[DEVBLOG#172] Three days of Pirates - Day Five (Final!) (Patreon)

Hello hello hello!

Thanks for persevering with me through the Three days of pirates series. If you haven't seen the previous development blogs going indepth into Vanilla Factions Expanded - Pirates, be sure to check out the following links: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 !

Now, this development blog isn't really about VFE-Pirates, but it's about a game that directly inspired us to make Vanilla Factions Expanded - Pirates.

This is also the post I was teasing you about, you know, the announcement one!

Let's start from the basics!

Day Five:

Who are we?

Cracklewock Games is a three man indie game studio based in the Netherlands. We know each other from the Rimworld modding scene where we’re a few of the biggest names. Cursed Crew is our first game and we’re having a blast creating it!

Roolo

A Dutch game developer and software engineer. Roel started his career as a researcher that modelled and created virtual worlds for military simulations. He got into game development after creating popular mods for RimWorld. Roel started experimenting with the idea of Cursed Crew while he was still working full time as a researcher and quickly got hooked on the concept so he quit his job, founded Cracklewock Games, and is now working full time on Cursed Crew for a year now as project lead.

Oskar

A Polish artist and designer. Oskar has released a huge amount of mods for RimWorld, which also resulted in him becoming a graphic designer for Ludeon Studios - maker of RimWorld. With passion for graphic design and visual communications, Oskar has created a mod collection that has over half a million subscribers.

Phillip

An American game developer and software engineer.  Started his career making a variety of applications ranging from hydroponics management to builder-oriented house modeling. Phillip got into game development after creating popular mods for RimWorld. He is also the author of the Vehicles! Framework, which is still in development and will revolutionalize RimWorld modding!

What is Cursed Crew?

Cursed Crew is a rogue-like naval ship simulator where you run an 18th century sailing ship in a fantasy setting. You control the captain, and it’s your responsibility that the crew survives all the perils of the dark seas you’re sailing in. You need to make sure there are enough resources like timber, food, and cannonballs on the ship. When hell breaks loose, you have to guide your (not always competent) crew through it. As the game progresses, your crew gets more and more cursed, adding unique twists to your playthrough. If you make the right decisions, curses may actually be beneficial to your survival.

Key features

You control the captain
Your crew is nearly self-sufficient: they have a work schedule, and by following that, they cover the basic needs on the ship. However, if anything unusual happens, for instance when a Kraken starts entangling your ship, your crew needs you as a captain to guide them through it.


Cursed crew
Your ship and its crew get more and more cursed the longer they progress. The game will have dozens of curses, each with a unique effect on your playthrough. There is, for instance, a curse that attracts a flock of tameable chickens to your ship but, in return, leaves a mess. There is another curse that makes all creatures more powerful. With both curses affecting your crew, you would be able to breed an army of killer chickens to defend your ship. Synergy between curses will create more dynamic and unique playthroughs.


Bombarding action.
You’re not the only captain sailing on the vast seas of Cursed Crew, and not everyone out there is friendly. They may not want to parlay, so perhaps they will listen to the sound of your cannons! We’ve added a variety of cannons for varying strategies in combat, including fire cannons, hull breaching cannons, harpoon guns, grapeshot cannons, and more!


Survive in a harsh world.
Defeating any foe that you encounter is not enough to survive in the harsh world of Cursed Crew. Making unpopular decisions like spending the fortune you’ve amassed on a nice captain’s hat instead of food or sacrificing crewmembers to the depths of the sea to get away from a sea monster lurking in the depths might result in mutiny. In order to survive, you need to make sure your crew is well fed, loyal, and sane.

Between locations and events, you will be sailing across the seas. It’s not as easy as it sounds, though, as this is where the worst can happen: mutiny, starvation, dying from cold or heat, or simply going insane. During this time, you will be building new structures, writing schedules for your crew, crafting new weapons and upgrading the ship with new utilities, devices, furniture, and much more.

Depending on the type of ship and what kind of sails you have, traveling between locations on the map can take anywhere between days and weeks!


Brave the elements!
It’s not just the pirates, creatures of the sea, starvation, mutiny, and sanity that you have to worry about. Cursed Crew features a weather system that will challenge you even further. From strong winds that will allow you to run away from threats or make you unable to escape them, to rain and storms, you will need to adapt to the situation at hand.

Encounter Legendary creatures!
While pirates may be dreaded by most, there are dangers far more serious lurking in the depths. At this point in time, we’ve implemented our first boss: The Megalodon: An ancient shark capable of devouring entire ships, supported by large packs of white killer sharks. We plan to add in a large variety of other sea creatures, small or big, friendly or hostile, each one unique. The Cursed Crew world will contain both real and mythological creatures, and we may add our own unique creations as well.

So, what's happening?

We spent the last year working on this game and we are finally ready to announce the launch of our Kickstarter. 

You can watch the teaser of the game on youtube by clicking HERE.

The Kickstarter campaign will launch on 18th of January, 2022. This will be a perfect chance to show your love and support, and if you believe you will like the game from under my brush, I encourage you to back the project! Not only you will be helping us develop the game and make our dreams come true, you will also get amazing rewards in the process!

Kickstarter page often comes with a Pre-Launch page before launch, and it is the case here as well! You can check out our prelaunch page by clicking the link, right HERE.

You can click this little button on the left to be notified when the campaign launches!

Guess what!

We also have a Steam page now where you can wishlist our game! I know, I know, I'm making you click many dodgy links lately. Trust me, it will all pay off in the end!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1839760/Cursed_Crew/

This is the link. Now go on, click it, and wishlist it!

Ok, But what about VFE-Pirates?

VFE-Pirates will launch on 18th of January, alongside the launch of our Kickstarter. We have already started testing the mod!

As to what else is to come this year:

We have Vanilla Outposts Expanded ready to release, tomorrow most likely. Then, I will do a very nice roadmap that summarizes what's coming next year. I will post it before Christmas and then most likely take some nice family holiday until new year.

Thanks for reading through the Three (Five) days of Pirates! It was a blast creating it!