PCGamesN interviewed Alexis Kennedy - the writer of Sunless Sea:

How death influences Alexis Kennedy's writing on Dragon Age 4 and other games

Alexis Kennedy is afraid of the sea. His best-known game, Sunless Sea, is about a dangerous Lovecraftian ocean - yet, in it, the camera takes a bird’s-eye view, pulling players safely away from the cold embrace of its dark depths. The Failbetter Games founder has a good reason for his thalassophobia: his desire to stay away from the lapping waves and the alien world that lives beneath the surface - you see, the ocean took his father. 

On June 25, 1973, Hugh Peter Calday Kennedy, a pilot in the Royal Air Force, was piloting his Phantom FGR.2 fighter jet on a routine flight over the North Sea. Somewhere, something went wrong, because the plane crashed into the ocean and Kennedy, as well as his navigator, David Noel Hodges, were never seen again.

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Thanks Farflame!

PC Gamer has reviewed Sunless Sea: Zubmariner and has a favourable impression.

Zubmariner has been slotted into the main game, adding both underwater regions and new stories and characters to places you may have already visited, and there's no need for you to start a new game. I recommend starting anew, however, as exploring both surface and abyss in tandem as a new captain feels like the most rewarding way to experience the expansion. It's not too hard to get your hands on the upgrade that lets you explore the depths, either.

A quest sends you south, to one of the fixed locations on the map: Port Carnelian. There, either by spending money or offering up certain items, you can develop the technology you need. Then, there's an item to find-I was lucky enough to already have its location revealed on my map from an earlier journey-and that's it, you've got yourself a zubmarine. Conveniently, once you've unlocked it, future captains can get the upgrade for free and merely need to visit the port to receive it.

Down below, the world is a very different place. In a zubmarine, you can get up close and visit areas once just beyond your grasp, from striking coral forests to ominous sunken cities. It's still dark down there, of course, so the ship's light is a constant necessity, as its the new zonar that does the same job as the zeebat, revealing objects and places of interest with automatic pulses.

RPS gives us an early look at Zubmariner, the new Sunless Sea DLC.

I’ve just jettisoned a wounded zailor while underwater. It was to free up a last gasp of oxygen for the rest of my crew as I frantically try to ascend from the depths of the Zee in Sunless Sea’s [official site] Zubmariner update. As the screen fades to black (to resurface, not to die horribly) I wonder whether to imagine the departed comrade as being the same zailor I pulled from a wreckage on the zeebed moments ago and thus add a rather tragic tale of fleeting hope and cutthroat practicality to my expedition.

More.

Sunless Sea is free to play on Steam this weekend if you've been waiting to try it out.

Sunless Sea, developed by Failbetter Games, actually left Early Access a year ago. It puts you at the helm of a Steampunk steamship and sets you off to explore a great, dark, top-down sea in the faux-Victorian universe of Fallen London. The Steam description is succinct: “Lose your Mind. Eat your crew. Die.” Despite some flaws, it pulled in a very healthy score of 80 in our review, and we recently got our first look at the new Zubmarine DLC that's in the works

Sunless Sea will be playable for free until 5 pm EST on January 31—that's Sunday—while Fractured Space, as mentioned, is a keeper as long as you pick it up before 7 am EST on February 1. If you like what you see, they're also on sale for the weekend: The Fractured Space Forerunner Pack is half-price—that's $5/£3.50—while Sunless Sea is 40 percent off, taking it to $11/£8. Both sale prices are on until February 1.

More information.

Gamasutra is hosting the first part of a new Post-Mortem from the developer of Sunless Sea Adam Myers who talks about the games sales, and about funding on kickstarter.

It's been over a month now since Sunless Sea left early access. It was our first downloadable game. We weren't entirely sure what to expect. Back in early 2013, when we first considered making it, very few kickstarted games had been released. Greenlight was less than a year old. And there wasn't a lot of public sales information about indie games.

In case it's useful to other developers, we'd like to share our actual results through the entire process -- Kickstarter, through pre-orders, Greenlight, early access, and of course our launch sales.

I found another review this week for Sunless Sea from a site called Dealspwn.

Sunless Sea is a masterpiece of interactive storytelling, atmosphere and exploration that spins a unique, tense and frequently tragic new yarn every time you play. It's a shame that the spiteful economy and repetitive early game gradually forces you to focus on the systems, not the stories, but the quality of the writing elevates Sunless Sea into something rather special indeed.

Whether you return to Fallen London a rich Zailor, half-mad cannibal or decaying flotsam, you'll have one heck of a story to tell.

Alec Meer of Rock, Paper, Shotgun posted his thoughts on Sunless Sea in a new review.

Look, Sunless Sea isn’t for everyone. It requires patience, and it requires no small amount of imagination. For those who have those qualities, or are prepared to try and acquire them, I would say that Sunless Sea is an uncommonly rewarding roleplaying game, and an essential one.

Failbetter Games announced today that Sunless Sea has been taken off Steam Early Access, and is now available for purchase. They also posted some review links.

SUNLESS SEA IS OUT NOW!

Already we've been hugely excited to receive a rare 10/10 score from Eurogamer, and another 10/10 from Starburst magazine

And here's a review from Rock Paper Shotgun, just gone live!

We're getting so hyped it's quite likely we'll steal a nearby boat from Greenwich Peninsula and cause chaos on the Thames.

We're streaming live pretty much all day at http://twitch.tv/failbettergames, hosting such friendly streamers as FuzzyFreaks, MegnaGaming and Indie + the Indie Army.

Come by for the dev stream with GOG at 7pm GMT! See you on the zee!

Failbetter Games released a new Launch trailer for Sunless Sea today.

Buy the complete Sunless Sea from 5:30pm GMT on 6th February

Buy on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/304...
Buy on GOG.com: http://www.gog.com/game/sunless_sea
Buy on Humble: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p/...

Lose your mind. Eat your crew.

Take the helm of your steamship and set sail for the unknown! Sunless Sea is a game of discovery, loneliness and frequent death, set in the award-winning Victorian Gothic universe of Fallen London.

If the giant crabs, sentient icebergs and swarms of bats don’t get you, madness and cannibalism certainly will. But that old black ocean beckons, and there’s loot for the brave souls who dare to sail her.

Betray your crew, sell your soul to a Devil, marry your sweetheart. Survive long enough and you’ll achieve your life’s ambition.

You will die, but your legacy will live on…

Soulbane delves into the unforgiving Sunless Sea, the dread-inducing Steampunk roguelike coming February 2. So lets thank both Soulbane, and Aubrielle for her editing.

Sunless Sea is the second game by indie developer Failbetter Games. Being a small team, Failbetter became known when they released their first title – Fallen London – in 2009, a browser-based choose your own adventure game set in a unique alternative Victorian Gothic steampunk world. After the award-winning first title, Failbetter went on to capitalize on their success and launched a Kickstarter campaign for Sunless Sea in 2013, which was funded quickly. Sunless Sea strives to retain Failbetter’s strengths (namely, their high quality writing, unusual and intriguing setting, and some of the choose your own adventure style) while adding in exploration, combat, some rogue-like mechanics, and roleplaying elements with more depth than previously seen. The game entered Early Access in July 2014, and just recently we’ve been provided the release date of February 2 this year.