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Failbetter's next game will be "gentler" than Sunless Skies: "you won't go mad or eat your crew"Mar 27, 2024 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunFallen London and Sunless Skies developers Failbetter Games have blogged about the dark art of running a sustainable business, while sharing a tiny bit more about their next, unannounced game. Said game is apparently a change of genre from Failbetter's previous, exceedingly narrative-driven open world titles and free-to-play RPGs. It'll also be a little less oppressive, aiming for a feeling of "fireside menace" - that is, "an awareness of the world's dangers, but also warmth and comfort", which certainly feels like an appropriate mood for a time of mass layoffs and game cancellations, to say nothing of recent conspiracy-fuelled harassment campaigns. Read more What are you playing this weekend?Jan 7, 2023 - VG247The holidays are over, and it's time to get back to normal. Whatever normal is, really. What's normal for you may not be for someone else. For instance: a normal day for me (of late anyway) is getting up early, grabbing a couple of handfuls of unsalted peanuts, and stepping outside to spread them onto a shiny plate. Then, I grab a caller out of my robe pocket and use it to hail the local pair of Crows to breakfast. When we moved back to our hometown two years ago, one thing I noticed about the neighborhood in which I purchased our home was that it had at least three sets of Crow pairings. I became all giddy at the thought of corvids visiting my yard. You see, we lived on a large farm for 12 years before we had to move house, and while there was a multitude of birds of every species known to our region (even owls, hawks, and once a Bald Eagle), for some reason we never had any crows. Maybe one or two would pass through, but they never stayed long or came close to the house. Read more Mask of the Rose now has a demo!Feb 10, 2022 - Community AnnouncementsToday it’s been exactly a year since Mask of the Rose was funded on Kickstarter, and we've just released a demo of the first act, available right now on Steam! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28053189/ffc05f0b301257678331764af25cd74d2bb5e6f6.png Get the free demo on Steam, for Windows, Mac and Linux. Offering a condensed version of Act I of Mask of the Rose, you’ll be able to explore select locations across Fallen London, introduce yourself to some key characters and encounter Mr Pages, one of the mysterious new Masters who have recently taken over London, in its office at the Bazaar. At the opening of Mask of the Rose, Mr Pages has employed your housemate, Griz, who has in turn found a few pennies’ work for you as census taker. The census goes some way beyond the expected (Surface census forms never did ask if anyone in the residence was in love), so you’ll need to approach conversations with care to find out all you need to know. Demo Feedback We're really excited to know what you think about exploring Fallen London from this perspective for the first time. The very best places to talk about it will be the Steam discussion forums for Mask of the Rose, or if you want to join one of our community spaces, there's Discord, our forums, and the Fallen London subreddit. There are a few things it’ll be useful to know before you send feedback: In the final game there will be a text log, so you can scroll back through conversations There will also be audio sliders under Settings And of course, there will be saving in the finished game (the final version of Act I will be fleshed out from this version, so carrying choices over wouldn’t be possible). Spotted a bug? The demo has been through our internal testing, but if you see any bugs or typos we missed, please let us know by emailing [email protected], attaching your player log. Here are some instructions to help you find your player log. We will probably only update the demo if something pretty bad has slipped through, but this will let us fix everything before we release the full game. Thank you! Release Date News We have also announced that Mask of the Rose will release in Oct/Nov this year. Hopefully this taste will keep you going until then! As ever, your friends, Failbetter Games Sovereign Patch 15/12/2021Dec 15, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsTech bug fixes Your headlight will no longer pass through solid terrain. We’ve made some changes to address the crashes seen when starting a new game on MacOS builds. Narrative bug fixes It is no longer possible to finish developing Titania without completing two projects. It should now be clearer how to expand Titania across different captains within the same lineage. Speaking to the Caring Conductor when docked will no longer trigger a warning message that breaks docking. You can once again collect a bee from a Chorister-Corpse or the Flower Fields for the Abstemious and Patchwork Devils. The Abstemious Devil quest will now update in the journal once you've captured a bee. The Studious Companion will no longer incorrectly be mentioned when parting ways with the Pugilistic or Poetic Companions. The Pugilistic Companion is no longer incorrectly referred to as the Vigorous Companion. If you rid yourself of the Clay Conductor, the quest journal will now update accordingly. Once the Clay Conductor has been dismissed from your service, you can no longer continue to help him search for a companion. It should now be clear when you lose crew at the Giggling Place. The Repentant Devil will no longer incorrectly be referenced when speaking to The Defiant Devil. As always, a few more typos have been banished. Mask of the Rose is now available to Wishlist on SteamOct 20, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsYou may have seen that we Kickstarted a new game in the same universe as Sunless Skies in February this year. Now we're pleased to announce that it has a shiny Steam page! