The achievements have been fixed.

This post will be dryer than your mouth after three days at sea without water.

Due to recent Windows 11 incompatibilities, I ran The Caribbean Sail through GameMaker 2 and exported it. This was a painfully difficult process that involved resolving over 48,000 errors.

[h3]Changes[/h3]
+ Version number is now 1.8
+ Exported with GM2

[h3][Notice][/h3]
If you were experiencing crashes on Windows 11 before and this resolved them, please let me know.
If you are experiencing any crashes now that you weren't before, please let me know also.
I will not sell defective products.

[h3]Regarding Mac[/h3]
The game was unfortunately never ported to Mac 64-bit and unfortunately I cannot afford a Mac at this time to export with and as Steam is fully discontinuing support for 32-bit Mac applications, I will not be supporting Mac users for now. If you would like to help potentially bring back Mac support then donations on my Ko-Fi will go towards licensing fees, developer fees, and development hardware: https://ko-fi.com/victorianclambake#



https://store.steampowered.com/app/2153250/Captain_Blacksword/
Looking for something more exciting? I've recently updated the page for my next game with many new GIF's! Check it out and wishlist your next nautical adventure today!

Fair winds to you all,
- The Captain

[previewyoutube=cygkThh2nrE;full][/previewyoutube]
Well hey there boys and girls!
Have you ever wanted to be a cartoon mouse pirate? Then have I got news for YOU!

After 95 years since first stepping onto the world stage, Steamboat Willie is now a playable character in the Caribbean Sail!

[h2]Watch the original animation[/h2]
[previewyoutube=BBgghnQF6E4;full][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Unlock Instructions[/h2]
1) Start a new profile
2) Enable Fantasy mode
3) Name your Captain "Steamboat Willie" *
4) Scroll two occupations left
5) Select the ol' mouse himself
6) Get to pirating!

*Alternatively, earn 20000XP



[h2]Update Log[/h2]
+ New occupation: Steamboat Willie
+ Unique ring smoke puffs for Steamships when playing as Steamboat Willie
+ New shanty when playing as Steamboat Willie
+ New artworks for plank walking, dying, hanging, and flogging
+ A new little Blacksword Easter Egg
+ Governor starts with 5,000
+ Particle effects

[h2]Happy Tooting![/h2]

[h2]You know what every good pirate needs? Cannons.[/h2]

Unfortunately those are hard to make, ship, or sell online so I've created the next best thing: A limited time merch store!

vcmerch.com



Hosted by shopify and printed by printful (not painstakingly handcrafted as usual) all high enough quality for this Captain's standards!



The desk pad is my personal favorite. There's no branding which makes it versatile! Use it as a giant mouse pad, a game mat to make cards easier to pick up (Try my card game on it), make your coworkers jealous, organize your crew rations on it, make it into a rum coaster for your table, roll it up and smack away seagulls, wrap yourself in it for warmth as the cruel winds blow down from the north- the possibilities are endless!



My second favorite piece is the Joyless Roger stealth shirt! Black printed on black is obviously the coolest possible cooler combination and it doesn't come cooler than this. The subtle design without branding makes it a flexible base piece for any everyday pirate looking to show their true colors.

[h2]On limited quantities[/h2]
There's a few other items on the store but all are currently limited to only 10 units available in total per size, per item, shipping in USA only. I don't plan on staying in the merch business forever at this time so fetch yer swag and toss a few doubloons my way because this whole ship will sink in January 2024.

If things go well I may replenish stock in December, create more designs, more products, or other things... like a sheet of Caribbean Sail themed stickers. I'm testing new waters so we'll see where they take us!

That's all well and good Captain but where's our next game?

Captain Blacksword is underway lads and I'm sharing updates regularly on the Discord and Twitter (or X marks the spot if you prefer) and cross posting to a strange little website called Stimulus.



WHAT THE DEVIL IS THAT?

Since you asked and it no longer feels like I'm cornering you to talk about my endless passion projects apropos of nothing; I went an extra nautical mile as Captain Blacksword is intended to be an NES style arcade game and built my own tabletop arcade machine. I'm working on an arcade compatible demo to run that will be downloadable on my Kofi page for the Clambake Crew members.



Captain Blacksword has been in a toybox phase for longer than you've been ignoring the barnacles on your hull and as of today is now on course for completion. Feature creep has bogged things down long enough and I'm focused on creating levels. What lies before me is an estimated 100 days of work. Not days until release, 24 hour periods of solid development. Blacksword will not release until it has achieved 10,000 wishlists even if the game is 100% complete. This ship will sail or stay in port until I figure out how to create the wind myself.

As a final announcement...

[h2]There will be one more Caribbean Sail feature.[/h2]
I am legally obligated not to disclose what it will be until January 1st.

[h3]Fair winds to you all lads!
- Evan, Captain of Victorian Clambake[/h3]

Pirates on the horizon!



Victorian Clambake has parlayed with Fireblade Studios, The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild, and Vitali Kirpu to bring you the Indie Plunder Bundle!

Four piratical indie games for a 20% discount when purchased together or completing the set!

The Caribbean Sail

[h3]An 8-bit adventure fraught with misfortune, monsters, management, marauders, and misery! [/h3]

Pixel Piracy

[h3]A classic rags-to-riches pirate fantasy brought to life with humor and heart with new features still being added![/h3]

Sail Forth

[h3]A recent release of sailing simulation paired with ship customization, combat, exploration and relaxing voyages![/h3]

Abandon Ship

[h3]A gorgeous game of strategically outwitting your foes in naval skirmishes!
[/h3]

Hundreds of hours worth of piracy packed into this swashbuckling package of pixels and polygons!


[h2]Take your trick at the helm: INDIE PLUNDER BUNDLE![/h2]

Wishlist Captain Blacksword on Steam!

[previewyoutube=CS0F3Z3M2C4;full][/previewyoutube]

Feast your eyes on the trailer for my devlog series in preparation for the demo!

It can be tricky to make a game and video series about development simultaneously but both are well underway and if you would like to be one of the first lads to go on a Blacksword stabaganza then join the Clambake Crew on Ko-fi!



You'll gain access to the Captain Blacksword demo in the coming months, you can post pictures on the Victorian Clambake Discord, you can try my unreleased games, and you'll get to learn about secret games in the development dockyard!

Most importantly, you'll be helping to keep this ship afloat during the doldrums between releases.

Fair winds to you all!
- The Captain

Wishlist today on Steam!

The past five years of Caribbean sailing have been fun but it's time to sail new waters.

It's time for this crew of one to hit the deck of a keyboard and start making digital canvas to catch the winds of fame for my next title.

CAPTAIN BLACKSWORD


Wishlist today on Steam!

Captain Blacksword is a secret filled combat platformer that was cut from the veins of an NES classic which you may have broken a controller over twenty some years ago.



Explore and unlock new abilities as you ravage the islands in any order you desire. You'll learn an array of skills from boarding axe jumps to digging up buried treasure in a quest for infamy.

[h2]So what happened to that development video series?[/h2]



Since my last Steam post there have been many days fraught with doldrums and this voyage is admittedly well behind schedule but before you start throwing your first born into the ocean to avenge the wind gods of the sea, I have a new tack and will be working on a sporadic schedule to bring this game to safe harbor.

I made it fifteen seconds into a promotional trailer before my vehicle was caught on a reef but my hull has been patched and we're back on course to begin in February!

Follow along on https://discord.gg/clambake for the latest updates or to see the first episode when it finally makes port!

Fair winds to you lads, I hope you'll join me on my next voyage!
- Evan, Captain of Victorian Clambake

... and don't forget to add my next game to your wishlist

Five years ago on September 19th, The Caribbean Sail was released.

Since that day, The Caribbean Sail has seen numerous updates, two major expansion packs released for free, a shanty off contest, a soundtrack release, a successful Kickstarter campaign which enabled the release of 100 physical copies, and over 14,000 sales globally.

Only one physical copy remains, package #69, and it's on the auction block: https://www.ebay.com/itm/354301415126

The production papers are also exclusively available here on Itch.io if you'd like to see behind the curtain a little and support my work further!

Victorian Clambake
Since creating this whimsical name and sprinting naked into the wilderness with a blindfold on, Victorian Clambake has achieved two game releases on Steam, two game jam releases, and organizing a community of like-minded nautical nerds on Discord.

All I can say is... God, what a waste of time this all was.
I'm just yanking yer yardarm.

Believe you me, the plans aren't about to end.
It's been a year of insanity and instability, my life has changed dramatically and what remains of the studio is currently in a pile of plastic bins but that's not what you care or about and it's not going to hold me back.

[h2]Behold my next solo project![/h2]


I've been working on another title for the past three years in tiny bursts of inspiration and next month I'll release the Steam page!

The lads on Discord know more and have seen gameplay, you should be like the lads, join the server.

[h2]But wait! There's MORE![/h2]
I've been pitching this idea for years but it wasn't feasible until now.

[h3]Victorian Clambake - Voyage Reports[/h3]
A development diary series released as monthly YouTube episodes to further grow our community, share my thoughts on games and development, and showcase the work that goes into creating a game!

They'll be short, fun, insightful, and coming next month if the wind is in our favor!

Keep your eyes on the horizon and sign up for the newlestter or follow along on Twitter so you don't miss a thing!

Fair winds to you all, I could have never made it this far without you.
- Captain of Victorian Clambake, Evan Massie

Ahoy there lads!

'Tis a fine day. I've shipped every backer reward* and only 17 packages remain for purchase on Victorian Clambake!

