Set Sail!

Set Sail! is a 4 Player, Couch Co-op Pirate Party Adventure. Players must work together to fight, interact and succeed in tight, chaotic levels before taking to the seas of the Overworld, sailing together to their next quest. Players can vent their anger in the game's PvP mode Desertion, allowing players to switch between Pirates and British, facing off in specially designed missions.

It has been in development for 7 months as part of our 3rd Year Major Project for our Computer Games Design course at the University of South Wales.

You can play the Pre-Alpha release on itch.io now! https://dragon-scale-studios.itch.io/set-sail 

(recommended with 4 Players and 4 Controllers. Player 1 can join with mouse and keyboard, and the game is playable with 1-4 Players, apart from the PvP mode Desertion, which requires 2+)

This build contains 1 hour of linear gameplay content and replayable modes, giving an early but full look at the game we plan to continue developing and releasing commerically far in the future.

Hi, I'm Luke, Team Leader and Producer at our student game team Dragon Scale Studios, developers of Set Sail! The game started as an original idea from me, looking to create a new game in the Pirate setting that wasn't another first-person multiplayer title, but also used the underappreciated co-op concepts that games like Overcooked have perfected.

In my 2nd year, I produced a Design Document for this game I imagined and started to put together the strongest team made of the best 3rd year students across the games and creative courses, with my partner in crime and Game Director Jan Palka.

To sell the team on this concept, I created this Prototype Trailer, which helped to show the potential of this game.

With the team sold on the concept and committed to its vision, we spent the next 10 weeks of our first 3rd year module prototyping the game and its core features. With the concept proved and the foundations laid, we then focused on our Production module, adding more levels, mechanics and polish.

                                                  BEFORE

In the prototype, we developed this endless minigame, called Careening, to create the core co-op elements of the game. This minigame tasked Players with cleaning their ship to gain points, whilst fending off enemies. This forced Players to work together, splitting responsibilities between fighting and interacting, two of the central systems in Set Sail! Much like our inspiration, Overcooked, we wanted Players to have to communicate and cooperate to complete their objectives, with poor teamwork resulting in chaos and infighting. One of our level designers Brandon Steverson was in charge of this early iteration of the level.

                                                 AFTER

During our 2nd module, Production, we made many changes and additions to the Cooperative side of the game. 

We added Level 1, designed and led by Jan Palka, which serves as a tutorial whilst still immersing players in the pirate setting and story. Players learn about the range of interactions available to them, whether it be parts of the ship or pickup-able objects, as well as the the combat system. Although we designed these systems to be simple and easy to understand, we found that due to the number of ways in which these systems can interact with other parts of the game, we needed to give players a clear introduction to them so that they could better understand their objectives and actions moving forward.

We also reworked the minigame Careening (which became not so mini) to become its own level, titled Level 3. Through testing we discovered that a more structured format suited the levels design, and the range of ideas for mechanics we had showed that it deserved to stand as its own level; Mechanics such as Moonlight, where players need to kite enemies into the light to turn them into skeletons, rewarding players with important objects when killed.

                                                 Mutiny!

To add a unique spin on the traditional couch co-op experience, and to immerse players even more in the pirate setting, we created the Mutiny system. This rank based mechanic orders players after each level by how well they performed, setting a player as Captain after each level. Players gain advantages the higher rank they are, including getting a bigger share of gold.

We created this system to challenge groups of players, testing whether they will be able to continue to work together under a hierarchy, or if they will find ways to climb the ranks, sabotaging other players or finding ways to gain more points for themselves in each level. The system lets players engage with it however they want, and so creates a different experience, and narrative, with every group of players.

Combat is a major aspect of Set Sail! and was led by our programmer Ethan Morrison. We wanted to give players many ways to engage with the system and so dual-wielding is a core part to that, allowing players to switch between two swords, two pistols or one of each, giving three different ways to play. 

Players will need to fight against a range of enemy types through cooperative levels, whether is be Spanish soldiers, skeleton pirates or tribal warriors. To give players a challenge, there are also boss enemies, such as a giant crab and a rock hard golem!

If fighting AI wasn't enough, players can also fight each other, and we don't just mean friendly fire. Our PvP system Desertion lets players fight on opposing sides, and our simple duel mode gives players the chance to face off in the arena.

Combat has gone through many iterations, with abilities such as heavy attacks being removed, mobility options added in the form of a roll, and AI being tested both with and without the ability to parry. At its core though, combat is simple and fast paced, with options that allow more skilled players to excel, but being enjoyable enough for anyone to pick up and play.

What would a pirate game be without some sailing? Especially one called Set Sail! The Overworld was a solution to a design problem we had regarding one of our central design pillars - no splitscreen. We needed to find a way to allow players to travel between levels, which would be more difficult during Desertion when there are two teams of players on one screen.

The Overworld bridged that gap, acting as an interactive level select and has grown into something more than just that, serving as an experience within the game in its own right.

Each player has a role on the ship, set by there rank in the previously mentioned Mutiny system. This means that players need to work together to sail effectively and succeed in combat encounters.

Although the core vision for the game is those chaotic, co-operative levels, there were discussions and eventually development of a new level type that focuses more on exploration, as showcased in the video below. We decided to put time into this level to test how a different experience would operate in our games framework and offer that to players to see how they enjoyed it. It offered many challenges, such as finding ways to keep players within the boundaries of  the screen, and ensuring that a more expansive space would still work with the mechanics we had developed. All in all, we are very happy with how this level turned out, and our Lead Level Designer Cameron Hill was able to provide visual variety and interest in a multi-layered level.

Giving players a way to create the pirate (or british) character that they want was an important secondary system developed for Set Sail! Our Technical Artist and Programmer David Warburton and myself created three different customisation shops, allowing players to change their outfits, weapons and their ship. For these, we worked hard to maintain our pillar of no splitscreen, aiming to refine the shop UI to allow for all players to be on one screen. For the ship shop when there are two teams of players, we did have to 'cheat' slightly, splitting the view to allow for players to customise their seperate ships at the same time, but we feel this doesn't compromise our design intentions.

Below you can find a full playthrough video of Set Sail!, showcasing every level and features in the game, totalling an hour of content. If you like the look of the game and want to try some swash-buckling pirate action for yourself, download our Pre-Alpha Demo on itch.io, grab some friends and Set Sail!

                                           Full Credits 

Luke Maloney - Team Leader/Producer/UI Designer/Cinematics Designer

Jan Palka - Game Director/Programmer

Ethan Morrison - Programmer/Gameplay Designer

Cameron Hill - Lead Level Designer/Cinematics Designer

David Warburton - Technical Artist/Programmer

Brandon Steverson - Level Designer

William Gurd - 2D UI Artist

Arthur Deering - Animation

Michael Dolman - Character Art (Kerbert)

Katerina Svobodova - Logo and Graphic Design

Ben Randall - Music