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28053189/fa49eacaf876d4fa79f8be1ea83b9a204a18f392.png Mask of the Rose is a romantic visual novel, so somewhat different to Sunless Skies and Sunless Sea. However, it's set in the same universe, and brings all of our expertise in writing deep, surprising, meaningful stories, this time on a more personal level. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28053189/470e3fb4e375fdb6c763029dd24a2743b9ccf463.png Thanks to an unknown bargain, London now resides in a vast cavern under the earth. Down here, the sun doesn't shine, and Parliament has sunk into the Thames. Queen Victoria never emerges from her palace. Cats spy on their owners and whisper their secrets abroad. The fabric of strait-laced Victorian society has begun to fray. New Masters are in charge. Why are they so… tall? And always cloaked? And why are they so interested in love stories? Even death itself has a twist here: the first murder victim since the Fall is feeling much better, and keen to see justice done. Unfortunately, as the doctor who treated him immediately before he expired, your housemate Archie is the prime suspect... {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28053189/6c72be26001619faf754429f96633fe4e6848a2c.png (Re)invent yourself: who were you before the Fall? Who will you be now? Create outfits from a selection of clothing and unusual accessories to unlock different story options Fall in love with a cast of diverse Londoners, each with their own secrets Matchmake among your friends, or seek love for yourself (by any definition you like) Write love stories in a delightful minigame, and use them to impress the new Masters Pick up odd jobs to earn money and gather resources. How are you at rat catching? Solve the first murder since the Fall, with the assistance of the victim Discover cosy, mysterious and magnificent locations in a dark and delicious version of Victorian London Seek deeper and deeper secrets over multiple playthroughs We hope you'll take a look at Mask of the Rose, and wishlist to find out more about romancing bats! Sovereign Patch 09/09/2021Sep 9, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsUpdate We’ve been unable to fully resolve the outstanding bug with the locomotive headlight which is seen on some OSX devices. However there is a workaround; using -force-glcore or alternatively -force-opengl as a launch command will resolve the issue. Full steps can be found in our troubleshooting guide. Tech bug fixes The screen will no longer shake when docking, though the locomotive itself may judder slightly. After erupting from host locomotives, Guest tentacles will continue to writhe. Dreadnought Guest damage and death animations have returned. The animations on Chorister Bee’s wings should no longer freeze. Agent headlight intensity has been lowered slightly so it is easier to see their bullets on smaller screens. The chart label for the Eleutheria transit relay in Worlebury is no longer blank. Tutorial ambient messages and control prompts now have a background layer so they are easier to read. Gamepad exclusive fields have been removed from the Controls menu. Narrative bug fixes The Researcher’s Crusade quest is now displayed in the journal rather than on the status panel. All references of Ministry-Approved Permits have been replaced with Ministry-Stamped Permits. The Poetic Forged Companion will no longer be mentioned when speaking to The Pugilistic Forged Companion. You will now always gain Terror when failing to climb the mountain at Lustrum. The Patchwork Devil quest will now update in the journal once you’ve captured a live Chorister Bee. If the Incognito Princess is on secondment you cannot forge a ring for her at Carillon, or help her meet the Measurer's demands at Crossroads. The safer and riskier options on prospect opportunities at Lustrum and Prosper now display the correct chance of success. Peculiarities on the status panel will now display a level description where appropriate. Several typos have been fixed. Sovereign Patch 01/07/2021Jun 30, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsUpdate We’re still looking into the docking stutter and some pesky issues on Mac builds, including issues with the headlights. We’ll get these fixes out ASAP. As always thank you for your patience and support. Narrative bug fixes It should no longer be possible to get stuck while speaking to the Phlegmatic Researcher about their requests. The need to collect a passenger for the New Street Line before going to the drop off point should now be signalled a little more clearly. Searching Elsewhere at the Sun-Shattered Dome will now degrade your suit. Captains with Past: A Bell Tolls will no longer see two options to dispose of their death at the Nurseries. Once you've dealt with the Vagabond at Old Tom's Well, there will no longer be a conversation option with the Minister which suggests you don't know what became of him. Captains participating in the Rochester Race in Albion will no longer be falsely told that they have 30 days to win, when in fact they have 15. Various duplicate occurrences of 'the' have been removed from the Court of Mules While stepping out of a circle at the Regent's Grave, it will no longer be suggested that you are, in fact, stepping in