Failbetter Games has released the debut trailer for Sunless Sea, their Kickstarter-funded 2D ocean exploration game.
The new “Explore” trailer has the first gameplay footage we’ve ever seen from the game, which the development team plan to launch on Steam Early Access next month if enough support is garnered on Greenlight.
In Sunless Sea you play as the Captain of a steamboat, exploring a disturbing, Lovecraftian coastline and trying not to lose your mind along the way. It’s definitely got shades of FTL about it, particularly in the way you can upgrade your ship and crew with different abilities, and trade various goods with the locals to make some quick cash. It also allows you to retain some of your previous Captain’s skills or equipment to pass onto a successor when he pops his clogs, which is another very roguelike concept.
Oh and you can choose to give into the madness and devour your crew. Game of the year?
”We want to combine the the sense of danger you get from a roguelike games such as Don’t Starve and FTL with the rich storytelling engine we’ve perfected in Fallen London,” says Failbetter CEO Alexis Kennedy, “so while the unexplored areas of the map will shuffle every time you play, there will always be deep and choice-filled stories to discover.”
“We’re keeping both a roadmap and a public display of how much is complete, to make ourselves accountable to Early Access players,” he continues. “We have all the core features already in place, with more to come before June, but the game world is huge, and we want to be able want to do justice to it. ”
Here’s the list of features as described on the game’s Steam page. Very intriguing.
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A huge open map that changes every time you play
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A deep, compelling world packed with secrets and stories
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Beautiful, hand drawn 2D art
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Light and dark. Stray too far from the gas-lamps of civilisation and your crew will grow fearful and eventually lose their sanity. But there is treasure out there in the darkness…
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Leave a legacy! When you die (and you will) your next captain may choose to inherit a skill, a chart of discovered islands or a beloved officer.
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Upgrade your steamship with powerful engines, flensing cannons, and pneumatic torpedo guns. Or just buy a bigger, better ship.
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Hire unique officers like the Haunted Doctor and the Irrepressible Cannoneer. Each has a story to tell, if you can draw it out of them.
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Choose from a menagerie of ship’s mascots: the Comatose Ferret, the Wretched Mog, the Elegiac Cockatoo, and more!
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Trade silk and souls, mushroom wine and hallucinogenic honey. Seek out the most profitable hidden trade lanes.
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Lose your mind
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Eat your crew
