80 Days | |
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Developer(s) | Inkle |
Publisher(s) | Inkle |
Distributor(s) | App Store, Google Play, Amazon Appstore |
Director(s) | Joseph Humfrey Jon Ingold |
Artist(s) | Jaume Illustration Joseph Humfrey Alan Dukes |
Writer(s) |
Meg Jayanth Jon Ingold |
Composer(s) | Laurence Chapman |
Platform(s) | iOS, Android, Microsoft Windows, OS X |
Release date(s) |
iOS
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Genre(s) | Interactive fiction |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
80 Days is an interactive fiction game released by Inkle on iOS platforms on July 31, 2014 and Android on December 16, 2014. It was released on Microsoft Windows and OS X on September 29, 2015. It employs branching narrative storytelling, allowing the player to make choices that impact the plot.
The plot is loosely based on Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days. The year is 1872 and Monsieur Phileas Fogg has placed a wager at the Reform Club that he can circumnavigate the world in eighty days or less. The game follows the course of this adventure, as narrated by Phileas Fogg's manservant Passepartout, whose actions and decisions are controlled by the player.
After leaving London on an underwater train to Paris or a caleche to Cambridge, the player can choose their own route around the world, travelling from city to city. Each city and journey contains unique narrative content. The developers estimate that on one complete circumnavigation of the globe players will see approximately 2% of the game's 750,000 words of textual content.
In their role as valet, players must manage finances, their master's health, and time as well as buying and selling items in different markets around the globe. The choices made by the player in story sections can also have a large impact on how the journey proceeds.
The game has several secrets, Easter Eggs and hidden endings, with the rarest having been seen by as few as 8 players, as well as several references to Verne's works, including Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and From the Earth to the Moon. The game is also partly inspired by the steampunk genre, featuring such elements as sapient mechanical transport, hovercraft, submersibles and an entire city that walks on four gigantic legs.