Sunless Sea News

The longest nights of the year are upon us: the perfect time to lose yourself in the dark of Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies!

(With apologies to the southern hemisphere; they do play equally well in summer.)

Sunless Skies has a recent review score of 95% positive, and has been named a game of the year by The Washington Post, The Guardian, New Yorker, Kotaku AU, Paste and Slant. It's 50% off in the sale!

Sunless Sea is also 95% positive, with 66% off in the sale, and its expansion Zubmariner is also reduced, by 60% - it really completes the experience, so we hope you'll give it a go.




The browser game that started it all! Fallen London, the internet's finest text-based Victorian alternative history roleplaying game is going to be ten years old on the 11th of January.

In celebration, there'll be a lot of events in-game, and competitions and other diversions for our community!

For starters, we've collaborated with the wonderful GameTee to produce some special edition merchandise: Storridge's Definitely Unmarked Deck of Playing Cards.



A true collector's item, these cards are equally at home in your parlour, at Zee or to pass the time in the Skies.

If you'd like to get more involved with our birthday plans, and future plans beyond that, you'd be most welcome in our official Discord.

Thank you for a phenomenal 2019. We'll see you in January!

The Skies are yours,
Failbetter Games

Sunless Skies: Soveriegn Edition will be released for PS4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in the first half of 2020!


Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition will include new content and various improvements, and will be released on PC at the same time as on console. Players who already own the game on PC will receive the Sovereign Edition for free.

It's been a great year for Sunless Skies, thanks to your support, and we're delighted to be able to celebrate it with this enhanced edition.



Here's our Narrative Director, Chris Gardiner, with more detail:

“The Sovereign Edition will add new stories when your crew is starving. As their desperation grows, you’ll be able to try and eat a variety of unwise, unpleasant or tragic things. By that point, your mascot probably looks quite tasty.”

“We're overhauling the character progression user interface, and introducing a range of new Facets to define your captain's past. Perhaps you lost your soul (and found it again), or attended a seance. Perhaps you have a hobby, or are close to rats, Devils, spies or Rubbery Men. Experienced captains will be able to continue to raise their stats even after reaching the level cap, extending the late game experience.”

“We’ve made significant changes for the console versions to enable smooth and intuitive play using a controller. And there'll also be new opportunities for traders to exploit, and a new exotic engine to acquire, which skilled players in particular may find rewarding. It's a big, exciting update which we like to imagine will be the jewel in Sunless Skies' crown.”




Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition is already available for PS4; later in 2020 it will join Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition on Xbox One and Switch.

All of these ports are being developed in conjunction with Nephilim Game Studios, and will be published by Digerati.

We hope you're equally as excited about this news as we are!

The Skies are yours,
Failbetter Games

We're delighted that Sunless Skies has been chosen as one of the ten best indie games of the year by the mysterious and influential PAX 10 panel!

It's a huge honour to be selected, and it means that we're able to make a rare US event appearance at PAX West in Seattle, from the 30th of August to the 2nd of September.

We'll have as many pin badges as we can cram into our suitcases. Will we see you there?

We're delighted to bring you another #loveindies celebration!

#loveindies is a chance for players and developers of indie games to share their favourites with one another, discover some new games to play, and raise up games which deserve more attention.

This year it'll be two weeks long, from the 3rd to the 14th of June in response to the excitement over last year's event. We've also introduced the #loveindies Review Hour, a global push to leave as many reviews on indie games as we can in one hour!

#loveindies is open to all. Here's full participation guide. Feel free to share it with friends, your favourite streamers, or indie developers who might benefit from getting involved.

Thank you as always for your support of our games and those of our fellow indies. It means the world.

As ever, your friends,
Failbetter Games

We're honoured to be taking part in the first ever LudoNarraCon!

LudoNarraCon is a digital convention celebrating narrative video games, taking place right here on Steam. All the fun of discovering new games without the barriers of access to a physical event!

From 10th to 13th May, developers from across the world will showcase their work in a celebration of interesting and innovative narrative games. This felt like a great idea to us, and we're so pleased to be selected to take part.

We'll be showcasing Sunless Skies with a special pre-recorded stream, featuring interviews with Chris Gardiner (Narrative Director) and Paul Arendt (Art Director). If you want to catch the recording, it's on Tuesday 7th May at 1630 BST, with the incredible Callofcthulhu on Twitch!

You can join in by watching the event live from 10am PT on the dedicated Steam landing page, and by checking out the live streams on the individual games' pages, starting at 11am PT.

Thank you to indie game label Fellow Traveller for inviting us to take part!