Today is a very exciting update for us (and you!) as today is our first feature update to the game! Once your game updates in Steam/GOG, you’ll be able to explore: Engine Yards, Banks, Legacies and—perhaps most excitingly—Character Creation. These features make up quite large systems within the game, and so we’ve spent this sprint and a few others tidying them up and bug testing them. Alongside that, we’ve also been working on Albion content, other large systems like Prospects and Bargains, and of course addressing feedback from players.

NEW FEATURES ADDED

Engine Yards:
These are shops in port where players can purchase new locomotives. Instead of a straight purchase situation, players will be able to trade their current locomotive in towards the price of a new beauty. Be forewarned—locomotives are not cheap, and prices may change as we continue to balance the economy.

Banks:
Where players can store items that are taking up valuable space in their holds. Items stored in banks can also be retrieved by a new captain if your previous one had met their demise. To access the bank speak to the Scrubbed Clerk at New Winchester once you reach level 2.

Legacies:
Death is hard to avoid, but thankfully where one captain fails, another may continue on in their place and hope to further their great work.

In Legacy mode, players can start from the last major port visited by their previous captain, with their locomotive, half their sovereigns, any items stored in their bank, a percentage of their experience, and all but one piece of equipment assigned to their locomotive.

In Merciful mode, players can choose to either start with a new captain as in Legacy mode, or continue with their previous captain from their last auto-save point.

Character Creation:
Those who had fun with our Kickstarter prototype will find this familiar. This update allows players to select a character portrait, character name, what they’ll be addressed as, an origin story, their base statistics, and their chosen ambition.

As a note: Character Creation is not yet fully complete. There will be more origin stories, ambitions, and facial features will be added later on. We’d very much appreciate your feedback about which type of features you’d like to see more of/which are lacking. Thanks!






ART

Meet the Enduring Dreadnought, a fast and powerful locomotive available only to the agents of Her Enduring Majesty's Government. These locomotives are generally manned bv ambassadors, Constables, Ministers, and other enforcers of London's will - they are a sign of London's power wherever they travel.



Besides creating the above three-cylinder locomotive, Tobias was also tasked with the Aeginae, leviathans that dwell in the belly of the heavens. Usually, they are only glimpsed as sliding shapes–grand as mountain-ranges–in the fogs below. It is said that the suns have an ancient pact with them.

We are keeping these under cloud-cover for now, but will be very glad to share them when we’re ready…


CONTENT

In preparation of adding Engine Yards, James dove into spreadsheeting work again to write content for within the Engine Yards, as well as cover where they exist in game, what their names are, and which locomotives they're going to sell.

Alongside that, Chris designed and specified locomotive details necessary for players to be able to use the Engine Yards, for example: price, where locomotives can be bought, their qualities, quarters, hold and hull.

This sprint also sees Albion and Eleutheria port work continue with pitches, writing and quality assurance.

GAMEPLAY & DESIGN

Besides a whole host of tweaks to Engine Yards and Banks, Mac has been working on the implementation of Prospects and Bargains, our system for trade in Sunless Skies.

Chris and Barry have been working in tandem to this to implement the design-focused bits Chris has been working on. This allows our team to link the trade system to logical places within the game world.

Our design team has also been busy discovering a solution to one of the main pieces of feedback we’ve received so far—that currently Sunless Skies feels quite empty.

While actual space can feel vast and empty, we of course do not want our game to feel as such. Therefore, Liam, Chris and Paul have been discussing and rejigging how to lay out the world of Sunless Skies so it feels more full and lush.

This has involved intense planning sessions and a redesign of how the world is procedurally generated within the game. We’ll share their solution here soon in fuller detail!


If you have any questions regarding the new features, please join us for the FBG Podcast Friday 27th October at 16:00 BST!

REMINDER: Any backers who have not received their game keys yet please email skies@failbettergames.com, as it appears that quite a few people’s keys got eaten by spam filters.

Today is a very exciting update for us (and you!) as today is our first feature update to the game! Once your game updates in Steam/GOG, you’ll be able to explore: Engine Yards, Banks, Legacies and—perhaps most excitingly—Character Creation. These features make up quite large systems within the game, and so we’ve spent this sprint and a few others tidying them up and bug testing them. Alongside that, we’ve also been working on Albion content, other large systems like Prospects and Bargains, and of course addressing feedback from players.

NEW FEATURES ADDED

Engine Yards:
These are shops in port where players can purchase new locomotives. Instead of a straight purchase situation, players will be able to trade their current locomotive in towards the price of a new beauty. Be forewarned—locomotives are not cheap, and prices may change as we continue to balance the economy.