*Look, Louis, I'd really like for you to fill out your survey so I can finally ship your package, savvy?

For more information see todays Kickstarter post!


The next five orders will include an acrylic keychain!

I'll be going on shore leave and living a typical landlubber life for a time but if you have any questions I'll still check in on the forums, Discord, and support email.

Fair winds to you all!
- Your Captain, Evan

Now you can read words instead of playing games!

The manual for The Caribbean Sail is now digital and in your Steam library!



Navigate to the library tab and try not to get lost along the way.

Select "The Caribbean Sail" and under the "Additional Content" section you should see the Sailing Handbook!

If you'd like to get the real thing there's still 25 available! https://victorianclambake.com/gold

Fair winds to you all!
- Evan, Captain of Victorian Clambake

Are you a true Caribbean Sailor?
[h3]Only 28 copies currently available![/h3]



In case you were too hungover to notice the initial post, too hungover to catch the Kickstarter, and too hungover to see the email, you should probably get help. After you take care of that then take notice of this alert to claim your COLLECTOR'S EDITION OF THE CARIBBEAN SAIL!



Find out more and learn how to get one here: https://victorianclambake.com/gold
or dig $60 out of your buried chest and send an email to: contactclambake@gmail.com

Thank you for coming along for this voyage, this is a sendoff to be proud of!

Fair winds to you all!
- Evan, Captain of Victorian Clambake

[h2]All things must come to an end.[/h2]

It's been a long time coming but sunk cost fallacy can't make this ship float.

I've enjoyed working on these last two patches and admittedly don't want to move on from The Caribbean Sail yet.

There are piles of cut content that could be restored and years worth of updates and ideas that could be implemented, but, no amount of new content is going to increase the broader appeal of this game.

It's time for me to finish the physical edition and move on to new waters and new voyages.

Your comments, reviews, upvotes, and genuine support of me and my work made it hard to let this simply be a bugfix patch and nothing more... so...

[h3]Without further adieu, the final features.[/h3]
+ Added the pie
+ Added moonshine opportunity
+ Mystery content
+ One more particle effect

- Fixed Portuguese flag crashing in update log
- Main Menu badges now copy the links instead of opening broken links

[h3]What's on the horizon?[/h3]
Finishing The Caribbean Sail: Gold and ensuring it runs on CD before ordering 100 copies, then finishing the manual. Once those are complete and all the rewards have been shipped I'll have some tough choices to make.

I may take a break but Victorian Clambake will be far from dead even if TCS was its lifeblood.

I'd like to create Caribbean Sail merch.

Jolly Riot isn't cancelled though it will undergo redesign.

Shell Shuffle deserves a patch someday even if it is floating face down in the pool.

There are two new games that I've shared nothing about which already have had substantial work put into them.

So keep your eyes wide lads, carry a shanty in your heart and a jigger in your step.

Newsletter - Discord - Twitter - Youtube

I'll see you on the next voyage!
- Captain of Victorian Clambake, Evan Massie

Ahoy there to all the new lads and laddies!

This week marks the fifth year since The Caribbean Sail began development.

It's hard to even find the words the describe how I feel... maybe I shouldn't have fired my thesaurus out of a cannon.

[h2]Tasty new features![/h2]
This update is late but after contracting and recovering from multiple sicknesses, the worst storm of last year, breaking my elbow and temporarily losing function in my right hand- here's what I've got for you!

+ Slightly better controller support
+ New bottle messages
+ New tavern conversationalists
+ The Portuguese Navy
+ Dimmer in settings to stop burning your delicate little eyes at night
+ Steamship furnace now accepts less than 25kg of food
+ Trade tax event when excessive amounts of luxuries are sold
+ Steamships that are dead in the water will have the option to "Wait" for a passing ship now
+ Should anyone make it to Shanghai on a raft as the missionary immediately after starting a new game, your efforts will be acknowledged.

- Game crashing bugs obliterated
- Repeat dialogue from conversationalists will be prevented
- Name duplication bug FINALLY fixed (You should no longer have the stowaway event)

/Probably more that I've forgotten to log

[h2]What next?![/h2]
The physical release Kickstarter was a success and a few copies will be available after all the backer rewards have shipped! Keep up with the bi-weekly progress reports here!

Development will soon end so do your best bug hunting and report anything you find so we can ensure that this game sails into the sunset proudly.

[h2]The Caribbean Sail went silver![/h2]
On the penultimate day of 2021 the 10,000th Caribbean sale was made!

I'll have to make myself an award to gloat with at all the people who never tour my studio.

The end of this voyage is in sight. I doubt I could ever make such a groundbreaking game again, but that doesn't mean I won't try. TCS_Tophat

Fair winds to you all lads!
- Your Captain, Evan

Claim your copy! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/victorianclambake/the-caribbean-sail-physical-release

The day has nearly come and only half my hairs are gray so that has to count for something!

With your help the campaign has been fully funded and only a day remains before I begin rolling in piles of doubloons while laughing maniacally and plotting out the production timeline before turning those meaningless paper slips into something far more egotistically satisfying; The Caribbean Sail - Physical Edition.



Nearly an entire year has passed since I first pitched my vision to you all like a fist full of bait to an overfilled koi pond. The final stretch is ahead and I'll work to deliver something above and beyond your grandest piratical dreams.

If your region isn't available for shipping, let me know immediately! We still have 24 hours to calculate the UPS shipping costs and add it as an option! Should be easier than shipping boxes via carrier pigeon.

Pledge today and help reach a milestone that will bring the Sea Dragon back!



If physical items aren't your cup of Kickstarted tea, climb aboard the Discord server and tell us your worst pirate jokes!

Time to send this thing off with a bang!
- The Captain

[h2]The largest Victorian Clambake project yet has begun![/h2]

The samples are made, the costs calculated, the logistics sorted, the roadmap planned, the page written, the trailer edited, Jenkins flogged, and the campaign is LIVE after months of preparation!

Pledge to the Kickstarter before October 1st to secure your boxed copy of The Caribbean Sail!

[previewyoutube=p85IrKHWgUI;full][/previewyoutube]

Heaping piles of gold aren't the only way to contribute and this festival of a fourth year anniversary would be nothing without every hand on deck helping to have brought this voyage so far.



Every goal achieved will bring this voyage one step closer to its destination and bring rewards!

• 6 - Commemorative bronze metal pin
  
• 12 - Commemorative metal pin upgraded to silver
  
• 18 - Commemorative metal pin upgraded to gold
  
• 24 - The never before seen idea list for The Caribbean Sail will be revealed in its enormous entirety and the community will choose a single idea from it to be implemented.
  

Not sure what's going on? Read the previous post.



After many many months of work, the Kickstarter is nearly ready to begin! Be sure to set your account in order and queue up for the notification here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/victorianclambake/the-caribbean-sail-physical-release

If all goes as intended (which it absolutely won't) then on the 15th you can open your wallets and dump their contents directly into funding the final development cycle and receive a glorious physical boxed copy of The Caribbean Sail!

In an immaterial age, why wouldn't you want one of your favorite games on a tangible medium?

There will be announcements, community goals that you can participate in achieving, and the goal of making possible my most ambitious project yet!

The time approaches!

Spit out that hardtack and listen up!

The head count was taken, the support has been found, the logistics sorted, prototypes created, and today I have begun preparing the Kickstarter page.

[h2](_) ( .) BEHOLD! (.) (_)[/h2]


See the sea on CD in 2D!

I've prepared everything that can be designed or decided well in advance of beginning the crew funding to make the wait time between taking pledges and shipping shorter than Benjamins life expectancy.

What lies before your creativity bereft eyes are the first samples of the main box, the game and soundtrack CD designs, sleeve designs, and the manual. Perfection at its finest and I'd bet your last doubloon that you won't be disappointed.


Imagine whipping this bad boi out for everyone to see.

For those of you who are brave enough to fly the black flag and declare war against the world, the Joyless Roger will be the second tier reward.

I've hinted a bit about the third tier reward. Feeling bold enough to hazard any guesses?

[h2]Your input is desired! ...by someone, for once, finally.[/h2]

There have been many ideas and suggestions for stretch goals and rather than leaving them to be prioritized by the bumbling hands of a hat holding nincompoop, I'd like you lads to rank some here!

Restoring cut content would undoubtably be the most requested feature. To pull out my cutlass and engage with the enemy that is whatever the devil I was thinking during development last year would likely begin coding battles that could last for months and I would be sure to have the new features playtested for a month before goldmastering the game to never be updated again. How patient are(n't) you?

I'll use your feedback to plot a timeline. The next time you hear from me I shall have a Kickstarter page for you!

[h2]One of the new hands aboard this ship?[/h2]

Welcome aboard! You can make yourself useful by etching an honest review onto the store page.

If you wish to have Caribbean Sail related information shoved down your ear canals every time it surfaces, join the verified Victorian Clambake Discord server: https://discord.gg/clambake

Fair winds to you all!
- Your Captain, Evan

All hands on deck!

Ready to help your Captain out in our time of need? The only way to get exposure on Steam on release day anymore is if we can beat out the competition by sales and engagement!

Shell Shuffle is our next title- I didn't make this one alone! With the help of two friends who created the artwork and soundtrack respectively, we've put together a polished game that's simply fun to play.

You can let me know what you think in a Steam review after the dopamine high wears off at 4:00 AM when you're pushing your eyeballs back in place with a spoon because you haven't blinked in 8 hours.

Just kidding, review it as quickly as possible to help it gain traction on launch.

