When you awaken in a strange tower to find inscrutable glyphs written on the walls, your first question is: Where are you? But even more perplexing is who are you? And what do all these symbols mean?

Solving mysteries like these in Chants of Sennaar will take smarts. Thankfully, they’re the kind you’re already hardwired for.

“We created the game based on a skill for which human brains are extremely efficient: pattern recognition,” says Rundisc cofounder Julien Moya. “We’ve all done it when we learned our native language through pure observation, long before we started school.”

As you grapple with the game’s unconventional puzzles and meet its curious denizens, your vocabulary—and understanding of the world itself—quickly grows.

For example, you pull a lever and a door opens; then pull another and it closes. Eureka! The symbols above each lever must mean “open” and “close.” In time, you’ll decode entire sentences.

Chants of Sennaar draws from a deep well of visual influences, including comic books by legendary French artist Mœbius and his friend Philippe Druillet.

“The vivid colors used in our environments, the cyclopean appearance of our buildings, and the overall radical nature of our artistic direction owe a great deal to Druillet,” Moya says.

Sci-fi twists add intrigue to the game’s many mysteries—but ultimately this is a world that welcomes everyone, according to Moya. “All you need to enjoy Chants of Sennaar? Your curiosity and your sense of observation.”