Banks:
Where players can store items that are taking up valuable space in their holds. Items stored in banks can also be retrieved by a new captain if your previous one had met their demise. To access the bank speak to the Scrubbed Clerk at New Winchester once you reach level 2.

Legacies:
Death is hard to avoid, but thankfully where one captain fails, another may continue on in their place and hope to further their great work.

In Legacy mode, players can start from the last major port visited by their previous captain, with their locomotive, half their sovereigns, any items stored in their bank, a percentage of their experience, and all but one piece of equipment assigned to their locomotive.

In Merciful mode, players can choose to either start with a new captain as in Legacy mode, or continue with their previous captain from their last auto-save point.

Character Creation:
Those who had fun with our Kickstarter prototype will find this familiar. This update allows players to select a character portrait, character name, what they’ll be addressed as, an origin story, their base statistics, and their chosen ambition.

As a note: Character Creation is not yet fully complete. There will be more origin stories, ambitions, and facial features will be added later on. We’d very much appreciate your feedback about which type of features you’d like to see more of/which are lacking. Thanks!






ART

Meet the Enduring Dreadnought, a fast and powerful locomotive available only to the agents of Her Enduring Majesty's Government. These locomotives are generally manned bv ambassadors, Constables, Ministers, and other enforcers of London's will - they are a sign of London's power wherever they travel.



Besides creating the above three-cylinder locomotive, Tobias was also tasked with the Aeginae, leviathans that dwell in the belly of the heavens. Usually, they are only glimpsed as sliding shapes–grand as mountain-ranges–in the fogs below. It is said that the suns have an ancient pact with them.

We are keeping these under cloud-cover for now, but will be very glad to share them when we’re ready…


CONTENT

In preparation of adding Engine Yards, James dove into spreadsheeting work again to write content for within the Engine Yards, as well as cover where they exist in game, what their names are, and which locomotives they're going to sell.

Alongside that, Chris designed and specified locomotive details necessary for players to be able to use the Engine Yards, for example: price, where locomotives can be bought, their qualities, quarters, hold and hull.

This sprint also sees Albion and Eleutheria port work continue with pitches, writing and quality assurance.

GAMEPLAY & DESIGN

Besides a whole host of tweaks to Engine Yards and Banks, Mac has been working on the implementation of Prospects and Bargains, our system for trade in Sunless Skies.

Chris and Barry have been working in tandem to this to implement the design-focused bits Chris has been working on. This allows our team to link the trade system to logical places within the game world.

Our design team has also been busy discovering a solution to one of the main pieces of feedback we’ve received so far—that currently Sunless Skies feels quite empty.

While actual space can feel vast and empty, we of course do not want our game to feel as such. Therefore, Liam, Chris and Paul have been discussing and rejigging how to lay out the world of Sunless Skies so it feels more full and lush.

This has involved intense planning sessions and a redesign of how the world is procedurally generated within the game. We’ll share their solution here soon in fuller detail!


If you have any questions regarding the new features, please join us for the FBG Podcast Friday 27th October at 16:00 BST!

REMINDER: Any backers who have not received their game keys yet please email skies@failbettergames.com, as it appears that quite a few people’s keys got eaten by spam filters.

The office has still been a bit quiet this sprint due to quite a few people taking holiday in this post-Early Access launch time period. Our Albion work continues to forge ahead in each department. Alongside creating the next region, we remain focused on taking the feedback we’re seeing from players and having internal discussions about our design and production moving forwards.


ART

One area of feedback we’ve been looking at is Terror. Our first Focused Feedback thread on the forums was all about Terror, which led to the discovery that we could do a better job communicating/showing Terror levels to players in-game. Thus, Tobias has been working on how Terror levels and Terror increase are visually communicated on-screen. Later on, music will also be added to help illustrate this as well.

Upon his return from holiday Paul began work on the Isambard Line assets which consist of gates and track. The Isambard Line will be a railroad line located in the Reach, owned by the Windward Company.



Players will have the option to fix the line and bring it back into service or leave it to disrepair. Fixing the line will help the Stove Pipes, while the Tacketies would be rather pleased if it stays unusable. If fixed, the line will act as a fast-travel service throughout the Reach, in a similar way to Currents in Sunless Sea. If left in disarray, you’ll have a better relationship with the Tacketies and may find new trade opportunities open up.


CONTENT

We’re thrilled to announce this sprint that Cassandra Khaw will officially be one of our excellent freelancers for the game! Specifically she’ll be working on Worlebury-juxta-Mare, a seaside-esque port in Albion.

