• Save files now load correctly via the Continue button on the title screen when the steamcloud_saving.vdf file is present
  
• Buy 10 options have been added to Avernus/Naples for Fuel and Supplies
  
• Lots of typo and grammatical fixes
  

Hello, zailors!

Quick little update to fix the Steam auto cloud issue that's been bugging many of you.

Full notes:

• Save files now load correctly via the Continue button on the title screen when the steamcloud_saving.vdf file is present
  
• The steamcloud_saving.vdf file will be automatically deleted when loading the game through non-Steam clients
  
• Buy 10 options have been added to Avernus/Naples for Fuel and Supplies
  
• Lots of typo and grammatical fixes
  

We're delighted to offer Sunless Sea, Zubmariner and Sunless Skies in the World Oceans Day sale this year.

If you're already a Sunless Sea player, this is an ideal opportunity to pick up Zubmariner at 50% off in the knowledge that any damage you do to our imagined unterzee-beasts can be metaphorically offset by our contribution to WDC. We'll be donating 30% of our net profits from the sale event to WDC to support their conservation work.*



WDC is the leading global charity dedicated to the protection and conservation of whales and dolphins. WDC defends these remarkable creatures against the many threats they face by fighting to stop whaling, end captivity, prevent accidental entanglement and deaths in nets and create healthy seas. They also advocate for the vital role that whales and dolphins play in fighting climate change and keeping our planet healthy. Their vision is a world where every whale and dolphin is safe and free.

If you want to read more about WDC, you can do so here: https://uk.whales.org/

You can find many other amazing games in the sale here: https://bit.ly/OceansDaySteamSale

Thank you for joining us and for supporting WDC!

*30% of our net developer revenue from this sale will support Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Whale and Dolphin Conservation is a UK registered charity (no. 1014705)

Today its been exactly a year since Mask of the Rose was funded on Kickstarter, and we've just released a demo of the first act, available right now on Steam!



Offering a condensed version of Act I of Mask of the Rose, youll be able to explore select locations across Fallen London, introduce yourself to some key characters and encounter Mr Pages, one of the mysterious new Masters who have recently taken over London, in its office at the Bazaar.

At the opening of Mask of the Rose, Mr Pages has employed your housemate, Griz, who has in turn found a few pennies work for you as census taker. The census goes some way beyond the expected (Surface census forms never did ask if anyone in the residence was in love), so youll need to approach conversations with care to find out all you need to know.

Demo Feedback

We're really excited to know what you think about exploring Fallen London from this perspective for the first time. The very best places to talk about it will be the Steam discussion forums for Mask of the Rose, or if you want to join one of our community spaces, there's Discord, our forums, and the Fallen London subreddit.

There are a few things itll be useful to know before you send feedback:

• In the final game there will be a text log, so you can scroll back through conversations
  
• There will also be audio sliders under Settings
  
• And of course, there will be saving in the finished game (the final version of Act I will be fleshed out from this version, so carrying choices over wouldnt be possible).
  

You may have seen that we Kickstarted a new game in the same universe as Sunless Sea in February this year. Now we're pleased to announce that it has a shiny Steam page!



Mask of the Rose is a romantic visual novel, so somewhat different to Sunless Skies and Sunless Sea. However, it's set in the same universe, and brings all of our expertise in writing deep, surprising, meaningful stories, this time on a more personal level.

[previewyoutube=_Vzt2XceW-c;full][/previewyoutube]



Thanks to an unknown bargain, London now resides in a vast cavern under the earth. Down here, the sun doesn't shine, and Parliament has sunk into the Thames. Queen Victoria never emerges from her palace. Cats spy on their owners and whisper their secrets abroad. The fabric of strait-laced Victorian society has begun to fray.

New Masters are in charge. Why are they so tall? And always cloaked? And why are they so interested in love stories?

Even death itself has a twist here: the first murder victim since the Fall is feeling much better, and keen to see justice done. Unfortunately, as the doctor who treated him immediately before he expired, your housemate Archie is the prime suspect...

• (Re)invent yourself: who were you before the Fall? Who will you be now?
  
• Create outfits from a selection of clothing and unusual accessories to unlock different story options
  
• Fall in love with a cast of diverse Londoners, each with their own secrets
  
• Matchmake among your friends, or seek love for yourself (by any definition you like)
  
• Write love stories in a delightful minigame, and use them to impress the new Masters
  
• Pick up odd jobs to earn money and gather resources. How are you at rat catching?
  
• Solve the first murder since the Fall, with the assistance of the victim
  
• Discover cosy, mysterious and magnificent locations in a dark and delicious version of Victorian London
  
• Seek deeper and deeper secrets over multiple playthroughs
  

Were glad to announce that Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition will be released very soon, on Wednesday 19th May. This will be the first version of Sunless Skies we release on consoles, and will also be a free major update for everyone here on Steam!



This is a greatly enhanced edition of Sunless Skies, containing all additions and improvements weve made to the game since launch as well as many more completely new ones. Here's a link to the trailer!

For the Sovereign Edition, weve reworked and extended the starvation mechanics. Captains will now find a range of increasingly dubious gastronomic options available to them as desperation grows.

Weve improved character progression, with a new interface, a greater range of facets to define your past, and even a way for experienced captains to continue improving their capabilities after reaching the level cap.



There are also new trading opportunities to exploit, an exotic engine for your locomotive, better performance, greatly improved gamepad support, and literally hundreds of fixes and small improvements. If youd like to know more, weve included a more detailed list below.

This ultimately took longer than wed hoped, partly due to the considerable scope and partly because it turned out to be pretty difficult to achieve the level of performance optimisations we wanted. But all is now well, and were very glad to be able to share it with you.

We think this will be by far the best version of the game for new players, and we hope the new features and many quality of life improvements will make it exciting for the veteran captains among you, too.

For a while now, weve been working on a couple of new projects. Today were very excited to announce the first of them!

Mask of the Rose is a romantic visual novel and prequel to all our other games set in the Fallen London universe.


Heres the trailer: https://youtu.be/QujJ4oVaFKI

Mask of the Rose takes place in 1862, mere months after London was stolen by bats. Londoners are still adjusting to life underground. The old street signs are being erased. New ministries and new festivals are being established. The mysterious Masters of the Bazaar seem to be in charge.

