Fallen London and Sunless Skies developers Failbetter Games have blogged about the dark art of running a sustainable business, while sharing a tiny bit more about their next, unannounced game. Said game is apparently a change of genre from Failbetter's previous, exceedingly narrative-driven open world titles and free-to-play RPGs. It'll also be a little less oppressive, aiming for a feeling of "fireside menace" - that is, "an awareness of the world's dangers, but also warmth and comfort", which certainly feels like an appropriate mood for a time of mass layoffs and game cancellations, to say nothing of recent conspiracy-fuelled harassment campaigns.
]]>A couple of years ago, in 2019, Failbetter Games were thinking about a new DLC for their historical-gothic, RPG-with-a-flying-steam-train Sunless Skies. They were starting pre-production on their next game, but wouldn't need a full team's worth of resources on it. It would be, said CEO Adam Myers, "economically useful" to have something to work on that didn't have a deadline. They wanted it to transform the game, in the same way that the Zubmariner DLC had transformed Sunless Sea. It involved exploring history, and accruing a kind of meddled-with-time score for being a very naughty little time meddler.
By summer 2020, they'd swept the DLC off the table.
]]>Grim and mysterious narrative adventure Sunless Skies has just launched its Sovereign Edition, a bug-fixed and expanded version of the game that doubles as a free updates. In adition to the lovely writing that features in all of Failbetter Games' gothic apocalypse stories, the Sovereign Edition adds new elements of character progression and probably more cannibalism. The update has launched today for all current owners and also marks the game's console launch.
]]>Failbetter are revamping their gothic space-train RPG Sunless Skies next month with the Sovereign Edition, coming to PC as a free update. They promise better performance and loads of balance tweaks, as well as improved character progression, new interfaces, and a reworked starvation system that'll give you "various new and probably inadvisable choices about what to eat." Yum. All this and more will arrive on May 19th.
]]>Whether you prefer wizards, sword-and-board warriors, the irradiated wasteland, vampires, or isometric text-heavy stories, the RPG is the genre that will never let you down. Accross the dizzing number of games available where you can play a role, there's something for everyone - and we've tried to reflect that in our list of the best RPGs on PC. The past couple of years have been great for RPGs, so there are some absolute classics as well as brand spanking new games on this list. And there's more to look forwards to, with rumblings of Dragon Age: Dread Wolf finally on the horizon, and space epic Starfield in our rear view mirror. Whatever else may happen, though, this list will provide you with the 50 best RPGs that you can download and play on PC right now.
]]>The games industry has been hit pretty hard from the Covid-19 pandemic. Most events this side of the year have been cancelled or postponed, and now hundreds of workers being urged to work from home (including all of us here at RPS). The impact of this style of working will be different for everyone, so I spoke with some UK studios to see how they're getting on.
"What we fear might be affected is creativity, as a lot of what defines Bossa stems from impromptu chats, quick discussions, serendipity between team members. We'll have to offset these with more organised structure around online meetings, which invariably will change things a bit," said Henrique Olifiers, co-founder of Bossa, creators of Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread.
]]>It’s often said that the more restrictions you’re working against, the more creative you’ll become. We’re planning to test that theory to its limits next Friday at PAX West, where our Nate will be inviting a team of developers to puzzle their way around some real thinkabouters in Rock Paper Shotgun’s Game Design Hotseat.
How could you make a grand strategy game with only six old Casio calculators for display? How would you design a massively multiplayer online beat ‘em up? What about an FPS controlled with a trombone? We won’t be posing these questions (because we’ve just put them here and that ruins the surprise), but we’ll be posing questions just like them, and giving the team a tablet to sketch out their workings as they scramble for answers.
]]>Even in the midst of E3 Hell Week, it's nice to see that smaller studios keep on kicking. Today, Failbetter Games rolled out their next major update for Victorian space-train RPG Sunless Skies. There's a new officer to add to your crew, sporting a positively nautical set of whiskers and with his own story arc to follow. Old Wonders Of The Skies will now have story events attached to them, you'll find new agents to get missions from, and The Reach appears to have a bit of a fungus problem developing. Yet more reasons -- and all free -- to return to riding the aetherial rails.
