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Pixel Piracy

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Pixel Piracy
Logo of Pixel Piracy, showcasing a pirate ship in the background
Developer(s)Quadro Delta[a]
Publisher(s)Re-Logic[b]
Producer(s)Alexander Poysky
Composer(s)Kole Hiks
EngineUnity
Platform(s)
ReleaseWindows, OS X, Linux
  • WW: July 31, 2014
PlayStation 4, Xbox One
  • WW: February 16, 2016
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Pixel Piracy is a side-scrolling real-time strategy and indie game with roguelike elements, developed by Quadro Delta. In the game, players construct a pirate ship, hire and train a crew, and guide their crew toward notoriety as renowned pirates.

Gameplay

Pixel Piracy is an open world and side-scrolling action-adventure game that uses 16-bit-styled sprites and 2D graphics.[1][2][3][4] The game features only the single-player mode, and includes elements of role-playing, especially roguelike, platformer, simulation, and strategy genres.[4][5][6] The goal of the game is to defeat four notorious pirate captains, but the players are free to adventure in the game as they wish.[3][5] The game's goal can be completed in approximately 20 hours.[7] The game features a tutorial that teaches players with game's basic mechanics.[3][7]

After customizing the player and difficulty settings of the procedurally-generated world,[8] the player takes control of a pirate captain who spawns on an island, where players can build their own ship using a set of blocks and hire a crew with coins received on spawn.[1][2][5][9] The pirate captain is given almost complete control over the size of the ship and crew.[5] The pirate captain could upgrade their ship with cannons.[5][10] The captain can die by starvation, enemy pirates, or wild animals; the game also features permadeath, meaning that the captain does not respawn upon their death.[1][2] The game, however, has a save point feature, allowing the player to continue their progress instead of starting from the beginning.[2] The game features a day-night cycle.[11]

While traveling, the player must control the crew's hunger and deal with equipment requirements.[1][3][5] To embark, the player can select a destination on the world map.[1][12] Locations range in population and danger.[1][13] The computer controls the actual sailing, but the ship will stop for a battle if its route crosses an occupied map node.[1][11] Ship battles are determined by acquired stats and by choices the player can make.[1] Winning battles grants the player points and equipment which they can use to upgrade the crew and their abilities.[1][2] Additionally, the player can take over or destroy the ship once it defeats the enemies.[2][3]

Upon reaching a destination, the inhabitants may be friendly or hostile toward the crew; the islands could also contain animals, traps, valuables, and taverns, which can be adopted as the crew's central station.[1][2][5] The crew can also catch wild animals with cages that can then be domesticated as part of the crew.[8][14] Another type of encounters include towns that contain a mix of four shops that are present in the game.[5][15] The game features "squirrel-ish" voice acting between the pirates and shop owners.[5]

Crew stats including health, morale, and supply level affect the success of pillaging at a destination.[1] Taverns include an infinite supply of food and beverages, such as ale, allowing the crew to heal their wounds, and armed pirates, which can be acquired to expand the crew.[5] Books that can be found or bought can be used by the pirate captain to teach the crew new abilities, such as swimming, cleaning, cooking, and fishing.[3][5][10][16] Additionally, crew members can poop on the ship.[17][18] Pirates can equip melee or ranged types of weapons, or use rocks as weapons.[8]

Over the time, the game received updates that introduced several difficulty modes.[7] Alongside the standard gameplay, Pixel Piracy previously offered an "arena mode" in which the pirate captain would defend an island that is being invaded by a wave of pirates who progressively increase in difficulty and speed.[8]

Development and release

Pixel Piracy was developed by Finnish and Spanish independent developers Vitali Kirpu and Alexander Poysky, collectively known as Quadro Delta, and published by Re-Logic.[5][7][19][20] It was developed using the Unity game engine.[21] Poysky said that he was inspired by Re-Logic and their 2011 indie sandbox video game Terraria to become a video game developer.[19] Re-Logic actively supported the development of Pixel Piracy and assisted in quality assurance and design.[19] Initially, Kirpu worked solely on the game, though Mikko Arvala later joined as a maintenance developer.[19] Poysky worked as a producer on the game, while Pixel Piracy also had its own testing team.[19] Pixel Piracy was inspired by the FTL: Faster Than Light video game.[14]