You share your boarding house with a few other lodgers: Archie, a medical student discovering firsthand that Death works differently here. Griselda, a close aide of the new Masters. Horatia, the landlady with a soft spot for the Neath's native inhabitants. Harjit, the local constable looking for a missing person of his own.

As you make a new life below, you may find yourself visiting the underwater ruins of Parliament; intervening in a murder trial where the victim is a witness; or steering a hooded, vocabularious Master through the subtleties of a London courtship. However you choose to live in the Neath, you have your own friendships and your own heart to look after.

The art of Mask of the Rose draws on Film Noir, Victorian photography and Blitz-era Britain, and is an evolution of the Fallen London universes painterly style, keeping the atmosphere of the original but with more detail and depth.

If youre a fan of the Fallen London universe, Mask of the Rose offers a glimpse of events weve never shown before, as part of a more personal story. You will get to explore the origins of beloved characters and institutions, as well as encounter brand new mysteries. Mask of the Rose is also an excellent introduction for players just getting started with the Fallen London universe.

Well be running a Kickstarter campaign for Mask of the Rose in February 2021 - sign up on our Kickstarter page to be notified when the campaign goes live, and join our Discord or forums to discuss the announcement!

What about Sunless Skies Sovereign Edition?

With our porting partner, weve submitted builds for certification on all three console platforms. This is the process in which Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft sign off on them as ready for release. We dont know exactly how long it will take, and its common for certification to throw up a few issues, but this puts us in striking distance of a release!

Much of the work on the console editions is being done by an external team whore much more experienced with porting games than we are. We're looking forward to being able to share the fixes and performance improvements they've made with you!

New projects, plural?

Thats right! Were working on two new projects. We cant tell you much about the other yet, but we can say that its game mechanics are very different from our past work, and that it takes place in a new setting.

Sign up via Kickstarter to be informed as soon as the Kickstarter campaign for Mask of the Rose goes live.

Surprise! Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition is coming out for Switch on 23rd April and XBox One on the 24th!

You may have heard that weve been working on console ports for Sunless Sea, and Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition.

Initially wed expected Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition to release for PC/Switch/PS4/Xbox One first, with Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition following. Schedules on both projects have moved around a bit, meaning the release dates are now as follows:

• Sunless Sea comes to Switch on 23rd April
  
• Sunless Sea comes to Xbox on the 24th
  
• Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition comes to PC, Switch, PS4 and Xbox in August/September
  

If you've played Sunless Sea or Sunless Skies, you might be familiar with Fallen London!

Fallen London is a text-based browser game set in a subterranean city inhabited by Victorian Londoners, talking rats, and people with the faces of squids. In the last decade, its grown from a handful of stories to a 2.5-million word epic with tens of thousands of monthly players.

Wed like to think that its remained popular for the kinds of stories we offer. Not just the weird, inventively horrifying world, but the fact that you get to act on fantastically bad ideas, from publishing horrendous poetry to feeding your soul to a cat.

To hear more about the celebrations we have in store for Fallen London's 10th birthday, follow us on Twitter or join our Discord.

Storridge's Definitely Umarked Playing Cards

In honour of our 10th birthday, we've produced some gorgeous, special edition merchandise with Gametee: Storridge's Definitely Unmarked Playing Cards! Perfect for long zee or High Wilderness voyages.



Sovereign

We're also busy working on the Sovereign update to Sunless Skies, which will be launched across PC and console.



Sovereign will feature new starvation content, trading opportunities and facets, along with a redesign of the character progression interface. It will introduce a new exotic engine, the ability to continue to raise stats after reaching the level cap and an equipment stat rebalance.

Along with fixes for outstanding bugs, performance improvements and a number of quality of life updates, it will feature a redesigned control scheme and interfaces optimised for controller support, plus a fancy radial to make UI navigation more intuitive.

Sunless Skies Patch Notes

• The correct category can now always be selected when submitting bug reports.
  
• High Wilderness inhabitants and other locomotives will now keep more distance from ports and relays.
  
• Curators, Logoi and Eaters of the Dead are less unrelenting in their pursuit.
  
• Various small adjustments have been made to ambient messages.
  
• The bug report interface now includes a link to the troubleshooting guide.
  

The longest nights of the year are upon us: the perfect time to lose yourself in the dark of Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies!

(With apologies to the southern hemisphere; they do play equally well in summer.)

Sunless Skies has a recent review score of 95% positive, and has been named a game of the year by The Washington Post, The Guardian, New Yorker, Kotaku AU, Paste and Slant. It's 50% off in the sale!

Sunless Sea is also 95% positive, with 66% off in the sale, and its expansion Zubmariner is also reduced, by 60% - it really completes the experience, so we hope you'll give it a go.


Celebrating 10 Years of Fallen London

The browser game that started it all! Fallen London, the internet's finest text-based Victorian alternative history roleplaying game is going to be ten years old on the 11th of January.

In celebration, there'll be a lot of events in-game, and competitions and other diversions for our community!

For starters, we've collaborated with the wonderful GameTee to produce some special edition merchandise: Storridge's Definitely Unmarked Deck of Playing Cards.



A true collector's item, these cards are equally at home in your parlour, at Zee or to pass the time in the Skies.

If you'd like to get more involved with our birthday plans, and future plans beyond that, you'd be most welcome in our official Discord.

Thank you for a phenomenal 2019. We'll see you in January!

The Skies are yours,
Failbetter Games

Sunless Skies: Soveriegn Edition will be released for PS4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in the first half of 2020!


Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition will include new content and various improvements, and will be released on PC at the same time as on console. Players who already own the game on PC will receive the Sovereign Edition for free.

It's been a great year for Sunless Skies, thanks to your support, and we're delighted to be able to celebrate it with this enhanced edition.

What's new in the Sovereign Edition?

Here's our Narrative Director, Chris Gardiner, with more detail:

The Sovereign Edition will add new stories when your crew is starving. As their desperation grows, youll be able to try and eat a variety of unwise, unpleasant or tragic things. By that point, your mascot probably looks quite tasty.

We're overhauling the character progression user interface, and introducing a range of new Facets to define your captain's past. Perhaps you lost your soul (and found it again), or attended a seance. Perhaps you have a hobby, or are close to rats, Devils, spies or Rubbery Men. Experienced captains will be able to continue to raise their stats even after reaching the level cap, extending the late game experience.

