Sunless Sea Sequel, Sunless Skies Kickstarter Announced

[Steven Bogos]

Sunless Sea Sequel, Sunless Skies Kickstarter Announced

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Sunless Skies takes the roguelike action of Sunless Sea into the stars.

Failbetter games today announced that it is working on a sequel to its roguelike hit Sunless Sea [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/sunless%20sea?os=sunless+sea]. The new game will be called Sunless Skies, and will expand upon the creepy Victorian-era steampunk fantasy, by taking things into space. A Kickstarter for the game will kick off some time in February next year, so don't hold your breath quite just yet.

"This is 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," wrote the dev in a blog post [http://www.failbettergames.com/7-facts-about-our-next-game/].

"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."

The game will be released on the same platforms as the original, Windows, Mac and Linux, and will once again be utilizing the early access model. Gameplay wise, we are told it will play quite similar to Sunless Sea - "We're enhancing the stuff we liked, and refining the experience."

Source: Failbetter Games [http://www.failbettergames.com/7-facts-about-our-next-game/]

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[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I wonder what the third game is gonna be called. Sunless Solar System? 'cause that'd be pretty ironic.

 

[Fox12]

I adored Sunless Sea. It was one of the best games I've played in years, even if it was somewhat flawed. This makes me want to give them all the money.

But I don't know about this. The idea is a little... Silly. I'm not a fan of the whole steampunk in space thing. They probably should have just made a new IP if the wanted to tackle interstellar travel. I'll keep an eye out for it, but I'm not sure I want to donate to their Kickstarter.

 

[Erttheking]

But I don't know about this. The idea is a little... Silly.

That's kind of the point probably. Sunless Sea and Fallen London as a whole are kind of silly.

OT: Anything by Failbetter is something that has my attention!

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/walkingdead/images/3/3f/Shut-up-and-take-my-money.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1280?cb=20140829235648

 

[Dalisclock]

I admit, I'm intrigued by this. Not enough to give them money yet but I think failbetter has the chops to pull this off. As long as it's not just Sunless sea with planets instead of islands.

Besides, I'm still more interested in the Zubmarine expansion for Sunless Sea and how that affects the game. There's a lot of potential there and I hope they do something cool with it.

Unrelated, I do wish Fallen London was a lot less Grindy. I started playing it because of Sunless Sea and I really, really want to like it. It's just so so grindy. I would pay for a non-grindy version of Fallen London. I'd actually prefer that to the setup they have now.

 

[Fox12]

But I don't know about this. The idea is a little... Silly.

That's kind of the point probably. Sunless Sea and Fallen London as a whole are kind of silly.

OT: Anything by Failbetter is something that has my attention!

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/walkingdead/images/3/3f/Shut-up-and-take-my-money.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1280?cb=20140829235648

Maybe I just want them to develop the world they have, instead of having them take us in a whole new direction. Or see them make a game as different from sunless sea as sunless sea is from fallen London.

That said, I can't pretend I'm not a little curious. Their description caught my interest. Something about how the stars are dying one by one. I'll almost certainly buy it, whatever they end up doing with it. I just started fallen London, and I love it so far. Fail better is one of the very few companies I've been keeping my eye on.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

...so it'll be kinda like No Mans Sky, but with a story and characters? Awesome. Sailing around in Sunless Sea just... well, doing stuff is both fun and incredibly relaxing, and Failbetter have such a delightful style of writing and making characters that being able to do that in space is a definite plus for me. Shit, might even throw some money at the kickstarter, which is something I've never done before.

...Would still like the Zubmarine stuff for Sunless Sea though, that's been on the backburner for what feels like a really, really long time.

 

[Hawki]

I wonder what the third game is gonna be called. Sunless Solar System? 'cause that'd be pretty ironic.

Well, the sun's gotta enter its white dwarf phase at some point, not to mention the heat death of the universe.

 

[SweetShark]

I wonder what the third game is gonna be called. Sunless Solar System? 'cause that'd be pretty ironic.

