 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | October 2009 |
| Founders | Alexis Kennedy Paul Arendt |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Chris Gardiner Emily Short Adam Myers Hannah Flynn |
| Products | Fallen London Sunless Sea Sunless Skies |
Number of employees | 12 |
| Website | www.failbettergames.com |
Failbetter Games is a British video game developer and interactive fiction studio based in London.
Founded in 2009 by Alexis Kennedy and Paul Arendt, Failbetter is chiefly known for its Fallen London Victorian Gothic franchise (comprising, to date, the Fallen London and Silver Tree browser games and the Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies and Mask of the Rose video games), which has garnered a cult following. [1] Failbetter was also commissioned by BioWare to build a browser-game prologue for Dragon Age: Inquisition , [2] and by UK publisher Harvill Secker to create a puzzle game to accompany The Night Circus . [3] [4] The studio has consistently won acclaim for the quality of its writing, world-building and storytelling. [5] [6]
In 2016, Alexis Kennedy left Failbetter, citing a desire to work with a variety of other studios and work on his own smaller, more experimental projects. [7]
In February 2017, Failbetter ran a successful Kickstarter for a sequel to Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, raising almost half a million dollars. However, December that same year Failbetter unexpectedly laid off four members of staff, citing the under-performance of the Sunless Sea iPad port, and poor sales of their Sunless Skies in early access. [8] [9]
Failbetter was subsequently the target of an extensive but inconclusive investigative report by Eurogamer, which cited Kennedy and other unnamed staff in claiming poor management and a 'toxic' culture had developed since Kennedy's departure. [10]
Failbetter are currently developing a new romantic visual novel set in the Fallen London universe called Mask of the Rose , which is a prequel to the other games in the franchise. [11]
| Year | Title | Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Fallen London | Android, Browser, iOS |
| 2012 | Tales of Fallen London: The Silver Tree | Browser |
| 2014 | Dragon Age: The Last Court | |
| 2015 | Sunless Sea | iOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, OS X, PlayStation 4 |
| 2019 | Sunless Skies | Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch |
| 2023 | Mask of the Rose | Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows |
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Emily Short is an interactive fiction (IF) writer and creative director of Failbetter Games, the studio behind Fallen London and its spinoffs.
Sunless Sea is a survival/exploration role-playing video game with roguelike elements developed by Failbetter Games. The game was released on 6 February 2015 for Windows and OS X following a successful Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the project. The game takes place in the universe of Failbetter's browser adventure game Fallen London, in which Victorian-era London has been moved beneath the earth's surface to the edge of the Unterzee, a vast underground ocean. On 11 October 2016, the game's first downloadable content Zubmariner was released, which allows players to explore beneath the surface of the "zee". A sequel, Sunless Skies, was announced in September 2016. It surpassed its funding goals on Kickstarter and was released on 31 January 2019.
Fallen London, originally Echo Bazaar, is a browser-based interactive narrative game developed by Failbetter Games and set in "Fallen London", an alternative Victorian London with gothic overtones. The franchise subsequently expanded to other games, including Sunless Sea, its sequel Sunless Skies and the visual novel Mask of the Rose.
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Mask of the Rose is a visual novel developed by Failbetter Games and is set in the same universe as Fallen London, Sunless Sea, and Sunless Skies. It has elements of detective games and dating sims. Mask of the Rose was released in June 2023 for Linux, macOS, Switch, and Windows.