Weve made significant changes for the console versions to enable smooth and intuitive play using a controller. And there'll also be new opportunities for traders to exploit, and a new exotic engine to acquire, which skilled players in particular may find rewarding. It's a big, exciting update which we like to imagine will be the jewel in Sunless Skies' crown.


Exciting news for Sunless Sea fans, too!

Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition is already available for PS4; later in 2020 it will join Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition on Xbox One and Switch.

All of these ports are being developed in conjunction with Nephilim Game Studios, and will be published by Digerati.

We hope you're equally as excited about this news as we are!

The Skies are yours,
Failbetter Games

We're delighted that Sunless Skies has been chosen as one of the ten best indie games of the year by the mysterious and influential PAX 10 panel!

It's a huge honour to be selected, and it means that we're able to make a rare US event appearance at PAX West in Seattle, from the 30th of August to the 2nd of September.

We'll have as many pin badges as we can cram into our suitcases. Will we see you there?

We're delighted to bring you another #loveindies celebration!

#loveindies is a chance for players and developers of indie games to share their favourites with one another, discover some new games to play, and raise up games which deserve more attention.

This year it'll be two weeks long, from the 3rd to the 14th of June in response to the excitement over last year's event. We've also introduced the #loveindies Review Hour, a global push to leave as many reviews on indie games as we can in one hour!

#loveindies is open to all. Here's full participation guide. Feel free to share it with friends, your favourite streamers, or indie developers who might benefit from getting involved.

Thank you as always for your support of our games and those of our fellow indies. It means the world.

As ever, your friends,
Failbetter Games

We're honoured to be taking part in the first ever LudoNarraCon!

LudoNarraCon is a digital convention celebrating narrative video games, taking place right here on Steam. All the fun of discovering new games without the barriers of access to a physical event!

From 10th to 13th May, developers from across the world will showcase their work in a celebration of interesting and innovative narrative games. This felt like a great idea to us, and we're so pleased to be selected to take part.

We'll be showcasing Sunless Skies with a special pre-recorded stream, featuring interviews with Chris Gardiner (Narrative Director) and Paul Arendt (Art Director). If you want to catch the recording, it's on Tuesday 7th May at 1630 BST, with the incredible Callofcthulhu on Twitch!

You can join in by watching the event live from 10am PT on the dedicated Steam landing page, and by checking out the live streams on the individual games' pages, starting at 11am PT.

Thank you to indie game label Fellow Traveller for inviting us to take part!

Sunless Skies, our follow-up to Sunless Sea, is now available!

Sunless Skies has had, by some way, the best ever critical reception of our games. It's been called Failbetters finest hour by PC Gamer, Terrifying and exhilarating by PCGamesN, Essential by Eurogamer and A triumph by Gamespot. And at the time of writing we're at 87 on Metacritic, putting us right below a few little known games in their 2019 rankings called, umm, Slay the Spire, Apex Legends, and Resident Evil 2? Needless to say, were intensely grateful and delighted.

Sunless Skies is doing very well for us commercially, too. Far better than we needed it to do. We occasionally receive sympathetic enquiries about our financial health from the community; to be clear about that, we're in a very good position, and now we're really looking forward to spending several months further extending and improving Sunless Skies.

If you've yet to take a look, we hope you will.

The skies are yours,

Failbetter Games

It's one week until SUNLESS SKIES releases from Early Access!



Discover what awaits you in the High Wilderness in the new launch trailer

It's been two years since the Kickstarter for SUNLESS SKIES, and we are so proud of the game that we've made. It's got all of the delicious stories you've come to expect from us, but - hopefully - in a game that's a more well-rounded experience.

Find out more about SUNLESS SKIES on its Steam page!

We hope you'll join us, and can't wait to hear what you think.

See you in the Heavens,
Failbetter Games

Hello, delicious friends.

You might remember we've been working on a follow-up to Sunless Sea. It's due out in two weeks, and we're so excited to see what you think!

Take a look at Sunless Skies!



If you've just joined us from the Daily Deal: welcome! We hope you're enjoying our deep, dark and marvellous stories. If you would like some help getting started, try the discussion forums here, r/sunlesssea or our lovely Discord.

We remain, your friends,
Failbetter Games

Today's Deal: Save 75% on SUNLESS SEA!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Saturday at 10AM Pacific Time

Get in the spooky spirit this Halloween by voyaging out into a deep, dark zee teeming with misfortune and filled to the brim with zee-beasts! And if you've already confident above the waves, why not try diving to their terrifying depths in the extensive expansion, Zubmariner?

If youve been itching to try Sunless Sea, here or on a different platform, nows your chance!

Steam (29 Oct - 1 Nov):
Sunless Sea (66%) and the Zubmariner expansion (33%)

GOG (29 Oct - 5 Nov):
Sunless Sea (66%) and the Zubmariner expansion (33%)

iPad (29 Oct - 5 Nov):
Sunless Sea (30%)

PS4 (17 - 31 Oct for Europe and 19 Oct - 6 Nov for North America):
Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition (30% plus another 10% for PS+ users)

We hope you enjoy zailing, whether its from your desk or your couch! And if you can spare a moment to leave a review, it really helps us reach more people with our games.

SUNLESS SKIES




Our upcoming game, Sunless Skies, is coming out 31 January 2019, too. So if youd like to swap your ship for a star-sailing steam locomotive you can wishlist the game now on Steam or GOG.

We've just released a free pen and paper RPG. It's called SKYFARER.

We made it for you. We hope you like it.

Find out more

Download a copy

SUNLESS SKIES will be released from Early Access on 31 January 2019.

Until then, we remain your friends,

Failbetter Games

https://youtu.be/1FR5ydMYnMU

Zailors, it’s with utmost pleasure that we announce Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition is out now (yes, right now!) on PlayStation®4 in Europe and (by 8:00am PDT) North America!

Betray your crew, sell your soul to a Devil, marry your sweetheart. Convert your ship to a Zubmarine and go trespassing. Stray too far from the gas-lamps of civilisation and your crew will grow fearful and eventually lose their sanity, in a deep, compelling world packed with 350,000+ words of stories and secrets.



