We're popping champagne corks and tossing our top hats into the air here at inkle HQ - because 80 Days is out right now for PC and Mac on Steam.
A year in the making, this is the original, award-winning mobile game, rebuilt from the ground up for desktops. With a streamlined user-interface, bigger and brighter visuals, this is the ultimate 80 Days experience.
We've added thirty new cities and 150k words of new content. We've opened up Canada, North and South America, as well as adding a few pitstops along the way - Port Moresby, Pitcairn Island; Zurich, Meteora Valley and Tunis...
There are smaller tweaks too - for instance, background play: if the original 80 Days was good for curling up with on the sofa and going on an adventure, we've built this version to be played in a window, so you can travel around the world while you work. (And to ensure you don't miss anything, the clock will automatically pause when you're in another window.)
Of course, you can still play full-screen for an immersive experience as well.
When we released 80 DAYS last year, it was something special for us, but we didn't expect people to take it into their hearts the way they did. But we also knew we weren't quite finished with the game, either. There were still more adventures to tell and more places to explore.
Last Christmas, when we brought the game to Android, we indulged ourselves a little by including a new journey - a perilous, possibly even fatal trip to through the Arctic to the North Pole itself.
Now, to celebrate the PC and Mac editions coming on the 29th September, we've added a huge new update - so big we've been calling it internally "Season 2".
If you want to embark on new adventures without spoilers look away now! Otherwise, here are a few juicy details about what's coming up.
The update also adds one huge new plot-line, which sees Passepartout falling prey to Europe's most notorious international jewel-thief, the Black Rose. Is she friend or foe? What is her interest in the valet and his master? And will she be able to discover the Artificer's greatest secret?
“I have learned that the wealth of the Artificers has grown beyond what they might keep in the banks of any one nation without paying large sums of taxes. So they have begun, in secret, to store it away in a vault of their own devising.” - The Black Rose
But who is she, really?
We've also returned to Verne for more inspiration: most notably, somewhere in the world, a certain Verne hero is preparing a ballistic rocket, ready to fire himself into the sky...
“Hold on. I dare say this will be somewhat more dramatic than last time!” - Michel Ardan
Deputise for a corrupt Sheriff, play poker with a billionaire, go over Niagara Falls, rekindle a lost romance, discover Port Moresby (to the surprise of its inhabitants) and soar skywards with the curious Levitating Atheists of Valaam.
Hundreds of new people to meet, with secrets, hopes, dreams and grievances to discover.
“It is too refreshing to be anonymous for a few minutes, out here above the world.” - 'Lalla'
80 DAYS isn't a game about endings, but there are a few more of those to be found: two in particular, we think, are destined to be real crowd-pleasers...
The new release brings the game's total word count to nearly 750,000 words, longer than the first five Harry Potter novels combined. It's also pushing our inklewriter engine to its limits.
“I suppose that's the real truth. We are all connected by a hundred untaken journeys.” - The Lady Aodha
This is, we think, the definitive edition of 80 DAYS, and it'll available to play in just two weeks time. We couldn't be more excited. And if you're looking forward, do stop by the Steam Store's community page and let us know!
We're excited to finally announce what we've been up to for the last year, in the background, here at inkle HQ. In collaboration with Cambridge-based studio Cape Guy, we've rebuilt 80 DAYS from the ground up in Unity, for PC and Mac. And it'll be out on Steam, GoG and Humble at the end on September 29th, priced at $9.99.
To celebrate the release, we've included a massive content update, adding thirty new cities, over 150k words, and two major new world-spanning plotlines. Love, betrayal, thievery, murder, poker and piracy await! (UPDATE: Read more here!)
We go into a bit more detail in this interview here on Macworld.
The desktop versions are being built in Unity, with the bulk of the work done by Cape Guy, a new indie studio founded by ex-Rocksteady developer Ben Nicholson. Ben approached us to take the game on, and quickly impressed us with his credentials as a developer (if you want to know what he did on the Batman games, for instance, take a look at the company name and guess - Ben wrote the original physics code for Batman's cape in Arkham Asylum.)
We've been building in Unity 5, and leaning heavily on the new UI canvas system, with some of our features - such as the gently animated text reveal - really putting it through its paces.
We've also been making use of the graphical capabilities to produce some fancy new colour and shading effects, including a day/night cycle that moves across the surface of the globe.
The new version is prettier than ever!
Update: Laurence has written a bit about the new work on his own blog - along with an early preview of the theme for Sorcery! 2!
We've got a little treat coming for Sorcery! 3 players soon - a new recording of the epic theme tune, by composer Laurence Chapman, and recorded by a live orchestra.
The recording came about thanks to the $99 Orchestra, a Kickstarted-orchestra dedicated to making high-quality live recordings for use by, well, whoever!
We've been so pleased with the results we're looking forward to using them again on two new pieces of music - firstly, the theme for the final Sorcery! instalment (coming soon - and no, sorry, we don't know when!) - but we're also going back to create something new for Sorcery! 2.
Here's Laurence hard at work composing more Sorcery!
We're looking forward to the results!
It's taken six weeks, but it's finally been cracked!
When we released Sorcery! 3: The Seven Serpents in late April, we teased on this forum (warning: major SPOILERS on that thread!) that the game had one ultimate secret: an ending that was totally fair, but almost impossibly difficult to find. An ending so hidden, in fact, that we hadn't managed to do it ourselves.
Normally, on the internet, "difficult" means "solved today" and "secret" means "solved tomorrow", but this one has kept the posters on Touch Arcade busy for over a month, and has been repeatedly declared impossible.
The goal is to complete the game, killing all seven, but without using any of the "beacons of time". Yes, that means, getting across the ravines, gullies, and mountain ranges, all without the power to alter the landscape. It also means defeating that Serpent. And yes, it seems, it can be done. (We thought so!)
There's now a full walk-through on the forum, so if you want to play the game unspoiled, then you've been warned...
While people have been Serpent-slaying, other players are still working on 80 Days, and Phileas Fogg fans will be pleased - or appalled! - to hear the world record has been smashed to a mere 28 days. The previous best of 30 lasted for a good six months.
...We're keeping one. No, we're keeping it. For now. More, soon.
