Our JANSKY sprint leads us to a very special announcement—Sunless Skies is coming to Steam Early Access and GOG Games in Development the 30th of August! With that in mind, all teams have of course been working on buffing, polishing and bug fixing the Reach, our initial area for Early Access / Games in Development.

ART

One of the tasks tackled by the art team in JANSKY was implementing labels within the game. This means that as your locomotive cruises through the High Wilderness, any wrecks, ports or locations with names will show on screen. Paul has implemented this specifically in the Reach, and you may even see some of our backer-created location names appear!



As we continue towards Early Access / Games in Development, Tobias has been busy creating and tidying many different decorations and ambiences. One of the challenges specifically with decorations, is the balance between a space that is too sparse, or a space that is too dense—balance is very important. Ambiences pose their own problem, as depending on the content, there may or may not be an icon that covers a third of the art.



All the Reach ports are receiving plenty of buff and polish, and thus we’re happy to share a comparison with you: the first screenshot of Magdalene’s we shared versus the current version after some polish.





This sprint also received a lot of UI work from Liam, who created a new pre-roll for the title screen of the game for Early Access, along with adding crossfading to make UI transitions smoother.


CONTENT

The Content resource was a bit light this sprint due to our writers being busy on other projects such as Fallen London’s Election, Exceptional Stories, and Reworks project.

One of the tasks they tackled was revising port area names in the Reach as they were too long and were being cut off by the UI. This is a great example of some of the conflicting pieces that go into game development and why it has to be so iterative.

Chris and Olivia also worked with Richard Cobbett, one of our excellent freelancers, who was pitching his ideas for a port in Albion.

Meanwhile, James worked on loot and death storylets for sky-beasts. Lesleyann also tackled testing the mechanics of the Magdalene port.


GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

Besides his UI work, Liam also implemented the ‘options’ panel, adding audio and both UI and font scaling as options. A ‘graphics’ menu was also added by Mac, which when it is finished, will allow users to change their screen resolutions for the game.

Mac also worked on implementing how players will be able to spend their experience points in the character progression screen. Players will be able to use their experience points on special storylets that will grant them skill stats. For example, in Fallen London they’re Watchful, Shadowy, Dangerous and Persuasive. In Sunless Skies they are
Iron, Hearts, Mirrors and Veils.



When players spend their experience point, a roleplaying storylet will appear that will allow them to choose one of two options. Your choice allows you to shape your character and their history.



Adam and Caolain both worked on the design and implementation of two of our AI agents, Adam on the Cantankeri (which Liam showed in a previous podcast) and Caolain on the Tackety Scout.

Alongside this, Adam also worked on adjusting many of the player controller variables. These adjustments affect how the player-locomotive move. The adjustments included things like max speed, lateral thrust and heat gained from thrust. All these tweaks are made to ensure that the movement and all the controls of the locomotive feels right when players fly through the High Wilderness, and will certainly be an area of feedback we're looking to receiving from Early Access.

The tech team and Lesleyann have also working on finding and fixing any of the bugs scurrying about!



If you’d like to know more about what to expect for Early Access, you can read more about it in our earlier post or, tune in to our next FBG Podcast on Friday 4th of August at 16:00 BST. Ahead of the podcast feel free to send any questions to @failbettergames on Twitter.

Our JANSKY sprint leads us to a very special announcement—Sunless Skies is coming to Steam Early Access and GOG Games in Development the 30th of August! With that in mind, all teams have of course been working on buffing, polishing and bug fixing the Reach, our initial area for Early Access / Games in Development.

ART

One of the tasks tackled by the art team in JANSKY was implementing labels within the game. This means that as your locomotive cruises through the High Wilderness, any wrecks, ports or locations with names will show on screen. Paul has implemented this specifically in the Reach, and you may even see some of our backer-created location names appear!



As we continue towards Early Access / Games in Development, Tobias has been busy creating and tidying many different decorations and ambiences. One of the challenges specifically with decorations, is the balance between a space that is too sparse, or a space that is too dense—balance is very important. Ambiences pose their own problem, as depending on the content, there may or may not be an icon that covers a third of the art.



All the Reach ports are receiving plenty of buff and polish, and thus we’re happy to share a comparison with you: the first screenshot of Magdalene’s we shared versus the current version after some polish.





