Our prototype is still, well, a prototype. It’s ungroomed enough that we don’t want to show it in its native state. So here’s a gameplay concept – there is a real screenshot under here but you’d have to dig to find it.

Sunless Sea gameplay concept

A few things to notice…

– Fuel and Supplies! There are strong survival elements in Sunless Sea – a constant balance of risk and reward. The more space you devote to cargo, the less you’ll have for coal and food. If you want to cross the Unterzee, you’ll need to find staging posts along the way. If you travel full-steam-ahead, you’ll burn more fuel but less food. If you’re tracking a sea-monster and your fuel runs low, will you give up the chase, or press on, hoping to find safe harbour across the zee?

– Hunger and Terror: When you run out of fuel, you have no choice but to abandon ship. When you run out of supplies, your ship’s Hunger level rises… provoking stories of despair, cannibalism and mutiny begin to occur. Eventually this will end your game, but you may arrive home in one piece, or missing only a less treasured limb. Terror rises among your crew as you meet monsters and uncover dreadful secrets, and drops as you view natural wonders, allow shore leave and distribute rum.

- Your Officers – the named members of your crew – are very important. They’re the source of much of the narrative in the game, and their abilities influence the stats that help you win battles: Iron, Veils, Mirrors, Hearts and Pages. More on that in a later post. The Captain, of course, is you.

– Light and darkness – key themes in the game. Note the lighter ocean around the ship and the searchlight beam[1]. You may want to use your lights carefully.  You won’t be able to see details of things outside the light – just phosphorescent glimmerings – but things that you can see clearly are also clearly aware of you, and may react more dramatically to your presence. It would be way over the top to call Sunless Sea a stealth game, but you are influencing the behaviour of the beasties around you.

(Fallen London lore fans: this bright prow light is produced with a lamp of heated glim. This produces appallingly hallucinogenic fumes, but needs must.)