LOSE YOUR MIND. EAT YOUR CREW.Take the helm of your customised steamship and set sail for the unknown! Sunless Sea is a 2D game of discovery, survival and loneliness set in the award-winning Victorian Gothic universe of Fallen London. Will you succumb to madness and cannibalism on the black waters? Or return home triumphant with a hold full of precious loot?Events can turn out differently every game - sometimes, even if you make the same choices. Will you lose your sweetheart to a curse? Redeem, betray or consume the Genial Magician? Sell your soul to the Wistful Deviless or spurn her advances? Is the Dawn Machine your salvation, or your doom?You are the captain. It’s your call.Key features -A deep, compelling world packed with secrets and stories -Beautiful, hand drawn 2D art -Light and dark. Stray too far from the gas-lamps of civilisation and your crew will grow fearful and eventually lose their sanity. But there is treasure out there in the darkness… -Real-time, pausable combat with dozens of different abilities -Leave a legacy! When you die (and you will) your next captain may choose to inherit a skill, a chart of discovered islands or a beloved officer. -Upgrade your steamship with powerful engines, flensing cannons, and pneumatic torpedo guns. Or just buy a bigger, better ship. -Hire unique officers like the Haunted Doctor and the Irrepressible Cannoneer. Each has a story to tell, if you can draw it out of them. -Choose from a menagerie of ship’s mascots: the Comatose Ferret, the Wretched Mog, the Elegiac Cockatoo, and more! -Trade silk and souls, mushroom wine and hallucinogenic honey... -Cross the wide black sea -Find your way home
What kind of game is Sunless Sea, and how are you building it?Sunless Sea is a single-player top-down 2D naval exploration and survival game, with a hand-painted art style. We’re building the sailing elements in Unity, and using our own StoryNexus tech to handle the story elements. It’s currently in early access; you can read more here or here.What are the minimum system requirements?You’ll need at least a 2Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, 700MB of available hard disk space, and a 1280 x 768 screen. And Windows XP, or Mac OS X 10.6, or a later version of either.What does ‘Get New Stories’ do? Is it the same as downloading a patch?They’re different. Patches make changes to the software. They fix compatibility issues, improve the interface, and add new features. ‘Get New Stories’ downloads the latest content: stuff like balance tweaks, new trade goods and extra stories. We add new content much more often than we release patches. If you’re playing the Humble Bundle version, you’ll need to download each patch and install it. If you’re playing on Steam, it will happen automatically.Do the Steam and Humble Bundle versions share the same save files?Yes. If you switch from the Humble Bundle version to Steam, you can continue with your existing saves. And it works the other way around, too.How can I find out about upcoming releases? Do you have a road map?We do! Take a look at our progress page.I found a bug! Where can I report it?sunlesssea@failbettergames.com. If you’re reporting a crash, black screen or graphics issue, it would really help us out if you could attach your output log.Where can I find my output log?If you’re using Windows, find your Sunless Sea directory and open the Sunless_Sea_Data folder. If you’re using a Mac, it’s a little more complicated. We’ve posted a guide, here.Will there be a Linux version?We have an experimental Linux build: we’ll share it with anyone who emails us with proof of purchase and asks. It’s not formally supported at present — we need to focus on fulfilling our kickstarter and early access commitments, first — but we’d like to. It will depend on how much work it would be for our developers, and on how the game sells.I’m a journalist. How can I get in touch with you?You can reach us at press@failbettergames.com.Known IssuesIn London, the middle portion of the Iron & Misery Company is not clickable, and produces an error sound effect. The mouseover highlight is also absent in the dead area
ROAD MAPEXPLORERS’ BETA - Released 29th April.RUBY - released 21st May. Stability, major survival system upgrades, and the islands of Shepherd’s Wash.AMETHYST - released 5th June. Combat and beastie spawning upgrades, the isles around the Sea of Voices, and Void’s Approach, where Mt Nomad waits…GOLD - our soft-launch Early Access release on 17th June. A shiny new combat UI, a new save mode, more content and the Khanate at the heart of the Unterzee.CORSAIR’S GOLD - our Steam Early Access release on 1st July. Our Steam Early Access release on 1st July. Darkness management improvements, story interface upgrade, tyrant-moths and the Watching Eye…EMERALD - slated for late July. Map shuffling, more sophisticated legacies, additional beasties, the Iron Republic, the Sea of Autumns, the Reef of Roses.AQUAMARINE - early August. Neutral vessels, wandering phenomena. The Chelonate on its giant turtle-shell and the Promised Sea where the Fathomking holds court..CARNELIAN - early September. Officers integrated as crew, additional equipment, currents. The South: Carnelian Coast and Dawn’s Edge.SAPPHIRE - late September – final release! Final graphical upgrades and optimisations, and the most challenging form of victory. The East: Irem and the Pillared Sea, the Deconstruction, Saviour’s Rocks with the octomaran Tree of Ages.After that, we’ll take a break, then get cracking on the underwater expansion.