]]>Bizarre, beautiful and brilliant sky-train simulator Sunless Skies is a stonking game, and a notable improvement over its nautical (but nice) predecessor, but nothing is perfect. Today, Failbetter rolled out the first major update for the game, overhauling Albion, home of space-London and the second hub area of the game. The Wayfarer update also gives officers more options for work outside of your train, adds dangerous new consequences for taking damage in battle and toughens up the survival aspects of the game. The sky is slightly less vast, but more terrifying now.
]]>The word 'lonely' comes up often when discussing Sunless Skies, which seems like an odd thing to say about a game in which you haul yourself around the stars in the company of up to two-dozen crew members. But that's the tone of Failbetter's twisted sci-fi Victoriana roguelike: feeling desperately alone and vulnerable, in a desperately large and lethal place. Those crew? They're all nameless, faceless, hired only to die on your dime. In Sunless Skies' merciless vacuum, care is a luxury you cannot afford.
]]>Sunless Skies, the cosmic horror, spacefaring roguelite, splits my brain like a log beneath an axe.
On the one hand, a certain ennui - I have seen all this before, I have made these long, fraught voyages before, many times, in its fine predecessor Sunless Sea.
On the other, late at night my thoughts drift, unbidden, back to its dark places, its lonely ports and clockwork suns and frozen voids. Places that left impressions, places that told me unsettling stories and implied many more stories still.
I don't want to do it all over again. I don't want anything except to do it all again.
]]>Exploring the world of Sunless Skies with a mouse and keyboard is all well and good, but now you can do it solely with your imagination - and the rulebook to Skyfarer. It's an official pen & paper RPG based on Sunless Skies, released by Failbetter Games for free on Saturday. You might recognise designers Grant Howitt and Chris Taylor, with their impressive tabletop chops.
Skyfarer wasn't the only reveal from Failbetter over the weekend - we now know that Sunless Skies will tootle out of early access on January 31st.
]]>Why rush to lose your mind in the depths of space when strange aeons barely notice your passing? With that old adage in mind, Failbetter Games have announced plans to keep Sunless Skies in early access a few months longer, now planning to launch the 'experience cosmic horror in space then eat your crew' follow-up to their 'experience cosmic horror on the seas then eat your crew' exploration RPG Sunless Sea in January 2019. They say they want to go back and improve the first areas they created, and then polish and logistics and yadda yadda. In the meantime, a new update today added a new region, the dark and deadly Eleutheria. Have a look in this here trailer.
]]>Failbetter Games have launched a shiny redesign of Fallen London, the browser-based alt-history Victoriana horror RPG which spawned Sunless Sea then Sunless Skies. Failbetter last updated the site's look in 2009, when I'm not sure computers even had came in colour? Now it looks fancier and it works better on different screen sizes too, so I suppose you can fill your pocket telephone with horrors and oddities.
]]>In their early access mission to fill Sunless Skies with strange new worlds, new life, and new civilisations, Failbetter Games today added their creepiest creation yet: a city named London. Located in the new region of Albion, this London place is ruled by an emperor from a sacred bloodline and loomed over by a vast clock tower reminding its downtrodden denizens that their time is running out. Outrageous stuff, how do Failbetter come up with it? The new region brings with it nine new ports including the hub city of London, new Spectacles, enemies, Discoveries with such exciting names as Squirmings and Well of the Wolf, equipment, and so on. Have a look:
]]>Following a difficult year, Sunless Sea and Fallen London devs Failbetter have battened down the hatches and scaled back some of their plans, including laying off several members of staff and delaying Sunless Skies. Part of the problem is early access sales of the encounter-unspeakable-cosmic-horrors-then-eat-your-crew space survive-o-exploration RPG sequel have been lower than expected. The small English studio assure that they will finish Sunless Skies but they want to be sure they'll be safe to fund another game beyond that, so they've made a few cautious cuts.
