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 [email protected], as it appears that quite a few people’s keys got eaten by spam filters.