Team-based Pirating Triumphs in Blackwake

( Warning: The video above contains some adult language.

Blackwake wants to simulate a team-based pirate experience, complete with sailing into intense naval battles, adverse weather conditions, and muskets. Thankfully, they’re leaving out the seasickness.

The underlying philosophy for the team is creating a pirate game that makes players feel like they are part of a crew, rather than controlling ships in an RTS game or having bots as teammates. Similarly to shooter games, Blackwake plays out in matches over a variety of modes, typically focused on objective-based, faction-versus-faction bouts. Winning requires a good degree of teamwork, as the ship requires many hands to navigate, and everyone can contribute during combat.

Getting random people to cooperate is a challenge, so the Blackwake developers decided to abolish classes. Since nobody has a delegated role, everyone else can perform the same tasks, aiding each other as needed. Points are counted both individually and for the team as a whole. Captains are the only distinguished positions, and they hold more power in order to lead the crew. Should the captain happen to be a scallywag, he or she can be overthrown by the mateys.

Blackwake ‘s first Kickstarter campaign in late 2014 failed. Their current Kickstarterlaunched with a lower goal, and the team polished up the game’s visuals. At the time of this writing, Blackwake jas already passed its goal of $7,305 (converted from AUD) and reached over $30k in pledges. There currently aren’t any stretch goals listed. The page states that the money raised will help with server costs and allocating more time to developing the game.

Pledging about $18 secures a full-release copy on Steam when the game comes out, as well as Alpha and Beta versions planned for early 2016. Check out the rest of the reward tiers here.