In amongst the rough vegetation of the app store amongst the gentle hum of near-identical platformers, addictive, but generic puzzlers, you will often find a true gem of a game. Every now and then, developers have a vision that they want to put something out there that’s worth a whole heap of a damn; when a quick buck isn’t the end game. 80 Days is one of these.
Exploring the relatively new and emerging ‘game book’ genre, 80 Days uses a strong, written narrative to guide the character. It’s a simple concept and allows the player to submerge – but its mechanics also means it’s highly accessible.
Developed by inkle, British author, and co-founder of the studio Jon Ingold recently explained to Pocket Gamer how the process of creating interactive games like 80 Days and the Sorcery! series led to the studio creating inklewriter – a tool that allows other, non-coders to create these game book apps.
“When we began creating interactive stories, we had a sense that it was a strange idea to try and create a kind of storytelling that people couldn’t “do”. If you want to write a story, you grab a pen; but if you want to write a choice-based story, you have to learn a programming language – and by the time you’ve done that, you’ve probably forgotten what you wanted to write about.”
Ingold also went on to talk about the democratization of games development:
“We’ve had lots of games now made by people who are good at programming, people who liked D&D, by engineers and mathematicians. But if games – or interactive art in general – is interesting, then there are a lot more things we can do if other people get involved. You know what I want? I want to play games made by people over 75.”
For more insight into game books, inklewriter and creating tools for everyone to create games, it’s well worth checking out the full interview on Pocket Gamer.
Interested in 80 Days? Check out our review
Download 80 Days from the App Store