This sprint also received a lot of UI work from Liam, who created a new pre-roll for the title screen of the game for Early Access, along with adding crossfading to make UI transitions smoother.


CONTENT

The Content resource was a bit light this sprint due to our writers being busy on other projects such as Fallen London’s Election, Exceptional Stories, and Reworks project.

One of the tasks they tackled was revising port area names in the Reach as they were too long and were being cut off by the UI. This is a great example of some of the conflicting pieces that go into game development and why it has to be so iterative.

Chris and Olivia also worked with Richard Cobbett, one of our excellent freelancers, who was pitching his ideas for a port in Albion.

Meanwhile, James worked on loot and death storylets for sky-beasts. Lesleyann also tackled testing the mechanics of the Magdalene port.


GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

Besides his UI work, Liam also implemented the ‘options’ panel, adding audio and both UI and font scaling as options. A ‘graphics’ menu was also added by Mac, which when it is finished, will allow users to change their screen resolutions for the game.

Mac also worked on implementing how players will be able to spend their experience points in the character progression screen. Players will be able to use their experience points on special storylets that will grant them skill stats. For example, in Fallen London they’re Watchful, Shadowy, Dangerous and Persuasive. In Sunless Skies they are
Iron, Hearts, Mirrors and Veils.



When players spend their experience point, a roleplaying storylet will appear that will allow them to choose one of two options. Your choice allows you to shape your character and their history.



Adam and Caolain both worked on the design and implementation of two of our AI agents, Adam on the Cantankeri (which Liam showed in a previous podcast) and Caolain on the Tackety Scout.

Alongside this, Adam also worked on adjusting many of the player controller variables. These adjustments affect how the player-locomotive move. The adjustments included things like max speed, lateral thrust and heat gained from thrust. All these tweaks are made to ensure that the movement and all the controls of the locomotive feels right when players fly through the High Wilderness, and will certainly be an area of feedback we're looking to receiving from Early Access.

The tech team and Lesleyann have also working on finding and fixing any of the bugs scurrying about!



If you’d like to know more about what to expect for Early Access, you can read more about it in our earlier post or, tune in to our next FBG Podcast on Friday 4th of August at 16:00 BST. Ahead of the podcast feel free to send any questions to @failbettergames on Twitter.

Skyfarers, ready your locomotives!

Sunless Skies 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.

Kickstarter backers, keep your eyes on whichever email you used for Kickstarter for your key. Anyone else who’d like to join at this early stage will be able to purchase the game for 10% off its full price of £18.99 / $24.99 during the first week of Early Access.

Initially, players will be able to explore the Reach, one of the four regions of the High Wilderness, with other regions being added in throughout development:

The Reach is a verdant, sunless frontier. London pioneers—spearheaded by the avaricious Windward Company—establish far-flung colonies and plunder the riches of the region's ruins and wild gardens. But many colonists crave independence from the Empire, and the Reach is rife with conflict. Will you be one of the lucky few who strikes it rich? Or one of the masses broken amidst the green wastes?

Mechanically, players can expect a broad skeleton of gameplay features to be available. You’ll be able to explore the skies, dock at ports, interact with stories, trade, fight and die. Opening the game to players in Early Access will provide us with crucial feedback and data to help us create a game that's delicious, delightful, and dangerous.

We are incredibly excited to send you amongst the stars and look forward to experiencing this next chapter of development with you.

Note: Please do keep in mind that like any Early Access game, Sunless Skies will not be in a complete state, and will go through changes ahead of its full release, based on player feedback and our development of the game. If you would like to wait until the bugs are ironed out, the gameplay is final and the stories are finished, we suggest that you wait until the official game release.

Skyfarers, ready your locomotives!

Sunless Skies 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.

Kickstarter backers, keep your eyes on whichever email you used for Kickstarter for your key. Anyone else who’d like to join at this early stage will be able to purchase the game for 10% off its full price of £18.99 / $24.99 during the first week of Early Access.

Initially, players will be able to explore the Reach, one of the four regions of the High Wilderness, with other regions being added in throughout development:

The Reach is a verdant, sunless frontier. London pioneers—spearheaded by the avaricious Windward Company—establish far-flung colonies and plunder the riches of the region's ruins and wild gardens. But many colonists crave independence from the Empire, and the Reach is rife with conflict. Will you be one of the lucky few who strikes it rich? Or one of the masses broken amidst the green wastes?

