It’s barely mentioned aside from the title, but I just wanted to say that 80 Days is a really wonderful game that is well worth your time if you’re into text-based games.
It’s more of an interactive story than a puzzle game, with some light resource management elements. But the writing is wonderful and there are hundreds of possible paths and storylines to discover. Its replayability is very high, whether you’re trying to find the fastest route, seeking out the most remote locations or unlocking hidden subplots.
It really does well to invoke the spirit of adventure in travel, and it was a particular delight during the pandemic days when that wasn’t possible.
Plus they’ve open sourced the language and tools used to create the branching narrative!
The graphics are mostly for atmosphere, the main focus is paragraphs of prose that describe the story and what happens to the main characters. Instead of a parser, you tap to choose one of several choices at each decision point, and you can also decide which routes to take on the main map. Aside from that, you can buy and sell items to make money.
Your choices depend on where you are, of course, but can also be affected by your money, items in your inventory, and past decisions. So, for example, if you help an inventor in Prague, he may give you a device that you can use later in Delhi.
EDIT: Here's an example of the text scenes and how you choose options:
I haven't played this one through, but I think it's an extension of the work they did on "Sourcery", which was an adaptation of the old "choose your own adventure" books to digital. For that one, they kept the book's story structure, added static images, a map, and a dice-rolling mechanic for combat.
So the base story mechanic is multiple choice, with some state (inventory, flags, stats) based on the game play. It's kind of between a text adventure and a novel.
To me it feels like they're exploring a new portion of the interactive fiction space, and it's interesting to watch where they take it.
It's a choose your own adventure. It's got some neat graphics, but they're just decorative. You don't interact with them. There would be nothing different about the game if they were stripped out and you played the game through an 80-column command line.
The graphics are mostly 'functional', I wouldn't even go as far as calling them 'neat'.
There's basically only two kinds of graphics in the game: a world map and the icon for the items you can buy and sell. (Unless they changed the game, I haven't played in more than a year.)
It's been years since I played it, but I remember there being some fairly intricate vector illustrations in certain locations. A vague memory of some sort of giant land-walking robot you rode for a while. It may have had some animation, or that might just be my imagination.
Oh yeah but I'll never be interested in portable gaming. I tried it during the years. Arcade handhelds in the 80s, I had a PSP, I played games on my first gen iPhone. But always I ended up dropping it soon after. Similar to many other experiences, I'll never do serious work on a phone. It's really a secondary device for me. I'm not a mobile-first kind of person.
Working on a mobile feels like I'm reading the newspaper through the core of a toilet roll while trying to write a summary with a pen in my mouth. Whereas my 24" workstation is so productive and comfortable <3
It’s more of an interactive story than a puzzle game, with some light resource management elements. But the writing is wonderful and there are hundreds of possible paths and storylines to discover. Its replayability is very high, whether you’re trying to find the fastest route, seeking out the most remote locations or unlocking hidden subplots.
It really does well to invoke the spirit of adventure in travel, and it was a particular delight during the pandemic days when that wasn’t possible.
Plus they’ve open sourced the language and tools used to create the branching narrative!
https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/