Overview
- In 2014, Inkle was invited to pitch a Doctor Who game but never received a response from the BBC, with Jon Ingold noting they are “technically” still waiting.
- The team developed a concept titled The Daedalus Effect, including a TARDIS console-room navigation prototype and a playable fly-through-the-vortex travel sequence.
- Work on the pitch triggered a rebuild of Inkle’s Ink narrative engine into the modern version that the studio later open-sourced.
- Rather than wait indefinitely, Inkle turned the prototypes into the original game Heaven’s Vault, where Doctor Who influences are evident in its travel visuals and human‑robot pairing.
- Ingold now says he would hesitate to take a similar tie-in, citing the proliferation of Who games since 2014, as the studio leans into originals like A Highland Song and Overboard!.