to it. Transporting a Workworld Runaway will no longer cause the amount of cargo in your hold to go out of sync. Captains will now be directed to the correct auction house when they receive a Prospect Opportunity. Several typos have been fixed. Tech bug fixes We believe we have fixed the issue with avatars not generating correctly on Mac devices. If you still see a blank avatar when creating a new captain then please let us know via the in-game bug reporter. We'd also appreciate reports to confirm the fix is working - thank you in advance. Bronzewood has been reduced in size to ensure it never completely blocks the corridors in the Reach. Agents in the Blue Kingdom should no longer become trapped by Vaults or Enclaves of the Dead. The explosion SFX heard when travelling through the Albion to Eleutheria relay for the first time can now be muted. Loading at relays with mechanical problems no longer causes the heat bar to become misaligned. After suffering from mechanical problems the heat bar will return to full size after leveling up via the facet interface. Tooltips will no longer draw partially off screen, particularly when using the larger font size. The player log will no longer be spammed with errors when using a resolution with a non-16:9 aspect ratio on Macs Letterboxing on non-16:9 resolutions will no longer flicker and should now be black instead of red on Macs Storylets will no longer become frozen and prevent you from making progress. Sovereign Patch 04/06/2021Jun 4, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsUpdate We are still looking into the stutter that is seen when docking and a number of other bugs. We aim to address these issues and put out another build in the coming weeks, however key members of the Sunless Skies team are now on much needed annual leave and will return in just over a week’s time when work on these issues will commence. Thank you for your patience and the help with testing the beta builds we’ve been releasing. Tech bug fixes Quality Result text is now visible on Mac devices. We’ve updated some blur shaders which may be causing UI transparency issues on Macs. You can now use keyboard thrust controls immediately after closing an interface, even if pressing the thrust keys with the menu was still open. We’ve made some changes to make the scout behave better when it is deployed. If it refuses to be sent out again please send an in-game bug report so we can take a look further into why they are being disobedient. Ambient messages should no longer trigger on the same frame causing the text to double up over the top of each other. We’ve made some changes to the avatar rendertexture to attempt to resolve the missing avatar in character creation that some Mac players are seeing. Since our office Macs are unaffected, we need volunteers to test this out and report back to us. Please create a new save and complete the tutorial to the point of character creation, then send an in-game bug report to us to let us know if your avatar displays correctly. N.B. If it does we recommend creating an avatar to replace the blank one in your current lineage Narrative bug fixes If your Caged Catch escapes, the ensuing events will now always be described in correct prose. Once you have completed the Experimental Engine quest and received the Devourer of Distance, the Contriver's Collaborator will no longer incorrectly show up in your passenger list. When you are Assisting a Penitent Nurse, the journal will be less repetitious. Captains will now always be able to see some of the exploration options at Port Prosper, even if they do not currently meet the requirements for them. It is no longer possible to prematurely abandon your conversation with the Illuminated Archivist, and so become unavailable to reach the end of the associated story. It should now be clearer that the Office of Works may offer captains a task twice in a row. It should now be clearer that only one of the field samples is required to complete a quest at the Nature Reserve. Handwriting in the Abandoned Signal Box ledger is still poor, but this fact will now not be randomly repeated twice in the same passage. Paying off a Lustrum prospector will now cost exactly as much as claimed, rather than three times more. Captains who defeat a Resurrectionist will no longer be shown two different hull repair options. If passengers change their minds and ask to be returned to Port Prosper, captains can now oblige them. It is now possible to make a sacrifice to the Burrower Below while Adrift, so lon...Sovereign patch 28/05/2021May 28, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsThe micro stuttering seen on locomotives, agents and projectiles has been resolved - this has introduced a stutter when docking, we're looking into it. Prospect quality effects are once again visible. Mr Menagerie, the Inscribed Tinkerer and the Portsmouth Arsenal now state the correct level requirement for equipment and scouts. Several typos have been fixed. We're working on more bug fixes next week so expect further builds soon. Thank you for your patience and all the help with testing the FPS issues on the beta builds.Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition has launched, likely with more cannibalismMay 19, 2021 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunGrim and mysterious narrative adventure Sunless Skies has just launched its Sovereign Edition, a bug-fixed and expanded version of the game that doubles as a free updates. In adition to the lovely writing that features in all of Failbetter Games' gothic apocalypse stories, the Sovereign Edition adds new elements of character progression and probably more cannibalism. The update has launched today for all current owners and also marks the game's console launch. Read more Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition is out now!May 19, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsAs promised, Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition is now available on PC and consoles! This is the game’s debut on PlayStation, Xbox and Switch, with many completely new features, fixes, and improvements. And if you already own Sunless Skies here on Steam, you can play it now as a free update! https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/11789502/73d46eb56bd90aee3e1786f99f8dab82638a77f4.png There are many, many changes, but here are a few highlights: Major changes to character progression. We’ve reworked the interface, and added new facets to define your captain – did you lose your soul (and find it again)? Do you have a special connection with spies, devils, talking rats, or Rubbery Men? And legendary captains can now continue to improve their ability even after reaching the cap of level 20. A reworked and expanded starvation system. As desperation grows, you can now attempt to eat an unprecedented selection of unwise, unpleasant, or tragic things. A new exotic engine. It’s very fast, but not very good at stopping... A complete rework of controller support and many improvements to interfaces, to make it as smooth and pleasant as possible. There are literally hundreds of other improvements, bug fixes, and optimisations – you can read the full change log if you’re curious! And of course it includes everything we’ve added since the original launch in the Wayfarer, Vagabond, Horn, Hoarder and Urchin updates. We’d like to take the opportunity to thank our excellent porting partners, BlitWorks, for doing such a fine job with the ports. And whether this will be your first visit, or a triumphant return, we warmly welcome you to the High Wilderness!Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition is out now as a free upgradeMay 19, 2021 - GamingOnLinuxIf you've not played Sunless Skies, you absolutely should and the free enhanced Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition is officially out now for all players. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/05/sunless-skies-sovereign-edition-is-out-now-as-a-free-upgrade Sovereign Edition Patch NotesMay 19, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsSunless Skies: Sovereign Edition is now live. For the full patch notes please see the following post: https://steamcommunity.com/app/596970/discussions/0/3132794099846307448/Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition arrives on PC next month as a free updateApr 29, 2021 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunFailbetter are revamping their gothic space-train RPG Sunless Skies next month with the Sovereign Edition, coming to PC as a free update. They promise better performance and loads of balance tweaks, as well as improved character progression, new interfaces, and a reworked starvation system that'll give you "various new and probably inadvisable choices about what to eat." Yum. All this and more will arrive on May 19th. Read more Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition launches May 19 with a number of enhancementsApr 29, 2021 - GamingOnLinuxSunless Skies is simply awesome. A gothic-horror exploration RPG with flying-train combat. What more can you possibly ask for? How about a new upgraded version with Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/04/sunless-skies-sovereign-edition-launches-may-19-with-a-number-of-enhancements Sunless Skies' enhanced Sovereign Edition out next month on PlayStation, Xbox, and SwitchApr 28, 2021 - EurogamerFailbetter Games' superb interstellar narrative adventure Sunless Skies is finally coming to consoles next month, on 19th May, in the guise of the much-enhanced Sovereign Edition - which will arrive as a free update for existing PC players at the same time. Sunless Skies is, of course, the follow-up to Failbetter's Sunless Sea and, as its name suggests, trades the nautical adventuring of its forebear for a rocket-powered jaunt across a "universe steeped in celestial horror and ravaged by Victorian ambition". The end result once again offers a blend of rogue-like exploration and strikingly evocative storytelling - albeit with a much greater focus on more fulsome narrative arcs this time around - with enough finessing to the formula that Eurogamer slapped an Essential badge on Sunless Skies when it released on PC in 2019. Read more Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition now has a release date!Apr 28, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsWe’re glad to announce that Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition will be released very soon, on Wednesday 19th May. This will be the first version of Sunless Skies we release on consoles, and will also be a free major update for everyone here on Steam! https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/11789502/73d46eb56bd90aee3e1786f99f8dab82638a77f4.png This is a greatly enhanced edition of Sunless Skies, containing all additions and improvements we’ve made to the game since launch as well as many more completely new ones. Here's a link to the trailer! For the Sovereign Edition, we’ve reworked and extended the starvation mechanics. Captains will now find a range of increasingly dubious gastronomic options available to them as desperation grows. We’ve improved character progression, with a new interface, a greater range