This week, Google launched its first movie industry cross-promotion ever, according to Adotas, around the release of The Da Vinci Code: The Movie.

Working with Sony Pictures, they have launched the Da Vinci Code Quest, an online puzzle game that challenges players with a dizzying 12,358 puzzles and no simple solutions. The Da Vinci Code: The Movie is distributed by Sony Pictures and is based, of course, on the mega-selling novel by Dan Brown.

According to a post on the Official Google Blog by Google software engineer/for-time world puzzle champion Wei-Hwa Huang, the puzzle game’s many twists and turns are “designed to honor both a fanatical puzzler’s sheer love of a mental challenge and the labyrinthine spirit of The Da Vinci Code itself.”

Huang developed the puzzles while Google and Sony developed the overall user experience. Those who successfully navigate the Da Vinci Quest will win one of several prizes, including the grand prize of a tour of Paris, London, Rome and New York, and a hefty grab bag of Sony electronics that includes a Bravia HDTV and a Vaio laptop. For 24 days, the Da Vinci Code Quest will feature one new puzzle or riddle per day spanning several levels of difficulty. The puzzles are organized into six categories, including Symbol, which is a version of the popular Su Doku number game.

Around the time of The Da Vinci Code’s original publishing, Random House released two "WebQuests" similar in concept to the current Quest, but they are less-elaborate online puzzle games than the ones Sony and Google are rolling out now. After the questions end on May 11, the first 10,000 players to correctly solve their daily puzzles will receive a replica of the "cryptex" –- a cylindrical decoder device that played a key role in Dan Brown’s story — they will move on to the final round. The finalists will then face off against five more puzzlers, with the last question being asked on May 19, which is, appropriately enough, the release date of the movie.

If you win, don't forget who turned you on the contest ...

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