]]>This week’s Premature Evaluation sees Fraser hurtling through the cosmos inside a space-faring locomotive in Failbetter Games’ eccentric early access space sandbox, Sunless Skies.
Narrative-driven games aren’t normally a comfortable fit with piecemeal early access development - it’s harder to offer a compelling vertical slice of a story that’s meant to be viewed as a whole. This isn’t Failbetter Games’ first rodeo, however; the studio has already had one successful early access game in Sunless Sea. Like its predecessor, Sunless Skies has another advantage: it’s a game about making and experiencing your own story through evocative vignettes and quests, rather than following a prescribed narrative.
]]>After exploring a cheerygrim subterranean Victorian city in Fallen London, the seas around it in Sunless Sea, then beneath those seas in the Zubmariner expansion, Failbetter Games have blasted off to the dark and dreadful cosmos above with Sunless Skies. Continuing in the same explore-o-trade-a-cannibalise RPG vein as Sunless Sea, Skies today rocketed into early access. The full release should follow in mid-2018 but if you'd like to develop space madness sooner and maybe help shape the game, you can now buy into early access.
]]>Sunless Skies [official site], the starfaring follow-up to lose-your-mind-and-eat-your-crew-adrift-on-an-underground-sea trade-o-RPG Sunless Sea, will hit early access on August 30th. That's the word today from developer Failbetter Games, who say that early access helped them shape Sunless Sea and they're hopeful it'll work out well for those dark skies too.
]]>Attention all delicious friends (or whatever the airborne equivalent is - delicious airline catering pals?): Failbetter's celestial horror RPG Sunless Skies [official site] is recruiting for its closed alpha. The closed alpha will kick off on 5 June with the aim of exposing an early version of the game to a limited audience for the purposes of bug squishing. It's a public signup which doesn't seem to have any barriers or expectations of pre-ordering or whatnot so if you're interested and don't mind a scruffier game state you should try your luck!
]]>Sunless Seas sequel Sunless Skies [official site] has a rosy glow to it as it nears the finish line of its Kickstarter. Successfully bringing in £300k in pledges - 3x what devs Failbetter originally asked for - will do that, eh?
In other words, the spaceshippy alt-Victoriana exploration, storytelling and sudden death game is, barring developmental disaster, looking like a sure thing.
]]>Since Failbetter previewed it yesterday I've been poking around the Kickstarter campaign for Sunless Skies. I only had a basic idea of the game (Sunless Sea/Fallen London in space with a certain amount of "stars being murdered"), although I know there have been a few blogs and chats and things which covered the game in more depth. I think I was waiting for Failbetter to nail their ideas down a bit before I started spoilering myself.
Anyway, here's a summary of the Kickstarter stuff because it's nice to know more about their thinking for the sequel of a game I really love:
]]>As we continue to turn the one known human-friendly planet against us, the rich and hopeful look to space. Mate, we're purpose-built for Earth yet couldn't make this work; do you expect we'll fare better with what - and who - awaits us up there? Sunless Skies [official site, Failbetter's follow-up the the oceanic horror of Sunless Sea, will let us explore that possibility. Announcing that their Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign will launch on February 1st, Failbetter have shared a few flavourful snippets of their cosmic horror. Would you believe they've managed to make black holes even worse?
]]>Failbetter have been looking at Sunless Sea in order to inform what they do in Sunless Skies [official site], their Sunless Sea sequel set in a kind of Victorian/Fallen London version of space where the stars are being murdered. It looks like one of the lessons is about making the return journey part of exploration a bit shorter/less punishing. Obviously Sunless Skies is still in early development but the blog made for interesting reading from a design problem/solution point of view and I've been thinking about what I'd change myself for a while as a result.
]]>'Sunless Skies' sounds a bit too 'A Day Trip To Reading' to my ears. I guess 2unless 2ea, Sunless Sea 2: None More Sunless and 2 Sea 2 Sunless were deemed insufficiently lyrical. The name, of course, matters nought: what does matter is that charmingly bleak, ocean-bound, narrative rougelikelikelike12 Sunless Sea [official site] is going full sail to sequel-land with Sunless Skies next year. And then taking off into space.
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