The writers (including our wonderful freelancers) are in full Albion mode and have been busy working away at the content for Albion ports and other bits of Albion content.

Similar to Terror, we’ve also received some great feedback about the game’s economy, and so Chris has been looking into some solutions as he designs and write s content for Prospects and Bargains—or the trade system within Sunless Skies. Chris answered quite a few questions about the future of trade in the last FBG Podcast.

MUSIC

Maribeth, the exceptionally talented composer behind the Fallen London and Sunless Sea OSTs, has started creating the tracks for Albion. Since each region has its own unique atmosphere, the theme music for each region is extremely pivotal. Alongside the Albion music she has also been composing the Terror, Death, Victory and Hero themes.

GAMEPLAY & DESIGN

Mac and Barry have continued implementing both the Character Creation and Legacy systems. The Legacy system in Sunless Skies is designed both to respect players’ time and to address the change players will experience as the move through the map of the High Wilderness.

In Sunless Sea, players always returned to London and often moved from right to left. In Sunless Skies, players will still return to major ports often, but there won’t be a singular ‘home’ port and we hope the circular structure of the regions will put more of an emphasis on exploration and cause more variance in travel pathways.



Players will initially be able to choose from two game modes in the Legacy system: Merciful or Legacy. In Legacy mode, when your captain dies, your new captain will start from the last major port that your previous captain visited, along with:

• Their locomotive
  
• Half their sovereigns
  
• Any items they stored in the bank
  
• A percentage of their experience

They will also start with most of the equipment assigned to the locomotive, however, players will lose one random piece of equipment from their hold.

When players die in Merciful mode, they can choose between starting with a new captain as in the Legacy mode, or continuing with their previous captain from the last auto-save point.


BUGS & FEEDBACK

Lesleyann would like to remind everyone playing Sunless Skies to check out the Focused Feedback threads on the Steam and FBG forums. So far there are two posted: “Terror” and “Economy, General Progression and World Shape,” with plenty more to come!



Keep an eye out week commencing 23rd October, as we’ll be updating the game with its first new feature build—meaning our first update to the game that will include new bits and pieces and not just bug fixes.

Catch our FBG Podcast this week at 16:00 BST Friday 13th October on Twitch! We’ll be joined with Cash and James, who would adore to answer any writerly questions, or in Cash’s case, singing requests.

REMINDER: Any backers who have not received their game keys yet please email skies@failbettergames.com, as it appears that quite a few people’s keys got eaten by spam filters.

The office has still been a bit quiet this sprint due to quite a few people taking holiday in this post-Early Access launch time period. Our Albion work continues to forge ahead in each department. Alongside creating the next region, we remain focused on taking the feedback we’re seeing from players and having internal discussions about our design and production moving forwards.


ART

One area of feedback we’ve been looking at is Terror. Our first Focused Feedback thread on the forums was all about Terror, which led to the discovery that we could do a better job communicating/showing Terror levels to players in-game. Thus, Tobias has been working on how Terror levels and Terror increase are visually communicated on-screen. Later on, music will also be added to help illustrate this as well.

Upon his return from holiday Paul began work on the Isambard Line assets which consist of gates and track. The Isambard Line will be a railroad line located in the Reach, owned by the Windward Company.



Players will have the option to fix the line and bring it back into service or leave it to disrepair. Fixing the line will help the Stove Pipes, while the Tacketies would be rather pleased if it stays unusable. If fixed, the line will act as a fast-travel service throughout the Reach, in a similar way to Currents in Sunless Sea. If left in disarray, you’ll have a better relationship with the Tacketies and may find new trade opportunities open up.


CONTENT

We’re thrilled to announce this sprint that Cassandra Khaw will officially be one of our excellent freelancers for the game! Specifically she’ll be working on Worlebury-juxta-Mare, a seaside-esque port in Albion.

The writers (including our wonderful freelancers) are in full Albion mode and have been busy working away at the content for Albion ports and other bits of Albion content.

Similar to Terror, we’ve also received some great feedback about the game’s economy, and so Chris has been looking into some solutions as he designs and write s content for Prospects and Bargains—or the trade system within Sunless Skies. Chris answered quite a few questions about the future of trade in the last FBG Podcast.

MUSIC

Maribeth, the exceptionally talented composer behind the Fallen London and Sunless Sea OSTs, has started creating the tracks for Albion. Since each region has its own unique atmosphere, the theme music for each region is extremely pivotal. Alongside the Albion music she has also been composing the Terror, Death, Victory and Hero themes.

