In The Not Very Golden Age of Piracy, crews have been replaced with chickens and babies, and conflict is on the horizon.
Mutiny appears to have been quite a serious issue back in the Age of Piracy. Well, some pirate captains had a great idea about how to get around the issue of the crew having an ‘unhealthy’ amount of freewill.
Seadads’ pirate jaunt begins with a simple image of a pirate captain looking toward a clifftop building. Behind the building sits the moon — plump in the night sky — and in front of it a sign: “Tortuga Orphanage”. While the idea of a game where a pirate captain oversees an increasing number of babies as they repair, arm and launch projectiles from a ship against ships crewed by an increasing number of chickens might seem pretty ridiculous, the setting is laid over the top of a very well-made system.
Each baby moves at a slow, steady pace, only crawling when you give instructions to them. If they cross a tile which has been damaged as a result of being bombarded by rival poultry, then they will start repairing it. This means that when you’re about half a dozen enemy ships in, there becomes a pressure to be constantly, pro-actively maintaining the ship to keep the pathways clear for your other diaper-bound crew members.
There’s a chance you may have already crossed paths with the game previously. It was a jam winner in the Ludum Dare 42 game jam. The theme of the jam, which was ‘Running Out Of Space’, was used in regard to the damage which slows down your baby crew and can ultimately put you out of the game. Well, that and the guilt over putting babies through such dangerous work.
The Not Very Golden Age Of Piracy is available for free on Itch.io
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