i (hannah) joined the failbetter team as employee number 7 in october 2014, just as we were entering the final stretch of early access. i had never seen the steam back-end before signing on. did i know what i was in for?
launching a game is a strange experience. even when you've been in early access, the moment of launch is like reaching the pinnacle of a mountain climb: you're exhausted! it's unbelievable! ...and you're only halfway done. you still have to get home.
on the day we launched sunless sea, we had a cake and nibbles in the office, but we didn't know what to do with our nervous energy while we waited for the optimal US time to release. pressing the button is simultaneously nerve-wracking and anticlimactic.
being a comms person is like being a goalie on a football team, and it's gone to penalties. everyone else has done their job and it's just you and the ball (game).
i prefer to be on my own at such times so i waved everyone else off to the pub and sat in our 10th floor office in greenwich.
what i couldn't have understood at the time was what a rare point we were at: we launched, and sunless sea was the only thing on the top half of the steam front page for about six hours.
it had never been seen by that many people before. i sat in the office watching the numbers go up, fielding comments, retweeting, and generally floating in the sea of the launch like a tiny sloop.
Comments
Tell the Unterzee it owes me money, 'cuz it's been living in my head rent free since launch.
I may, or may not, have like +200 hours of the Zee and regretted none of it.
hahahah
i prefer to be on my own at such times so i waved everyone else off to the pub and sat in our 10th floor office in greenwich.