GAMEPLAY & DESIGN

Mac and Barry have continued implementing both the Character Creation and Legacy systems. The Legacy system in Sunless Skies is designed both to respect players’ time and to address the change players will experience as the move through the map of the High Wilderness.

In Sunless Sea, players always returned to London and often moved from right to left. In Sunless Skies, players will still return to major ports often, but there won’t be a singular ‘home’ port and we hope the circular structure of the regions will put more of an emphasis on exploration and cause more variance in travel pathways.



Players will initially be able to choose from two game modes in the Legacy system: Merciful or Legacy. In Legacy mode, when your captain dies, your new captain will start from the last major port that your previous captain visited, along with:

• Their locomotive
  
• Half their sovereigns
  
• Any items they stored in the bank
  
• A percentage of their experience

They will also start with most of the equipment assigned to the locomotive, however, players will lose one random piece of equipment from their hold.

When players die in Merciful mode, they can choose between starting with a new captain as in the Legacy mode, or continuing with their previous captain from the last auto-save point.


BUGS & FEEDBACK

Lesleyann would like to remind everyone playing Sunless Skies to check out the Focused Feedback threads on the Steam and FBG forums. So far there are two posted: “Terror” and “Economy, General Progression and World Shape,” with plenty more to come!



Keep an eye out week commencing 23rd October, as we’ll be updating the game with its first new feature build—meaning our first update to the game that will include new bits and pieces and not just bug fixes.

Catch our FBG Podcast this week at 16:00 BST Friday 13th October on Twitch! We’ll be joined with Cash and James, who would adore to answer any writerly questions, or in Cash’s case, singing requests.

REMINDER: Any backers who have not received their game keys yet please email skies@failbettergames.com, as it appears that quite a few people’s keys got eaten by spam filters.

This sprint, seven of our crew headed to EGX to showcase Sunless Skies! New and veteran fans alike stopped by to give the game a try and we were delighted to chat with everyone and hear their feedback. On Friday, Chris, Lottie and Adam headed to the EGX stage to chat with Eurogamer’s Johnny Chiodini, which you can watch on Eurogamer’s YouTube page.



ART
With the Early Access launch finished, Paul has departed for a well-deserved holiday, so the art this sprint has primarily been done by Tobias. One of the things he’s been working on is another locomotive: the Altani-class outrider, an evasive locomotive from the Khanate.



Alongside the Altani, he also tackled some Discovery homesteads. There are currently five types of homesteads: eerie, friendly, recently abandoned, hostile and pro-trading.




CONTENT
Content have been continuing their work on Albion and its ports. James and Olivia have been finishing up the writing for ports such as the Serene Mausoleum and Brabazon Workworld, which Caolain has been mechanically QA'ing afterwards.

Chris created the art briefs for Discoveries and Spectacles, which aren't yet in-game.

Discoveries are points of interest in the High Wilderness. A Discovery could be something simple, like a floating crate of munitions, or could be the (hopefully) empty wreck of a crashed locomotive. These Discoveries will provide resources and stories for bold explorers to find.

Spectacles are awe-inspiring locations in the High Wilderness. Some will strike terror into the hearts of your crew, while others may bring them comfort. A wise skyfarer will learn routes that will keep their crew's dread at bay.


GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN
Before heading off to EGX, Barry worked on the Legacy system. This included selecting a Legacy and how new characters are created after a previous character dies. Under the Legacy system, captains may find they inherit a few bits from the expired captain, such as their ship and some donations from the old captain’s acquaintances.

Liam has been tending to the UI work for Character Creation while Henry and Mac have continued the tech work involved in implementing this system.

Mac has also been implementing Experience Gain within the game, so that players will receive the proper figures upon passing landmarks. He's also been working on the Banking Service, which is a feature that will allow players to store some of their items in New Winchester to save space in their locomotive's hold.

Shipyards are also being implemented, which give players the ability to rename their locomotive. Prospects and bargains have also been started. Once these are implemented, players will be able to scope out potential deals for trading.

BUGS AND FEEDBACK
This sprint we’ve started focused feedback sessions on our game forums. The first Feedback Focus we’d like to dive into is Terror. You can find these threads here on our Steam forum or on the FBG forum.


REMINDER: Any backers who have not received their game keys yet please email skies@failbettergames.com, as it appears that quite a few people’s keys got eaten by spam filters.

Our next FBG Podcast will take place this Friday 29th September at 16:00 BST! Come with your content questions at the ready, as we’re hoping to have a writer join us this week.