Mechanically, players can expect a broad skeleton of gameplay features to be available. You’ll be able to explore the skies, dock at ports, interact with stories, trade, fight and die. Opening the game to players in Early Access will provide us with crucial feedback and data to help us create a game that's delicious, delightful, and dangerous.

We are incredibly excited to send you amongst the stars and look forward to experiencing this next chapter of development with you.

Note: Please do keep in mind that like any Early Access game, Sunless Skies will not be in a complete state, and will go through changes ahead of its full release, based on player feedback and our development of the game. If you would like to wait until the bugs are ironed out, the gameplay is final and the stories are finished, we suggest that you wait until the official game release.

The INVARIANTHEORIE sprint continues our work at fleshing out the Reach ahead of Early Access. Art has been finishing up ports while also delving into even more ambiences, icons and decorations. Meanwhile Content have been working on experience accrual designs and working on Kickstarter backer rewards such as Correspondence and geographical location names. Tech have accomplished a myriad of different pieces to ensure all the bits and bobs are running for Early Access, including melee attacks, trade loops, scenic spawns and character progression!


ART

Now that many of the ports are on their polish stages, Paul and Tobias have been busy at work with ambiences, icons and decorations.



Many of the icons will be of characters involved in stories connected to the ports you visit. For example, last sprint we saw the Romantic Ornithologist, which players will meet at the Leadbeater & Stainrod Nature Reserve. This sprint Tobias has been hard at work on the Amenable Host, who will feature in Magdalenes.



Other icons and ambiences will incorporate landscapes for ports and places in the High Wilderness, as well as all UI, goods and quality icons within the game.

Liam has also been attending to various pieces that required a UI pass, such as the Chart and Journal page. He's also crafted a UI style guide, so anyone on the team will have a clear representation of the design behind the UI. This will come in handy in case anyone else needs to tweak or make additional assets for the UI (or marketing assets) while understanding the master design behind it all.

Alongside the UI work, Liam has also animated the Reach Marauder vessel.



Paul has also spent some time this sprint tackling the character creation and avatar generator assets, which you will have seen a prototype of during our Kickstarter! The prototype we shared only showed a few variations, but as we continue towards full release, Paul will be creating more assets for each category, such as chin, nose, brow, hats, etc. and will be working ensure there's more diversity available for players to choose from.


CONTENT

This sprint, Chris immersed himself in spreadsheets. First he tackled designing experience accrual, or how much experience players receive for defeating agents.

His second delve into spreadsheets was to take a look at our Kickstarter backer responses for both those who get to create a Correspondence sigil and those who get to have a geographical location name. We provided the various backer tiers with different prompts for each, then Chris has a look and designs a name based on the information they've provided.

For example, for the location name, backers provided us with:

• their full name, beloved's name, or pet's name
  
• their profession or hobby
  
• and their foremost virtue and chiefest vice

This allows us to ensure that each name, holds personal meaning while at the same time blends into the Sunless Skies atmosphere and lore.

Cash and James have both been busy with various port quest QA, such as New Winchester and Port Prosper.


GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

This sprint Mac implemented melee attacks, which are important not only for some locomotive agents, but also for organic agents that may be lurking in the skies.



Featured above you can see one of the tools we've created for ourselves in Unity. We're making sure we have a lot of them at our disposal to help us create a range of interesting types of enemy attacks.

He has also begun work on implementing the character progression spec that Chris has created in a previous sprint. Character progression in Sunless Skies will be different than Sunless Sea, and more story-driven.



Barry has continued work on Wrath, this time implementing instantaneous provocations, which means that agents will be able to become provoked immediately if shot at or attacked, as opposed to only becoming provoked based on qualities.

He has also begun implementing Scouts, which will be very helpful to allow players to explore the skies!

Henry has been working on scenic spawns and agent spawning tags, which will allow the team to have more control over where an AI agent spawns in game. These tags, for example, will allow specific agents to be spawned in specific regions of the High Wilderness.

He has also been implementing locomotive equipment specs written up by Chris. This will ensure players can add different equipment to their locomotives.

Caolain has taken his first dive into Sunless Skies by working on the design for AI behavior of the Tackety Scouts, as well as working on trade loops for the Reach. The trade loop designs will narrate which shops sell what in various points of the Reach.