Adapting Sunless Sea and Zubmariner to a console came with plenty of unique challenges for our text-heavy RPG in regards to UI and adapting it to a controller. Lesleyann, who worked closely with Blitworks (our porting partner for both PS4 and iPad) to make sure everything felt intuitive for console players, has written up a more in-depth look into the UI/UX changes we’ve made in a dev blog.

Still have questions? Check out our FAQ.

And those headed to PAX West this week can find Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition available to demo in the Sony section.

It’s slightly heart-hiccuping to have a game available on console for the first time. We’re so grateful to the PC, Mac and Linux players who have supported us and Sunless Sea. Thank you. We hope the new console players enjoy our words! May each and every PS4 player find a constant companion in the deep.

Steady your zee-legs, Captain. Sunless Sea is coming to PlayStation 4 in 2018! Our debut console launch will also include its extensive expansion, combining the two into Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition.

https://youtu.be/1FR5ydMYnMU

Enjoy the same deep, compelling world packed with 350,000+ words of stories and secrets, whether you're above the waves or below them.

We’ve partnered with BlitWorks again, who helped us bring Sunless Sea to iPad, and we can’t wait to see what you think of Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition!


We've also just added a new region, Eleutheria, to our upcoming game Sunless Skies. Check out its trailer for a glimpse at what the region has in store.

https://youtu.be/n4PltluDCDY

We're delighted to let you know that The Blemmigan Gallivanter mascot is now available in Sunless Sea! It is very keen to meet you and cannot wait to explore the great, wide zee from a nest its formed out of your journal pages.



Back in February 2017, you all banded together to help us achieve our Kickstarter goal for Sunless Skies. After many cakes, correspondence sigils, and space shanty verses, we achieved the 25 Social Goal Reward: BLEMMIGANS!

This is not the only blemmigan either - the reward unlocked three blemmigans in total! Expect two more to surface in our other games: The Blemmigan Tourist (Fallen London) and the Blemmigan Voyager (Sunless Skies).

Besides this squishy addition, this update also includes:

• Rectified typos
  
• Bug fixes aplenty
  

Captains of the dark Unterzee, we are excited to announce that a whole new region is available in our upcoming game Sunless Skies! If you are so inclined to trade your vessel for a locomotive, we’d delight in welcoming you to our new region in the skies: Albion.

In celebration, we’ve created a new Albion-focused trailer!

https://youtu.be/oiiRYVtze3Q

Albion is the heart of the British Empire's territory in the High Wilderness; and the only place in the heavens you can reliably get a decent cup of tea. Its hub is London, which has been flung into space by Her Majesty Queen Victoria. She rules it from the Throne of Hours, which allows her some dominion over time itself. We're excited to get to Albion and dig into the engines of the Empire and all its dirty secrets.

The addition of our second region also brings with it:

• 9 new ports full of stories to explore
  
• 12 new Discoveries, some more troublesome than others
  
• 6 new Spectacles, a few which are eerily familiar
  
• and 5 new agents, including beasties and locomotives
  

The time has come! Sunless Skies, the sequel to Sunless Sea is now available for Early Access here on Steam and also Games in Development on GOG!

We are delighted to invite you from the depths of the Unterzee to join us in the gusty, undiscovered vaults of the High Wilderness. The stars are dying; they leave behind territories rich in secrets and opportunity.

Explore the Reach—the first, and most verdant, region of Sunless Skies. The Reach is designed to be a small but functional piece of the entire game. Fly a locomotive, engage in combat, experience Terror and Hunger, interact with stories, and die. A lot.

Over the coming months we’ll be adding more stories, more regions, and more complexity to its gameplay—more of everything really. If you’d like an idea of what will be initially available from the 30th August, check out our development blog from yesterday and our FAQ.

Over the past three months, 900 delicious alpha testers have been helping us uncover bugs, but if you’re looking to experience a complete game void of tech issues, we strongly recommend you wait until the game’s full release. However, if you are happy to traverse the High Wilderness first, reporting bugs and sending feedback along the way, then we hope to see you out there Skyfarer!

The feedback we received during Sunless Sea’ Early Access absolutely made it the exceptional game it is today and we can’t wait to see what you think of Sunless Skies.

And, if you’d like to pick up Sunless Sea for iPad, it’ll be on sale in celebration of the Sunless Skies Early Access launch for £6.99 / $6.99 from 30th August - 3rd September!

Thank you for your support through everything, we have the most delicious fans. See you out in space!

We're very excited to announce that Sunless Skies, the spiritual sequel to Sunless Sea, will be coming to Steam Early Access and GOG Games in Development the 30th of August!

The feedback we received in Early Access for Sunless Sea was pivotal to its development, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on Sunless Skies over the coming months.

Read the full announcement on the Sunless Skies page.

We've teamed up with BlitWorks (known for mobile versions of Invisible Inc., Don't Starve, Broken Age and Bastion, among others) for this port,and they’ve done an excellent job of adapting the game’s mechanics for touch controls.



Rediscover Sunless Sea on iPad (the port is a standalone game, so saves will not cross over with PC saves). Choose from two different touch-screen control systems, which you can switch between at any time from the settings menu, and experience the same formidable achievements in Apple’s Game Center.

If you’re interested in cannibalism on the go, Sunless Sea for iPad is available for $9.99 / £9.99 and requires iOS8+ and will be compatible with iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad Air 2 or higher.


P.S. We do not recommend taking the screenshot above as a 'how to' on docking

We’ve had an incredible Kickstarter campaign for Sunless Sea’s sequel! We were funded in 4 hours and 200% funded in 4 days. Amazing. Many of those backers are among our Steam players - thank you so much!

Blemmigans! Blemmigans! Blemmigans!

If we reach 25 of the social goals for the Kickstarter campaign, we’ll be releasing new Blemmigans in Fallen London, Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies.

The Blemmigan Gallivanter, a mascot for Sunless Sea

My, what a keen little mushroom! Raring to go, and eager to see every soggy corner of the wide, wide zee. But is it too young to be a zailor? Because you're pretty sure it drew that moustache on itself with a pen.

To help unlock the Blemmigan Gallivanter, contribute to a social goal:

• Back the campaign - we're hoping to reach 10,000 backers!
  
• Follow us on twitter
  
• Watch our live stream tomorrow, Friday 3 March, from 1600 until 1900 GMT!
  

