This Is One Big Little Game

If your knowledge of mobile games is limited to match 3 titles and Clash of Clans, you need to widen your world. Inkle’s 80 Days is everything that those games isn’t: A text-heavy, character-based, combat-free adventure.

And yet the reception for the game has been incredible: four BAFTA nominations, a Game of the Year award from Time, and just recently, enough fan love to finance a huge new expansion and a jump to the PC platform.

Here’s why the game is so big … along with some exclusive images provided by the developers.

It’s An Actual Story

Set in 1872 steampunk London and based (way loosely) on Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days, the game pits the player against the clock. You play Passepartout, a loyal valet who somehow has to drag your rich, spoiled master, Fogg, around the planet in less than three months … and with only a few grand in his pocket.

The Possibilities are (Almost) Endless

As you leave London and travel east, a total of 170 possible locations open up to you. But the average play-through involves only about 20 cities. The result, says Inkle’s Jon Ingold: “We reckon you can play through about eight times without ever seeing anything you have seen before.”

It Has Day vs. Night Gaming

Just like certain gigantic RPGs (ahem, Witcher 3, we’re looking at you) the locations in 80 Days offer different possibilities depending on the time of day. Certain clubs and businesses are open only at night. And if Passepartout chooses to cower in his hotel room instead of venturing out, entire plot branches, and modes of transport, can be lost.

It Doubles As a Novel

Actually, more like seven novels.

Not to rag on Witcher 3, but that massive story involves a reported 450,000 words. In contrast, the debut version of 80 Days featured 500,000 words. An expansion that debuted this fall puts the new total at 750,000. “For one play-through,” Ingold says, “you see about 3 percent of that.”

You Can Fine Extremely Rare Easter Eggs

Every game is better with Easter eggs. Some of the eggs in 80 Days are so obscure that only an estimated 13 players have found them thus far. (To give you a sense of scale: iPhone sales total about 200,000: Not a huge number compared with console blockbusters, but impressive for a game with this format. Also consider: Inkle is a two-person operation, and one woman, Meg Jayanth, wrote the bulk of the copy.)

The expansion, which just launched this fall, has new Easter eggs that Ingold says have yet to be uncovered by any player.

You Ride Crazy Transport Vehicles

If you’re a fan of creative transports (and you know you’re lusting after those Reins of the Heavenly Azure Cloud Serpent on Warcraft) then know this: The writers of 80 Days love them even more than you. This is steampunk at its wildest, with airships, phaetons and other whimsical rides you’ve got to see to believe.

You Face Dozens of Consquences

Even super-deep RPGs such as Dragon Age: Inquisition can run into problems when it comes story endings. Inquisition players spent hours choosing features for a fortress whose specs turned out to have no effect on the final boss fight.

But in 80 Days, the choices you make can have very real consequences, including a long-lasting romance, which is considered to be a very rare ending.

You Get a Genuine RPG Protagonist

It’s rare to see a mobile-born game with a truly malleable hero. But that’s just what Passepartout is. He can be gay, straight or sexually fluid. His military background (the game takes place after a war on an alternate Earth) is for you to decide. He can even be a man of color or not, all depending on the script options you choose.

As you make choices, the game labels your character on a scale ranging from Shabby to Superior (or maybe it’s Brilliant; it’s a matter of debate among players).

Yep, You Can Die

Text-heavy mobile adventure games are not known for Dark Souls-style repeat deaths. But you can die in 80 Days, through a fairly obscure escapade to the North Pole. You can also chase a jewel thief, play poker with a mogul, break into a harem, sail with pirates, and even solve a murder mystery aboard a steampunk aircraft.

You Can’t Meet Every Character During the First Dozen Playthroughs

There’s a ghost sitting on a train through of Europe; a corrupt sheriff; an all-woman group of desert drill engineers; a south Asian revolutionary; a sentient robotic tiger; several guilds; and various missionaries, detectives, shady dealers and prospectors, each with their own agenda, likes and dislikes. Players who figure them out can unlock new routes or get access to unique items that come in handy later.

Even the Economic System is Deep

The world of 80 Days includes banks and markets (which are open for limited daylight hours) as well as various other ways to finance your master’s goofy wager. Players can fight a professional boxer for cash, or seek out a pair of loaded dice that will help them win craps games against unsavory types below decks.

It Just Jumped to the PC

One sign of a successful mobile game is a jump to more traditional platforms. In September, 80 Days announced a ground-up Unity 5 rebuild that allows PC and Mac users to join the fun for $9.99. The bulk of the work was done by ex-Rocksteady developer Ben Nicholson, who wrote the original physics code for Batman’s cape in Arkham Asylum.

Hollywood is Calling

There’s nothing stopping Hollywood from doing its own big-screen story about a steampunk-themed version of Around the World in 80 Days. And yet the player community for the 80 Days game is big and engaged enough that entertainment companies are talking to Inkle about a migration to a big or small screen.

It Could Be the Next Big Franchise?

“We’ve had long discussions with two book publishers, three major TV production companies, and one of the biggest international entertainment brands on the planet since 80 Days came out,” Ingold says. “So who knows what the future holds …”