The KEPLER sprint brings us ever closer to Early Access / Games in Development. It warmed us to our core to see such excitement about the release date of the open beta for Sunless Skies. While there are still many new bits and bobs being worked on for the Reach and a some new tasks for our next region, Albion, most of the work we’ll be focusing on from now until the 30th of August will be bug finding, fixing, and feature polishing. Oh, and extra, triple, quadruple checks to make sure that space feels spacey enough before you lot burst through the gate into the High Wilderness.

ART

One of the new pieces art has been tackling is a bonafide art pass on the chart, or in-game map. Whilst we are always amazed and entertained with what the developers produce when implementing the functionality of the chart, after that's been finished art add their creative polish overtop.



Paul created the chart, focusing on ensuring it fit the branding and art direction within the game. There was a brief glimpse of what we imagined it might look like in the Kickstarter Trailer, but actual implementation has to consider the functionality in-game. This is only the first-pass, and we're sure it will evolve over time as we receive player feedback.



Meanwhile Tobias has been checking off many of the ambiences and icons that'll be needed for the Reach. In terms of characters, he's covered The Turbulent Fabulist, Prudent Secretary and Parsimonious Chairman. He's also been busy on the core stats icons and icons for character progression.





CONTENT

Content have started an overhaul of quality assurance (QA) testing, which for us includes both testing the mechanics work as intended, but also editing the text where necessary. As they encounter bugs, they then of course work to fix them. Our entire content team works on this, along with Caolain and Lesleyann.

Chris also worked with Liam to set up and fill out the content necessary for the locomotive equipment that will be in for the Early Access launch. Each piece of equipment requires an icon as well as a little bit of fiction. This also goes for our bat scout!



GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

Meanwhile in tech-land, Sam has started to dig into tasks that improve our content management system (CMS). These tasks range from small improvements like fixing preview images to larger tasks that allow the content team to work with a our CMS more easily as the add content to the game.

Mac accomplished the loot implementation, completed locomotive dock loading, and fixed a variety of bugs. These ranged from faulty must-events to Hunger not being reset at ports to many smaller issues that our very helpful Alpha testers have reported!

Adam and Caolain have continued working on the AI behavior for our enemies and sky-beasts, including Chorister bees and Scrive-Spinsters. Adam has also been making adjustments to player armament and player-locomotive lateral thrust to ensure the movement within the game feels 'right.'

Launches are production's baby, so Lottie has spent a lot of last sprint finalising our Steam and GOG pages and making sure we're set up correctly technically—things like enabling different Kickstarter backers to get their appropriate in-game content, and making sure our distribution channels are clear so we can easily update with any new content later down the line. She’s let us know that this is “SURPRISINGLY COMPLICATED.”

In order to make pre-launch as stress-free as possible Lottie has also focused on providing a clear plan of attack and acting as a repository for all last-minute tasks discovered in the run up to our final build. This leaves developers free for that final phase of polishing which makes such a difference to a game.

Lottie also also worked with our composer, Maribeth, on Albion's music, so we’ll have a head start on our next region of the game.


We won’t be doing a FBG podcast in lieu of giving our developers as much time as possible to work on Sunless Skies before the 30th, but you can expect us to be back on Twitch the 1st of September at our usual time of 16:00 BST!

The KEPLER sprint brings us ever closer to Early Access / Games in Development. It warmed us to our core to see such excitement about the release date of the open beta for Sunless Skies. While there are still many new bits and bobs being worked on for the Reach and a some new tasks for our next region, Albion, most of the work we’ll be focusing on from now until the 30th of August will be bug finding, fixing, and feature polishing. Oh, and extra, triple, quadruple checks to make sure that space feels spacey enough before you lot burst through the gate into the High Wilderness.

ART

One of the new pieces art has been tackling is a bonafide art pass on the chart, or in-game map. Whilst we are always amazed and entertained with what the developers produce when implementing the functionality of the chart, after that's been finished art add their creative polish overtop.



Paul created the chart, focusing on ensuring it fit the branding and art direction within the game. There was a brief glimpse of what we imagined it might look like in the Kickstarter Trailer, but actual implementation has to consider the functionality in-game. This is only the first-pass, and we're sure it will evolve over time as we receive player feedback.



Meanwhile Tobias has been checking off many of the ambiences and icons that'll be needed for the Reach. In terms of characters, he's covered The Turbulent Fabulist, Prudent Secretary and Parsimonious Chairman. He's also been busy on the core stats icons and icons for character progression.





CONTENT

Content have started an overhaul of quality assurance (QA) testing, which for us includes both testing the mechanics work as intended, but also editing the text where necessary. As they encounter bugs, they then of course work to fix them. Our entire content team works on this, along with Caolain and Lesleyann.

Chris also worked with Liam to set up and fill out the content necessary for the locomotive equipment that will be in for the Early Access launch. Each piece of equipment requires an icon as well as a little bit of fiction. This also goes for our bat scout!



GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN

Meanwhile in tech-land, Sam has started to dig into tasks that improve our content management system (CMS). These tasks range from small improvements like fixing preview images to larger tasks that allow the content team to work with a our CMS more easily as the add content to the game.

Mac accomplished the loot implementation, completed locomotive dock loading, and fixed a variety of bugs. These ranged from faulty must-events to Hunger not being reset at ports to many smaller issues that our very helpful Alpha testers have reported!

Adam and Caolain have continued working on the AI behavior for our enemies and sky-beasts, including Chorister bees and Scrive-Spinsters. Adam has also been making adjustments to player armament and player-locomotive lateral thrust to ensure the movement within the game feels 'right.'

Launches are production's baby, so Lottie has spent a lot of last sprint finalising our Steam and GOG pages and making sure we're set up correctly technically—things like enabling different Kickstarter backers to get their appropriate in-game content, and making sure our distribution channels are clear so we can easily update with any new content later down the line. She’s let us know that this is “SURPRISINGLY COMPLICATED.”

In order to make pre-launch as stress-free as possible Lottie has also focused on providing a clear plan of attack and acting as a repository for all last-minute tasks discovered in the run up to our final build. This leaves developers free for that final phase of polishing which makes such a difference to a game.

Lottie also also worked with our composer, Maribeth, on Albion's music, so we’ll have a head start on our next region of the game.


We won’t be doing a FBG podcast in lieu of giving our developers as much time as possible to work on Sunless Skies before the 30th, but you can expect us to be back on Twitch the 1st of September at our usual time of 16:00 BST!

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!