Play SUNLESS SEA for FREE starting now through Sunday at 1PM Pacific Time. You can also pickup SUNLESS SEA at 66% off the regular price!* Additionally, you can grab the Zubmariner DLC for Sunless Sea at 15% off!*

If you already have Steam installed, click here to install or play SUNLESS SEA. If you don't have Steam, you can download it here.

*Offer ends Monday at 10AM Pacific Time

Pirate Poet and Cladery Heir available now!

As of today’s update, the Pirate Poet and Cladery Heir are available to all players of Sunless Sea as part of the base game, and free of charge!

We consulted with our Kickstarter backers before Christmas and they have graciously said that the more people can play all of the content, the better. Please thank them, their backing made this happen!

The Pirate Poet
Captains, beware! The Pirate-Poet now zails the zee, seeking a worthy rival. The pirates of Gaider’s Mourn tell many stories of this clay corsair. Can you be the one to finally best her?

The Cladery Heir
A surgeon of such skill that she can amputate flaws of character and excise unwanted foibles…

The Cladery Heir is a new officer with her own storyline - during which you can acquire a new ship, the Cladery Heart. She can be picked up at Fallen London when you have 'A New Recruit' at 1 or more.

Sunless Skies Kickstarter: TOMORROW!

Talking of Kickstarter, hopefully you’ll be well aware that the campaign to fund Sunless Sea’s sequel is beginning tomorrow at 16:00 GMT.

Here's a teaser trailer to pique your interest.

Here's a sneak preview of the Kickstarter page so you can scope the rewards before anyone else!

We're so excited to know what you think - please leave us comments below.

The Kickstarter ends at 1900 GMT on 3 March, so don't miss out!

Our podcast begins!

We’ve started a live podcast on Twitch! So far there have been two episodes:

Ep 1 on Twitch: Game design with Liam Welton
Ep 2 on Twitch: Game art and Sunless Skies sneak peeks with Paul Arendt

Ep 3 will be live at twitch.tv/failbettergames on Friday 3 February, 16:00 GMT

Sunless Sea on iOS

As if all of that wasn’t enough, we’ll be releasing Sunless Sea on iOS this spring.

This is the full version of the base game with all content updates, reworked for a touch interface. (It does not include Zubmariner.)

Follow us on @failbettergames to ensure you hear about the release!

Hello, delicious new Zailor friends who’ve joined us in the Steam sale!

Zubmariner, the sizable expansion to Sunless Sea, is discounted by 15%! Join us under the Unterzee!

If you have any trouble with our games, email sunless@failbettergames.com to reach support - but please be aware that we are on reduced cover for Christmas. In the meantime, we're sure you'll find the community here (and in r/sunlesssea) very helpful.

Sunless Skies Update

Pre-production work on the sequel to Sunless Sea continues apace! Discover a little more about the setting - the High Wilderness - and how if differs from space, in our latest blog.



Sunless Skies will be coming to Kickstarter on 1 February 2017. We hope you'll come with us beyond the Avid Horizon!

Accessibility Survey

Lastly, if you’d like to help us improve the accessibility of our games, we're currently seeking thoughts in our accessibility survey. We'd love to hear from you if you generally use accessibility settings when playing games.

That's all from us until 2017! Take care at Zee, dear friends, and we'll see you when you return to home waters.

Your friends,
Failbetter Games

Friends! We’re bringing you a small additional update this month, containing a few things of interest:

Sunless Skies pre-production update

Our first pre-production blog about Sunless Skies is live! Discover how and why we are going from a map that looks like this in Sunless Sea:



To one which looks like this, in Sunless Skies:



Sunless Sea Maps and New Hoodies

You have a few days left to order a Sunless Sea map for the last time!



This third and final edition of these beautiful, high-quality prints will be delivered to you in time for Christmas by our friends at Gamers Edition. Orders close at noon GMT on Monday 28 November.

And we also have two new hoodie designs for zeefaring types! One features more Correspondence than is probably wise to have on a garment (bucket of sand not included) and the other warns of the nature of the Zee.




Order from the Failbetter Store and use code 2016OMG to get 15% off and free standard delivery until 28 November.

Steam Awards

These are happening! Consider nominating Sunless Sea in a category of your choice, or perhaps write in a relevant category (let us know what you went for, if you do).

A happy Thanksgiving to our American zailors! May you not lose your minds and eat your relatives this holiday season.

Your friends,
Failbetter Games

Thanks for supporting Zubmariner in the last few weeks. It’s been really exciting to see people’s reactions - sometimes live in Twitch streams, which we will never get tired of! Your ratings and reviews mean so much to us, so an extra thank you if you’ve managed to leave one.

Speaking of reviews, did you see we got a 90 for Zubmariner in PC Gamer and a Recommended in Eurogamer? Which only confirms your excellent taste.

Achievements are back in Sunless Sea, and newly arrived in Zubmariner!

For those of you who are keen on achievements, you are now able to gorge yourselves on 24 new ones that are exclusive to Zubmariner. Enjoy!



Introducing cloud saves!

We know many of you have been keen on us introducing cloud saves, which were happy to say are included in today’s build!

A cartographic opportunity

We have limited edition Sunless Sea maps for sale with our friends at Gamers Edition!



Originally produced for Kickstarter backers, this is the third and FINAL edition of Navigational Charts of the Known Unterzee. We won’t be making any more.

Place your order by noon GMT on 28 November to receive a high quality Sunless Sea map print by Christmas!

Save 66% on SUNLESS SEA during this week's Midweek Madness*!

*Offer ends Friday at 10AM Pacific Time

LOSE YOUR MIND. EAT YOUR CREW. DIVE.

Take the helm of your zubmarine and set sail for the unknown! Zubmariner is the first expansion to Sunless Sea: deeper, darker, and more marvellous than anything you’ve seen before.

All the powers of the Neath agree: there is Nothing of Consequence beneath the Zee. They are lying. You've heard there are fortunes to be made by those brave enough - or hungry enough - to dare the deeps.

Disturb the aberrant societies that flourish in the dark. Defy wreckers. Seduce a Drownie. Embrace or condemn the distinctly un-British customs of these cold, fathomless places.

You will definitely die. Will your next captain dive?

