Back in February, Sunless Skies ran a successful Kickstarter campaign that was not only funded inside four hours but also accumulated four times its original ask. Failbetter's airbound Sunless Sea non-sequel outlined a development roadmap thereafter, and is now recruiting prospective players for its closed alpha stage.
Naturally, not everyone can get in at this stage—and those interested should expect to see the narrative-heavy adventure in a "very unpolished state, without all features implemented, and plenty of bugs."
Nevertheless, Failbetter expect to the "inundated with requests", so it might serve you well to follow the developer's criteria.
The Fallen London studio is looking for:
- People who have played Failbetter games before.
- PC gamers who haven’t played our games before (especially RPG fans).
- Players with accessibility requirements, so we can build Sunless Skies with specific accessibility feedback in mind.
- People who have QA or previous testing experience (though not required!).
Anyone playing on PC, Mac or Linux is welcome, so says Failbetter, so long as you've got access to a Steam account.
"For those invited, we’d of course ask you to install and play the Sunless Skies alpha," adds Failbetter's Haley Uyrus. "Each batch will be involved for at least two weeks, though you are free to help us test until the alpha ends! We will be looking for you to report any bugs you find, along with your general thoughts on the game so far."
If any of that floats your boat (an idiom which better applied to the dev's last game), sign-ups for Sunless Skies' closed alpha can be found in this direction.
