Dead Tides
Every ship you take is yours to keep.
A challenging, single-player pirate sandbox built around tactical naval combat, boarding you fight yourself, and a growing collection of ships you capture, buy and outfit.
- Third-person pirate sandbox
- Single-player
- Windows PC
Five things we hold to.
- I
Naval combat first
Cinematic sailing with directional wind. Aim your own cannon, and choose a simultaneous volley or a rolling broadside.
- II
Boarding you play
Throw the grapples, cross deck to deck and fight it out with cutlass and flintlock. Crews break, surrender, or board you back.
- III
Keep every ship
Buy or capture vessels and keep them all. Each one holds its own name, fittings, condition and colours.
- IV
A living ocean
Merchants flee, pirates raid and the navy patrols. Rain, fog and storms change how everyone sails and fights.
- V
A rare mystery
An optional supernatural thread: the Drowned King, cursed relics, and one ghost ship you will not forget.
Your first half hour at sea.
- 0–5 min
Pursuit
A merchant runs. You have a small sloop and an inexperienced crew.
- 5–10 min
Broadsides
Learn the wind, the arcs and the guns.
- 10–15 min
Boarding
Disable her, then grapple and cross.
- 15–20 min
The prize
Demand surrender, sink her, or take her.
- 20–25 min
Port Haven
Sail home and dock by hand.
- 25–30 min
Refit
Sell the cargo, recruit sailors, upgrade the sloop.
Timings are targets for playtesting, not a script. You can fail, flee, or find another way.
Outfit every hull.
The first release plans a sloop and a brigantine. Every ship keeps its own loadout, with real trade-offs between speed, durability, firepower and boarding strength.
- Hull
- Port battery
- Starboard battery
- Sails
- Rudder
- Crew quarters
- Cargo hold
- Special fitting
- Round shot
- Smashes hulls.
- Chain shot
- Shreds sails and rigging.
- Grapeshot
- Thins out the defenders before you board.
The sailing, the guns and the grapples come first.
Early prototype with placeholder ships and art. What these show is the sailing, gunnery and grappling being tested, not the final look.
The Drowned King.
Most of Dead Tides is ordinary, grounded piracy. But now and then, out past the charts, something answers from below. The supernatural is rare by design: one optional mystery, cursed maritime relics, and a ghost ship to find in the first release.
Concept render · not in-game footageIn pre-production.
The first release is planned as one handcrafted ocean region, Port Haven with its tavern and shipyard, one treasure island, the sloop and the brigantine, merchants, pirates and the navy, and one ghost ship. All of it is subject to playtesting. No release date yet.