A series of paint splatters guide her into a different painting of the deep sea, which she physically enters. She examines a painting she does not understand as the museum abruptly empties during a power outage, its doors locking before she can leave with the other guests. With her parents' permission, Ib wanders off on her own. A young girl, Ib, is taken to fictitious artist Guertena Weiss' art museum by her mother and father. The game takes place at some point after the year 6235, as the numbers given with the paintings are years, as confirmed by the Japanese kanji for the game's script. The game's English translator has said that the game is not demanding of the player's reflexes.

The player wins by seeing the narrative through to one of its ends. Once health reaches zero, the player loses. Obstacles come in the forms of blocked paths, which the player must overcome, and enemies or traps that deplete the player character's health. The player moves a character through two-dimensional fields, interacting with and examining various objects. A version for the Nintendo Switch was announced 13 September 2022, to be released on 9 March 2023. An English localization was released on May 17, 2022. Ī remake using RPG Maker MV with updated graphics was published by Playism and released on Steam for Japanese localization only on April 11, 2022. It has since attained a cult following, and Ib has been credited with helping popularize its engine's use in developing games without role-playing elements.

The game received praise from critics and audiences alike, particularly for its gameplay, plot, characters, and atmosphere.

Upon release in 2012, Ib was a critical and commercial success, and in 2014 achieved over 2 million downloads across Japan and the United States. The art and sprites were created by kouri, and the game was made in a two-dimensional style. Ib is the debut game of developer kouri, and was developed using RPG Maker 2000. Together, they make the goal of escaping the gallery and returning to the real world. Players control the titular character from a top-down perspective trapped in an eldritch art museum, later revealed to be titled the 'Fabricated World', where they meet the characters Garry and Mary. Ib ( イヴ, ibu) is a 2012 freeware horror video game published and developed by kouri for Microsoft Windows.

The rose statue from ib the game