Press Update and Other News

They say good things come in threes, and we think that probably qualifies when we think about yesterday in the inkle office.

Firstly, there was a mention of 80 DAYS in the New York Times in an article about the rise of interactive storytelling in computer games.

“Of all these games, 80 Days is the most fully realized.” - New York Times

Alongside Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Walking Dead and four other indie games (including the enjoyable audio spy drama Codename Cygnus and the interactive-but-not-in-a-choicey-way The Sailor's Dream), the article concluded: "We’ve been dreaming about this future for decades. Guess what? It’s here."

At the same time, we were also listed as a top pick "book" in this article in The Telegraph, rounding up the best novels of 2014. Is 80 DAYS a book or a game? We don't precisely know, and they don't know either - "Both, really," they declare, "and a delight."

Game of the Year!

Both of those were pretty nice write-ups to receive, but got slightly knocked down again when TIME Magazine published their top ten games of 2014 - across all platforms and scales - and in a list that includes Dark Souls II, Hearthstone and Monument Valley, they put us at #1.

“Here be mechanical golems, underseas trains and steam-powered creatures as you traverse a game world (designed by a British-Indian woman) that doubles as trenchant commentary on the nature of colonialism.” - TIME

Now, we suspect that'll prove to be quite an outlier choice when other places start listing their GOTY picks (are we even a real G? Of course we are, right?) But it's still an amazing thing to receive. We've been gobsmacked by the reception our little game about a valet and an Englishman has had out there in the world.

A little thank-you is coming...

That was Monday. Which makes Tuesday seem like a good time to say we've got a couple of nice surprises coming, hopefully before the end of this year. First up is the long-anticipated Android port of the game, which we teased a few weeks ago. It's already racing against the clock as we speak, and we're just hammering the last few bugs out of the clockwork in time for release.

We've also got another little treat to announce just in time for Winter, but we'll announce that a little closer to the time...

But what about Sorcery! 3?

Of course, if you've been following our work since before 80 DAYS came out, you're probably wondering about what's happened to Sorcery! 3. Originally slated for April it's now so-late-it-isn't-funny, but the good news is we're almost there. The content has hit alpha and the crazy new gameplay features are dropping into place. Mike Schley is back to produce some more maps for the game. And we've brought on board Laurence Chapman, composer on 80 DAYS, to write us a new stirring theme.

This one is big, complicated and different, and we think will up the ante on the kind of gameplay a text-driven choice-based game can achieve.

Wish us well as we knuckle down for the final sprint!