EXPELLED!

Inkle's Overboard prequel offered ingenious innovations - but got a raw deal at launch

- Lewis Packwood

Tiny, Cambridge-based indie studio Inkle has been making narrative-focused games for well over a decade.

While the Jules Verne-inspired 80 Days and sci-fi archaeology title Heaven's Vault were both received with plenty of enthusiasm, it was murder-mystery visual novel Overboard that became one of Inkle's biggest hits.

Not every Inkle title has been so successful, however. Narrative director Jon Ingold says the studio rushed out Overboard because the company's previous game, 2020's Pendragon, had performed so badly. "People didn't like it," he says, "and so for the first time since 2012 or something we were genuinely worried about the company's future."

Nevertheless, when Overboard was launched in June 2021, having had no prior announcement, it went down like a tonic with players reeling from the misery of COVID lockdowns and in need of something funny and feelgood. "We'd never done a shadow drop before," Ingold recalls, "but we felt it would inject some joy into people's lives." Developed in just 100 days (see E369), Overboard quickly became Inkle's second-best-selling game. "So, I immediately started writing a sequel which was set directly after the events of Overboard," Ingold continues. "But it didn't go anywhere. I couldn't get beyond the opening beat."

Development on Overboard was fast, efficient and focused; considering the possibility of a followup, Inkle's art and code director Joseph Humfrey realised it was impossible to recapture the magic - the period detective game was lightning in a bottle. "Obviously you can't be going at that kind of speed for your entire career," he reasons. "You can't do that for more than one project at a time, really."