Happy Shuffling!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1395450/Shell_Shuffle/

[h3]It's been a trick at the helm and three bells since the last update.[/h3]

I've implemented a little new feature to save you just a tad more of your fleeting mortal life from the ravages of time and tedium; Auto-fishing.

Right click on the "Go Fishing" button and one of your crew will get off their lazy rumps and inefficiently catch a few fish, but, mind your harpoons because some sailors have trouble counting and may throw up to five harpoons in a single session!

I'd like all of your feedback on this as it's currently the fastest way to get food but also the most inefficient. To me that seems right but I'm open to hearing you all out!

-but that's not the only change! "Oh Lord, what has he gone and done now?" I hear you all cry. Nothing else drastic this time, just a few water bugs murdered and a new line of dialogue for a few of the Captains.

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Flag pickups won't replace the spyglass and other important items when you defeat ships.
  
• Holiday text won't run off the page.
  
• The flotsam no longer appears multiple times on the same save file.
  
• Maximum ship speeds should no longer change when you reload a save.
  
• Your sail will now be fully repaired when fixing your ship in port.
  
• The battle tutorial is less prone to confusion and failure now.
  

Our final voyage together has begun lads.

About a month ago I shared the news of our next title, Shell Shuffle, along with my vision for a limited physical edition run of The Caribbean Sail. You've made your voices clear and the support we need is definitely here!

If you don't want to miss anything when the apocalypse inevitably occurs this winter and you repress every memory from 2020 then you need to join the Clambake Newsletter at the bottom of this page: https://victorianclambake.com/

Fore-warning; this read will be more dry than usual.

[h2]What is this all about?[/h2]
What began as a little test, turned into a black and white pixelated passion project that consumed three years of my life. Looking back on my work now has shown me how unbelievably large this game really is, and it needs a proper send off celebration. I'll probably never be able to create another game like this.

My plan is to create and release a limited big box edition of The Caribbean Sail with the soundtrack and game on CD with a manual as was customary to old game releases. The perfect celebration of gaming and nautical history.

[h2]When? WHEN? WHEN!?!?![/h2]
Settle down there lads, I'm still a one man team when it comes to this project and I've barely begun the research. Winter is on the way and I don't want to compete with the holiday season or the Shell Shuffle development cycle. I'll need to have samples printed, CD's written, the manual designed, and other details sorted out before moving to production. Most important of all, the game will need to finally be gold mastered which means one final update. Can't update CD's after all.

Start stashing away your doubloons because I'll be coming for your coffers come springtime. I've decided to go with Kickstarter and the soonest possible time the campaign could be run is March 2021, don't take that as gospel though, it may not happen until even later.

I've been tallying up the costs and finding every corner I can possibly cut. I'll be manually assembling each package for shipment with my crew and sourcing each item from different manufacturers to get the best quality and value. Our minimum viable funding goal is currently $2,000 unless the manufacturing costs change.

After funding is complete, production will begin. Each piece will be manufactured and shipped to the Victorian Clambake studio for package assembly before being sent to those of you who become backers!
This may take anywhere from a few weeks to months so my best guess for the earliest time you can get your hands on a copy will be in June.

[h2]What will I get and how much will it be?[/h2]
The base package will probably be $25 - $30*
-
One game CD and one soundtrack CD
One Caribbean Sail game manual filled with game tips, history snippets, lore, jokes, mysteries, the secret recipe for hardtack, and maybe some shanty lyrics
One retro sized big box with the box art printed on the front and that classic carefree Victorian Clambake brand marketing fodder on the back

Mid-tier package will probably be $50 - $60
-
Everything in the base package along with a flag that has the emblem of a Caribbean Sail style historic pirate (like the wallpapers that come with the soundtrack) or the iconic TCS skull and crossed arms.

Top-tier package will probably be $100
-
Everything in the other two tiers along with an autograph from yours truly and something delicate that will be a real challenge for me to create. (I'll need to actually make one before I say more)

All of these packages and prices are prone to change.
I'd like to have some game map posters printed too if I can ever find a decent value printer for them.

*(I'm either a product finance management logistics wizard, or I'm missing something huge because none of the special edition manufacturing companies thought I could get it done for less than $40 per unit without ordering thousands)

Summary
Save some doubloons, sign up for the newsletter, come fund the campaign in March/April and receive your very own physical copy of The Caribbean Sail around June!

I can't quite express the feeling of seeing how enthusiastic your support has been!
The closest comparison I can make would be to say it's like sailing from London to Shanghai on a Raft and surviving.

Thank you one and all for your help on this long journey!
- Your Captain, Evan

Gather round lads, I have much to share!

Contrary to popular belief, I have not taken a much needed moments rest since the soundtrack was released. Instead, I've gotten right back to work and am now proud to present the next official Victorian Clambake game to be released; SHELL SHUFFLE!


Pause for ooo's and ah's.

The Steam page is up and should answer many of your questions! BEHOLD THE SHELLS!

This hard left turn of a casual game is a personal challenge to create the best possible experience I can with all that I've learned. I've recruited the Cartographer who will be creating the art assets and we're going to work together with a clear route to ship Shell Shuffle on February 5th, 2021.

The demo is planned to release in October to get you hooked and the competitive local multiplayer will tear your friendships and family apart. Co-op is also being worked on in order to help you put your relationships back together but we can't promise that yet.

Follow along and wishlist it so you don't forget! The giant mollusk demands it!

The Caribbean Sail - Limited Physical Edition!

I've been tossing this idea around in my head for awhile like a shark toying with Benjamin and the conclusion is that I need your feedback.

I've yearned to create a physical boxed edition of the Caribbean Sail ever since release. As development finally nears completion the possibility of creating this passion project has increased. Like any good pirate, I need your money but I can't wait around on a sinking ship.

If you would be willing to throw $20 my way on Kickstarter or Indiegogo for a retro style Caribbean Sail branded box containing a copy of the game and the soundtrack along with possibly a manual (and maybe more at a higher tier!) you must leave a comment stating so!

We need 50 lads to make this happen and a skeleton crew won't cut it. From the few I've asked so far, I've already found 10 supporters. Once we have 50 I'll begin working out the logistics and estimate the time it will take before taking the crowdfunding live.

If you're interested, you absolutely must speak up!

Complimentary entertainment!

The website was looking quite bland,
so I've started to give it a hand.
There's a new fun deck section,
with a free fun collection!
Go check it out, that's a command!

victorianclambake.com/fundeck

You'll find a 3-7 player card game I created that can be played with any standard deck, a sailor quiz, and a bizarre game-jam submission about milking a space cow. You really have to see it.

Thank you all for sticking with me on this long voyage.
- Your Captain, Evan.

[h2]Ahoy there lads![/h2]

My lovely game has been cursed with inconsistent framerate issues which randomly pop by and I think that I have finally fixed the issue once and for all! Buy a better toaster. I changed the internal settings to alternate the synchronization method which has made things significantly more reliable.

There was another bug from the depths of hell sent to rain torment on my peace of mind which caused crew names to duplicate inexplicably. After months of ceaseless searching I've decided to just say "The outcome of exerting the time and energy to see this bug fixed does not outweigh the consequences of not seeing this bug fixed." so now it's a feature! In the rare event that this bug attacks your precious save file, you'll encounter a new event of finding a stowaway aboard!

There have also been some exciting things happening on the Discord channel, climb aboard and say "Ahoy!" if you're curious!

https://discord.gg/clambake

Three announcements are over the next wave so stay high and dry for a few more days!
- Your Captain, Evan

All hands on deck!

The official Caribbean Sail soundtrack is now available on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1382140/The_Caribbean_Sail__Soundtrack/

Listen to that and I'll make a shantyman out of every one of you yet!

There's also another bonus; I created seven 4k wallpapers depicting the pixelated flags of famous pirates!

A final request, soundtracks on Steam rarely get more than 10 reviews so leave a review or think of your favorite pirate joke and leave that as a review on the soundtrack. It will help me more than you know!

After all this, what comes next? That's a very tough question to answer. Victorian Clambake is going to change a little as I move away from only working on one game to creating more games while experimenting with new ideas. There may be a few things left in store for The Caribbean Sail, so keep a weather eye on the horizon.

Fair winds to you all!
- Your Captain, Evan.

Ahoy there lads!

Soon you'll never have to leave your shanty collection behind when you stop playing The Caribbean Sail to do something significantly less important because the soundtrack is being released on the 11th!

Wishlist now, worry about your coffers later: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1382140/The_Caribbean_Sail__Soundtrack/

Every track has been compiled using a painstaking process of individually recording each track rather than using the default Beepbox export method in order to have a higher quality sound than there is in-game. Many an intro and outro have also been added to various loops for your listening pleasure!

There are four bonus songs that can't be heard in-game even though they were created, along with an album exclusive pirate metal song about the game created by Anchorsmashed!

