[color=#009900]Do you see yourself more as Charles Darwin or Francis Drake?[/color][li]
[color=#666666]http://sunlessseagame.com/darwin-drake/[/color]
[quote=Alexis Kennedy][color=#009900]Do you see yourself more as Charles Darwin or Francis Drake?[/color][li]
[color=#666666]http://sunlessseagame.com/darwin-drake/[/color][/quote]
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[/li][li]Ahab.
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I’m playing the latest Dishonored DLC and it’s giving me all kinds of ideas for the Sunless Sea.
[color=#009900]Paul and I both like DIshonored, and Liam, our front-end engineer who’s doing most of the Unity coding, is a big fan. I think it would be fair to call it parallel evolution rather than inspiration, but there is a kinship between the SS and Dishonoured mythologies, in the way the sea is both menace and promise, in the filthy glory of the technology, in the possibilities of night.[/color][li]
I enjoyed Dishonored, but it didn’t push my buttons as much as its dear old granddad that it so closely resembles, Thief: The Dark Project. But, Thief didn’t have any nautical-themed levels, so it’s not strictly relevant! Thief II did have a dockside warehouse, and a lighthouse with a submarine… that was quite good; there was a secret lift down to the sub, and it turned out they were using their improbable magitech to loot the ancient city of the mysterious precursor race. And they’d locked one of the nature-worshipping pagans’ spies in the cold storage locker. Oh, and Thief 3 had an open-world docks area and a ghost ship and also the lonely clifftop mansion of a ship’s captain’s grief-stricken widow - but it wasn’t as good. And the departure from the Build engine meant that water was an instant kill rather than another avenue for exploration, and this was a series all about exploration!
…returning the subject at hand… actually, come to think of it, Thief and Dishonored both depict people trying to conquer a bizarre, magical and hostile world through superior technology. Thief’s Mechanists succeed - tearing down the mysteries surrounding the Lost City and killing off many of its inhabitants, and coming damn close to deliberately and determinedly destroying all organic life as the natural end goal of their warped ideology. Dishonored’s scientists’ reach, meanwhile, most certainly exceeds their grasp, and they’re in danger of accidentally unmaking reality through the quite rudimentary methods they employ to secure cheap fuel sources. As for the Neath… honestly, for all our cannons and zubmarines, I think we’re very much still in the "at the mercy of monstrous beings who could crush us like bugs should they take notice of us" stage, and long may it be so.
Oh, just take my money already. I’d only spend it on food and clothes, otherwise.
This is just getting more and more delicious.
Counting the days until I can back this!
I’ve been running my newspaper in Doubt Street again recently and I came across a few articles that I hope are being worked into The Sunless Sea:
CANDLE SCANDAL - FOR SHAME, YOUR GRACE!
The Bishop is a past master at evading difficult questions, and the reporters return with only the vaguest of printable snippets. You are forced to turn to accountants.
His Grace isn’t particularly careful with his paperwork. Oh, he’s been smuggling in candles all right, and by the hundredweight. But he’s not buying them from Hell or the Surface. The Bishop gets his wax from the far Presbyterate. Steamers make the exchange out near Hunter’s Keep and the candles come in under a sprinkling of coal. You have a solid victory for investigative journalism.
DEVILISH CORSAIRS HAUNT OUR COASTLINE!
The problem, he says, isn’t the Brass Embassy and Hell. They, at least, pay fang service to diplomacy and treaties. It’s the Iron Republic. Their ships fly their own flag on the first day, no flag on the second and the Union Jack on the third. They’re privateers, merchantmen and pirates depending on how the mood takes them. The Navy can’t attack every one, because the Masters say that’s bad for business. ‘What we need,’ he claims, ‘is a line of shore batteries all along the Prickfinger coast.’
Edited to put the headlines on their own line.
edited by Corran on 8/24/2013
I’m eagerly awaiting the day when I’ll Go insane and Eat my crew. Seriously, that line completely convinced me to back this project.
It’s a whole 12 hours (assuming perfect adherence to the time schedule previously stated) until the Kickstarter, well, kickstarts. Set your watches and/or hype-o-meters accordingly. Whoa! Wow!
edited by Spacemarine9 on 9/2/2013
[quote=Spacemarine9]It’s a whole 12 hours (assuming perfect adherence to the time schedule previously stated) until the Kickstarter, well, kickstarts. Set your watches and/or hype-o-meters accordingly. Whoa! Wow!
edited by Spacemarine9 on 9/2/2013[/quote]
Race you to it.
Gonna rob a bank so I can bankroll Rat Island and Failbetter will have no choice but to listen to my inane, rodent-focused demands. I am a modern day supervillain.
I’ve been selling all kinds of illegal things since this was announced JUST TO FUND MY PURCHASE of an entire evil empire. And an undersea lair.
I’ve also just set up my KS account. This will be my first. Oh my!
The only other Kickstarter I’ve donated to was the Silver Tree one, and I only managed to scrounge up like £4 from a prepaid giftcard or something. And then I ended up playing the game itself like once! hooray!
this time, though, I’ve got my Rat Game Monetization Funds and I am going to use them, dammit! ! !
Get your Forum Regular Kickstarter Trading Cards today! Learn all about the backing habits of People on the Internet! Guaranteed to be mildly interesting, compared to ingredient lists and legal documents.
I wouldn’t hold your breath! Because you’ll be holding it for like eleven hours and twenty minutes! And that’d probably lead to asphyxiation and or death! Which would be bad!
[quote=Miss Strangeweather][quote=Spacemarine9]I wouldn’t hold your breath! Because you’ll be holding it for like eleven hours and twenty minutes! And that’d probably lead to asphyxiation and or death! Which would be bad!
Thank you for this info. My ferrets decided to throw a surprise party shortly before dawn, perhaps in anticipation of this very Kickstarter. (More likely just because they’re ferrets and being awake makes them happy, though.) Anyway. Since I was up, I loitered aggressively until the KS went live and was one of the first (possibly the first?) to pledge. Now I’m all IS IT MAY 2014 YET? Good times.[li][/quote][/li][li]
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[/li][li]I think I was fourth. VERY DISAPPOINTED.
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[color=#009900]We soft-launched an hour early in case anything went wrong, didn’t share the preview link but a half-dozen backers instantly found us anyway! Which is a good thing to happen. Thank you. Those of you on the forums, consider this an early tip-off.[/color][li]
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[color=#009900]I am now going to drink all the Red Bull in this office.[/color]
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http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/failbetter/sunless-sea
[quote=babelfishwars]I think I was fourth. VERY DISAPPOINTED.[/quote]Four is an auspicious number. You beat me by a couple of minutes, I reckon.
[quote=Miss Strangeweather]Thank you for this info. My ferrets decided to throw a surprise party shortly before dawn, perhaps in anticipation of this very Kickstarter. (More likely just because they’re ferrets and being awake makes them happy, though.) Anyway. Since I was up, I loitered aggressively until the KS went live and was one of the first (possibly the first?) to pledge. Now I’m all IS IT MAY 2014 YET? Good times.[/quote]Ferrets are awesome. I have never seen one, but all the reading I’ve been doing about rats, mongooses and mustelids has convinced me. I thought I wanted an African Pygmy Hedgehog, but I’m not sure any more…
[color=#009900]When your names are inscribed on that notional basalt monument, Miss Strangeweather’s will be at the top: which means the beachcombers of Whither will find her first. My condolences.[/color][li]
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[color=#009900]EDIT: incorrect rock[/color]
edited by Alexis on 9/3/2013