This sprint, seven of our crew headed to EGX to showcase Sunless Skies! New and veteran fans alike stopped by to give the game a try and we were delighted to chat with everyone and hear their feedback. On Friday, Chris, Lottie and Adam headed to the EGX stage to chat with Eurogamer’s Johnny Chiodini, which you can watch on Eurogamer’s YouTube page.



ART
With the Early Access launch finished, Paul has departed for a well-deserved holiday, so the art this sprint has primarily been done by Tobias. One of the things he’s been working on is another locomotive: the Altani-class outrider, an evasive locomotive from the Khanate.



Alongside the Altani, he also tackled some Discovery homesteads. There are currently five types of homesteads: eerie, friendly, recently abandoned, hostile and pro-trading.




CONTENT
Content have been continuing their work on Albion and its ports. James and Olivia have been finishing up the writing for ports such as the Serene Mausoleum and Brabazon Workworld, which Caolain has been mechanically QA'ing afterwards.

Chris created the art briefs for Discoveries and Spectacles, which aren't yet in-game.

Discoveries are points of interest in the High Wilderness. A Discovery could be something simple, like a floating crate of munitions, or could be the (hopefully) empty wreck of a crashed locomotive. These Discoveries will provide resources and stories for bold explorers to find.

Spectacles are awe-inspiring locations in the High Wilderness. Some will strike terror into the hearts of your crew, while others may bring them comfort. A wise skyfarer will learn routes that will keep their crew's dread at bay.


GAMEPLAY AND DESIGN
Before heading off to EGX, Barry worked on the Legacy system. This included selecting a Legacy and how new characters are created after a previous character dies. Under the Legacy system, captains may find they inherit a few bits from the expired captain, such as their ship and some donations from the old captain’s acquaintances.

Liam has been tending to the UI work for Character Creation while Henry and Mac have continued the tech work involved in implementing this system.

Mac has also been implementing Experience Gain within the game, so that players will receive the proper figures upon passing landmarks. He's also been working on the Banking Service, which is a feature that will allow players to store some of their items in New Winchester to save space in their locomotive's hold.

Shipyards are also being implemented, which give players the ability to rename their locomotive. Prospects and bargains have also been started. Once these are implemented, players will be able to scope out potential deals for trading.

BUGS AND FEEDBACK
This sprint we’ve started focused feedback sessions on our game forums. The first Feedback Focus we’d like to dive into is Terror. You can find these threads here on our Steam forum or on the FBG forum.


REMINDER: Any backers who have not received their game keys yet please email skies@failbettergames.com, as it appears that quite a few people’s keys got eaten by spam filters.

Our next FBG Podcast will take place this Friday 29th September at 16:00 BST! Come with your content questions at the ready, as we’re hoping to have a writer join us this week.

With Sunless Skies now officially available for Early Access / Games in Development, the MALMQUIST BIAS sprint was focused on analysing feedback and bug fixing. A few departments such as art have also begun to explore our next region: Albion.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

Quality Assurance, or QA, is a very important role in the games industry, especially during Early Access, where there are bound to be plenty of bugs about. QA testers are responsible for all things to do with bugs: finding, tracking, reporting, and being the relay between our community and our developers, not only for bugs but also for more general feedback.

Even before launch, our QA Lesleyann was in charge of setting up the bug reporting pipeline for players, which you may have seen on our How to Report a Bug and Known Issues pages. Since launch, she has tackled over 300 bug report emails as well as scanning the Steam, GOG and FBG forums for community feedback.

From there she has designed a lovely feedback grid spreadsheet (you know how much game developers love a good spreadsheet) to share with the development team so that we know generally how players feel about certain features, game balance etc. As we upload new builds of the game with bug fixes and feature additions or adjustments, Lesleyann will update the spreadsheet. From there, other members of the team can stay up to date with the players’ thoughts.


ART

Each region of the game will feature a distinct mood and ecosystem and thus one of the first steps for creating our next region, Albion, is deciding on its art direction. Paul and Tobias began the design and discussion by creating a colour journey. Colour journeys are quite common for things like film and television—it’s basically mapping out the colour palette for the region, in this case via outer ring, inner ring, and core. Below you can see a purposefully pixelated version:



From there, Albion’s ports can be conceptually sketched out, combining the writers’ descriptions and the decided colouring/mood. After it’s concepted, they check back with the writers to make sure that they’ve met the descriptions but also to make sure that the actual design of the part will work logically with the content they’ve created.