If you bought Sunless Sea in Early Access, you'll find Zubmariner has been automatically added to your game. Thank you for supporting us when we hadn't found our zee-legs.

Key features

• More of the deep, compelling world of Sunless Sea and Fallen London, packed with stories and secrets. Dive into unplumbed abysses and claim their eerie blessings.
  
  
• More beautiful, hand drawn art. Let your curiosity take you to what lies beneath the Sea of Statues, Mount Palmerston, and the dread Dawn Machine.
  
  
• Convert your ship into a Zubmarine and dive anywhere in open water to discover new cities, zee-beasts and environments to terrify your crew and slake your hungers.
  
  
• 11 new underzee ports, each with their own tales and opportunities for the enterprising Trespasser. Visit Dahut, the city of drowned delights. Brave Wrack, where a Fair King rules the unforgivable. Explore Anthe, and sharpen your tongue, your liver, and your spleen.
  
  
• Seek immortality in a new ambition! Track down the Seven Against Nidah, who once came within reach of eternal life. Can you succeed where they failed?
  
  
• New enemies to face, from the cunning Wreckship to the inexorable Constant Companion.
  
  
• Discover the treasures the zee has claimed. Explore ancient wrecks, avoid hostile witherweed, discover the unexploded Unclear Bomb.
  
  
• Sanity is scarcer. Death is closer. We warned you, Trespasser. You should not have come.
  

We’re beginning the launch day celebrations for Zubmariner with a delicious piece of news for all owners of Sunless Sea: we’ve given you some chunky new quests in the base game! You don’t need to buy Zubmariner to enjoy them (though some will give you a little taste of what’s in store, down below).

New faces in London
Each time you create a captain, you’ll meet a passenger who wants to recruit you in London, and begin a unique quest. There are a total of four new passengers to meet, and all of these quests contain foreshadowing regarding Zubmariner.

Your old friend, the Blind Bruiser
When the Blind Bruiser asks you to carry cargo, you can now ask if there’s another task he’d like you to do instead. There are two different, new quests to discover, both to do with the Cheery Man…

Mutton Island: Apocalypses
After you’ve made a few trips to London, strange events will start happening on Mutton Island.

Rose Market, Revamped
Opportunities at the Rose Market are no longer randomly determined every time you visit London. Instead, they’ll stick around until you fulfill one, or until you ask for them to change. This means that Rose Market requests acts as mini-quests, and you can set zail knowing what items will fetch a good price.

What bounty! If all this whets your appetite for Zubmariner, you don’t have long to wait. Release is at 6pm BST / 10am PDT today.

Firstly, you'll want to see Zubmariner's launch trailer

Now, if you caught our live panel from EGX, you will have heard the exciting news:

Our next game, the sequel to Sunless Sea, will be called Sunless Skies, and we’re doing a Kickstarter for it in February next year!



There’s very little we can say at this early stage, but to whet your appetites:

7 Facts about Sunless Skies

• As with Sunless Sea, it’ll be rich with stories. The Victorian Empire in space – the High Wilderness – a “blistering, wonderful night” among the thrones and domains of the stars. The Empress has abandoned London and led an exodus to the High Wilderness, to carve out a new British Empire. With the Empire being increasingly authoritarian, bohemians, revolutionaries and outcasts – like you – are trying to make a life for themselves on its fringes.
  
• It will elaborate on Sunless Sea. We’re enhancing the stuff we liked, and refining the experience. It will be a punishing game, but respectful of your time.
  
• At full release, it will be available on the same platforms which Sunless Sea is available on now: Windows, Mac and Linux.
  
• We will use Early Access again, taking on board all of the lessons we learned from Sunless Sea.
  
• Why the name? The stars are dying. The stars are the Judgements: the inventors, arbiters and enforcers of the universe’s laws – but a revolution has begun, and the stars are being murdered.
  
• Our influences include: the science fiction of H G Wells and C S Lewis, the planetary romances of Leigh Brackett, Art Nouveau, Event Horizon, trains.
  
• We are running a Kickstarter for it in February! Stop the clocks, mark your diaries, save your pennies!
  

It’s only 18 days until Zubmariner comes out! That’s not long at all.

Between now and then we’ll be releasing the zee-plumbing, heart-pounding launch trailer, and discussing Zubmariner live from EGX. You can watch live on their twitch stream at 4pm BST on Saturday 24th September: www.twitch.tv/egx

(We’ll also be announcing our next game! We’re slightly beside ourselves even thinking about that!)

UI and Text Resizing

Sunless Sea was made in Unity 4, which had some limitations particularly around the way it handled text. As a pretty text-heavy game, we ended up with many players finding the game unplayable due to their screen resolution. Text was tiny or fuzzy. Not ideal!

Happily, in Unity 5 we’ve been able to do a lot more with the user interface, and have fixed the fuzzy/tiny text problems (with the help of everyone who opted into the Unity 5 beta - thanks!). Please enjoy fiddling with the size of your text and the gazetteer to your heart’s content.

What does this mean?

Sunless Sea was made in Unity 4, which had some limitations particularly around the way it handled text. As a pretty text-heavy game, we ended up with many users finding the game unplayable due to their screen resolution. Text was tiny or fuzzy. Not ideal!

Happily, in Unity 5 we’ve been able to do a lot more with the user interface, and have fixed the fuzzy/tiny text problems.

How can I get the Unity 5 version?

Today we’ve launched an open Unity 5 beta branch that you can opt in to:

• Right click Sunless Sea in your library
  
• Select Properties
  
• Go to the Betas tab
  
• Select ‘Unity 5’
  
• Close the pop-up and Sunless Sea will update to the Unity 5 version
  

Enjoy this update with video and images on our blog

Zubmariner brings an entire second layer to Sunless Sea, including new cities and ports to explore, packed with our trademark: agonising choices presented in beautiful prose.

“Beneath the Unterzee it’s dark, hostile, littered with plunderable wrecks and haunted by the worst horrors of the Neath,” says Narrative Director Chris Gardiner. “You aren't meant to be down there. You're a trespasser. But that makes you both sacred and profane to those who dwell below.

“The ports on the zee bed are a level weirder than those on the surface, and their inhabitants have been changed by the deeps. Some are hiding, some are hateful, some are mad. Some are all three, and have very big ambitions. Players may have something to say about that."

