Limbo is a puzzle-platform video game and the premiere title of independent Danish game developer Playdead Studios. The game was released in July 2010 on Xbox Live Arcade. Limbo is a 2D sidescroller, incorporating a physics system that governs environmental objects and the player character. The
player guides an unnamed boy through dangerous environments and traps as the boy searches for his sister. The developer built the game'
s puzzles expecting the
player to fail before finding the correct solution. Playdead called the style of play "trial and
death", and used visually gruesome imagery for the boy's deaths to steer the
player from unworkable solutions.
The game is presented primarily in monochromatic
black-and-white tones, using lighting, film grain effects and minimal ambient sounds to create an eerie atmosphere often associated with the horror genre. Journalists praised the
dark presentation, describing the
work as comparable to film noir and German Expressionism. Based on its aesthetics, reviewers classified Limbo as an example of "video game as art".