This also helps Paul and Tobias refine the art pipeline, so that they are designing the ports in the most efficient way possible. We wouldn’t want to have an artist fully map out, define, and polish a port only to find out a small detail about its construction that won’t work in-game alongside content.

Tobias has also been continuing asset creation, such as the hefty cargo ship the Pellinore, as well as the devilishly handsome Kickstarter stretch goal, the Moloch.



Meanwhile, the Moloch is a beast of brass and steam! A midnight miracle of hydraulics! Furnished in the most indulgent luxury, with carpet so thick you'll lose your toes in it, and mahogany as dark as the inside of a confessional.



Manufactured by refugees from Hell, the Moloch is an experimental engine available only at the Royal Society.

Tobias explains a bit about the influences on the Moloch: “With the Moloch, aside from the existing description created for the Kickstarter, my notes from our Narrative Director, Chris, were simply ‘luxury and brass.’

I wanted to avoid any immediate Hell Train cliches—no skulls and spikes—and instead looked at luxury cars from the early part of the 20th century, since there's something innately devilish to me about those sinuous cars that seem like 90% bonnet. They're a little ahead of our time period in Sunless Skies, but given how special this vehicle is, and that it was manufactured by devils, I felt alright about giving it an unusual twist.

I also took inspiration from brass coated instruments such as saxophones for the pipework on the body, and added fins to give the silhouette a bit of extra character.”





Along with these locomotive models, Tobias also created a future Discovery.




CONTENT

The writers have spent most of their time this sprint designing the foundations for Albion and its ports. Chris and James has been tackling the art briefs, while our freelance partners like Meg Jayanth and Richard Cobbett have been busy pitching their ports.

We are also very excited to announce that Harry Tuffs, the developer behind A House of Many Doors, will also be working with us on a port for [irl]Sunless Skies[/ir]!

TECH
The Tech team have devoted quite a bit of this sprint towards working with Lesleyann to iron out the bugs being reported from Early Access. When we update the game on Steam / GOG with new builds that include bug fixes, we will be posting Patch Notes so players can see exactly which bugs have been fixed and which new features have been added.

Mac and Barry have also begun working on some of the larger systems that we hope to get into the game in the coming months such as Character Creation and Legacies.



NOTE FOR BACKERS: Please get in touch with us at skies@failbettergames.com along with your pledge tier level if you have not yet received your Early Access keys - thank you! It appears spam filters may have eaten quite a few of our key emails.

Join us on Friday at 16:00 BST for the FBG Podcast! We’ll be there to take your questions and delve into the creation of Sunless Skies.

With Sunless Skies now officially available for Early Access / Games in Development, the MALMQUIST BIAS sprint was focused on analysing feedback and bug fixing. A few departments such as art have also begun to explore our next region: Albion.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

Quality Assurance, or QA, is a very important role in the games industry, especially during Early Access, where there are bound to be plenty of bugs about. QA testers are responsible for all things to do with bugs: finding, tracking, reporting, and being the relay between our community and our developers, not only for bugs but also for more general feedback.

Even before launch, our QA Lesleyann was in charge of setting up the bug reporting pipeline for players, which you may have seen on our How to Report a Bug and Known Issues pages. Since launch, she has tackled over 300 bug report emails as well as scanning the Steam, GOG and FBG forums for community feedback.

From there she has designed a lovely feedback grid spreadsheet (you know how much game developers love a good spreadsheet) to share with the development team so that we know generally how players feel about certain features, game balance etc. As we upload new builds of the game with bug fixes and feature additions or adjustments, Lesleyann will update the spreadsheet. From there, other members of the team can stay up to date with the players’ thoughts.


ART

Each region of the game will feature a distinct mood and ecosystem and thus one of the first steps for creating our next region, Albion, is deciding on its art direction. Paul and Tobias began the design and discussion by creating a colour journey. Colour journeys are quite common for things like film and television—it’s basically mapping out the colour palette for the region, in this case via outer ring, inner ring, and core. Below you can see a purposefully pixelated version:



From there, Albion’s ports can be conceptually sketched out, combining the writers’ descriptions and the decided colouring/mood. After it’s concepted, they check back with the writers to make sure that they’ve met the descriptions but also to make sure that the actual design of the part will work logically with the content they’ve created.





This also helps Paul and Tobias refine the art pipeline, so that they are designing the ports in the most efficient way possible. We wouldn’t want to have an artist fully map out, define, and polish a port only to find out a small detail about its construction that won’t work in-game alongside content.

