and solve puzzles in a story that blurs the boundaries between narrative games and conventional literature.
For fans of narrative adventure games or old-fashioned mystery novels
Sarawak will appeal to players who enjoyed the likes of 80 Days, A Case of Distrust, LucasArts adventure games or Agatha Christie novels. Sarawak is best described as a narrative adventure, and gameplay is split between interactive text choices and puzzles.
Choose your words wisely
Through dialogue choices, you interact with a whimsical cast of characters who help or hinder your progress. The more you unravel, the more conflicted you become as you start to question who's lying and who's telling the truth.
Solve puzzles
Discover Sarawak's beautiful and interactive illustrations as you open locks and doors, discover secret rooms, hack into police equipment, pore through newspaper archives, and light up a jungle research station.
COVERAGE
"A charming, pleasant and relaxing game"
"Sarawak puts forward an engaging tale that will keep you enticed for its duration"
8/10 - Gamereactor
"I can’t gush enough about how much I enjoyed this game and can find no fault. It features a well-written story that’s brimming with character, charm, and wit. It has incredible art that complements incredibly vivid prose, and fun, engaging puzzles to help make the experience a little more interactive. This is truly one of the best narrative experiences I’ve had in a while, the kind that makes me happy I’m a game’s journalist."
10/10 - The Game Crater
"If you’re looking for a story-driven mystery with plenty of intrigue and fun, give this one a go."
"With an interesting story and creative art style, it’s well up there as one of the more unique games I’ve played."
Gamespew
"Sarawak is a delightfully cozy piece of interactive fiction"
"Had me hooked on both cracking the mystery and simply existing as this witty traveling anthropology student."
Goombastomp
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Our new game releases today - We'll always have ParisApr 28, 2022
- Sarawak 1.0.2 now liveMar 21, 2021
- Sarawak 1.0.1 now liveFeb 01, 2021
- Sarawak is out today!Jan 28, 2021
- Sarawak is launching on the 28 January!Jan 06, 2021
Comments
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Very nice game! Fun to play, but the sudden end is a bit disappointing.
The linux version doesn't always work out of the box because the names of the included shared library files are wrong. It works if you happen to have the libraries installed on your system anyway though.
Could I ask what shared library is missing and what linux distribution you are using? It shouldn't be hard to pack in any further missing shared libraries with it.
There are none missing, but the included SDL2 libraries are missing the version in the file name. E. g. the executable is linked against "libSDL2_ttf-2.0.so.0" but the included library file is called "libSDL2_ttf.so" and therefore it can't be found.
I'm using openSUSE, but I don't think that's relevant.
I like the aesthetic of the game! I'm trying to play through it right now, but unfortunately it's kind of broken (or at least extremely difficult) on my ultrawide monitor.
Because of my screen resolution, there's black bars to the left and right of the game screen... and that's not a big deal. We ultrawide people are used to it. But the game seems to be measuring click inputs from the far left of the screen, outside the game zone. In order to interact with anything (the settings button, any puzzles, etc.) I actually have to click about 4-500 pixels to the left of where the item actually is. It makes it very hard to do anything in the game.
Sorry to hear that. Could I ask what monitor you have, and what the resolution is?
The black bars are deliberate, but obviously the clicking shouldn't be like that.
My resolution is 2560x1080, and it's an LG 29UB55.
Ok, thanks, we'll take a look!
Beautiful graphics, nice story, cute little puzzles. The ending was very abrupt for me, but I liked the overall vibe of this game.
Ty very much for including it in the Bundle for Ukraine!
Thank you Yggie!
Loved everything about this, from the fabulously evocative and distinctive graphics to the atmosphere and storyline. Would love to see another game like this from the developers with new characters but the same aesthetic.
Thank you so much!
An investigative story rich game where you get to travel in order to prove the innocence of your mother who ended up getting involved in a serious accident.
You can read more about it in my review (https://gyepitypes.wordpress.com/2021/01/05/videogame-reviews-sarawak/)