Hello everyone! EMERALD, our first major update, is now live. Your game should be patched automatically by Steam. The key feature is map shuffling, but we have a dank, wriggling bag of other goodies for you too. New stories, new lands to explore (including the Iron Republic and the enigmatic Salt Lions), improvements to your zee chart and more! Whoof! What a month! On 1st July, we launched Sunless Sea in Early Access on Steam. It did, by the standards of an indie studio’s debut videogame, really very well. This was great – and thank you all for your support – but it also meant we spent weeks struggling to deal with support issues, press, and infrastructure work. We’re back on top now, but it cost us a chunk of development and writing timeSo EMERALD is a slimmed-down version of what we originally planned. But we’re determined not to go too long between major updates, so we’re getting this one out of the door. It’s in final testing now – you can expect to see it drop in the next few days.Here’s what’s coming… MAP SHUFFLING. This is the headline feature. The Unterzee now feels properly uncertain on each new career. We’ve gone beyond what we originally said we’d do – not only is the map shuffled between each replay, but also you’ll see variant forms of some tiles and islands. It’s working smoothly and we’ve been careful about what gets shuffled where, but expect weird and wonderful balance stuff until it settles down. NEW LANDS! We didn’t manage to get Rattsey or Visage in – those will come later – but you’ll see the Salt Lions, the Mangrove College and the Sea of Autumns, and especially the Iron Republic. SHIP NAMES. You’ll begin the game with a random ship name, but you can now rename it without buying a new one. ZEE-BAT. This now works properly, and comes with a Mark On Chart feature to make it easier to navigate to newly spotted islands. CHART IMPROVEMENTS. It’s much easier to wrangle the chart, and it’s now way prettier. NEW SOUND EFFECTS. Liam’s been working on making the zee much more audible. I particularly enjoy the bats, myself. NEW CONTENT. If you’ve been using Get New Stories regularly you’ll have seen a lot of this, but look out especially for the Overheard on Deck events, the Nephrite Quarter in the Khanate and the unusual trading options in the Iron Republic. (The word count in Sunless Sea has officially passed 100,000 words with this release.) We were hoping to get enhancements to Legacies in too – but that’ll have to wait, sorry.AND THE FUTURE. So we’ve been listening carefully to feedback. The two biggest problems with the game are(i) combat – too long, too frequent, not fun enough(ii) rewards – too hard to get started and too random As we’ve said, this is going to improve over time. But we’re going to shift the priority away from filling out each island with random events, and more towards systems and interconnected stories. It’s mostly the same content implemented in a different order – but you should find that you’ll start to see more plot arcs and routes through the game, even though the islands look a little emptier for a while.COMBAT is a different matter. We knew it needed work – you can see it’s marked as about 65% on our progress plan – but the feedback has been very clearly that it’s the weakest part of the game right now. So our current plan (TBC this week) is to relabel it as 50% complete focus the month of August, and an extra release – STEEL – on combat, beastie pathfinding, and related issues slip the other releases by a month.That’s a pain for us – and we know it’s not great news for people eager for the final release - but there’s no point us listening to feedback if we don’t respond to it. We want to make the best game we can, and all of you are helping us do that. So – thank you all! We’ll see you on the other side of EMERALD.