[h3]Tracklist[/h3]
1 - All for Me Grog!
2 - Rule Britannia
3 - Yo ho ho and a Bottle of Rum
4 - Blow the Man Down
5 - Drunken Sailing
6 - Windy Old Weather
7 - The Diamond and the Whale
8 - The Irish Washerwoman
9 - The Gate
10 - The Endless Unknown
11 - Fill the Void with Holes
12 - Haul on the Bowline
13 - The Devil's Trill Sonata
14 - The Kraken
15 - Hornpipe from Water Music
16 - To Cross a Reef
17 - Lowlands Away
18 - Go to Sea No More
19 - Reilly's Reel
20 - Rolling Down to Old Maui
21 - The Sailors Grace
22 - Cooley's Reel
23 - The Banks of Newfoundland
24 - Santy Anno
25 - Fiddlers Green
26 - The Cruel Carpenter
27 - Down Among the Dead Men
28 - The Place that Could Never Be
29 - Over the Hills and Far Away
30 - What will we do with a Drunken Sailor
31 - The British Grenadiers
32 - Hearts of Oak
33 - The Coast of High Barbary
34 - Hullabaloo Belay
35 - Leave Her Johnny
36 - Fish in the Sea
37 - Red Haired Boy
38 - Randy Dandy O
39 - Bound for South Australia
40 - Drowsy Maggie
41 - Eliza Lee
42 - Blow Ye Winds
43 - Where am I to go
44 - Whiskey in the Jar
45 - The Eddystone Light
46 - Out on the Ocean
47 - The Trooper and the Maid
48 - Massie's Melody
49 - Whistle Daughter Whistle
50 - The Parting Glass
51 - The Sailors Hornpipe - Bonus Track
52 - Don't Forget Yer Old Shipmate - Bonus Track
53 - Here's a Health to the Company - Bonus Track
54 - The Volga Boatman - Bonus Track
55 - A Caribbean Tale - Album Exclusive ft. Anchorsmashed
56 - A Caribbean Tale 8-bit - Album Exclusive

Now, perhaps you're deaf or you simply hate good music, I'd like to request that if you have enjoyed The Caribbean Sail or have been following ever since day one that you consider purchasing the soundtrack regardless and help support Victorian Clambake. Every penny spent on the soundtrack will go towards funding music production hardware my future games!

Thank you all!
- Your Captain, Evan.

Short patch poetry time!

The lads noticed some oversights dumb,
So I whipped up the fixes for some,
Bugs were solved with insight,
And the screenshots fit right,
The soundtrack is next to come!

The gargantuan Fantasy Toggle expansion is finally complete and has been added for FREE

Alright lads, it may have taken me half a year longer than I expected, but nobody could have predicted the calamity maelstrom that has been 2020.

Unlike half the world, I passed my sanity check today, which means Fantasy Toggle is officially complete!



Short Changelog

Here's the short rundown of what I was able to implement in a year and a half: An optional Fantasy mode, four new locations, seven new professions, nine new ships, four new storylines, seven new shanties, eleven new achievements, a boatload of new events, a whole host of new encounters, new opportunities, an ammunition system, treasure hunting, walking the plank, airships, megalodons, the kraken, and more particle effects than you can shake a harpoon at!

* full changelog




Biggest Changes

No matter how many times I said "No" to crew recruitment, you lads kept taking it as a "Yes, but no themed" so I added a Landlubber difficulty setting that will allow you to keep your save file when you die and find a crew recruitment opportunity in any pub. You'll be doing it at the cost of your ability to earn achievements though so HAH! THERE! WHO GOT THE FINAL WORD IN?

Bottles out for Globalstats.io lads. I've taken the bottle message system offline because the functionality was woefully limited and continually caused a rare crash that was unable to be fixed from my side, but, with the help of two jolly tars I was able to save, moderate, and manually implement 2890 user written bottle messages making your chances of seeing the same two messages as low as recovering from the plague. You can also still write new messages that will be added to your local pool.



How to enable Fantasy Mode

Start a new save file and turn the lantern green by clicking on it!

I wanted to maintain the realism of Purist Mode while allowing the madness of Fantasy Mode so that you can play the nautical experience you prefer! Development was like building a game inside of another game which has been a playtesting nightmare. I think I'll do something easier next time, like developing a game using only my nose while upside-down and blindfolded.



What's next?

First, fixing any and all bugs you can find. After that I'm going to work on getting a 64-bit Mac version running and I'll also try to get a more optimized version for everyone. I'll also be updating the screenshots and working on a new trailer.

If you haven't already, leaving an honest review on the store page or updating an old one would be really helpful since so much has changed. Once you've had some time to play, you'll realize it's not the game it used to be at all.

I hope that I was able to bring the joy of exploration and mystery back into the world I created for you.

Fair winds to you all!
- Captain and Developer, Evan.

[h3]This is it lads! The final stretch! Nearly a year and a half of work on one giant expansion that triples the amount of content released to you free of charge![/h3]

For those of you who were invited to the Beta and are in the appropriate group, you may have missed an announcement there to access the Beta- Go join and start hunting bugs! We've already fixed a ton of issues and I'm confident that Fantasy Mode will be ready for release on the 16th.

Mac 64-bit may take a little longer to have completed, but I'll keep you all informed in the next post.

There's more planned to come afterwards. I know a lot of you have been begging me for years to put out the official soundtrack. It's coming.

Sometime soon after I'd also like to create some fabulous merchandise.
What would you lads like? Apart from the pirate Captain reclining on a T-Shirt.
Let me know in the abyss below!

The Caribbean Sail started as a simple nautical themed Oregon Trail and it's become a procedurally generated open world roguelike rags-to-riches pirate RPG with a branching narrative!

This project was massive. Much like the sailors pressed into service, I never could have imagined working on this for three years but here we are. My scope was definitely too large but I still managed to make a nautical game with everything you could want in it.

It's going to be strange moving away from this black, white, and cyan world I've been living in for three years but after you've all had time to play and give feedback I'll finally release the gold-mastered version and development will be 100% over. I plan on doing a few special things to celebrate that so keep your eyes fixed on the Victorian Clambake horizon for some more Caribbean Sail high jinks.

Fair winds be with you lads!
- Your fatigued Captain

Belay being bored because beta begins!
It's been over a year since development began on the Fantasy Toggle expansion and it's finally time to start testing.



This megalodon can't wait to sink his teeth into your ship.

What's happening?
As of today, the final preparations to release Fantasy Toggle are underway!
The game has become so internally complex that I've already got a list of known bugs to start fixing. Rather than making the beta public and wasting time responding to forum threads and bug reports, the beta will be done in stages.

I'm having my friends take the first trick at the helm so I can watch how they play in person and see what does and doesn't make sense to them. After the bugs they found are flogged to death and the necessary improvements have been made, I'll have a few specifically chosen lads help improve the grammar and playtest on multiple platforms.

After every problem we could find has been addressed, I'll be porting TCS from GameMaker: Studio to GameMaker 2 and The Caribbean Sailors crew of beta testers will be brought aboard to make suggestions, hunt for bugs, give feedback and give me my much needed ego petting.

If Fantasy Toggle can survive all of that then I'll know she's ready for the sea.

That's probably not what you expected but it's better than watching her sink after the bottle christens her.



Remember when this big boi sneaked into the game on launch day? His time to shine will come soon.

What's left to do?
All of the content for Fantasy mode is nearly complete, but there's some polishing left to do.
New feature tutorials, gameplay balancing, achievements, fringe case scenarios that can leave you stuck or aimless, and other assorted little tasks to complete. Like adding more particle effects.

If you want to follow the progress, I'd recommend the official Victorian Clambake Discord Server or Twitter.

WHEN WILL IT BE DONE???
By the end of the month hopefully.
There's a lot to take into consideration that I can't estimate.
How many bugs will be found?
How hard will it be to port TCS through Game Maker 2?
How long will it take for Apple to approve the 64-bit Mac version?
What does Jenkins do with all the empty turtle shells we catch?

What I can say for sure is that I'm working hard to make the best game I can, which means taking the time to get it right. That's what the giant mollusk running Victorian Clambake mandated.



Captain! A fire breathing ship is trying to ram us!

What other words are you going to make me read in this long post?
These ones, and the next ones; Over the weekend you'll be able to plunder yourself a copy of The Caribbean Sail for $2.99 which you won't see again for a long time. After the sale I'm raising the price to $14.99 to reflect the new value. It will literally be two games in one.

After Fantasy Toggle, I'll have to "Gold Master" The Caribbean Sail and end development. Then I can release the soundtrack, make some merch, and see what else can be done with what I've created! It's been a long voyage but port is finally in sight.

Now it's time to head into the beta development storm.
- Your Captain, Evan.

The Mac users all got the same crash,
and since I don't want to sell trash,
I fixed up the game,
It's mostly the same,
but the bottle messages all turned to ash.

*Bottle messages were entirely removed from the Mac version for now to prevent a recent crash.

[h2]Another year, another particle effect filled update![/h2]
This progress update marks the third year since development first began.
It's been a long journey and the end is finally in sight.

If the words "Fantasy Toggle" mean nothing to you, then click here!



Particles... Ah...

I've been hard at work throughout the holiday season while hiding beneath a pile of oilskins to ward off influenza. Now it's time for a mid voyage progress report!

[h3]What's done?[/h3]
- All the new locations
- All the new unlockable ships and professions
- Nearly all of the new mechanics and systems
- Some of the new particle effects

[h3]What's left?[/h3]
- The new events
- The new opportunities
- The new items
- The new storyline
- The rest of the new particle effects

That's the short version.



Much like the furnace above, this development cycle has burned up time quickly.

I said this in the last progress report and I'll say it again. Creating Fantasy Toggle has been comparable to creating a new game inside of an old game. Implementing new systems while maintaining old mechanics is like trying to sail a clipper ship against the wind- it's slow progress and things keep breaking.

Throw in the new Mac update demanding 64-bit binaries when GM:S 1.4 can only handle 32 and I've got a shark sized problem on my hands to bring the entirety of The Caribbean Sail into GameMaker 2 at some point. The engine upgrade shouldn't take too long but becoming a verified app developer? New waters for this young rogue.



Like the lasers fired from the Cybership above, sometimes we miss our target.

[h3]What does this all mean?[/h3]
The opening of beta has been moved to April 30th.

