Alexis Kennedy

Alexis Kennedy (born 1972) is a British video game writer, designer and entrepreneur. His video game work includes Fallen London, Sunless Sea and Cultist Simulator.[1] He co-founded the London-based independent studio, Weather Factory, in 2017. Kennedy also founded Failbetter Games in 2009, where he worked as its chief narrative officer and creative lead until 2016.[2][3]

Alexis Kennedy
Born1972 (age 48–49)
OccupationVideo game writer, designer
Notable worksFallen London
Dragon Age: The Last Court
Sunless Sea
Cultist Simulator
Spouse
Ana Avalon
​
​
(m. 2008; div. 2015)​
PartnerLottie Bevan (2016-present)
Website
weatherfactory.biz

Career

Failbetter Games

In 2009, Kennedy developed the browser game Fallen London and founded Failbetter Games by January 2010.[4] Failbetter initially focused on browser-based interactive fiction, chiefly Fallen London but also client projects;[5] under Kennedy's direction, the company later refocused on narrative-centric PC and mobile games, starting with Sunless Sea and an iOS port of Fallen London. Early in 2016, Kennedy opened Fundbetter, an initiative at Failbetter to fund promising narrative games and interactive fiction projects. As of May 2016, Fundbetter had announced five funded projects.[6]

In June 2016, Kennedy announced that he was leaving the company to do more creative, than managerial, work through freelancing. He sold his majority shareholder stake in Failbetter for 60 percent of the cash in the company, rather than 60 percent of its value, so it could continue to operate without issue.[7][8][9]

Freelance work

In August 2016, Kennedy began work on a piece of standalone DLC for Paradox Interactive's Stellaris.[10] In December 2016, the DLC was announced as an 'interactive cosmic horror novelette' called 'Horizon Signal', and released with the codename 'Kennedy' Stellaris patch. In September, Kennedy announced that he is working with the Dragon Age team in BioWare for an unannounced project as a freelance writer.[11]

Kennedy worked on an unspecified research and development project with Telltale Games.[12]

Weather Factory

In 2017, he co-founded Weather Factory with Lottie Bevan, a former producer at Failbetter, to make experimental games. The company used an open development process to create Cultist Simulator. Kennedy released an alpha version and a Kickstarter was funded within one day. The game was released on 31 May 2018, with iOS and Android capability the next year.[13][14]

It was nominated for best debut game and game innovation at the British Academy Games Awards.[15] Kennedy reported in February 2019 that Cultist Simulator had grossed more than $1.76 million in sales.[16]

In 2019 he announced work on a game based on placing the player in charge of an occult library called Book of Hours, set in the same universe as Cultist Simulator.[17][18]

Personal life

Kennedy was born in West Germany but grew up in England, Wales, Poland and Spain. He is the great-nephew of Gilbert Insall, WWI aviator and discoverer of Woodhenge, and has an extended-family relationship with Oswald Rayner.[19] Kennedy started indie game development while taking a 6-month sabbatical at the time of the birth of his first child. He runs Weather Factory out of the spare bedroom of his home in London with fiancée Lottie Bevan.[20][21] On several occasions, Kennedy has spoken about how traumatic family deaths informed his writing.[22]

Misconduct allegations

In August 2019, Kennedy was accused by Meg Jayanth, writer on Sunless Sea, and Olivia Wood, writer at Failbetter, of crossing "professional boundaries" with multiple women, including direct reports.[23][24][25] He denied the allegations, describing them as a "malicious misrepresentation", and stating that he was filing a police complaint.[24][26][27] In response to the allegations, three of the five projects participating in Weather Factory's mentorship program withdrew from it.[28][25]

A late-game screenshot from Cultist Simulator

Works
  • Fallen London, 2009 (original developer, lead writer)
  • Machine Cares!, 2012 (creative director)
  • Dragon Age: The Last Court, 2014 (creative director)
  • Sunless Sea, 2015 (creative director, lead writer)
  • Stellaris: Horizon Signal, 2017 (writer, designer)
  • Cultist Simulator, 2018 (design, writing, coding)
  • Sunless Skies, 2019 (initial concept)

References
  1. Stephanie Chan (8 September 2017). "The terse poetry of Alexis Kennedy's Cultist Simulator card game". venturebeat.com.
  2. Charlie Hall (2 March 2016). "Sunless Sea developer opens international fund, mentorship for interactive fiction". polygon.com.
  3. Brendan Sinclair (25 May 2016). "Alexis Kennedy leaving Failbetter Games". gamesindustry.biz.
  4. Forde, Matthew (June 12, 2019). "Weather Factory co-founder Alexis Kennedy on making fun over profit". PocketGamer.biz. PocketGamer. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  5. Cassandra Khaw, "FailBetter Games' Alexis Kennedy is trying to make browser games that don't suck", PCWorld, October 9, 2012. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
  6. Charlie Hall, "Sunless Sea developer opens international fund, mentorship for interactive fiction", Polygon, March 2, 2016. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
  7. Brown, Fraser (17 August 2017). "Why Failbetter founder Alexis Kennedy left his studio". PCGamesN. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  8. 'My creative calling is to freak people the f*** out,' says Alexis Kennedy on Cultist Simulator
  9. Behind the sunless scenes
  10. "Sunless Sea's Former Lead Now Writing For Stellaris". Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
  11. Phillips, Tom (September 12, 2016). "Sunless Sea writer signs up for BioWare project". Eurogamer. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
  12. "Apocalypse and Yearning". July 12, 2017. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  13. Taylor, Haydn (July 2, 2019). "Weather Factory on the advantages of being "weird and divisive"". GamesIndustry.biz. Games Industry. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  14. Baines, Tom (March 5, 2019). "Cultist Simulator is coming to Android and iOS". Thumbsticks.com. Thumbsticks. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  15. Fogel, Stefanie (April 4, 2019). "'God of War' Wins Five BAFTA Awards". VanityFair.com. Vanity Fair. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  16. Clayton, Natalie (February 15, 2019). "Cultist Simulator's 100,000-plus sales cap off a successful first year for Weather Factory". PCGamesInsider.biz. PC Games Insider. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  17. Boudreau, Ian. "Alexis Kennedy might be making a game about an evil library". PCGamesN. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  18. Wales, Matt (31 May 2019). "Cultist Simulator dev reveals "elegant, melancholy" occult library follow-up, Book of Hours". Eurogamer. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  19. Bevan, Lottie. "Skeleton Songs, episode 7". YouTube. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  20. The UK's indie games sector is ripe for further investment
  21. Forde, Matthew (12 June 2019). "Weather Factory co-founder Alexis Kennedy on making fun over profit". Pocket Gamer.biz. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  22. McKeand, Kirk (13 October 2017). "How death influences Alexis Kennedy's writing on Dragon Age 4 and other games". PCGamesN.
  23. Webb, Kevin. "Multiple men in the video game industry have been accused of sexual assault and harassment, and it's sparking an industry-wide conversation about abuse". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-09-01.
  24. "Emerging from the shadow of GamerGate". Engadget. Retrieved 2019-09-01.
  25. Phillips, Tom (30 August 2019). "Two women accuse Cultist Simulator developer Alexis Kennedy of "exploitative" behaviour". Eurogamer. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  26. Grubb, Jeff (29 August 2019). "Sexual abuse allegations hit half-dozen game developers". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  27. Graft, Kris (28 August 2019). "New allegations of sexual assault surface against established game devs". Gamasutra. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  28. Sinclair, Brendan (29 August 2019). "Former colleagues accuse Alexis Kennedy of abuse, retaliation". gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
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