Failbetter Games are particularly looking for players with accessibility requirements for the Sunless Skies closed alpha.
Sunless Skies is the forthcoming sequel to 2015’s Sunless Seas, the sort-of-but-not-really follow-up to their 2009 browser game Fallen London. These narrative-heavy games found real favour with audiences worldwide, building on the choose-your-own-adventure stylings of Fallen London with the roguelike mechanics and bleak exploration of Sunless Skies.
Failbetter Games have relied heavily on this devoted audience, from driving Fallen London from obscure browser game to global name, to actively funding both Sunless Seas and Sunless Skies on Kickstarter (to the tune of £100k and £378k respectively). And now they’re looking for your help again, to assist with the Sunless Skies closed alpha.
How do you get involved? Why, you sign up via this quick and easy form, then stand by your email account for the call to arms, sometime in June or July 2017.
Here are the full details:
Timings
- The Sunless Skies closed alpha will run from June 5 to the end of July.
- Selected players will be contacted by email, in batches, so keep an eye out for your invite.
- Alpha players won’t be able to carry characters forward into Early Access.
Technical requirements
- Valid Steam account required.
- PC/Mac/Linux operating system.
Who should get involved
- People who have played Failbetter’s games before.
- PC gamers who haven’t played Failbetter’s games before (especially RPG fans).
- Players with accessibility requirements (so they can build Sunless Skies with specific accessibility feedback in mind).
- People who have QA or previous testing experience (optional).
You’ll also need to agree to complete secrecy on the project, which means no streaming, no Let’s Play videos, and absolutely no sharing on social media.
A willingness to play an unfinished product that will no doubt be littered with bugs – and the ability to resist being a jerk about it, keeping that social media thing in mind – would also help prospective alpha testers.
Head to the blog post on the Failbetter Games site for full details.