Besides learning all the ropes at Failbetter, Lesleyann has done her first general QA pass, focusing on both finding bugs and ensuring bugs the tech team has fixed have actually been fixed. She's also worked with the tech team ahead of public launches, such as Alpha updates, to work through major bugs which would stop any builds from going out.



Our next FBG Podcast will be Friday 21st July at 16:00 BST! Our next sprint, JANSKY, will bring more content from Albion, continued art polish on the Reach, music triggers, and more AI behaviours!

The INVARIANTHEORIE sprint continues our work at fleshing out the Reach ahead of Early Access. Art has been finishing up ports while also delving into even more ambiences, icons and decorations. Meanwhile Content have been working on experience accrual designs and working on Kickstarter backer rewards such as Correspondence and geographical location names. Tech have accomplished a myriad of different pieces to ensure all the bits and bobs are running for Early Access, including melee attacks, trade loops, scenic spawns and character progression!


ART

Now that many of the ports are on their polish stages, Paul and Tobias have been busy at work with ambiences, icons and decorations.



Many of the icons will be of characters involved in stories connected to the ports you visit. For example, last sprint we saw the Romantic Ornithologist, which players will meet at the Leadbeater & Stainrod Nature Reserve. This sprint Tobias has been hard at work on the Amenable Host, who will feature in Magdalenes.



Other icons and ambiences will incorporate landscapes for ports and places in the High Wilderness, as well as all UI, goods and quality icons within the game.

Liam has also been attending to various pieces that required a UI pass, such as the Chart and Journal page. He's also crafted a UI style guide, so anyone on the team will have a clear representation of the design behind the UI. This will come in handy in case anyone else needs to tweak or make additional assets for the UI (or marketing assets) while understanding the master design behind it all.

Alongside the UI work, Liam has also animated the Reach Marauder vessel.



Paul has also spent some time this sprint tackling the character creation and avatar generator assets, which you will have seen a prototype of during our Kickstarter! The prototype we shared only showed a few variations, but as we continue towards full release, Paul will be creating more assets for each category, such as chin, nose, brow, hats, etc. and will be working ensure there's more diversity available for players to choose from.


CONTENT

This sprint, Chris immersed himself in spreadsheets. First he tackled designing experience accrual, or how much experience players receive for defeating agents.

His second delve into spreadsheets was to take a look at our Kickstarter backer responses for both those who get to create a Correspondence sigil and those who get to have a geographical location name. We provided the various backer tiers with different prompts for each, then Chris has a look and designs a name based on the information they've provided.

For example, for the location name, backers provided us with:

• their full name, beloved's name, or pet's name
  
• their profession or hobby
  
• and their foremost virtue and chiefest vice

This allows us to ensure that each name, holds personal meaning while at the same time blends into the Sunless Skies atmosphere and lore.

Cash and James have both been busy with various port quest QA, such as New Winchester and Port Prosper.


GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

This sprint Mac implemented melee attacks, which are important not only for some locomotive agents, but also for organic agents that may be lurking in the skies.



Featured above you can see one of the tools we've created for ourselves in Unity. We're making sure we have a lot of them at our disposal to help us create a range of interesting types of enemy attacks.

He has also begun work on implementing the character progression spec that Chris has created in a previous sprint. Character progression in Sunless Skies will be different than Sunless Sea, and more story-driven.



Barry has continued work on Wrath, this time implementing instantaneous provocations, which means that agents will be able to become provoked immediately if shot at or attacked, as opposed to only becoming provoked based on qualities.

He has also begun implementing Scouts, which will be very helpful to allow players to explore the skies!

Henry has been working on scenic spawns and agent spawning tags, which will allow the team to have more control over where an AI agent spawns in game. These tags, for example, will allow specific agents to be spawned in specific regions of the High Wilderness.

He has also been implementing locomotive equipment specs written up by Chris. This will ensure players can add different equipment to their locomotives.

Caolain has taken his first dive into Sunless Skies by working on the design for AI behavior of the Tackety Scouts, as well as working on trade loops for the Reach. The trade loop designs will narrate which shops sell what in various points of the Reach.

Besides learning all the ropes at Failbetter, Lesleyann has done her first general QA pass, focusing on both finding bugs and ensuring bugs the tech team has fixed have actually been fixed. She's also worked with the tech team ahead of public launches, such as Alpha updates, to work through major bugs which would stop any builds from going out.