Our long-awaited STEEL release – the real-time combat revamp – is here! It brings a clutch of bug fixes and a giant shipload of really stunning scenery.This is the first release and there are issues, quirks and missing features – but it basically works, and is fun.How To Get ItWe’ve put it in an opt-in beta branch on Steam while we gather feedback and work out some of the kinks. We’ll migrate over everyone to the new branch in the next week or so. In the meantime, here’s how to get to it: Right-click on SUNLESS SEA in your Steam Library. Choose Properties | Beta, and select ‘steel_beta’ from the dropdown. Close the properties panel, and you’ll have an update waiting.(If you can’t see steel_beta in the dropdown, restart Steam).IMPORTANT! You can switch back to the old version – for a little while – but new games started under STEEL will not be compatible with the old version. How It WorksThis is a summary! There are full patch notes at the bottom of this post.Target an enemy by clicking it, or hitting TAB. Combat won’t actually begin until you fire on it, or it spots you. (Enemies will have a harder time spotting you when your lights or off, or if you have a high Veils stat. You may be able to sneak up on them.)You’ll see your weapon arcs appear (different weapon positions have different arcs). Keep your enemy in the arc, and you’ll notice a glow circling the fire buttons in the combat bar. This is your firing solution: when the circle is complete, you can hit your enemy. If your enemy is illuminated by your prow-light (or by other lights, in the next patch) the firing solution willl increase faster. (It’ll turn green when this happens).Elaborations! You can also fire before the arc is complete… but they you have a chance of missing. Higher Mirrors allows you to fire more frequently. Higher Iron allows you to do more damage.Enemy ships, meanwhile, will be trying to do the same to you. You’ll get a warning signal just before it fires – the longer you can stay out of their arcs, the less damage they’ll do to you. Ducking behind land works. Zee-beasts can’t usually use projectiles, but they’ve learnt to submerge and than emerge to bite or ram you. You’ll need to pick your moment.There’s other stuff – smaller ships have limited choice of weapons, there are several items with a use in combat. We’ll let you find it out. How To Talk To UsTell us everything! We’ll watch the forums, but if you find a bug – or aren’t sure if it’s a bug – do let us know at sunlesssea@failbettergames.com. You are brave pioneers, and we salute you. Other GoodiesSO MANY NEW ISLANDS! very little content as yet, but some amazing sightseeing. The Chelonate, Varchas, Fathomking’s Hold, Visage, Saviour’s Rocks, the Isle of Cats, the Gant Pole, Nuncio, the Grand Geode, and the (unfinished) Dawn Machine. You’ll also see a great many unnamed islands filling up the zee – generally, there’s much less empty space.Terror now accumulates much more slowly, although Terror pips also dissipate much more slowly.You can now tuck your officers out of the way with the button by your Captain’s portrait.If you haven’t already brought your stories up to date, you’ll find that the Brisk Campaigner, the Nacreous Outcast and the Principles of Coral all have stories; the Wisp-Ways are open in the Mangrove College; and new branches have sprouted like, well, branches, on a whole lot of existing content.A whole bunch of other fixes and improvements! Check out the patch notes below.COMBATFeatures:- Combat is now real-time and takes place on the sailing screen- Weapons equipped to your Forward, Deck and Aft slots will now give you access to attacks- Each attack has a Range, Firing Arc, Damage amount and Warmup time- While an enemy is in your weapon’s firing arc, the firing solution will increase- Once a firing solution is over 50%, you have the option to fire. Your % through firing solution is equal to your chance to hit, meaning if you wait for 100%, you are ensured a hit.