This Shrunken Head Is Your Game-Winning Prize, Believe It Or Not

A million bucks? A key to the city? Those aren’t the prizes you’ll win if you are among the first 10 people to finish Zon8, a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not webgame launching in June. You’ll get a shrunken head.

It’s not a real shrunken head. It’s a replica, Ripley’s Tim O’Brien told me when he visited Kotaku’s New York office today. Why would the famous Ripley’s company give out shrunken heads? “We’re known for our shrunken heads,” he told me. “… and two-headed cows.”

There will be 10 prize heads in all, each a little different, each a prize to which O’Brien could attach no price.

The Ripley’s game, called Zon8, will be free to play in browsers when it launches in June. It’s being made by a web-development group called 2AdvancedStudios and involves solving eight “zones” of mysteries. O’Brien mentioned that you might have to find a hidden shoe from the world’s tallest man.

Zon8 has you exploring Robert Ripley’s secret archives and eventually confronting the artificial intelligence S.A.R.I. The game’s trailer shows a little more:

To win a shrunken head, you’ll have to be among the first 10 people to finish the game. If you are one of the next 40, you’ll win one of two Ripley’s books. The game is estimated to take about six or eight hours to complete. To sign-up, you’ll have to register for the game at this link through the Ripley’s site.