Our next FBG Podcast will be Friday 21st July at 16:00 BST! Our next sprint, JANSKY, will bring more content from Albion, continued art polish on the Reach, music triggers, and more AI behaviours!

The HYPERGALAXY sprint finds us continuing to enrich the Reach. Art have finished their first pass at all the ports of the Reach and started on Ambiences, Decorations and a UI pass. Meanwhile, Content have written a tutorial specifically for Early Access, created a system to track faction conflict in New Winchester and created base content for Albion. Besides working on bug fixes for the Alpha, the Tech crew have been continuing their work on weapons, creating the in-game chart, and implementing plenty of UI and HUD systems.


ART

We had a very joyous moment during our Sprint Review meeting where Paul showed us a collage of all the ports on screen—the first pass on all the ports in the Reach is finished! Both Paul and Tobias will in a later sprint go back over them with polish to finalise them.

Tobias has also begun creating Decorations, which are non-interactive background scenes that players will fly through on their journey through space. These may include things like the beanstalks below, or shards of wreckage from battles past.



Paul and Tobias also discussed Ambiences, which are the background scenes that accompany storylets.



Not all storylets will have need of an icon, so Ambiences need to be able to fill up the entire space and also give a sense of atmosphere and location.



Paul also did a pass over the UI, tweaking the art nouveau to be more functional (rather than overly aesthetic).





We have all also fallen in love with Tobias’ rendition of the Romantic Ornithologist.




CONTENT

One of Content’s first tasks this sprint was to devise a simple tutorial specifically for Early Access. In it, players will be able to explore their ship and learn about the game's mechanics and setting.

James and Chris have also been working on the Winchester War: the conflict over the Reach, between the Windward Company and the Tacketies. The fortunes of each side fluctuate as time passes, and players can throw their weight behind one faction, or try to play each against the other. If one side gains dominance, they'll seize New Winchester, driving their rivals out!

This has been quite a feat for us, as the quality-based narrative (QBN) that's used within our games is designed for responsive, player-facing stories, rather than background simulation. We think we've cracked it, though!

Cash and Chris have also been working on the first content for our second region: Albion. They began, of course, with London, where you'll be able to curry favour with the well-paying Ministry of Public Decency, or support the underground New Street Line. You can also take part in the wargaming weekends of one Mr H. G. Wells. A number of senior military figures attend them to experiment with new strategies. Play correctly, and with the move of a handful of tiny soldiers, you may be able to influence the outcome of the war in the Reach!

GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

Mac has continued work on weaponry, specifically creating an arc mechanic to different types of ammunition. Not only does this allow our team to be able to create different movement to different types of ammunition, but is also part of our work on accessibility for difficulty settings. Along with this he’s also started to implement force, so if an opponent is hit with a shotgun, they will be pushed back by the force of it.

This sprint Barry started to develop the player chart—the in-game map that allows players to see where they have been and what has yet to be discovered. Below is a shot at the first pass at this, which shows the fog of war around the player-locomotive. Below is a shot of Barry's work to date, using Failbetter's world-renowned programmer art! We'll be getting Liam and Paul to beautify it in the near future.



Meanwhile, Liam has been implementing plenty of UI, including the Hold, Possessions, Profile Page, Officers, and also some heat animations on the HUD.

The Hold UI features multiples of items, as opposed to stacks, and visually updates in real-time.



PRODUCTION

We're particularly excited to welcome Lesleyann, our newest Failbetter recruit, as QA tester on [ir]Sunless Skies[/i]! She's just getting started - getting to grips with the game to date, learning all 7,777 names of the office rats, etc - but will be vital in making sure Sunless Skies is the most polished it can be on launch.


Our next FBG Podcast will be Friday 7th July at 16:00 BST! Feel free to tweet @Failbettergames your questions ahead of time, or ask in chat on Twitch! Our next sprint, INVARIANTHEORIE, where we’ll be taking a look at bug fixes from the Alpha, music and audio triggers, and implementing Scouts!

The HYPERGALAXY sprint finds us continuing to enrich the Reach. Art have finished their first pass at all the ports of the Reach and started on Ambiences, Decorations and a UI pass. Meanwhile, Content have written a tutorial specifically for Early Access, created a system to track faction conflict in New Winchester and created base content for Albion. Besides working on bug fixes for the Alpha, the Tech crew have been continuing their work on weapons, creating the in-game chart, and implementing plenty of UI and HUD systems.