Tobias has also been continuing asset creation, such as the hefty cargo ship the Pellinore, as well as the devilishly handsome Kickstarter stretch goal, the Moloch.



Meanwhile, the Moloch is a beast of brass and steam! A midnight miracle of hydraulics! Furnished in the most indulgent luxury, with carpet so thick you'll lose your toes in it, and mahogany as dark as the inside of a confessional.



Manufactured by refugees from Hell, the Moloch is an experimental engine available only at the Royal Society.

Tobias explains a bit about the influences on the Moloch: “With the Moloch, aside from the existing description created for the Kickstarter, my notes from our Narrative Director, Chris, were simply ‘luxury and brass.’

I wanted to avoid any immediate Hell Train cliches—no skulls and spikes—and instead looked at luxury cars from the early part of the 20th century, since there's something innately devilish to me about those sinuous cars that seem like 90% bonnet. They're a little ahead of our time period in Sunless Skies, but given how special this vehicle is, and that it was manufactured by devils, I felt alright about giving it an unusual twist.

I also took inspiration from brass coated instruments such as saxophones for the pipework on the body, and added fins to give the silhouette a bit of extra character.”





Along with these locomotive models, Tobias also created a future Discovery.




CONTENT

The writers have spent most of their time this sprint designing the foundations for Albion and its ports. Chris and James has been tackling the art briefs, while our freelance partners like Meg Jayanth and Richard Cobbett have been busy pitching their ports.

We are also very excited to announce that Harry Tuffs, the developer behind A House of Many Doors, will also be working with us on a port for [irl]Sunless Skies[/ir]!

TECH
The Tech team have devoted quite a bit of this sprint towards working with Lesleyann to iron out the bugs being reported from Early Access. When we update the game on Steam / GOG with new builds that include bug fixes, we will be posting Patch Notes so players can see exactly which bugs have been fixed and which new features have been added.

Mac and Barry have also begun working on some of the larger systems that we hope to get into the game in the coming months such as Character Creation and Legacies.



NOTE FOR BACKERS: Please get in touch with us at skies@failbettergames.com along with your pledge tier level if you have not yet received your Early Access keys - thank you! It appears spam filters may have eaten quite a few of our key emails.

Join us on Friday at 16:00 BST for the FBG Podcast! We’ll be there to take your questions and delve into the creation of Sunless Skies.

This patch is our first update and contains a number of bug fixes, listed below. Two big issues which have not been fixed as part of this update however are the disappearing ports bug and the corrupt save file issue which leads to a black screen overlaid with the HUD.

Having looked at the code in question these bugs are not simple, quick fixes. We want to address these issues properly as we refine these particular areas of the game, especially since it also ties into the current work we are doing on Legacies. We don’t want to push out a temporary fix that may have other knock-on effects, however minor, only to have to revise again later down the line.

I know how frustrating both these issues are, so this bit of news may be disappointing. But please rest assured we are working on these issues and we'll get solid fixes out for them as soon as we are able.

We really appreciate your continued help and support, and of course your patience as we iron out all these kinks. Your bug reports over the last fortnight have been really helpful and your feedback has been excellent. Collecting it all has been quite a mammoth task, but the first batch is ready for our designers and writers to look at.

Please keep all that feedback coming and together we'll make an awesome game.

P.S. Please also remember to check out our Known Issues. Any workarounds are in red text.



* We have made some improvements to the framerate.

* Loot can now be collected from Chorister bees.
* The Scrive-Spinsters now fire accurately towards an enemy vessel.

* The icon for weapons now appear in the Hold when purchasing duplicates.
* Duplicate weapons can now be equipped.
* Equipped weapons cannot be sold.

* Players will no longer get trapped in the Regent's Grave storylet at Traitor's Wood.
* Several typos and grammatical errors have been fixed.
* The Sovereign reward value has been boosted for many of the early quests.
* Apollonian Cinders can no longer be farmed for Sovereigns.
* You can no longer exceed your maximum Crew compliment by collecting miners from Lustrum.
* Items are now removed when handing them in to Melusine at Lustrum.
* The branches to reduce your Condition at Magdalene's can now be seen even when you do not have the requirements to play them.
* You will always be able to obtain a Pane of Stained Glass from New Winchester no matter the balance of the War.
* The Journal message now updates correctly once you have delivered a settler rather than telling you to drop them off at L&S Nature Reserve.
* When helping the Strongwoman, Magician, Acrobat and Clown at Polmear & Plenty's details will be shown in the Journal.