The participants have all been hand-picked which means if you'd like to test out Fantasy Toggle when the time comes? You should climb aboard the official Discord!

After Fantasy Toggle is complete, The Caribbean Sail will be twice the game it is now!
This also means that I'll be increasing the price once again to reflect the new value.

There are more plans after Fantasy though! A soundtrack, merch, potentially a physical edition?! Time will tell but until then, I'll be at the helm of development!

- Your Captain, Evan.

We've come a long way but we've still got a long way to go.

If you're clueless about the Fantasy Toggle expansion, read this!

If you've been paying attention to development, you'll know this expansion is taking longer than I first estimated. That's because Fantasy Toggle isn't as big as Route Planning was... it's twice as big.

Feast your eyes on a few of the completed features!

Involuntary Diving!


Digging up other peoples retirement plans!


Stuff I haven't told you about! - and I'm not going to.


Twice as many new professions and vessels to unlock!


When will it be released?
January 31st - 2020 ...is when I want to open testing.

After two years of development, I have a high standard of quality for this final content update. The sheer amount of interconnected systems has made development particularly tricky. Making the entirety of Fantasy mode optional (hence the "Toggle") has been comparable to building a new game inside of a pre-existing game.

While a lot of progress has been made, my original estimate was simply unrealistic.
We learn, we move on.

Unfortunately the Jolly Riot demo won't be ready until at least mid 2020 because I'll be focused on finishing development of The Caribbean Sail. Progress is still being made and you should follow then wishlist Jolly Riot if you'd like to learn more about my next project!

If you'd like to yap at me, be sure to climb aboard our verified Discord server!

Thank you for joining me on this long voyage.
- Your Captain, Evan TCS_Tophat

The official Discord server for Victorian Clambake has been verified!

We rant and ramble, share shanties, discuss new ideas, and have a parrot named Polly!

Climb aboard!

Another patch to delay obsolescence.
I finally added the Discord rich presence. *
Three achievements are new.
Did some bug fixing too.
Enjoy the new features with much effervescence!

* There were bugs with the Linux and Mac builds I ported,
so for Discord rich presence, only Windows is supported.

TCS_Tophat

"Any fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk." - Sir Francis Chichester

Here we are lads! These are the final touches before I begin work on the Fantasy Toggle expansion!

Normally I spice up the patch notes with humor or poetry but if I tried to do that with this update log, it would be a full novel. I wasn't expecting this patch to be the size of a bloated whale and take an Atlantic crossing's worth of time to complete.

These are the new features!
+ New voyage preparation screen
+ Tutorial reset button
+ Helpful starters guide with tips
+ Pub design overhaul
+ Pub shop to buy rum
+ Rum barrel item to improve morale
+ Drunken screen and music distortion effects
+ Nation relation
+ Button in pub to view your relations
+ Very good or very poor relations determine whether or not you'll be welcomed or attacked when approaching ships
+ Worst possible relations with the pirates will cause pirate ships with red flags to spawn
+ Red flag item
+ Opportunity button in pub
+ Three opportunities (for now) and a lot of "none available" fluff text
+ Barnacles
++ Wait barnacles?
+++ A WAY TO SCRAPE OFF BARNACLES THAT AREN'T ON YOUR SHIP!
+ Pray button for the Missionary
+ Compass item to avoid storms
+ Tool prompts while sailing for the sextant and compass
+ Ability to sell items in port from inventory tab
+ Unique captain sprites for each faction
+ Staying anchored while sailing eventually cures seasickness
+ Whaling is slightly easier and the dead whale spawn rate is lower
+ An immaculate flute song available on only one day of the year
+ Right clicking "FIRE" or pressing "B" in combat will fire all loaded cannons
+ Rain puts out fires started by greased shot
+ Drowsy Maggie shanty available in port. It might be my new favorite
+ Letter of marque description changed to clarify its purpose
+ Bug fixes. Many bug fixes.
+ Particle effects
+ Particle bubbles
+ Particle bubble popping
+ Popped bubble particle effects
+ Probably more that I can't even remember

Be on the lookout for bugs as you enjoy the new content and let me know if you encounter anything I need to make a silent V1.6.9 patch to resolve before I back everything up and begin creating Fantasy Toggle.

What's next?
I'm going to (try to) bring TCS to Discord! It's an opportunity to spread the piratey gospel even further. We'll need a verified server which means building from scratch. If you want to know the deepest community lore then grab a potato and climb aboard the official Victorian Clambake Discord server.

On the first of April, I'll run a week long sale to celebrate our progress!

Be sure to leave a review if you haven't already! Can we achieve the "Overwhelmingly Positive" status?

As always, thank you for the support!
- Your Captain, Evan

Freedom and fortune are fine for a time, but the devil awaits in the depths of the unknown.

This is the seamap for Fantasy Toggle

I've held back the most creative ideas in favor of maintaining an accurate 1700's sailing experience. That's about to change.

Fantasy Toggle is the final major content expansion to The Caribbean Sail. It will be mysterious, dangerous, fantastic, free, and entirely optional. It will bring that sense of wonder and possibility from nautical mythology to life in the game.

Here's the plan: A toggle will be presented to enable fantasy mode when you select an empty save slot. This will allow people who prefer the historically grounded setting to continue playing without any intrusions from the mythical.

Disclaimer: Like the legends of old, some features may change.



The Charted Features

Though much is planned, many of the events and encounters would be better experienced than explained. Where's the mystery when you already know what you'll find? Instead, here's an overview of the types of content I'll be creating.

New Ports
At least three new map locations that you'll have to discover before being able to set course for them.

Luck
It won't have much impact on the likelihood your crew will become sick and die, but many of the new features had to depend on something. It will reflect your relation with the sea itself and lead to some "interesting" scenarios.

Treasure Hunting
Why trust banks when the ground is a perfectly safe place to keep money? I bury every penny I make from this game behind my house and it hasn't been stolen yet. It is really hard to find a buried penny though...

Unlockables
There will be new professions and ships to unlock. You probably expected that, but what you didn't expect was the power of pistons! You'll be able to acquire a Steamship that isn't dependent on the wind... but you will have to pay for fuel.

Events
As for the new encounters; You'll find sea monsters, ghost pirates, curses, events based off traditional nautical mythology and a few of my own!

Story Structure
Though the current set year of the world will not change, it will be instantly apparent that things are different. Unlike the current main story, many opportunities will present themselves and allow you to decide your own investment in them.

More Shanties
Can you really ever have enough musical alternatives? I won't be satisfied until every inventory slot contains a shanty.

Particle Effects
Do you love particle effects? By George, I can't get enough of them. There will be new particle effects and they will be glorious.

Final Notes
I'm going to push one more patch before I dedicate to working on Fantasy Toggle. As with Route Planning, this will complicate the file too much to push in multiple patches so it all has to be completed as one massive update.

I'd like to complete Fantasy Toggle in four months or less but it's impossible to know how long something will take when you're a solo developer.

If you have any questions, the forums are always open. If you'd like to say "Ahoy!" then climb aboard the Community Discord. If you haven't already, do drop an honest review on the store page! They're encouraging and helpful as feedback. My gratitude!

- Your Captain, Evan.

Sometimes you get hooked on a passion project and can't stop yourself

You know that whale you always see? Yeah, that one. You can finally catch him.

Next time you see the whale flaunting his fluke and spewing his spume "Go Fishing" and you'll spot that beautiful blowhole bobbing in the bay.

After attaching your harpoon to him, a new mini-game will trigger. All you have to do is click when the white line is over the red line. If you mess up too many times you'll never see him or your precious harpoon again.

I intended to work on other things this week but once I got started I simply couldn't quit. Making a (comparatively) huge new animated asset, new song, and new mini-game, took quite awhile. Whaling has been requested frequently enough to hopefully make the effort worthwhile.

Apart from whaling, a game crashing bug was fixed... and oh so very many new glorious particle effects.

I took off my eye patch and my full attention is back on development.

I've been doing some much needed cleanup within the assets in preparation for work on the expansion. You'd never believe how many cobweb.png and dust.gml files I had to clean off after spending a few months out of the deep resource code...

Combat has been re-balanced again. I had to plead with each nation to agree on tracking damage down to the decimal so upgrades would scale properly. They agreed on one condition; their ships begin with slightly more health.

A quiet death on land in a warm bed with full belly was never meant for a true sailor! If you're not hungry, you're not dying while resting anymore. Now get back on the Ocean- there are sharks that need to eat!

Some of you have noticed that "Me PiRaTeY gRaMmARGH" isn't quite what it should be. With the help of Aedyr, nearly all of the text has now been proofread and corrected. Buy him a round if you ever meet him.

To help guide new players, I made the location halo for Nassau yellow on the map until you make port there once.

The Jolly Riot promo icon was changed to a pair of cutlasses.

A few bugs nobody found were thrown overboard and replaced with particle effects.

Next week will be a feature update!

Two years ago to this day, the first version of The Caribbean Sail was made.

This patch is like the first version of the game. Though not feature rich, its still important.
You know what that means...

You're on the edge of your seat,
to see what's new and complete;
Some exploits were removed,
and the grammar improved.
Click the new JR cause it's sweet!

As we near the end of the year, I'm beginning to create a list of the most important and requested features and implement them before I start working on the Fantasy Toggle expansion.

If you thought naming your crew "The Food Supply" or "Nobody important" was funny, you're going to love naming your ship things like "The Dingy Dinghy" or "Your Spirits" or anything else you can think of!

Speaking of names, were your crew unfortunate enough to have the same name? They'll now be assigned some roman numerals to differentiate each other. This uncoincidentally also fixes the duplicate name invincibility bug.