Zubmariner also brings new zee-beasts, shipwrecks and flora to discover.

Art Director and Failbetter CEO Paul Arendt says, “Below the water, you’re limited by oxygen and the reach of your sonar. You can use sonar to highlight items of interest around you, but they may not be friendly. The zee-beasts you’re used to on the surface have little on the horrors of their underwater friends, including at least one new enemy who is as powerful as Mt Nomad.”

Director of Development Liam Welton adds, “This is an expansion in the truest sense: we've created the entire zee-floor, using a combination of procedural generation and hand drawn art. The ability to dive changes the whole flow of the game, bringing more flavour to long zee-journeys without compromising the loneliness and nail-biting close escapes which people enjoyed so much in Sunless Sea.”

Zubmariner will be available for $10.99 (or £7.99 in the UK), on Humble, GoG and Steam. It is free to anyone who bought Sunless Sea in Early Access.

EGX and Twitchcon

To see the finished version of Zubmariner first, come and see us at EGX in Birmingham, UK! Paul, Chris and Liam will be interviewed about the expansion at 4pm GMT on Saturday 24 Sept, and there will definitely be a live stream for those of you who aren't able to make it.

We’ll also be teasing the very first details of our NEXT GAME. Which is obviously tremendously exciting.

Find out more about EGX and get tickets

We’re also going to Twitchcon in San Diego, where Hannah and Kyra will be showing Zubmariner in the Expo floor indie area, hanging out and giving out goodies! Look out for live streams from the indie area too - we’ll share a link when we have it.

Find out more about Twitchcon and get tickets

Zailors, our fan art competition last year was absolutely delightful, so we would like to hold another!

This year, we’re celebrating the upcoming release of Zubmariner: the first expansion to our PC/Mac/Linux game, Sunless Sea (we'll have a release date for you next week, by the way).

In Zubmariner, your zee-captain will have to make tougher decisions and face more terrible zee-beasts than ever before. Death is closer, beneath the Unterzee.

How to Enter

Create art in your chosen style on the following theme: The Zee!

Interpret this in any way you see fit, as long as the image obviously relates back to the theme. Winning entries will be judged by their use of the theme, rather than artistic ability.

Send your submission to competitions@failbettergames.com by 19 September 2016. We will make sure to share all submissions on our Tumblr so everyone can see!

We will review all the entries and repost a gallery of our top 10. The top 10 will be up for community vote until 26 September, and all 10 will receive a copy of Sunless Sea and its soundtrack, along with the upcoming Zubmariner DLC! In addition, the top 3 will receive:

Exclusive Fallen London jewellery
Our brand new, carefully crafted Dawn Machine jewellery (either black or gold, and a choice of necklace, brooch, or keyring)! These very limited edition pieces are hand-made by us from laser-cut acrylic.

100 Fate and 3 months of Exceptional Friendship in Fallen London
Fallen London is the game that originated Sunless Sea's universe: a massive online text adventure with 1.5 million words of stories.

This means 3 months of membership, 3 brand-new stories, and enough in-game currency to sample some Fate-locked stories (or just refresh actions furiously).

More prizes to be announced!

Competition Guidelines

• The piece must fit the theme of the Zee. It doesn’t have to be a new piece, but pieces which clearly don’t fit the theme will not be taken into account.
  
• Please, nothing NSFW. We’ve got interns; their minds are still so very fresh.
  
• JPGS, GIFS and PNGs will be accepted. See Tumblr’s image guidelines to make sure your image will look its best.
  
• The competition is open internationally. The piece must be made by you, and submitted by you.
  
• Your ask must be open, or you must include alternate contact details when posting your piece. If we can’t contact you within a week of voting closing, we’ll move on to the person with the next highest number of votes.
  
• Any attempt to manipulate voting will be cause for disqualification. We trust you not to do anything like this, and to know when ‘trying to drum up support’ turns into spamming or manipulating either the system or other people.
  
• Full terms and conditions.
  
  Best of luck, zailors! If you have any questions, drop us a line and we’ll try to help.
  
  

Zubmariner Beta Update

Experienced zailors will know that Zubmariner is the first expansion to Sunless Sea, due out this Autumn. For newcomers: Zubmariner will allow you to add a zubmarine shell to your vessel, in order to make risky dives below the Unterzee. Stories, loot, zee-beasts and surprises will be there to discover - but the risks will be even higher than surface journeys.

Work continues apace on this new and more intense layer to the game! Beasties, animations and new ports are being added to the beta. Your correspondent met with the director of development yesterday and could hardly keep from squealing with delight at the terrible, wonderful stories you’re going to experience down there.

For people who have struggled with screen resolutions and text sizes in Sunless Sea, we’ve recently blogged about updates to the UI which are now in Zubmariner, and which will be rolled out to Sunless Sea when Zubmariner is released.

New Zubmariner development video

In which we discover a Triskelegant. If you manage to defeat one, you can risk dragging it aboard. They’ll pay double in London for anything that’s ‘pole-and-line caught’.

Reminder: we’re coming to Twitchcon!

We’re really excited to be doing our first ever event in the US!

Twitchcon is from 30 September to 2 October. Team FBG will be there, showing Zubmariner and giving out goodies (including special gifts for people in costume or who bring us fan art to decorate our office, which otherwise looks very much like a plain Victorian chapel, because that’s what it is).

Sunless Sea is in the Steam Summer Sale!

Welcome to those of you who’ve joined us in the sale. You’ve made a wise decision to avoid all of that dreadful sunlight outside in favour of long and lonely journeys on a dark and unforgiving sea, dying repeatedly in the pursuit of (for example) a crate of human souls.

ZUBMARINER IS IN BETA!

Hooray! The first expansion for Sunless Sea, Zubmariner, is now in beta. Thank you to the hundreds of you who signed up to test! We’ll re-open signups further down the line, quite likely - watch here and in the Steam discussion forums for news.

Zubmariner is an expansion to the base game which will enable you to travel beneath the zee in a creaking, groaning Zubmarine. More stories, more pressure, more terrible things in the dark.

Zubmariner: Flora

A look at some of the procedurally placed plants and corals of the Unterzee, including our favourite, the brain coral.

We’re coming to Twitchcon!