ART

We had a very joyous moment during our Sprint Review meeting where Paul showed us a collage of all the ports on screen—the first pass on all the ports in the Reach is finished! Both Paul and Tobias will in a later sprint go back over them with polish to finalise them.

Tobias has also begun creating Decorations, which are non-interactive background scenes that players will fly through on their journey through space. These may include things like the beanstalks below, or shards of wreckage from battles past.



Paul and Tobias also discussed Ambiences, which are the background scenes that accompany storylets.



Not all storylets will have need of an icon, so Ambiences need to be able to fill up the entire space and also give a sense of atmosphere and location.



Paul also did a pass over the UI, tweaking the art nouveau to be more functional (rather than overly aesthetic).





We have all also fallen in love with Tobias’ rendition of the Romantic Ornithologist.




CONTENT

One of Content’s first tasks this sprint was to devise a simple tutorial specifically for Early Access. In it, players will be able to explore their ship and learn about the game's mechanics and setting.

James and Chris have also been working on the Winchester War: the conflict over the Reach, between the Windward Company and the Tacketies. The fortunes of each side fluctuate as time passes, and players can throw their weight behind one faction, or try to play each against the other. If one side gains dominance, they'll seize New Winchester, driving their rivals out!

This has been quite a feat for us, as the quality-based narrative (QBN) that's used within our games is designed for responsive, player-facing stories, rather than background simulation. We think we've cracked it, though!

Cash and Chris have also been working on the first content for our second region: Albion. They began, of course, with London, where you'll be able to curry favour with the well-paying Ministry of Public Decency, or support the underground New Street Line. You can also take part in the wargaming weekends of one Mr H. G. Wells. A number of senior military figures attend them to experiment with new strategies. Play correctly, and with the move of a handful of tiny soldiers, you may be able to influence the outcome of the war in the Reach!

GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

Mac has continued work on weaponry, specifically creating an arc mechanic to different types of ammunition. Not only does this allow our team to be able to create different movement to different types of ammunition, but is also part of our work on accessibility for difficulty settings. Along with this he’s also started to implement force, so if an opponent is hit with a shotgun, they will be pushed back by the force of it.

This sprint Barry started to develop the player chart—the in-game map that allows players to see where they have been and what has yet to be discovered. Below is a shot at the first pass at this, which shows the fog of war around the player-locomotive. Below is a shot of Barry's work to date, using Failbetter's world-renowned programmer art! We'll be getting Liam and Paul to beautify it in the near future.



Meanwhile, Liam has been implementing plenty of UI, including the Hold, Possessions, Profile Page, Officers, and also some heat animations on the HUD.

The Hold UI features multiples of items, as opposed to stacks, and visually updates in real-time.



PRODUCTION

We're particularly excited to welcome Lesleyann, our newest Failbetter recruit, as QA tester on [ir]Sunless Skies[/i]! She's just getting started - getting to grips with the game to date, learning all 7,777 names of the office rats, etc - but will be vital in making sure Sunless Skies is the most polished it can be on launch.


Our next FBG Podcast will be Friday 7th July at 16:00 BST! Feel free to tweet @Failbettergames your questions ahead of time, or ask in chat on Twitch! Our next sprint, INVARIANTHEORIE, where we’ll be taking a look at bug fixes from the Alpha, music and audio triggers, and implementing Scouts!

Now that we've spent some sprints building the Reach, GANYMEDE is where we begin adding flesh to the skeleton we’ve constructed. Art have continued their construction of ports, officers, locomotives and worked on improving the docking platforms. The content team outlined the next area of the High Wilderness: Albion. Tech have been busy implementing wrath, heat, armaments, shop mechanics and storylet UI.


Art

This sprint Tobias (formerly known as Toby here) began work on the Royal Society port! Backers managed to achieve all five portions of this port during the Kickstarter.



The once-moribund Royal Society of inventors, explorers, and scientists has received a generous grant from Her Enduring Majesty and a renewed mandate: to unravel the mysteries of the High Wilderness!

Both Paul and Tobias also finished up some of the officers. Below you can see the Incautious Driver as well as Sunless Skies’ version of an old favourite, the Blind Bruiser.