- If the enemy is in your headlights, the firing solution will increase at double the speed- Your Iron level will increase the damage your weapons do- Your Mirrors level will reduce the warmup time of your attacks- Your Veils level will reduce the range at which enemies will spot you- To engage your enemy, simply click on them with your cursor or hit the Tab key (you can also toggle between possible enemies with Tab)- Using keys 1-3 will fire your currently equipped weapons in combat- When you manage to avoid an enemy, it will begin to search the area it last spotted you- When an enemy spots you, they will engage in combat- Running with your lights off will reduce the distance at which enemies can spot you- Organic creatures will not fire missiles at you, but will instead ram your ship and deal damage to you- When you defeat an enemy, they will drop loot crates, allowing you to pick up rewards- Entering combat will hide your officers from the HUD- Enemies will attempt to avade you if you have locked on to them for a while- Certain organic creatures will submerge beneath the water, making it impossible to target them- You are unable to fire through terrain or objects in the sea, and instead have to wait until you have a clear line on your opponent- Using The Unclear Device during combat will cause your enemy to lose sight of your for 10 seconds- Using a Rattus Faber Assistant during combat will repair 10 hull damage- Using a Lump of Blue Scintillack during combat will fill all of your attack solutions instantly- You can leave the combat interface by pressing the cross at the end of the attack bar, as long as you are not currently being pursued by a targetUIFeatures:- You can now toggle the display of your officers using the cross next to your avatar- The cursor has been reworkedSPAWNINGFeatures:- Beasties no longer spawn randomly over time, but instead tiles are automatically populated with a random number of beasties when you enter them- As a result of the above, tile populations are more random, but you will no longer be mobbed by constantly respawning enemies, it will be possible to clear a tile and then leave- Enemy populations are currently much lower than before while we balance combatZEE-BATFeatures:- The Zee-bat has been reworked and should now be providing more accurate information- The animation of the Zee-bat has been improved- You can now dismiss the Zee-bat message with the Z keySAILINGFeatures:- Weight now has a more noticeable effect on speed- Terror increases much more slowly now while we balance combat KNOWN ISSUES…- The UI is all still quite placeholder- The content is currently very limited, so almost all beastie attacks are identical- Very little artwork, animation or sound design has been implemented at this stage- Docking while in combat will partially obscure the dock button- Some enemies and weapons remain unblanaced- There are some framerate issues as a result of the new combat system that we are working to address- Some smaller enemies can bit a little hard to click- The submerge effect is subtle at present and it is easy to miss what is actually happening- Some enemies may act strangely when attempting to ram you, sometimes freezing in spot or veering off to the side before doing damage- Enemies may get stuck on the terrain as a result of the new pathfinding introduced to incorporate combat behaviour- Beasties should not attack you will your are on top of a port, but they may behave irratically- There are occasional sweet-spots where enemies may not be able to see or react to you, giving you an advantage- Turn speed is not based on weight or engine power, and so faster ships will appear to turn much more slowly- Zee-beasts drop crates, crates can give prize-ship results even after a ship’s destroyed.