We’ll be in the Indie area at Twitchcon in San Diego, from 30 Sept to 2 Oct! This is our first ever consumer event in the US! We can't help but use a lot of exclamation marks when considering the possibilities! Ack!

We will bring Sunless Sea and Zubmariner goodies. These will include special, limited edition and not commonly available goodies for anyone who comes to see us in any form of Neathy costume, or who brings art/made things for us to take to our office (flat things which go nicely in a suitcase). We handed out a few of these at London Comic Con and it was lovely. We can't wait to do it again. Let us know if you’re coming! (If you're not coming, it will all - of course - be broadcast on twitch.)

Hello and welcome to your update for May! We’re working on a new zee-beast, looking at the different ways the environment will help or hinder you beneath the Zee, and offering a taste of the Zumbarine acquisition story. Plus, if you’re in London, come and meet team FBG at MCM Comic Con!

View this post with pictures on our blog

Text resizing will be introduced for Zubmariner (and in Sunless Sea)

If you’ve been following Sunless Sea, you’ll know that we had some real trouble working with text in Unity 4. We’ve been beavering away behind the scenes to move Sunless Sea into Unity 5, which has enabled us to work on a new user interface.

This new UI, which will be applied to both the base game and the Zubmariner expansion, will allow you to resize both the text itself and the Gazetteer. You won’t need to own Zubmariner to get the update, it’ll apply to Sunless Sea too.

An Agreement About Nothing Of Consequence

London, the Presbyterate, the Khanate, Khan's Shadow, the New Sequence and even the Iron Republic have all concluded that there's nothing of any importance under the Zee, and they've all agreed to leave it well alone. That means the places below the waves are off limits to you, too.

A benefactor approaches you with an urgent request to help her find something she’s lost. She has the resources to help you build a Zubmarine shell in secret, if you can find the parts.

There is nothing of any importance under the Zee, says The Agreement. If that’s true, why is it enforced so vigorously? Could it hurt to find out for yourself?

Breathe any easier?

Oxygen is precious, under the Zee. You’ll have a limited supply, but passing over an oasis will halt the depletion, and give you some supplies.

An oasis

Some oases will be surrounded by snarls of witherweed - which will cause damage to your hull. How much do you need the oxygen?

A New Zee-Beast: The Neither

A swift, dark, serpentine thing with wriggling cilia. A moray-millipede.

The Neither

Meet Team FBG at MCM Comic Con in London

If you’re planning to come to

Hello, delicious friends!

Zubmariner will be released in Autumn 2016

We presented our progress on Zubmariner to a delightful crowd at EGX Rezzed last weekend!

Watch the video

Mac and Lottie introduced some new elements of Zubmariner, including underwater currents, a first look at Zubmarine transformations and some details about new ports and zee-beasts.

We're doing an AMA on 19th April

Fallen London is more than your home port: it's also the name of our first game, the text adventure which spawned Sunless Sea. We're releasing it as an app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch on the 19th April.

To celebrate, we're doing an AMA on Reddit at 4:30pm GMT/12:30pm EST. Drop by and ask us anything!

New music from the Fallen London universe!

Alongside the app, we're also releasing a soundtrack for Fallen London, made by the same composer who created the beautiful soundtrack for Sunless Sea.

Stream the first two tracks on Bandcamp

We'll be back with another update on Zubmariner's progress in a few weeks. Until then, happy zailing!

On Saturday at 1pm GMT, we'll be presenting a Zubmariner update live from EGX Rezzed in London.

Developer Liam McDonald (aka Mac, who you've heard on our YouTube videos!) and Producer Lottie Bevan will be revealing more about the stories, zee-beasts and development journey of Sunless Sea and the upcoming underwater expansion, Zubmariner.

Then at 4pm GMT, Chris Gardiner, Head Writer will be discussing narrative games on a panel with Inkle (80 Days).

All this will be live on the EGX YouTube channel! You can also check out the other developer sessions in advance, and set reminders if you don't want to miss anything.

We'll hopefully have some Failbetters in the YouTube chat too, so see you on Saturday!

If you've just joined us: welcome! We're working on the first DLC for Sunless Sea, the underwater expansion Zubmariner, in which your captain will truly find a sea more sunless.

Here's a new video from primary developer Mac, talking about light, shadow and different types of terrain on the zee-floor.

Current and sonar

We’ve now got ocean-wide currents in place, with some updated artwork and sound effects. Zubmarines are also now outfitted with Sonar, giving sailors a brief glimpse at what lies in the dark.

This is an early idea of how it will look. Underwater, sonar will replace your zee-bat, and flag up anything you should be aware of in your immediate surroundings.

EGX Rezzed

We’re presenting a look at the latest version of Zubmariner and a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Sunless Sea on 9th April at EGX Rezzed in London. It’ll also be live streamed on the EGX Twitch channel at 1pm. Details about tickets are on the official EGX site.

We’d love to answer your questions in the presentation, so leave us a comment with your Qs about Sunless Sea or Zubmariner and we’ll try to cover what we can!

Sunless Sea is now on Linux!

Hooray and hurrah and sound the trumpets, Sunless Sea is available on Linux! Welcome, Linux zailors. This is a big step for us, and just part of the technical updates we’re making to the core game as we prepare for Zubmariner.

Hello to those of you who've joined us for the free weekend! And welcome, returning zailors - we have some treats for you.

Oh the Londoners flock to see the Unterzee...

The immensely talented Dan Bull has created a rap about Sunless Sea, and the video has just been released. Complete with zailor costumes. It's amazing. Watch it here!

New in Sunless Sea: The Rose-Market

Collectors and eccentrics gather on Roser's Wharf, eager to buy curiosities from returning zee-captains. Can you navigate the market's archaic customs and turn a profit?

The Rose-Market appears irregularly in London, and offers an unpredictable opportunity to earn a good price for many less-used items.

In addition, after your captain has some zeefaring experience, new options will open on ten islands, allowing you to explore some of the stranger customs of the unterzee and exchange lesser items for more valuable ones. The items you can earn are - coincidentally! - popular among Rose-Market collectors.

Steam trading cards and badges

By popular demand, Sunless Sea now has Steam trading cards and badges! Scholars of the Correspondence will be very interested to discover the badges, as each is a sigil with a corresponding definition. We look forward to seeing you all discover them together!