About us

We’re an indie video game studio devoted to making games with stories at their heart.  The company was founded in 2009; since then, we’ve grown to fifteen staff, released two award-winning premium games, and grown a browser RPG from a few choices to a 2.5 million word epic. GamesIndustry.biz named us the UK’s best small games business to work for in 2017, and among best games businesses to work for at the same awards in 2019.

 

We’re known for Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies, both downloadable PC games in which you play as a lineage of Victorian captains, as well as for Fallen London, our free-to-play browser game. We also made Dragon Age: The Last Court for BioWare. We make games that we love, and our profits go back into the studio. We’re in this for the long term.

We currently have a vacancy for a Senior Gameplay Programmer – details here.

We operate a relaxed and open office culture, with realistic expectations of our team. We treat overtime as something to be used only in emergencies, and we don’t crunch. We use productivity tools (like Slack) to drastically reduce the amount of time spent in meetings or slaving over a hot inbox.

We don’t tolerate harassment of our staff. Our community and player guidelines are robust and we have support available should any staff become the target of harassment.

We hold regular company social events, including gaming evenings, and have an ongoing RPG over semi-regular evenings.

Location

We no longer have a permanent office. We know many people hope to visit, or occasionally leave us intriguing gifts; currently neither is possible. Individually, we are based across the UK and Ireland.

Watch @failbettergames for new opportunities. If you’re an international applicant, please make sure you already have a working visa. If you’re a writer or narrative designer, we have a specific submissions process for writer-designer roles. Not there yet? Here’s our advice on getting started in games writing.