You know, if we combine the idea of a dying sun and any kind of monstrosities the game habe to offer, we can easily call it "Sunless Earth". Sound cool to me.
Btw, never played the first gameb Any good ?

 

[Dalisclock]

I wonder what the third game is gonna be called. Sunless Solar System? 'cause that'd be pretty ironic.

You know, if we combine the idea of a dying sun and any kind of monstrosities the game habe to offer, we can easily call it "Sunless Earth". Sound cool to me.
Btw, never played the first gameb Any good ?

So a game version of "The Night Land"? Which would be awesome.

By the first game, do you mean Sunless Sea or Fallen London? Both are good, but Fallen London has issues with being very, very grindy. You get so many actions per real time day and a lot of things depend on the RNG, so you can use up all your actions and make no progress. You can alleviate some of this by spending real money(the game is otherwise free), it's still super grindy.

Sunless Sea is someways similar but without the real time action limits. You're limited by resources(Run out of fuel and you're stranded, run out of food and you starve) and your fear (Being out at sea makes your fear rise. The only way to bring it all the way back down to zero is to go back to London. If your fear gets too high, BAD THINGS HAPPEN!). Oh, and character deaths are permanent, so if you die, you start as a new character(possibly the child of the dead character, if you had one) and there are ways to carry over certain things(traits, your ship, money, etc).

I totally dig Sunless Sea, and I want to like Fallen London as much, but the grind killed it for me. The writing is good, and feels like if Lovecraft and Pratchett decided to collaborate on writing a fantasy sea exploration story. Horror and lots of dark humor.

 

[SweetShark]

I wonder what the third game is gonna be called. Sunless Solar System? 'cause that'd be pretty ironic.

You know, if we combine the idea of a dying sun and any kind of monstrosities the game habe to offer, we can easily call it "Sunless Earth". Sound cool to me.
Btw, never played the first gameb Any good ?

So a game version of "The Night Land"? Which would be awesome.

By the first game, do you mean Sunless Sea or Fallen London? Both are good, but Fallen London has issues with being very, very grindy. You get so many actions per real time day and a lot of things depend on the RNG, so you can use up all your actions and make no progress. You can alleviate some of this by spending real money(the game is otherwise free), it's still super grindy.

Sunless Sea is someways similar but without the real time action limits. You're limited by resources(Run out of fuel and you're stranded, run out of food and you starve) and your fear (Being out at sea makes your fear rise. The only way to bring it all the way back down to zero is to go back to London. If your fear gets too high, BAD THINGS HAPPEN!). Oh, and character deaths are permanent, so if you die, you start as a new character(possibly the child of the dead character, if you had one) and there are ways to carry over certain things(traits, your ship, money, etc).

I totally dig Sunless Sea, and I want to like Fallen London as much, but the grind killed it for me. The writing is good, and feels like if Lovecraft and Pratchett decided to collaborate on writing a fantasy sea exploration story. Horror and lots of dark humor.

Thank you for showing me this universe. Love this kind of horror books. For sure I will look to it.......on the other hand it showed me some weirds results...

Spoiler: NSFW

Jesus....now I am curious...

Anyway, I ment the Sunless Sea. I played Fallen London, but it didn't clicked me. Too minimalistic with the shadow figures. Also I get very confused when the game itself started sending missions to complete to my email.
No, thank you, but no...
Does it have detailed gruesome deaths like a real Lovecraft game should been?

 

[SweetShark]

I adored Sunless Sea. It was one of the best games I've played in years, even if it was somewhat flawed. This makes me want to give them all the money.

But I don't know about this. The idea is a little... Silly. I'm not a fan of the whole steampunk in space thing. They probably should have just made a new IP if the wanted to tackle interstellar travel. I'll keep an eye out for it, but I'm not sure I want to donate to their Kickstarter.

Maybe they will using Magic and similar sh*t to fly in space and breath as well?
I mean, isn't this more fair if we already know the Lovecraftian entities can breath in space as well?

 

[Joccaren]

Does it have detailed gruesome deaths like a real Lovecraft game should been?

