Backed by Backers Festival Discover the Games That Players Brought to Life

Here's the selection. Did you back any of these?

A promotional image for the Backed by Backers festival. The festival is on Steam from the 14th to the 21st of April.

People who've found us more recently might be interested to learn that Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies and Mask of the Rose all came to exist with the help of Kickstarter.

Watching the numbers go up when we pressed go on the Sunless Skies KS was one of the wildest moments in the studio's history!

A game with truly immaculate vibes. Never before have I felt so transported so suddenly into a world that is both intensely real and unfathomably alien. Though minimal in complex mechanics and skill based gameplay, it offers up an incredibly deep and fascinating world to explore. Its horror is matched by its mystery and beauty, and beckons you in like a disembodied hand emerging from the darkness. As you explore the Unterzee, your perspective of the world and what you witness are told from journal entries on a lower portion of the screen. You'll be told stories from this little page that will provide levity as well as chill you to your core. You'll be told of impossible constructs, aberrations, monstrous creatures and fates far, FAR worse than death. It will also describe beauty that borders on ethereal. Grand crystal structures and seaside cities of light, the quiet of the Neath and vast jungle islands. All these things you see are so strange and alien that they function as a form of currency, to be given to the powers that be of your choosing as insight in exchange for reward. Secrets and horrors and your standardized port reports all come together to both prove your mettle and earn your keep. The game further rewards knowledge more than skill by making the means of progress incredibly unclear to the lay person. I understand why a lot of people fall off after a few hours, I really do. You're told very little from the start, and you're expected to learn a whole world before you feel truly safe traversing it. But it pays to get out there and see the unknown. You learn about things like combining your stories to create information of real value, establishing reputation with powerful people, what goods sell well at what ports, where to find cheap fuel. While you seek to solve complicated quests that feel way more like riddles most of the time, you pick up bits and pieces of a nigh incomprehensible world and use it to survive another day. Your zailors might be rippe…

This recent Sunless Sea review really lays it out. Thank you to everyone who leaves thoughtful reviews like this; it's really touching.

Knowing how many people and their families are lined up to watch the most miserable, experimental, "fuck it we ball" episode in the series is going to be interesting.

Peridot sitting within a boot so ding dang large that she doesn't even peek out from it's collar, looking up all cute-like.

#StevenUniverse #Peridot

Confession#48.

Mandrake's Steam page, showing a banner for London Games Festival.

It starts! @londongamesfest.bsky.social's Steam showcase is up, come and have a browse.

funy

Fighting. I don't know what over

#art #digitalart

NEW VIDEO UP! BEST OF WINTER 2025/2026!!!
Give it a watch! :D
youtu.be/5uUeVyZIsHo?...

Field Comic Panel 1 Field is looking at Shen's comic and likes a character from a more recent one. Field: I like this character from Shen's comic. Panel 2 Field: Or... I could draw her. Panel 3 Field is laughing maniacly while drawing. Panel 4 Field looks at what he drew and concludes that he shouldn't be trusted with the ability to draw. Field: This is too much power. Gym Girl: The mayor was kidnapped! Carry my water while I save him.

I made fan art of that gym girl from @shenanigansen.bsky.social's recent comic.

Mr73 Dr Ena's choice

Some more buuuuullshit.

ᕙ(•̀‿•́‶)ᕗ 

#voicesofthevoid #votv #dictator #ariral

An exhausted looking Yellow Pearl in a dress shirt and slacks, loosening her tie while being handed a canned coffee by a blue hand, presumably Blue Pearl.

#StevenUniverse #YellowPearl

thanks to @echovulpine.bsky.social for da graphics

Carefully crafting my next show to not have characters.

Curses and Consequences || Mandrake Rural Life Sim YouTube video by Failbetter Games

So why can't people grow things in Mandrake, and what happens when they do?

Let's talk about Curses and Consequences.

Bro.

art gym girl fanart

The cute gym girl from a recent @shenanigansen.bsky.social comic

An adult Steven Universe with hair long enough to spill past the borders of the image, as the hands of his fellow Crystal Gems reach into frame to brush and braid it.

#StevenUniverse

After watching some playthroughs of people going through the VotV tutorial, I can say we're going in the right direction but still got things to change and amend with it.

Also, please finish reading things before you launch through and get stuck :)

Urban Femra

Art by Skrillex_li

Leftover cake and some saltines, not much of a big eater in the morning

Playing Fallen London while eating breakfast