A common request for keyboard shortcuts has been met. On the sailing screen you can press "F" to fish or "I" to quickly access the inventory or "enter" to leave the logbook. There are some more keyboard commands for port and sailing but the game still isn't fully keyboard navigable.

Finally, Iceland is now cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.

Make sure to wear your oilskins as winter approaches!

It's certainly been awhile since the last content patch but we're back on course.

The world no longer contains eleven identical pubs around the world because some interior decoraters came in and spruced up all the taverns.

Your logbook journal is also more than a single page to write on, now it's 99 pages to write on! You can keep record of your adventure, manually track your quests, create a lot of profane ASCII artwork or whatever else your heart desires.

I know this isn't a huge content update but my attention is divided. There are plenty of suggestions and requests that I'll go through and prioritize but the final feature to complete the original Route Planning checklist is varying the Liars Dice AI around the world.

After those patches I'll hopefully begin work on the free Fantasy Toggle expansion!

'Tis time to celebrate!
365 days ago this vessel set out from port with a heading for fortune and glory. 'Tis a proud moment that brings a tear to me cheek... no wait, I've only been impaled by a cyan tessera.

To celebrate this fine day I've decided for this week to only plunder half as many doubloons from those of you who want to get yer mits on the labor of love that is The Caribbean Sail!

What a fine day!
What a pleasant coincidence that today happens to be Talk Like a Pirate Day... not at all contrived... no chance at all... YER DANG RIGHT I PLANNED THIS! IT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF THE BLASTED YEAR!

Ye should keep the scurvy spirit alive by joinin' the community Discord!

Welp! Break's over, time fer me to get back to the helm of this adventure and take meself and me work further. If ye want to stay in touch with all the important updates ye can't beat the Victorian Clambake Twitter!

What's on the Horizon?
I have so many plans and lists that I could jam them into a whale's blow hole and make it explode from the pressure! ...visceral analogies aside- the next big moves will be towards announcing the store page of Jolly Riot! It will be a glorious spectacle fighter about pirates and cephalopods! I'm sure yer britches are already burstin' to take a stab and some squids but keep yer buttons tight and wait for more here on the Jolly Riot Twitter!

I'll share me next plans when I've decided on them. Until then, drink up and be proud to be apart of such a jovial crew of sailors! ːTCS_Tophatː

BE ALIVE AND BE FREE!!!

Have you enjoyed sailing the world spearing fish and being speared by fish?
Let people know!

Honest reviews are incredibly helpful to developers and uninitiated sailors who have yet to feel the splash of an 8-bit sea in their face.

In the indie space we read reviews daily to know what people loved or hated.
When we see a negative review we can take that criticism to improve our games.
When we see a positive review it encourages us to know we made something that brought others joy.

If you haven't left a review yet, please do so! Explain your favorite features or mechanics. Tell your personal story. Drop a recommendation potato.

Unlike the AAA industry, we don't subsist entirely on how much money we can wring from your wallets. We want to talk about our work critically and know what you think.

The Caribbean Sail will be 25% off until the end of the week, so if you've been on the fence about trying it- now is a great time to come aboard!

You'll get a warm fuzzy feeling to know you're supporting me! ...or that could be the influenza.

How will the nautical gospel spread without piratical preachers?

I'm always on the lookout for new nautical and pirate games to try.
So tell me; What are your favorite nautical and piratical indie games?

I'm glad to see you lads enjoying the trading cards. I haven't seen any potatoes yet so which one of you has been hoarding them all?

It's been a while since I pushed an update on a Tuesday... brings back scary sleep deprived memories from last week... or was that last night? It's hard to tell when you don't sleep most of the time. The point I'm eventually going to make is that I'm wrapping up the marketing and taking a break from the heavy development push I've been on until I can get more hours of sleep than you have living crew members after defeating the Baochuan. (Inconsistently 1-5)

On to the patch notes!

The pirates got their ship together- their Junk ship that is. You'll now encounter Junk ships of the piratical variety near Shanghai. Corsairs have become more common in the Indian Ocean but getting back to the patch notes; there's a higher chance you'll find Corsair ships while sailing around Cape Town or Calicut because they all want a piece of that booty pirate treasure.

Oh, and about those ships- they now all scale HP a little with your cannon upgrades to make the upgrades less like tactical airstrikes and more like cannonballs again. All of the boss ships also saw some tweaking, but they're recovering quickly.

The pirate captains all simultaneously found their dice and cups so they can play Liar's Dice with you now.

Finally, apart from all the bugs that keep boarding my game despite being thrown overboard every couple weeks having been thrown overboard again; there's a new sound effect that plays when something is out of your price range- which won't help the deaf very much but they usually have more money since they don't blow it all on shanties.

I'll be up to my nautical shenanigans again soon enough.

Fair winds to you all!
~-.-~*~-.-~*~-.-~ːTCS_Tophatː
- Your Captain, Evan

What's that Polly? Players can now turn their hard earned doubloons into virtual collectibles that have no real world value? That doesn't sound like a scam at all!

That's right lads!

Valve recently approved The Caribbean Sail for Trading Cards and there are now 10 ships with 99% historically accurate descriptions that you can collect!

You can throw all those cards into your inventory crockpot to cook up a badge, background, and emoticon!

The real question is; Whom among us will be the one to sell their cards to allow the collecting?

I expect to find you all on deck fighting over the highly coveted potato emote by morning.
- Your Captain, Evan

As usual, if my update isn't massive then it must be a limerick.

This update is really quite small,
but it's important so I couldn't stall.
Narwhal art for amusement,
and a frame rate improvement.
You won't notice much change at all.

The massive Route Planning expansion is finally complete and has been added for FREE

After four months of blood, sweat, soylent, and sleep deprived tears; I've completed the first free expansion for The Caribbean Sail.



Feature Log
In all that time I was able to add more particle effects! ...and nine new locations, seven new player ships, four new professions, nine new achievements, twenty two new shanties*, two emergent storylines, new items, new fishes, new weather effects, new enemy types, new events, ship upgrades, a skill tree, profiles, preaching, resting, careening, barnacles, narwhals, the drydock, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker**, mexican standoff style mutinies- AND THE QUEEN HERSELF!!!

* See the Shanty Off.
** The candlestick maker died of dysentery.



Location Overview
The world is now open for exploration. Each new location features a unique song, new artwork, trade values, locals to converse with, and surprises along the voyage to them! Travel the globe and visit them all!

• London, Britain
  
• Ponta Delgada, Azores
  
• Reykjavik, Iceland
  
• Lisbon, Portugal
  
• Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
  
• Cape Town, South Africa
  
• Long Island, New York
  
• Belém, South America
  
• Kozhikode, India
  
• Shanghai, China
  
• Nassau, Bahamas
  

The Shanty Off has come to an end, the entries have been judged, the results are here!
My thanks to all who participated! It was a glorious assortment of gems mixed with bilge water and after sorting through the 49 submissions received, we have our winners! I also thank beepbox.co for making an amazing free music tool and this fantastic community for making it possible to host this contest at all!

For the dramatic winner reveal followed by all of the submissions, watch the compilation!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWlsLUnlzOc

The Winners!

Third place: Rolling Down to Old Maui - arranged by Aidan Tramontana
Second Place: Randy Dandy O - arranged by Jazz-U
The Winner: Whistle Daughter Whistle - arranged by Atiq Ahsan

Congratulations!

Here are the other submissions that will be added to the game!

These will be added to the new locations

• Iceland - Rolling Down to Old Maui, arranged by Aidan Tramontana
  
• New York - Fiddlers Green, arranged by Cactus Boy
  
• Portugal - Reilys Reel, arranged by Moon Lantern
  
• Azores - Cooleys Reel, arranged by Moon Lantern
  
• Shanghai - The Cruel Carpenter, arranged by Taxtengo
  
• Belem - Santianna, arranged by Jazz-U
  
• Calicut - The Banks of Newfoundland, arranged by Cory Hughart
  
• Cape Town - The Sailors Grace, arranged by James Blick
  

These will be available as Shanties from the shops

• Randy Dandy O - arranged by Jazz-U
  
• Leave Her Johnny, Leave Her - arranged by Slonn
  
• Red Haired Boy - arranged by Nick Mundinger
  
• Hullabaloo Belay - arranged by Cole Spears
  
• On the Ocean - arranged by Taxtengo
  
• Fish in the Sea - arranged by Oddbrew7
  

I also might have a special use for

• Hornpipe from Water Music - arranged by Taxtengo
  
• Drunken Sailor - Oddbrew7
  

Want to win $100 Steam Credit and hear your favorite shanty in the game?

Starting today and ending May 1st we're having an 8-bit Shanty Off!

Here's how to enter!
Sail yourself over to beepbox.co and make an 8-bit rendition of your favorite traditional shanty. Then, copy the url (the entire song is stored in it!) and paste it into an email addressed to ShantyClambake@gmail.com along with the name of the shanty, a link to your Steam profile, and the name you'd like to be credited with (no profanities).

The best entries will all be added to The Caribbean Sail and my three favorite entries will win their creators a massive pile of Steam doubloons!

First Place Prize - $100 in Steam Credit

Second Place Prize - $50 in Steam Credit

Third Place Prize - $20 in Steam Credit

Everyone else who transposed a shanty great enough to be added to the game will receive bragging rights to their friends and a sense of pride for their amazing work! You'll also get my thanks for being an amazing member of the community :)

Complete Rules

Renditions of shanties already in the game will not be accepted.


