STUDIO PROFILE - INKLE

The 80 Days developer on burnout and reinvention

- SAMUEL HORTI

Around a table in Scott’s All Day café near Cambridge station, staff from 80 Days developer Inkle are arguing about Mercury’s orbit. One of them thinks the planet’s elliptical path means Venus is, believe it or not, sometimes closer to our sun. The others disagree. “I’ll Google it,” the dissenter says. “Or”, chimes their colleague with a grin, “you could go back to primary school.” Everybody chuckles.

Ten seconds later the joke is forgotten and they’re back at work: four developers at four laptops working on four different games. Art and code director Joseph Humfrey – chunky headphones over his ears – is building a prototype for a rhythm-action platformer inspired by hikes in the Scottish Highlands. Narrative director Jon Ingold is tinkering with a Treasure Island “conman game”. Senior artist, Laura Dilloway’s focus is the Heaven’s Vault Switch port, while designer Tom Kail is adjusting the camera for Pendragon, an Arthurian, grid-based strategy game that was a secret until today, and will probably be Inkle’s next release.

It’s at moments like this – a small team teasing each other and trying to decide where they’ll go for lunch – that some of the UK’s best narrative games come to life. The team has no office: Ingold comes to this café every day, usually sitting at the same table by the window. Members of the team flit in and out, and can largely choose their hours, taking the morning off and instead of working at night if they want. “I’m like an old man,” Ingold says, “and you all come to visit me.”