Depends what you mean by that. Do you see gruesome stuff? No, not really. That doesn't really fit the tone of the game. Do gruesome things happen to you? Well, I haven't actually died, been playing quite carefully, so I don't know, but in general most of what I've seen from others is a "You died" screen, and a story box saying your ship was sunk, or your crew threw you overboard.

Is there mind boggling madness? Yes. Cannibalism is part of the game. There are around 3 ports basically dedicated to that. And should you seek the name, Mr Eaten's or Salt's [Mr Eaten's is primarily in Fallen London, Salt is in Sunless Sea, though some information on Mr Eaten is in Sunless Sea too], be prepared for a fair few sacrifices to be made, and for answers that are clear but not, that make sense but don't. These guys get Lovecraft good, and it isn't that its overly gruesome and gory - but that there is that feeling of something you can't even comprehend, and forces you can't hope to stand against, and you've just got to pray they don't choose to end you now. Of course, if you play carefully and avoid situations where those powers might have their attention on you, or where you might just happen to be in their way, you won't have to worry about that. But should you choose to pursue the secrets of the world, you're likely going to die.

 

[pookie101]

taking the empire to space? gadzooks i hope we will teach those venusians and martians what for!

 

[SweetShark]

Does it have detailed gruesome deaths like a real Lovecraft game should been?

Depends what you mean by that. Do you see gruesome stuff? No, not really. That doesn't really fit the tone of the game. Do gruesome things happen to you? Well, I haven't actually died, been playing quite carefully, so I don't know, but in general most of what I've seen from others is a "You died" screen, and a story box saying your ship was sunk, or your crew threw you overboard.

Is there mind boggling madness? Yes. Cannibalism is part of the game. There are around 3 ports basically dedicated to that. And should you seek the name, Mr Eaten's or Salt's [Mr Eaten's is primarily in Fallen London, Salt is in Sunless Sea, though some information on Mr Eaten is in Sunless Sea too], be prepared for a fair few sacrifices to be made, and for answers that are clear but not, that make sense but don't. These guys get Lovecraft good, and it isn't that its overly gruesome and gory - but that there is that feeling of something you can't even comprehend, and forces you can't hope to stand against, and you've just got to pray they don't choose to end you now. Of course, if you play carefully and avoid situations where those powers might have their attention on you, or where you might just happen to be in their way, you won't have to worry about that. But should you choose to pursue the secrets of the world, you're likely going to die.

Mostly I wanted to learn if the game describe with written details how gruesome or even how creepy some death can be.
In the past I watched a video of SpoonyOne to describe how awesome it was to desrcibe the death if the players when they were playing a PnP RPG version of Lovecraft.
If it similar, then I will buy immediately.

 

[Cracker3011]

Well this was some lovely news to wake up to. Might boot Sunless Sea back up and see what got added since I played in beta/at launch.

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

Well I checked their website and they claim they're going to do just that with Sunless Skies. How? No bloody idea, but that's what they said.

...Would still like the Zubmarine stuff for Sunless Sea though, that's been on the backburner for what feels like a really, really long time.

That's actually been in beta for some time now. I managed to get in and there have been a LOT of updates to it...haven't actually played it, mainly because I got mad when I accidentally deleted my save files.

 

[MiskWisk]

Colour me intrigued. I enjoyed my time with the Sunless Sea, at least until I finally managed to break the skill barrier and found out how much the game grinds to a halt in the end game. I get that it is probably to force me to reset rather than lazing around in my top of the line ship but if I want to go blasting pirates with the Memento Mori then sailing to my island for martinis I do not want to have to give it up because there is no way to make money.

Hopefully they put some end game content in this new one to let me just keep going if I choose to.

...Would still like the Zubmarine stuff for Sunless Sea though, that's been on the backburner for what feels like a really, really long time.

That's actually been in beta for some time now. I managed to get in and there have been a LOT of updates to it...haven't actually played it, mainly because I got mad when I accidentally deleted my save files.

Well, good news on that front. They recently made an announcement [http://steamcommunity.com/games/304650/announcements/detail/939388334464311315] that Zubmariner would be released soon.