London based indie developer Failbetter Games have finally announced a new release date for Sunless Skies, the sequel to 2015’s story-centric roguelike, Sunless Sea. As announced at EGX today, Sunless Skies will be available on January 31st, 2019, on both Steam and GOG for PC, Mac, and Linux systems.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign and a period of development in Early Access, Sunless Skies was originally scheduled to be released in May 2018 but was pushed back with no firm release date given after developers decided it needed more tweaking and reworking. Additional updates have continued coming to the Early Access version of the game, opening up additional areas of the Reach and changing mechanics including Fear, Combat, and Trade. Our previous preview of the game was hopeful, though noted that the game still had a lot of rough edges.
"We’ve used the time in Early Access to fill the world with the most glorious stories, and to refine the play experience: improving combat, tweaking the skyfaring experience, and closing in on a dark and dread-soaked atmosphere.” says CEO Paul Arendt. “The next update, due on 10th October, will include a complete overhaul of the Reach region and extended mechanics for Terror, fuel, hunger, and crew.”
If you don’t want to wait till January to explore more of the world of Fallen London, you’re in luck. Failbetter Games also announced the release of a pen and paper RPG book set in the world of Skies, releasing today – for free – digitally on tabletopgaming.co.uk. Skyfarer: A Sunless Skies RPG is written by Grant Howard and Chris Taylor of Rowan, Rook, and Decard. Taking a different tack from the game, the RPG puts the player in the role of one of the crewmembers of a locomotive after the Captain is “struck down by misfortune,” which in Failbetter terms means they were probably attacked and eaten by something unpleasant, or did something daft and are now being consumed by Hybras fungus.
Are you excited to explore the Reach in all its finished glory in Sunless Skies? Let us know in the comments below!