* Overflowing the cargo hold should no longer cause the UI to lock up and prevent Must Events (e.g. Loot) from firing correctly.
* We’ve made a number of fixes to the Jettison interface.
* Increasing the UI scale no longers causes elements within the Profile and Possessions interface to become inaccessible.
* Icons within the Hold interface no longer overflow the UI when increasing the UI scale.
* The Hold UI now updates automatically when open after jettisoning cargo.
* The Hold UI now updates automatically when open after purchasing items from shops (but not when gaining/losing items from slets).
* You can no longer move with storylet interfaces open.
* We've tweaked the way Peculiarities display on the Profile interface to reduce confusion.
* The Hold UI now updates correctly when unequipping weapons on Linux machines.

* Scout's discoveries no longer persist when continuing a save game.
* The Alexander-Yang Claim label now appears next to its graphical asset.
* The scroll function now works on the build notes on Linux machines.
* The cargo hold value can no longer be exceeded by selling equipped weapons.
* Shop purchases and changes to equipped items are now saved when quitting the game from the main menu.
* The bridge at Carillon no longer disappears when loading a save game.
* Certain shops become inaccessible when a player no longer meets the requirements.
* The fallen London plug no longer overlaps the patch notes on the title screen.

This patch is our first update and contains a number of bug fixes, listed below. Two big issues which have not been fixed as part of this update however are the disappearing ports bug and the corrupt save file issue which leads to a black screen overlaid with the HUD.

Having looked at the code in question these bugs are not simple, quick fixes. We want to address these issues properly as we refine these particular areas of the game, especially since it also ties into the current work we are doing on Legacies. We don’t want to push out a temporary fix that may have other knock-on effects, however minor, only to have to revise again later down the line.

I know how frustrating both these issues are, so this bit of news may be disappointing. But please rest assured we are working on these issues and we'll get solid fixes out for them as soon as we are able.

We really appreciate your continued help and support, and of course your patience as we iron out all these kinks. Your bug reports over the last fortnight have been really helpful and your feedback has been excellent. Collecting it all has been quite a mammoth task, but the first batch is ready for our designers and writers to look at.

Please keep all that feedback coming and together we'll make an awesome game.

P.S. Please also remember to check out our Known Issues. Any workarounds are in red text.



* We have made some improvements to the framerate.

* Loot can now be collected from Chorister bees.
* The Scrive-Spinsters now fire accurately towards an enemy vessel.

* The icon for weapons now appear in the Hold when purchasing duplicates.
* Duplicate weapons can now be equipped.
* Equipped weapons cannot be sold.

* Players will no longer get trapped in the Regent's Grave storylet at Traitor's Wood.
* Several typos and grammatical errors have been fixed.
* The Sovereign reward value has been boosted for many of the early quests.
* Apollonian Cinders can no longer be farmed for Sovereigns.
* You can no longer exceed your maximum Crew compliment by collecting miners from Lustrum.
* Items are now removed when handing them in to Melusine at Lustrum.
* The branches to reduce your Condition at Magdalene's can now be seen even when you do not have the requirements to play them.
* You will always be able to obtain a Pane of Stained Glass from New Winchester no matter the balance of the War.
* The Journal message now updates correctly once you have delivered a settler rather than telling you to drop them off at L&S Nature Reserve.
* When helping the Strongwoman, Magician, Acrobat and Clown at Polmear & Plenty's details will be shown in the Journal.

* Overflowing the cargo hold should no longer cause the UI to lock up and prevent Must Events (e.g. Loot) from firing correctly.
* We’ve made a number of fixes to the Jettison interface.
* Increasing the UI scale no longers causes elements within the Profile and Possessions interface to become inaccessible.
* Icons within the Hold interface no longer overflow the UI when increasing the UI scale.
* The Hold UI now updates automatically when open after jettisoning cargo.
* The Hold UI now updates automatically when open after purchasing items from shops (but not when gaining/losing items from slets).
* You can no longer move with storylet interfaces open.
* We've tweaked the way Peculiarities display on the Profile interface to reduce confusion.
* The Hold UI now updates correctly when unequipping weapons on Linux machines.

* Scout's discoveries no longer persist when continuing a save game.
* The Alexander-Yang Claim label now appears next to its graphical asset.
* The scroll function now works on the build notes on Linux machines.
* The cargo hold value can no longer be exceeded by selling equipped weapons.
* Shop purchases and changes to equipped items are now saved when quitting the game from the main menu.
* The bridge at Carillon no longer disappears when loading a save game.
* Certain shops become inaccessible when a player no longer meets the requirements.
* The fallen London plug no longer overlaps the patch notes on the title screen.