SUNLESS SEA

Released: Feb 6, 2015
Platforms
Last updated: 16 Sep 2026, 01:52 GMT

Updates & announcements

20 posts

27 Aug 2026Developer post
Bug Fixing Patch v3.0.0.31
Greetings zailors, We have a patch which addresses some of the issues found with our recent engine version upgrade. We also have some news for players facing specific issues that can’t be directly addressed via patching. Legacy version v2.2.15.3229 A number of you have raised iss
Greetings zailors,
We have a patch which addresses some of the issues found with our recent engine version upgrade. We also have some news for players facing specific issues that can’t be directly addressed via patching.
Legacy version v2.2.15.3229
A number of you have raised issues with the new version of the game no longer being compatible with older hardware.
This is because new versions of Unity don’t support older versions of Windows. (Steam itself no longer officially supports Windows 7 or 8.)
Sunless Sea is a game we want to remain playable for a long time to come, and upgrading Unity is the best way for us to keep it maintainable. So, we’ve created a public branch that contains a version of the game that is built from the pre-Unity-upgrade codebase, but with updated local content that fixes the content sync issues. We don’t plan to update this branch of the game further, outside of any required critical fixes.
To access the legacy version:
Right click the game in your library.
Click “Properties”.
Click the “Game Versions and Betas” tab.
Select “Legacy” from the menu.
macOS save location
Some players have observed that their macOS saves are no longer available in game. Rest assured, they’re still on your computer, they’ve just moved around. It turns out that this is a known, rare issue with Unity on macOS. The best solution is for affected users to manually move their saves to the correct location.
If you’ve been affected by this issue, you’ll find your saved data preserved in Application Support/unity.Failbetter Games.Sunless Sea. To make this data available in game, move all contents of this folder to Application Support/com.failbettergames.sunlesssea/.
Bugfixes v3.0.0.31
Reverted the name of the Linux build to its pre-update state.
If you encounter an error when trying to launch the Linux version from Steam, please wait a few minutes, then completely close and re-open Steam before trying again.
Fixed the issue with Fallen London account authentication.
Fixed the issue where the calendar would use month names from the system’s regional formatting language.
Fixed the missing image of the Blemmigan Gallivanter.
Bugfixes (legacy version) v2.2.15.3229
Fixed the issue where post-launch content sometimes fails to sync with save games.
Fixed the missing image of the Blemmigan Gallivanter.
Original post
29 Jul 2026Developer post
Maintenance update
Greetings zailors, Today’s update deals with a pair of longstanding issues. There are no new stories; this is a purely technical update to keep Sunless Sea playable and maintainable for as long as possible. Firstly, we’ve received a number of bug reports in recent times about pla
04 Feb 2025Developer post
Fallen London: The Roleplaying Game
Hello, delicious friends, Sunless Sea is turning 10 years old on the 6th of February, if you can believe it. And the game that originated the universe, the Zee, and every dreadful thing in it, Fallen London , is now 15! (Anyone making calculations about how old that makes us shou
26 Jan 2023Developer post
Bug Fixing Patch v2.2.11.3212
Save files now load correctly via the Continue button on the title screen when the steamcloud_saving.vdf file is present Buy 10 options have been added to Avernus/Naples for Fuel and Supplies Lots of typo and grammatical fixes
Save files now load correctly via the Continue button on the title screen when the steamcloud_saving.vdf file is present
Buy 10 options have been added to Avernus/Naples for Fuel and Supplies
Lots of typo and grammatical fixes
Original post
26 Jan 2023Developer post
Bug Fixing Patch v2.2.11.3212
Hello, zailors! Quick little update to fix the Steam auto cloud issue that's been bugging many of you. Full notes: Save files now load correctly via the Continue button on the title screen when the steamcloud_saving.vdf file is present The steamcloud_saving.vdf file will be autom
Hello, zailors!
Quick little update to fix the Steam auto cloud issue that's been bugging many of you.
Full notes:

Save files now load correctly via the Continue button on the title screen when the steamcloud_saving.vdf file is present
The steamcloud_saving.vdf file will be automatically deleted when loading the game through non-Steam clients
Buy 10 options have been added to Avernus/Naples for Fuel and Supplies
Lots of typo and grammatical fixes
Happy zailing!
Original post
09 Jun 2022Developer post
WDC World Oceans Day Charity Sale
We're delighted to offer Sunless Sea, Zubmariner and Sunless Skies in the World Oceans Day sale this year. If you're already a Sunless Sea player, this is an ideal opportunity to pick up Zubmariner at 50% off in the knowledge that any damage you do to our imagined unterzee-beasts
10 Feb 2022Developer post
Mask of the Rose now has a demo!
Today 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 ! Offering a condensed version of Act I of Mask of the Rose, you’ll be able to explore select locations across Fallen Lon
Today 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!
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
Original post
20 Oct 2021Developer post
Mask of the Rose is now available to Wishlist on Steam
You may have seen that we Kickstarted a new game in the same universe as Sunless Sea in February this year. Now we're pleased to announce that it has a shiny Steam page ! Mask of the Rose is a romantic visual novel, so somewhat different to Sunless Skies and Sunless Sea. However,
You may have seen that we Kickstarted a new game in the same universe as Sunless Sea in February this year. Now we're pleased to announce that it has a shiny Steam page!
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.
Watch on YouTube
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...