Carnelian is here, tweaked slightly from the roadmap, but replete with new content and improvements to combat:CONTENTVisit Saviour’s Rocks, seat of the Tree of AgesGuest content by Richard Cobbett, highly appropriate for some late-night, lights-off Halloween zailing: Saviour’s Rocks, home of the sorrow spiders.Richard is a UK-based freelance writer and journalist specialising in games and story, whose words have appeared for over a decade in publications like PC Gamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer and IGN. He infamously hates spiders, so having him write an island full of them seemed a perfect revenge for his parody of Fallen London, Fallen Swindon.Read about his experience of writing the island on his blog.Speak to the Merchant VenturerHe has need of a reliable agent – or a resourceful one – and he will make it worth your while. Find him in Fallen London.There are also new pretties to marvel at, like the Dawn Machine Grand Geode and Port Carnelian. Stories for these are coming soon.COMBATBalanceThe combat system has been rebalanced to address feedback from the community. You should notice the following top level differences:Provided you are properly equipped and have decent combat stats for the area of the zee you are exploring (the further from Fallen London you go, the more dangerous the waters), you should be doing more damage than the enemies you are encountering and have more health.Combat is now less about whether you can survive each individual battle, but more about controlling the threat of sustained damage. Can you make it home with your ship in its current state? Will you be able to survive another battle?Combat should generally be a bit more forgiving, until you reach less than 50% hull integrity. At this point, you have to start worrying about things other than just the damage dealt to your ship.You should now be completing firing solutions faster, but doing less damage. This means killing enemies (or being killed) will take more shots. This is to allow for a mid-combat decision to disengage when you find yourself in over your head with an enemy much tougher than you.Enemies should no longer be running circles around you. Generally speaking, organic creatures will be more agile than ships, but provided you have a decent engine equipped for the size of ship you are in, you should be able to keep pace with all but the fastest foes.Fixes Enemies life, hull, crew and damage numbers have been rebalanced.Enemy speeds and turning circles have been rebalanced.Player ship hull values have been rebalanced.Player weapon damage numbers have been rebalanced.Player deck weapon ranges have been increased.Enemies now spawn more frequently and more evenly across the entire map. The spawn locations have also been balanced, so you should no longer be encountering very tough enemies close to home waters.Fighting multiple enemies is now possible. You are only able to target one enemy at a time, but they will be able to attack you simultaneously, so be careful when engaging multiple foes!Removed selection circles around enemies when they are selected.All enemies how have the same clickable area size, so you should no longer have problems clicking smaller enemies.Not all ships will have the same equipment slots anymore. Small ships will only have a deck weapon slot, medium sized ships will add a forward slot and large vessels will feature an aft slot.Combat attack tooltips should give you better at-a-glance information and no longer obscure one another.Repairing at zee should no longer be as time consuming or expensive. However, if your ship is too damaged (below 50% integrity), you will need to dry-dock to repair it.FeaturesNew combat user interface. This has been visually improved and now allows you to toggle in and out of the combat UI at any point. Being engaged by an enemy will automatically open this screen.Cannon, Flensing and Torpedo weapons now have different animations.While in combat, if you or your foe’s hull is lower than 50%, you (or they) will start being exposed to additional damage! For example:Most ships will start killing off your crew.Bat swarms will begin devouring your supplies.The voice of the Lorn-Fluke will increase your terror.Expect more to come…In addition to enemies dealing damage to your crew, you will also be able to kill off their crew. When a ship has no crew left, you will be able to approach it and collect your reward. Eventually, you will be able to send these ships home with members of your own crew as a prize ship.If you want to attract an enemy’s attention, nothing is quite as effective as a blast from your horn.More items have been added that will allow you to change the course of combat:Rattus Faber Assistants can help repair your hull while engaged.Strange Catches will lure submerged zee-beasts from below the water back to the surface.Blue Scintillack will immediately fill all of your firing solutions – this can now be used multiple times, rather than consuming the item.The Unclear Device will obscure you from your enemies, giving you time to escape or manoeuvre behind them.Flares will light up the zee, illuminating anyone nearby and speeding up the time it takes to build up a firing solution.Information on the damage you receive will now be recorded in your log book.New boat abilities/hotkey user interface. The old interface has been re-designed to match the style of the combat interface. In addition, the buttons will now be greyed out to indicate when they can and can’t be used.The Hold page has been redesigned, to give you detailed information about your currently equipped weapons and items that are available for use in combat.The officers page in the gazetteer has been redesigned, making it clearer who you currently have equipped and allowing you to equip officers directly from the gazetteer, removing the need to have your officers panel out on the main HUD to speak to or switch officers.Known Issues You should not be able to close the combat interface while engaged in a fight with an enemy, though it is currently a bit temperamental. We are working to improve this.As ever, we appreciate your feedback!