of facets to define your past, and even a way for experienced captains to continue improving their capabilities after reaching the level cap. https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/11789502/f2d5c3ce3451511682e9008b66b89398050fb5ae.png There are also new trading opportunities to exploit, an exotic engine for your locomotive, better performance, greatly improved gamepad support, and literally hundreds of fixes and small improvements. If you’d like to know more, we’ve included a more detailed list below. This ultimately took longer than we’d hoped, partly due to the considerable scope and partly because it turned out to be pretty difficult to achieve the level of performance optimisations we wanted. But all is now well, and we’re very glad to be able to share it with you. We think this will be by far the best version of the game for new players, and we hope the new features and many quality of life improvements will make it exciting for the veteran captains among you, too.Fallen London romantic visual novel funded on KickstarterFeb 10, 2021 - EurogamerFailbetter Games has successfully returned to Kickstarter to fund Mask of the Rose, a new romantic visual novel set in the studio's expansive Fallen London universe. A detectivey romancey story set just after London's fall, the game features a familiar setting but a new genre for the studio - something which encouraged it back to Kickstarter again to test the waters. As of writing, the project has more than £97k pledged of its initial £90k target, with 28 days of funding still to go. Read more Sunless Sea dev unveils Fallen London prequel and "romantic visual novel" Mask of the RoseDec 2, 2020 - EurogamerFailbetter Games, the developer behind the likes of Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies, has revealed it's currently working on two new titles, one of which is a visual-novel-style prequel to its acclaimed browser game Fallen London. Fallen London, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, unfolds in an alternate-universe Victorian London that was stolen by bats and carried beneath the planet's surface, down into a vast underground cavern system known as the Neath. Failbetter's next game, titled Mask of the Rose, takes place in 1862, shortly after London's move underground and around three decades prior to the events of Fallen London and Sunless Sea. It's a somewhat different proposition to other games in the series too, being pitched as a "romantic visual novel" - albeit one that retains Failbetter's darkly irresistible gothic wit. Read more Announcing Our Next Game: Mask of the RoseDec 2, 2020 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/11789502/7b79f9c08ae05edf04af69d0e57555e9604c2dcb.png For a while now, we’ve been working on a couple of new projects. Today we’re very excited to announce the first of them! Mask of the Rose is a romantic visual novel and prequel to all our other games set in the Fallen London universe. Here’s the trailer: https://youtu.be/QujJ4oVaFKI Mask of the Rose takes place in 1862, mere months after London was stolen by bats. Londoners are still adjusting to life underground. The old street signs are being erased. New ministries and new festivals are being established. The mysterious Masters of the Bazaar seem to be in charge. You share your boarding house with a few other lodgers: Archie, a medical student discovering firsthand that Death works differently here. Griselda, a close aide of the new Masters. Horatia, the landlady with a soft spot for the Neath's native inhabitants. Harjit, the local constable looking for a missing person of his own. As you make a new life below, you may find yourself visiting the underwater ruins of Parliament; intervening in a murder trial where the victim is a witness; or steering a hooded, vocabularious Master through the subtleties of a London courtship. However you choose to live in the Neath, you have your own friendships – and your own heart – to look after. The art of Mask of the Rose draws on Film Noir, Victorian photography and Blitz-era Britain, and is an evolution of the Fallen London universe’s painterly style, keeping the atmosphere of the original but with more detail and depth. If you’re a fan of the Fallen London universe, Mask of the Rose offers a glimpse of events we’ve never shown before, as part of a more personal story. You will get to explore the origins of beloved characters and institutions, as well as encounter brand new mysteries. Mask of the Rose is also an excellent introduction for players just getting started with the Fallen London universe. We’ll be running a Kickstarter campaign for Mask of the Rose in February 2021 - sign up on our Kickstarter page to be notified when the campaign goes live, and join our Discord or forums to discuss the announcement! What about Sunless Skies Sovereign Edition? With our porting partner, we’ve submitted builds for certification on all three console platforms. This is the process in which Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft sign off on them as ready for release. We don’t know exactly how long it will take, and it’s common for certification to throw up a few issues, but this puts us in striking distance of a release! Much of the work on the console editions is being done by an external team who’re much more experienced with porting games than we are. We're looking forward to being able to share the fixes and performance improvements they've made with you! New projects, plural? That’s right! We’re working on two new projects. We can’t tell you much about the other yet, but we can say that its game mechan...