Dev Diary IV

Ahoy!

Aye, let's get straight to the point. Patch 1.3 will be released on September 11th. On the same day, the second DLC, Black Mark Pack, will also be available.

Development Status

If I still had any lingering doubts about the game’s prospects and development, the recent news has finally cleared them up. But let’s start from the beginning.

You know our plan:

• Version 1.3 — uplift the early game and adapt it for new players.

• Version 1.5 — complete the Story Mode and refine the Sandbox Mode.

• Version 2.0 — a major quantity/quality leap, setting the benchmark for a game on the Storm Engine, paving the way for a full-fledged sequel.

To make all of this a reality, the game needs commercial success. But how do you measure that success, and what does it even mean?

Fortunately, Steam has specific metrics: you need to reach a certain gross sales figure within the first six months after release.

Only 3% of all released games achieve this goal. If you’re among these three percent, Steam considers your game “successful” and starts actively promoting it. If not, the game dies, and usually, so does the team.

Even though we hit the required number not in six months, but in just the first month of sales, and Steam started promoting us long before the release, it was important for me to get official confirmation from Valve.

And a couple of weeks ago, I got it. On September 11th, we will return to the store’s main page!

The main business goal of the first post-release year is completed ahead of schedule, which means that all doubts are now gone. We’re working on version 1.5, then 2.0, and aiming to go from the top 3% to the top 1%.

This achievement is primarily yours. You are the best community in the world. Thank you. ːrespect_soldierː

DLC

Our policy on paid add-ons is very simple and, in my opinion, quite fair:

• A new DLC is released with each major patch.

• DLCs are developed last — after the main work on the free content is completed.

• 80% of new content is free, 20% is paid.

• DLC sales fund the studio’s work and create a financial safety net.

The Black Mark Pack DLC is essentially a developer support pack. Such packs are not uncommon: they usually cost as much as a full game and offer a bit of cosmetic content as a reward. I don’t like this approach, so our pack will be filled with treasures:

• Five new items, including new armor.

• A quest available in both story and freeplay modes.

• A unique officer — a musketeer.

• Three Steam achievements.

• Probably a new ship. Probably.

By purchasing this pack, you not only ensure the future development of the game, but you also get a ton of cool content that will really enrich the beginning of the game. Make sure to wishlist!

And now for the sad part. We planned to include a new ship in this DLC, and what a ship it is! A brilliant idea, really, thanks to our Lead Writer, Vagrant. And that’s why I’m genuinely upset that we’ve recently had problems with the ship production. More about this below.

Patch 1.3

Ships

Since we started talking about ships, let’s just continue. The planned list for 1.3 looked like this:

• the Meifeng

• the Valkyrie

• War Schooner

• Fluyt

• DLC Ship

And what do you think? There are two