A game I love and would love to talk about is the game 80 Days.
Mechanics:
The player controls the actions of the protagonist Phileas Fogg’s valet Passepartout, who manages his finances, inventory, Fogg’s physical health, transport schedule, and trading various common and exotic items in markets around the world.
Dynamics:
This creates the dynamics of player agency and urgency, as players become invested into Fogg’s competition and become engrossed in traveling between cities and exploring new places. As an exemplification on the amount of investment, there are player-initiated global competitions where players compete against each other to see who can go around the world in the shortest amount of time.
Aesthetics:
The aesthetic of narrative is emphasized, as players become immersed in the storyline of Fogg and Passepartout, having the agency to make choices that directly impact the story’s plot and progress.
In addition, the aesthetic of discovery is created, as players view the game as an uncharted territory for exploration, as there are one hundred and fifty cities for the player to explore and one can only explore a small subset of the cities in each playthrough.
Another aesthetic realized in this game is challenge, as players have to strive to travel as quickly as possible while overcoming constraints of limited resources of money, inventory space and health (players have to ensure Fogg’s health is not down to zero, as in this case Fogg dies and the game ends prematurely).
