Ahoy!
Caribbean Legend is the unique game you've been longing for.
Now, that must have gotten your attention! But first things first. We'll be summarizing the Steam page release and launching the next big thing this Sunday. :2_money: After that, it's crunch time until February 15th, 2024.
The theme of today's episode is to tell you why you need Caribbean Legend.
When the trailer launched, it became apparent that everyone had different expectations for the game. Some thought it was merely a significant paid patch for To Each His Own, and we exceeded their expectations. Others expected an entirely new game on a different engine and were left disappointed. It's our fault; we should have explained things better and shown you more.
Our to-do list before the release includes:
- Sharing the full changelog this Sunday.
- Launching a free demo in February.
- Creating another trailer.
- Allowing unlimited streaming.
All of this means that you'll have all the information you need to make your own decision about purchasing the game.
But regardless of the decision you make, this release won't go unnoticed by you because we all share the same pain: there are not many games like this on the market.
A long time ago, my mom bought me Sea Dogs. "Oh, it looks cool, give it a try," she said. I wasn't entirely convinced, as Cossacks was the other option, and I was always a fan of the RTS genre. In the end, she bought me both games, but it was Sea Dogs that left a lasting mark on me.
During the first 20 hours, I struggled desperately and remained on the starting ship, a Pinc, I think. But at one point, something miraculous happened: I leveled up when I accidentally won my first boarding and the game allowed me to change my ship to a Lugger. I believe it was not far from Shark Island.
People with perception 10 will notice the familiar pause menu on the monitor (https://shorturl.at/zCLY5).
That dose of dopamine changed me, and since then, I've always had this Sea Dogs fever:
- I spent days downloading endless mods for PoTC and bragged to other school kids that I was a programmer.
- I frequented Seaward, PA! and other Sea Dogs websites that were popping up like mushrooms back then. I got trolled super hard there for asking dumb questions. Nevertheless, I kept coming back for more.
- On New Year's Eve, when a girl visited me from another city, I had her play CoAS all night.
- And then, I met this guy (https://shorturl.at/iAGKM), made a career in gamedev, released or published dozens of games, and well, here we are.
I'm sharing this because I want you to see why I've longed so much to understand why the *Sea Dogs series* left such a mark on us. I've had long conversations with fans and industry veterans, and I think I've finally figured it out. It wasn't the series that drove us crazy; it was the genre.
Not the brilliant music, not the modding scene or childhood nostalgia. Not even the Caribbean setting.
It was a unique genre that got us. There are almost no games in the world with so many working game systems:
- Combat at sea.
- Land combat.
- Exploration on land.
- Global map.
- RPG system.
- Dialogues.
- Companions and love interests.
- Linear and generated quests.
- A deep narrative with choices and consequences.
- Loot, collectibles, and crafting.
- Building and management.
Take any modern open-world Action/RPG, and it may excel in some aspects from that list, but it will never have everything. Even if it does, it won't work seamlessly.
And that's what pains us. These are the types of games we want to play, but all we have are the *Sea Dogs series* and global mods for other games. Mount & Blade. Kenshi, maybe? And now, Caribbean Legend is about to join the ranks.
Let me reiterate - there are almost no games like that on the market. Games that we desire. Games that provide the true freedom of choice that game marketers have been promising for the past 25 years.
Sure, there are mods. Not just Sea Dogs mods, but mods in general. Some of the global ones offer more content and mechanics than *Caribbean Legend* and most open-world RPGs out there. However, they can't reach a wide audience for various reasons and thus remain niche. We play them, but we can't simply go to Steam, press the purchase button, and immediately get a polished product.
The original Sea Dogs: TEHO, which forms the core of Caribbean Legend, is exactly the same. Bugs, lack of localizations, unnecessary hardcore elements, a steep difficulty curve, and a lack of promotion prevented it from reaching a wide audience. It's a great game but a poor product.
We want to fix that. Bring TEHO to the peak of its potential. Keep the series' veterans happy and open the game to a new audience. For the former, we have new content and plenty of reasons to replay; for the latter, we have polishing, a proper difficulty curve, translations, tweaked visuals, and marketing.
Regardless of which group you belong to, every release like this is a significant event that should not be ignored. Caribbean Legend's success or failure will be observed by the market, and it's up to you to ensure we have more games like this in the future.
I have 2000 hours in TEHO and another couple of thousand in other Sea Dogs games. And still, the first thing I'll do on February 15th is start a new playthrough as a gamer, not a developer. Because there are very few games like this out there. And that pains me.
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