Sunless Skies is a funny little game. Yes, it’s a weird game about space trains, and yes it’s tons of fun to play. But it doesn’t look like developer Failbetter Games is done quite yet with making the game the best it can be. The mix of Gothic horror and sci-fi elements works wonderfully, and helps immerse the player in an engaging and threatening world where things can go wrong way too fast, but in the most fun way.
Since Sunless Skies released, players have praised the title for its inventive use of the tropish idea of managing a crew in space in myriad ways. It’s not really a true expansion though, it does add some new content, but the goal seems to be making the best version of the original game possible.
The game includes a huge amount of dialogue too, adding a fair bit of immersion and characterization to the game world. The game is getting a sort of step in a new direction though, with a planned Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition. This new version of the game adds in new content all over the place, with a major focus on fleshing out the already incredibly detailed world.
The scope of the game is being massively expanded, in what is essentially an entirely new stable of content for the title. And yes that does mean a huge expansion in the amount of writing for the game, which already includes over 800,000 words in its script. “The Sovereign Edition will add new stories when your crew is starving,” said narrative director Chris Gardiner. “As their desperation grows, you’ll be able to try and eat a variety of unwise, unpleasant or tragic things. By that point, your mascot probably looks quite tasty.” So it looks like the narrative arcs in Sunless Skies are about to get even more sinister. And given that this game is already a steampunk nightmare, that could be quite fun.
Sunless Skies: Sovereign Edition will be released in the first half of 2020. Owners of Sunless Skies will get a free upgrade to the new version, which is something I wish more developers did when they did this kind of thing.
If this sounds like your kind of thing, check out the new trailer below:
