Welcome to our critical casebook on Meg Jayanth's interactive novel/game, 80 Days, released by Inkle Studios. This casebook was crafted by Millikin University students enrolled in Dr. Tony R. Magagna's English 202: Writing About Literature course during the Fall 2017 semester. Although 80 Days has enjoyed incredible critical acclaim since its release in 2014 — including being named Time magazine's "Game of the Year" — there has as yet been little published scholarship dedicated to the game, particularly exploring how it functions as a work of literature. Thus, the students whose work is collected here have put together this casebook as an effort both to build the scholarly conversation on the work, and to showcase their own original critical contributions to the field of literary scholarship. By exploring this website, we hope that you will learn more about this incredible, immersive piece of fiction and the varied perspectives and themes that it confronts.

In addition to the in-depth academic analyses presented here, you will also find contextual information that we feel is useful to understanding and appreciating 80 Days. This includes: background information on Meg Jayanth, the lead writer of the game; an overview of the history represented (and deconstructed) in the narrative, including information on Jules Verne's original novel and the British Empire; a closer look at the different regions of the world represented in the game; and tips and gameplay resources to help new players orient themselves to 80 Days. In addition, you will find here links to useful resources elsewhere on the Internet, including interviews, reviews, and media clips.

All of the information and scholarship presented in this casebook has been selected and generated by the English 202 students themselves. 80 Days: A Critical Casebook joins several other casebooks produced by students in Millikin University's English department. In 2016, Dr. Magagna's students explored Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, while in 2015 they took on Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones. Additionally, Dr. Magagna's students have studied Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs (2014), Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad (2013), Gregory Maguire's Wicked (2011), Marjane Satrapi's graphic memoir Persepolis (2010), and Junot Díaz's novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2009). Other courses at Millikin have examined Toni Morrison's Beloved, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, and Helena Maria Viramontes' Under the Feet of Jesus.