Kennedy started as an indie game developer while taking a 6-month sabbatical at the time of the birth of his first child. In 2009, Kennedy developed the browser gameFallen London and founded Failbetter Games. Failbetter initially focused on browser-based interactive fiction, chiefly Fallen London but also client projects; 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. In June 2016, Kennedy split from Failbetter, citing a desire to work on a greater variety of projects. He currently operates a microstudio, Weather Factory. In August 2016, Kennedy began work on a piece of standalone DLC for Paradox Interactive's Stellaris. 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. Immediately before beginning work with BioWare, Kennedy released an alpha version of an experimental game, Cultist Simulator. Cultist Simulator's Kickstarter was funded quickly, and was released on 31 May 2018. Kennedy worked on an unspecified research and development project with Telltale Games. 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.
Misconduct allegations
In August 2019 Kennedy was the subject of allegations by Meg Jayanth, writer on Sunless Sea, and Olivia Wood, writer at Failbetter, who said that he had "crossed professional boundaries" with multiple women, including direct reports. Kennedy denied the allegations, describing them as a "malicious misrepresentation", and stating that he was filing a police complaint. In response to the allegations, three of the five projects participating in Weather Factory's mentorship program withdrew from it. Failbetter Games, in a statement on Twitter, said that "We believe and stand with everyone who has come forward to speak out about Alexis Kennedy tonight." The current CEO of Failbetter Games, Adam Myers, confirmed some of the allegations and disputed some of Kennedy's statements.