These are the songs already in the game
All for me Grog - Rule Britannia - Irish Washerwoman - What will we do with a Drunken Sailor - Windy Old Weather - Blow the Man Down - Yo ho ho and Bottle of Rum - Lowlands Away - Sailors Hornpipe - The Coast of High Barbary - The British Grenadiers - Heart of Oak

One Tip: Don't focus on just trying to make the longest most complex rendition possible. A great ten second loop that doesn't get on your nerves after 10 repeats is an absolute MASTERPIECE.

If you have any questions send those to ContactClambake@gmail.com

Happy singing, beeping, and sailing!

Sincerely, thank you to everyone who is playing my game. I wouldn't be able to even afford this contest without you and I'm happy to get you all involved and give back where I can - Your Captain, Evan.

The Shanty Off has ended. The rest of this post has been preserved for posterity.

Here's how to enter!
Sail yourself over to beepbox.co and make an 8-bit rendition of your favorite traditional shanty. Then, copy the url (the entire song is stored in it!) and paste it into an email addressed to ShantyClambake@gmail.com along with the name of the shanty, a link to your Steam profile, and the name you'd like to be credited with (no profanities).

The best entries will all be added to The Caribbean Sail and my three favorite entries will win their creators a massive pile of Steam doubloons!

First Place Prize - $100 in Steam Credit

Second Place Prize - $50 in Steam Credit

Third Place Prize - $20 in Steam Credit

Everyone else who transposed a shanty great enough to be added to the game will receive bragging rights to their friends and a sense of pride for their amazing work! You'll also get my thanks for being an amazing member of the community :)

Complete Rules

Renditions of shanties already in the game will not be accepted.


These are the songs already in the game
All for me Grog - Rule Britannia - Irish Washerwoman - What will we do with a Drunken Sailor - Windy Old Weather - Blow the Man Down - Yo ho ho and Bottle of Rum - Lowlands Away - Sailors Hornpipe - The Coast of High Barbary - The British Grenadiers - Heart of Oak

One Tip: Don't focus on just trying to make the longest most complex rendition possible. A great ten second loop that doesn't get on your nerves after 10 repeats is an absolute MASTERPIECE.

If you have any questions send those to ContactClambake@gmail.com

Happy singing, beeping, and sailing!

Sincerely, thank you to everyone who is playing my game. I wouldn't be able to even afford this contest without you and I'm happy to get you all involved and give back where I can - Your Captain, Evan.

Grab a bottle of your preferred beverage and get ready to sail wherever you want!

Today I share with you my seamap for Route Planning!

One of the main features I wanted since conception of the game was the ability to plot your own course. While designing it, I realized the changes would be a massive addition that could take months to complete.

I could easily turn that into DLC but I've always been of the mind that purchasing a game means purchasing the FULL GAME. That's why all updates, content, and expansions including this one will be FREE.

Now, that isn't to say that new content is worthless. I'd like to set a new price that reflects the value of the game once the expansion is completed and implemented. This will be an open discussion I'd like to have with current players on the forums. Now on to the plans!

Disclaimer: Some features are prone to change.


Your map has contracted chickenpox

The most important feature of course, will be the new locations available from your map!

Here are the currently planned new locations.

• Delgada, Azores
  
• Reykjavik, Iceland
  
• Lisbon, Portugal
  
• Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
  
• Cape Town, South Africa
  
• Long Island, New York
  
• Belém, South America
  
• Kozhikode, India
  
• Shanghai, China
  

Ah... just look at Mr. Death guiding my little ship to safety.
These are the final touches until the major Route Planning expansion is complete.

+ Goods aboard ships now have a small delta of randomness in pricing
+ The British Grenadiers shanty got a bass drop
+ A new crew event that can end in flogging
+ More Particle Effects

- One potential bug

There was a bit more code cleanup but this log is already dry and boring enough. My attention is now on a slew of needed changes to the game structure that will make the new features possible. Thanks be to every one of you kind lads that alert me to bugs, suggest improvements, and populate the Atlantic with toxins- I mean, messages in bottles.

- Your Captain, Evan

Sing a tow, row, row, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers. Enjoy the new "Shanty" available in the one and only London Harbor Shop.

Where's V1.5.8.3 I hear you ask? I flogged it to death after it failed to fix a bug. What about the bug? I flogged it to death also- actually, I've been doing a lot of flogging on account of the new discipline system added to the game. There's only one event that makes use of it now but later crew relations and discipline will be integral to each voyage.

The captains have decided that they would make a better profit selling items at sea than only in ports, so two items and a shanty will always be available aboard ships now!

Fish are a bit more lively after being caught in the net, another achievement was added, the online bug is finally fixed (I'm 80% sure this time) and there are more particle effects!

If all has gone according to plan then this will be the last update to the game before Route Planning. I'll share more details early February.

Small update that should have been there for a while now.

One time tutorial windows have been added for things that some people have missed. This should help make people better shoppers, liars dice players, naval combatants, and solve all the problems in the world.

The last update frustratingly did not fix the one bug in the game, I changed a line of code that will either cause more crashes, fix the bug forever, or do absolutely nothing.

Habits must be hard to break because here we are, one week after weekly updates ended and i'm pushing an update. This should resolve the game crashing bug a few of you have encountered.

The short version: Rarely some data would fail to be retrieved or decoded from one of the online features and it would cause a crash.

The long version: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

If you were feeling like you hadn't achieved much after sailing across the Atlantic on a raft then today's your lucky day because I decided to ad three new achievements! Apart from that you can also catch clams in your net near reefs and a small bug where players would only encounter one type of ship was resolved. 

Glad to see so many new sailors! The bottle messages have been swarming the ocean and I'll need to work on a new way of collecting bottles to show players, until then- you'll probably see bottles only near the start.

May your spam remain ever buoyant.

Habits must be hard to break because here we are, one week after weekly updates ended and i'm pushing an update. This should resolve the game crashing bug a few of you have encountered.

The short version: Rarely some data would fail to be retrieved or decoded from one of the online features and it would cause a crash.

The long version: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

If you we're feeling like you hadn't achieved much after sailing across the Atlantic on a raft then today's your lucky day because I decided to ad three new achievements! Apart from that you can also catch clams in your net near reefs and a small bug where players would only encounter one type of ship was resolved. 

Glad to see so many new sailors! The bottle messages have been swarming the ocean and I'll need to work on a new way of collecting bottles to show players, until then- you'll probably see bottles only near the start.

May your spam remain ever buoyant.

Last year I made The Caribbean Sail and passed it through greenlight in the nick of time then released it on talk like a pirate day. I followed up with weekly updates for three months solid. I'd call that a productive year- so what's next?

The game is pretty solid right now, it's nearly bug free and has as many particle effects as I could fit in- so the weekly updates are over. There will be one more content patch and then i'll focus my efforts on the free Route Planning expansion.

My thanks to each and every one of you jolly tars that support me and my game. We've come a long way and have so much farther to go. Good health and fair weather to you all as we sail into the new year!

- The Captain, Evan.

It's finally here! You can finally ram any ship in the game at full speed with the Raft! You can also ram using any of the other ships but I know what you real hardcore players were waiting for- and yes, it probably will sink your Raft if you attempt it. Simply click "Full Sail" while in combat to initiate the ram, and if you get cold feet hit "Half Sail" to pull back. The acceleration speed of your ship is determined by that ships maximum speed and the damage is determined by the size of your ship... and theirs.

I've had a few reports of a rare bug that crashses the game when it fails to retrieve online data, I've tried to ad an extra safety net but can't be positive it will work since I can't recreate the bug myself. If anyone encounters this bug please paste your crash log on the forum or email it to "ContactClambake@gmail.com"

Christmas is close and the seasonal easter eggs are in so don't forget to down a pint of dice at the pub and listen to the holiday banter after the 23rd.

YO HO HO!

Yet another miracle of pixel art and code wizardry has been performed and in about a days time I've been able to bring you another update!

Three new ship variants have been added as random encounters for your pleasure and torture!

The Cutter: a small and quick vessel.

The Schooner: a large and fast ship with few cannons... and

The War Galleon: a massive ship with unreasonable hull integrity and enough cannons to sink anything in a few seconds- to give players a sense of accomplishment.

Trying to bring it down with a frigate has been the most fun I've had while playing yet. I can't wait to improve on the combat even more!

Another update to make use of those new ship types, changes the "Avoid" button to "Flee" in those awkward situations where your ship wore an English flag to a Spanish party. The final change lowered the spawn rate of crates... also I think some more particle effects got added to the game somewhere.

Enjoy your new enemies! :D

It's not a big update but I found the time to implement the most interesting thing you can give someone; An unopened box.

While sailing you'll have the chance to encounter a box that you have the choice to open. Inside may be an item you've already seen in the game or it may be the new "Medicine" I added which will improve the health of your crew! Unfortunately medicine in the 1700's didn't exactly cure people...

On another note, last week I was interviewed by Gamelyst about The Caribbean Sail and independent development! Here's a link to the interview:

On another other note, IndieDB is holding the voting period for the top 100 indie games of the year! If you'd like to show your support then swing aboard indieDB and give it a vote: Wha-Bam

For the few of you still avidly following progress, my sincerest gratitudes! I wish I had the time to get as much done as I want right now but within the first week of January i'll hopefully have completed my goals for TCS V1 and begin that first expansion. Let the Jolly Holidays commence!

Now, you may be asking yourself "What happened in V1.5.4?" Nothing and don't worry about it.

As the holiday season approaches and the most unavoidable enemy (our families) take away our most precious and valuable asset (our time) the content updates are going to slow down, don't be too surprised if I can't push one next week.

