From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
British video game developer
Failbetter Games
is a British
video game developer
and
interactive fiction
studio based in
London
.
History
[
edit
]
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]
On 8 June 2023 Failbetter released a 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]
Games developed
[
edit
]
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
|
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"How a cult-hit browser game spawned the dark world of 'Sunless Sea'
"
.
www.theverge.com
.
- ^
"The Last Court"
.
PC Games N
.
- ^
O'Hara, Jan (September 9, 2011).
"Author Interview at Writer Unboxed (Part II)"
. Writer Unboxed
. Retrieved
January 4,
2012
.
- ^
Khan, Yasmeen (September 1, 2011).
"The Night Circus"
. Failbetter Games. Archived from
the original
on December 22, 2011
. Retrieved
January 4,
2012
.
- ^
"Best Words of 2014"
.
Rock Paper Shotgun
.
- ^
"The City and the Sea"
.
Eurogamer
.
- ^
Brendan Sinclair.
"Alexis Kennedy leaving Failbetter Games"
.
- ^
Alice O'Connor.
"Failbetter lay off a few staff and delay Sunless Skies"
.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
.
- ^
Tom Phillips (2018-02-14).
"Behind the sunless scenes"
.
Eurogamer
. Retrieved
2018-04-06
.
- ^
Tom Phillips (2018-02-14).
"Behind the sunless scenes"
.
Eurogamer
. Retrieved
2023-08-24
.
- ^
Frech, Ricky (December 2, 2020).
"Failbetter Games Announce Next Game in the Fallen London Universe"
. Dualshockers
. Retrieved
December 3,
2020
.
External links
[
edit
]