Sunless Skies shows off Albion in gorgeous reveal trailer

Now we're talking. Despite an impressive Kickstarter campaign, Failbetter Games, by its own admission, unveiled Sunless Sea follow-up Sunless Skies prematurely—which in part led to layoffs at the studio.

And then it teased this beautiful shot of a fractured Big Ben within the game's new Albion setting. And now it has a reveal trailer that showcases the new locale with swirling vortexes, incongruous machinery, floating parliaments, gorgeous colours, and, well, perhaps you should have a gander for yourself:

That's more like it. Having thoroughly enjoyed the developer's last venture, Sunless Sea, I was a wee bit disappointed with what I'd seen of Sunless Skies so far. The developer says Albion reflects the steampunk narrative adventure game's "finished experience" more than anything we've seen to this point, which is good news given the relative scarcity of features available before now.

"Albion is the heart of the British Empire's territory in the High Wilderness, and the only place in the heavens you can reliably get a decent cup of tea," says narrative director Chris Gardiner of the new setting in a statement. "Its hub is London—your actual Victorian London—which has been flung into space by Her Majesty Queen Victoria. She rules it from the Throne of Hours, which allows her some dominion over time itself. We're excited to get to Albion and dig into the engines of the Empire and all its dirty secrets."

For now, Sunless Skies lives on both Steam's Early Access and GOG's Games in Development initiatives, where it costs £18.99/$24.99. Full release is planned for September, 2018.