As for this week, I'm attempting to bring challenge back to the Atlantic by stat balancing. The career and ship stats have been wildly unbalanced since the first week I began working on the game. The entire list is too long and boring for a patch log and probably won't be the final balance patch, so climb aboard a ship and fire some feedback at me.

While not a content patch, this will significantly impact the way you play and for some- make it far more enjoyable.

Let's get straight to the updates.

The default names auto clear while your unique names can be changed without being completely rewritten. French and Spanish ship's captains are less shy and will talk to you now. When apples spoil they are no longer thrown overboard but are added to your inventory so you can force your crew to eat them anyway! The sloop's hull integrity was debuffed to balance the small hitbox that made it almost impossible for enemies to hit. A badge link to the Victorian Clambake twitter account (@Tophat_Scallop) was added to the main menu- plugo plugo.

The biggest update this week is gamepad support. The game wasn't designed to be controlled by a gamepad but there have been a few requests and even I'd like to play it from the couch. I've rewritten as much of the button code as I could do without rebuilding the entire game (No joke). The second hardest part was trying to fit a virtual keyboard in for writing crew names and bottle messages. Xbox controllers work and your PS4 controller will probably work.

So here's how it works: Use the analog sticks to move the cursor and the right shoulder buttons or "A" as a left click on any screen. The d-pad can be used for swapping characters and ships on the start menu, and portion control while sailing. The d-pad can also be used in battle for aiming the cannons and "B" can be used for firing them. You can pause the game any time during play with the "Start" button. The virtual keyboard isn't great but it can get the job done, some helpful alternative keys for typing are "Y" for space, "X" for delete, and the left analog button or left trigger for capitalization.

I know it isn't great but I just didn't consider controller support until far too late- I won't be making that mistake again on my future games. Thank you for the support and I hope you enjoy the updates as development continues!

I've been building a lot of content for the expansions in the background while working on these updates and soon the time will come when weekly updates stop and I begin working on the "Route Planning" expansion. I'll share more details soon!

The first i'll let you all decide on keeping: I changed the Hunger status to read "Hunger 30/30" from "Hunger 30" to clarify what your maximum hunger is.

Making use of those new flags? Fantastic! Now you can go and fool the new Spanish ships I added to the game or just sink them because of the war and all that... New artwork has been added for the Captains cabin and you can now play Liars Dice with English Captains! Tired of all the leaking? Purchase a bucket of Pitch and Tar from the Shop for just four easy payments £9.99! Fling it against the wall to repair a few points of damage- sorta like I do with these updates! The pause key will also pause your adventure now, and dice have a simple animation when lost to better display when a round is lost/won, and you guessed it- MORE PARTICLE EFFECTS!

The feedback has been great and I'm paying close attention to all your ideas and requests! I started a forum thread where I can reply to them all in the community hub. On to the updates!

Welcome aboard sailors!

Since the sale and update last week, I've seen an Ocean of new messages in bottles. They always make me laugh when play testing so I've decided to start posting my favorites to the Victorian Clambake twitter: @Tophat_Scallop

Another week another update!

Tired of being a loyal Englishman? No more must you serve the Queen! After raiding a ship you can now take their flag and fly it proudly! Use the new Spanish, French, Danish, Dutch, and Pirate flags to show your true colours or just trick the enemy into letting you board. The way ship encounters work has been changed so you can use your spyglass (Now given to you from start) to determine the approaching ship's banner and then raise your own. Use this to board the French ships or just gain first strike in battle. Pirates still don't care who you are and will attack anyway. Also, more particle effects.

Being such a big and complicated update accounting for so many different combinations of ship types and flags, I wasn't able to ad Spanish, Dutch, or Danish ships yet- but i'm working on it! 

There have been quite a few bug fixes this week too. The apples are no longer so terrible they somehow make scurvy occur sooner. You can't surrender your sinking ship. You can catch the fish from the frenzy event in the net. A few other small bugs which I brushed under the rug and hopefully nobody will trip over... I MEAN FIXED! Yeah I definitely fixed them.

 -Side note, I'm using Google Translate to have the dialogue of ship captains be in the appropriate language, I'm well aware the translations may be inaccurate so if someone has a correction then call it out in the forums for me. Thank you!

Happy Halloween!

With new Halloween easter eggs and all kinds of dark whimsy, now is the perfect time to play The Caribbean Sail and die from losing your bowels- whether that's from the spooks and scares, or just dysentery again.

- Fixed a few rare crashes and changed the net strength to be more balanced, also set default rations to adequate and most importantly - More particle effects.

Sorry to string you along another day. I was at the end of my rope last week while caught up in making a net. The tensions are still high as I haul in another line of updates.

There's now an inventory system! I built it from the ground up the past couple weeks along with these items available from the shop:

• The Trawling Net - Physics enabled and perfect for catching fish with minimal effort.
  
• The Spyglass - More of a placeholder for a later update but you can stare at the water in a whole new way! You can also see the whale and land I guess but that's nowhere near as cools as the water.
  
• Fishing Bait - Toss it into the water to summon the hordes! Here's a tip for those of you who persevere through my loquacious updates: If you see little dark fish swimming in the ocean, go fishing when they're below your ship for a special event- use fishing bait when above them to catch enough fish to sink a Sloop.
  
• Barrel of Apples - If your crew is dying of scurvy it's probably too late- you should have thrown an apple at their head when you had the chance.
  
• Shanties! - This may be the most important update of all: TWO NEW SONGS HAVE BEEN ADDED SO WE NO LONGER MUST LISTEN TO "DRUNKEN SAILOR" ON LOOP UNTIL WE DIE.
  

No update this week because I'm working on some big features that will need time to be tested and polished after being made- namely the inventory system.

Having so many different items with unique effects will take another week or two to implement and then some time to test.

There will be fruit to cure scurvy, new flags to fool enemies, a trawling net to catch fish, and more!

Until then, feel free to mention what other items you'd like to see.

Happy sailing!

It's been a stressful first three weeks but things have calmed down as I've patched out the last few bugs and discrepancies found. This means I can start designing and building content for "Route Planning" and share the details with you all when ready.

There are still a few updates i'd to introduce while preparing the framework for the expansion so this week you'll find a completely redesigned logbook, it now has an index with five sections: Crew Log, Ship Log, Supplies, Journal, and Inventory. The journal is more of a personal notepad for you that is saved between voyages. The inventory tab empty right now but necessary for preparation of new items that will help you on your journey in an update soon.

The Frigate art was redone (again) to have two masts and be less of an eyesore. Hull depth of large ships was changed for accuracy and reefs are less dangerous now- but still deadly. I corrected the terminology as to no longer call St. Georges Cross a Union Jack. (Dev Tip: Write dialogue after making the art)

A lot of behind the scenes work is going on but you'll see more updates next week!

After a hectic first launch week I've taken some time to rest, plan ahead, and do some important code clean up for the expansions. I've also made a few updates worth mentioning.

Continuity has been improved by making it rain during battles or reef crossings when appropriate, praise the rain! No longer will you have to be confused about the currency you're using because i've extended the font library and changed "E" to "£" - they were pounds all along! Not the weight, the UK currency. To my surprise, the lowest achieved achievement is still "Reel it back" so get out there and catch 100 fish with one harpoon without taking a break! I added an achievement stat counter for it- but Steam updates it rather slowly.

I've enjoyed reading all your messages in bottles! Plenty of messages even saltier than the water they're in but it's really spiced up play testing. One day, our 8-bit ocean will just be a surface of bottles and corpses border to border.

- ON ANOTHER NOTE - 

A friend and I participated in the Gamejolt Dreamhack Jam and made a game in 48 hours. It's called "Captain Cutter's Last Stand" - a punchy melee combat game where your goal is to survive as many waves of Squid's as you can. It's completely free so if you'd like, check it out: https://gamejolt.com/games/Cutterslaststand/286681

You asked for it, I delivered!

Messages in Bottles can now cross over between players! You MUST opt-in by going to settings and enabling online bottles. This was one of the trickiest features to make and may need work but with a large player base now, i'm sure you'll help me find any problems in no time.

Another change has been to the profession menu, no longer must you dream of what the glorious pixelated face of a fisherman looks like- You can view every occupation and it's perks in the menu! Not enough? Well now you can be a Surgeon!

The RNG also had a few small adjustments to lessen the absurd Influenza epidemic during storms along with more common food spoiling and battle injuries. Wondered what your hull integrity was while sailing? It's been added to the logbook and while at very low hull integrity the leaks will continue on main sailing screen- that won't get annoying for Raft sailors i'm sure. Defeated ships will have more than just food now, sometime's they'll have cannonballs or harpoons.

The feedback has been fantastic and I love hearing what you all have to say! Lot's of great ideas.

After a glorious release i've been able to work on the steam integration, the patch was small and boring so I wrote it in limerick form to spice it up.

Today when I opened the hatch,
I got feedback from the first batch;
"We want screenshots not gimmicks-
and achievements on Linux!"
So I fixed that and put out a patch.

Thank ye kindly fer all the support!

Ahoy there everyone!

I'm Evan, and I'll be yer captain today as we set this game sailing onto the treacherous waters of Steam. Working hard we may be able to keep this game afloat instead of sinking into the depths of obscurity but it'll be a hard fight.

The development cycle of community feedback begins as I'll be working hard to actively improve the game for the pleasure of ye all. Together we can make something great!

Now stop reading this drivel and go purchase or pilfer me game so we can start preaching the piratey gospel!

Happy talk like a pirate day to ye all!