Art also spent some time redesigning the docking experience at ports, which Tobias implemented.



With this version, players can pull into the dock from either direction, however, the dock will expel players’ locomotives out of the dock in only a single direction. The artists were far too delighted envisioning being able to rev up the locomotive’s’ engine so that docks would actually shoot locomotives back into space. This has yet to be tested as a possibility.

Content

This sprint, the content team have developed a comprehensive story document for the game's second region: Albion! Albion represents London's core territories, basking in the radiance of the Clockwork Sun.

Creating a document like this is an involved process. We take our initial high-level outline of a region and drill mercilessly into it, pitching ideas for ports, quests, conflicts, and discoveries. Every member of the team pitches concepts and takes part in the discussion, and we bring members of other teams in (production, tech, comms, analytics) to pitch and contribute, too.

Every pitch gets polished, expanded and tied into the overall stories of the region. Some pitches won't make it to the final game - we can't do everything we'd love to, so (as much as it pains us) we have to choose the ones that work best together.

Then Chris takes the pitches and discussion and compiles them all into a document. Writers get an opportunity to make final amendment to their pitches, and then the document is shared with the whole company so everyone can offer feedback. That feedback is discussed, then incorporated into a final (ish) version of the document.

Then we can start writing ports!

Speaking of which, here's a sneak peak at the list of the ports we're considering for Albion, a few of which may ring bells for fans of Sunless Sea and Fallen London:

Avid Horizon, the Clockwork Sun, the Brabazon workworld, the Most Serene Mausoleum, Worlebury-Juxta-Mare, Ephemera, Eagle's Empyrean, and the Floating Parliament.

Cash and James also worked on one of the Reach’s remaining ports: Polmear & Plenty’s Inconceivable Circus, where weary acrobats and grizzled clowns entertain an audience of visitors. A handful of those visitors will choose to stay here, and never leave. Are they charmed by the magic of the Big Top? Or is it something deeper?

Exceptional Freelancers

We can also reveal some of the exceptional freelancers who have already begun work on ports for Sunless Skies. All three worked extensively on Sunless Sea, and are experienced with our processes and tools. They're already sinking their (very sharp) teeth into the new story possibilities offered by expansions to our narrative content system.

These freelancers are:

Meg Jayanth (80 Days, Horizon: Zero Dawn): who wrote the Isle of Cats and Varchas in Sunless Sea.

Emily Short (Galatea, Inform 7, Versu) - who wrote Station III, Visage, Nuncio, Dahut, Anthe and Aigul for Sunless Sea and Zubmariner.

Richard Cobbett (The Long Journey Home, games journalism) whose Sunless Sea and Zubmariner work includes Saviour's Rocks, the Empire of Hands, Mr Sacks, the Pirate Poet, Nook and the Gant Pole.


Gameplay and Design

Barry implemented heat, a subtle mechanic with big effects in-game. You'll primarily notice this in combat, when you'll see firing your guns and moving at top speed slowly increase your locomotive's heat gauge until - if you're not careful - your engines may overheat.

This won't result in immediate destruction, but you'll be punished with an array of possible effects for running your equipment too hard. This applies both to the player's and agent locomotives.

Barry has also implemented Wrath, which Adam discussed last week on the FBG Podcast. Wrath represents an agent's current hostility towards another agent or the player. This allows agents to fight one another when it logically makes sense, and also allows players to identify simple narratives in regards to why the fight occurred.

Wrath is modified by provocations, which can be instantaneous (like being hit by an attack) or periodic (like a specific type of agent being a certain distance away).

When an agent's Wrath towards any other agent or the player is at a certain level, the agent is marked as hostile and will enter combat!

Meanwhile Mac worked on implementing shop functionality in ports, and our first run at the cannon and shotgun armaments, which are featured below (more glamorous gifs to come as armaments progress).



We've agreed the Art Nouveau style we'd like for our UI, and Liam's now going in and implementing this across the game. This should do a great deal to establish the tone and time of Sunless Skies. He’s also been refining the transitions to create a sleeker feel.




Our next FBG Podcast will be Friday 22nd June at 16:00 BST, where we’ll be happy to take your questions. Our next sprint, HYPERGALAXY, will feature bug fixes, weapons content and locomotive UI!