inkle, an independent developer of narrative games, and London-based publisher Profile Books have released 80 Days on the App Store. Set in an alternate-history version of Jules Verne’s Victorian era, 80 Days is a massive mobile game that sends players on a real-time race around an ever changing, often surprising steampunk world. This story-driven adventure for iPhone and iPad sells for £2.99 / $4.99 (or equivalent in local currency): https://itunes.apple.com/app/id892812659
Playing as Phileas Fogg’s French valet Passepartout, you must use strategy and cunning to help your employer win a hefty bet. Choose your route, manage your finances, and lose yourself in an epic, branching adventure as you attempt to circumnavigate the globe in only 80 days – or faster! Stylishly illustrated with art deco-inspired graphics and situated on a lush 3D globe, the game plays out beneath a non-stop clock, the sun rising and setting as you explore cities, visit markets, talk to people, tend to Fogg’s well-being, and execute each stage of your epic journey.
In 80 Days, players explore a huge, imaginative world rife with tensions and inventions. Spinning off from Verne’s 1873 novel Around the World in 80 Days, writer Meg Jayanth has built an entire new world’s worth of dynamic stories with numerous subplots and conflicts driven by players’ individual decisions. The journey through 150 cities across all seven continents includes opportunities to engage with hundreds of diverse, fully realized characters who are not just part of the scenery, but can be interacted with in depth.
“80 Days is a game where you are not the only hero. The characters you encounter, each with their own stories, may be as lost as you are, as beautiful, as venal, as foolish or determined or ridiculous,” says author Meg Jayanth. “When you play 80 Days, Passepartout’s stories – your stories – never go quite where you expect them to. You can change the world of 80 Days and, hopefully, it will change you back.”
inkle is known for games with incredibly “branchy” storylines that write themselves, on the fly, around decisions players make throughout the narrative. With a script of around 500,000 words (more than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy), over 10,000 potential choices, and the globe literally at your fingertips, each 80 Days player is ensured a unique journey with numerous replay opportunities. But this is no solitary pilgrimage: a networked live feed tracks players’ progress in real time, so you can see how others have progressed, share your own adventures, and compete to achieve the quickest time around the world.
For more 80 Days details, please visit the official website: http://www.inklestudios.com/80days