A multi-faceted update: new stories, new gameplay and a feast of new artwork.This is V0.6.3.1751, currently available on Steam (Humble versions always come along a little later due to timezones).FEATURESLegacies have been re-designed. When you die, choose your relationship to the late captain. More control over what you receive to take into your next game, and an idea of why you got it.Neutral vessels have been added to the Unterzee. Sail alongside them and your crew will be soothed by their presence. Follow them to discover new trade routes. Shoot at them if you fancy, but they will retaliate.Qualities in your journal are now grouped into categories. These categories can be expanded or contracted to display more or less information.The game now autosaves after each story choice while you are docked at a port.The latest update news is now always visible on the title screen.The Sea of Lilies has now been added to the map (with content to follow. You will need to start a new game to see this location).Stories galore! Espionage, masked encounters, cruelty, desire and a mystery from Fallen London’s past… If you have not been getting new stories as they come, you’re in for a feast.FIXESSome items cannot be thrown overboard (such as passengers. You shouldn’t throw passengers overboard.)All available stories should now be visible when you are in Fallen London, not just the first 8. Simply go to the story overview page to see them all.The Caligo-class Merchant Cruiser now has an Aft slot, allowing you to equip aft weapons and Secure Storage.KNOWN ISSUESIf you need to recover after a corrupted save and need to teleport to Fallen London, there is a chance you will see some of the trading ships behaving oddly.
SUNLESS SEA leaves early access in early February. Here’s DIAMOND, a delicious update which brings us tantalizingly close to the finished article.GAMEPLAYNew features Weather! There is now a chance of adverse weather in the Unterzee. This will affect combat, slowing you down or reducing visibility. Better combat animations! Some beasties will flinch when hit, or grasp at you with their terrible claws. They’ll also die quite prettily. More coming soon. New weapon characteristic: stagger! Some weapons will now stagger your enemies, knocking their crew to the deck and therefore setting back their preparations. They can also do the same to you! Surprise attacks! Some beasties can now start submerged and sneak up on you.Tweaks Some combat items, such as the Rattus Faber Assistant, are now usable even when you don’t have a target. Combat items now have cooldowns, rather than warm-ups. Weapon damage variation ranges are now increased and scale with the amount of damage that you deal. Reversing speed has been reduced. Enemies should be able to spot you more easily when your lights are off. Both weapons and usable items now have hotkeys (1-9)Bug Fixes Trading ships should no longer infinitely spawn. The number of storylets that are displayed in the bottom right hand corner has been reduced from 8 to 7, to prevent issues on smaller monitor resolutions.One Known IssueIf you reach a storylet you have to resolve, and choose to exit to the title menu instead of resolving it, when you load the game back up, you will not be able to close the gazetteer. Instead, you will have to play an available storylet or close the game and reload it in order to continue.STORIES Your Father’s Bones – the closest thing to a main storyline – is now available, complete with variant endings. You can now explore off the edges of the map, though no good will come of it. She will lean forward and whisper to you: “This is the nature of Irem. It is the beach where history comes to rest.” There is now a conclusion to the Salt-Lions story; in fact, six different conclusions, including an Easter-Egg Legacy effect. The Presbyterate Adventuress now has a storyline. The Icarus in Black weapon will allow you to fire monster-hunters at monsters. The Tomb-Colonist plotlines will now allow you to carry a party of bandaged hooligans round the ports of the Unterzee.ARTYou can now zail by Frostfound, Irem, Aestival and Sea of Statues admiringly (there are also some stories at each of them, though not final ones).Crying Heights is there to marvel over too, but be warned that there is no port.The beautification of the game continues at a hot pace, with many new and revamped port and item illustrations to discover on your travels.Enjoy. We look forward to hearing what you think!