(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!
Original post
28 Apr 2021Developer post
Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition now has a release date!
We’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! This is a greatly enhanced edi
02 Dec 2020Developer post
Announcing Our Next Game: Mask of the Rose
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: Mask of the Rose takes pl
09 Apr 2020Developer post
Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition and Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition release update
Surprise! Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition is coming out for Switch on 23rd April and XBox One on the 24th! You may have heard that we’ve been working on console ports for Sunless Sea, and Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition. Initially we’d expected Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition t
Surprise! Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition is coming out for Switch on 23rd April and XBox One on the 24th!
You may have heard that we’ve been working on console ports for Sunless Sea, and Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition.
Initially we’d expected Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition to release for PC/Switch/PS4/Xbox One first, with Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition following. Schedules on both projects have moved around a bit, meaning the release dates are now as follows:

Sunless Sea comes to Switch on 23rd April
Sunless Sea comes to Xbox on the 24th
Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition comes to PC, Switch, PS4 and Xbox in August/September
We'll have more to share about the Sovereign Edition for Sunless Skies as work continues, but we hope that for now, the opportunity to return to or discover Sunless Sea is an enticing one.
See you in the dark,
Your friends,
Failbetter Games
Note: Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition is already available on PS4 and Sunless Sea is available for iPad.
Original post
09 Jan 2020Developer post
10 Years of Fallen London!
If you've played Sunless Sea or Sunless Skies, you might be familiar with Fallen London ! Fallen London is a text-based browser game set in a subterranean city inhabited by Victorian Londoners, talking rats, and people with the faces of squids. In the last decade, it’s grown from
If you've played Sunless Sea or Sunless Skies, you might be familiar with Fallen London!
Fallen London is a text-based browser game set in a subterranean city inhabited by Victorian Londoners, talking rats, and people with the faces of squids. In the last decade, it’s grown from a handful of stories to a 2.5-million word epic with tens of thousands of monthly players.
We’d like to think that it’s remained popular for the kinds of stories we offer. Not just the weird, inventively horrifying world, but the fact that you get to act on fantastically bad ideas, from publishing horrendous poetry to feeding your soul to a cat.
To hear more about the celebrations we have in store for Fallen London's 10th birthday, follow us on Twitter or join our Discord.
Storridge's Definitely Umarked Playing Cards
In honour of our 10th birthday, we've produced some gorgeous, special edition merchandise with Gametee: Storridge's Definitely Unmarked Playing Cards! Perfect for long zee or High Wilderness voyages.
Sovereign
We're also busy working on the Sovereign update to Sunless Skies, which will be launched across PC and console.
Sovereign will feature new starvation content, trading opportunities and facets, along with a redesign of the character progression interface. It will introduce a new exotic engine, the ability to continue to raise stats after reaching the level cap and an equipment stat rebalance.
Along with fixes for outstanding bugs, performance improvements and a number of quality of life updates, it will feature a redesigned control scheme and interfaces optimised for controller support, plus a fancy radial to make UI navigation more intuitive.
Sunless Skies Patch Notes

The correct category can now always be selected when submitting bug reports.
High Wilderness inhabitants and other locomotives will now keep more distance from ports and relays.
Curators, Logoi and Eaters of the Dead are less unrelenting in their pursuit.
Various small adjustments have been made to ambient messages.
The bug report interface now includes a link to the troubleshooting guide.
Original post
20 Dec 2019Developer post
Sunless Games in the Winter Sale
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 name
19 Oct 2019Developer post
Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition
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 ow
18 Jul 2019Developer post
See you at PAX West!
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 3
07 May 2019Developer post
#loveindies returns in June!
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 wee
02 May 2019Developer post
LudoNarraCon is coming!
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 Ma
12 Feb 2019Developer post
Sunless Skies is out now!
Sunless Skies , our follow-up to Sunless Sea, is now available! Sunless Skies has had, by some way, the best ever critical reception of our games. It's been called “Failbetter’s finest hour” by PC Gamer, “Terrifying and exhilarating” by PCGamesN, “Essential” by Eurogamer and “A t
24 Jan 2019Developer post
The Launch Trailer for Sunless Skies is here!
It's one week until SUNLESS SKIES releases from Early Access! Discover what awaits you in the High Wilderness in the new launch trailer It's been two years since the Kickstarter for SUNLESS SKIES, and we are so proud of the game that we've made. It's got all of the delicious stor
17 Jan 2019Developer post
SUNLESS SKIES will release in two weeks!
Hello, delicious friends. You might remember we've been working on a follow-up to Sunless Sea. It's due out in two weeks, and we're so excited to see what you think! Take a look at Sunless Skies! If you've just joined us from the Daily Deal: welcome! We hope you're enjoying our d