The development of the game began in mid 2013.[22] The alpha version of the game was released in November 2013, after which it successfully went through the Steam Greenlight system.[6][23][9] The game was launched in early access on Steam in December 2013; its developers also published a free pirated torrent of the game "in an attempt to compromise with users who will pirate the game regardless".[23][24][25] Poysky said that the early access system on Steam allowed the team to grow in momentum and to fund the game.[19] During its development, the game regularly received bug fixes and updates.[15] On May 8, 2014, crossover content based on the game was added to the Re-Logic's Terraria.[26] Pixel Piracy remained in early access until it was fully released on Steam on July 31, 2014, for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux platforms.[27][28] The game features a custom soundtrack composed by Kole Hiks, including sea shanties inspired by Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.[5][29] Pixel Piracy also features references to the Monkey Island video game series and the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.[8]

After its release, Quadro Delta released the "Enhanced Edition" on April 23, 2015, to all owners of Pixel Piracy for free.[19] Poysky explained the reason behind releasing "Enhanced Edition", saying that the team "felt it wasn't up to snuff with our standards" when the game was initially launched.[19] The Enhanced Edition added support for more languages and tweaked items, abilities, and artificial intelligence (AI).[19] The game was later released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 16, 2016.[3][7][30] Abstraction Games developed and 505 Games published the games for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.[2][4][7] On the release date of console editions, Pixel Piracy received crossover content from Terraria.[31] The game continued to receive incremental updates until February 2016, when a 7-year hiatus began.[32] Development continued with its next patch in January 2023.[33] Since then, the game has received regular updates.[33] Its first downloadable content, Pixel Piracy – Shrimp Legacy, was released a month later.[34] The game remained available on PlayStation Plus until May 2023.[35] In September 2023, Kirpu announced that an online version of the game, Pixel Piracy Online, was in development.[36] The game is set to release in 2025.[37]

Quadro Delta later worked with Re-Logic on a tactical role-playing game named Pixel Privateers, which was released in 2017.[38][39] The game adopted elements of Pixel Piracy and Terraria, while also featuring an online cooperative mode.[38] It was compared to Borderlands and Diablo games.[39][40]

Reception

Pixel Piracy received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic and "weak" ratings according to OpenCritic.[27][41] Initially, during its early access stage, reviewers praised the game for its potential.[1][9] Craig Pearson of PC Gamer described it as a "fine example of a cute Early Access title".[1] With the release of the Enhanced Edition in 2015, the developers issued a formal apology, acknowledging their failures and assuring players that much work had been and would continue to be done to meet all development promises and fix all the game's issues.[19] After its full release, Francesco Serino of Everyeye said that "the final result is so modest and unconvincing that it leaves one speechlees".[16] Jose Rodríguez of IGN positively rated the game, describing it as "creative" and "fun".[42] Kieren Hawken of GameSpew, who reviewed the Xbox One version in 2016, rated the game 6 out of 10 stars, describing it as an "old fashioned real time strategy game".[2]

Lucio Lorenzino of Enemy Slime, who rated the game 2 out of 5 stars, saw the game as being "shallow" and "unfinished" upon its release on PC, considering that it featured missing textures, incorrect pronouns for characters, and broken AI.[15] He also said that "the game is not interested in explaining how anything works".[15] Pearson described the map as being unclear and said that combat needed improvement.[1] Thomas Mangot of Gamekult, who rated the game 5 out of 10 stars, noted that the game contained bugs upon release.[10] The controls of the game were seen by reviewers as complicated,[13][42] while the combat system was described as confusing.[10][18][45][14] Mangot said that the game's artificial intelligence is "chaotic".[10] Hawken praised the ability to control both the pirate captain and the crew.[2] Josephine Lawton of Pure Xbox, who rated the game 5 out of 10 stars, said that "this often doesn't work as expected", explaining that the crew often refused to jump on the enemy ship or walk, and that once the enemy ship is defeated the crew would not move.[3] In comparison with FTL: Faster Than Light, Daniel Podgorski of The Gemsbok said that Pixel Piracy lacks strategic combat.[14]

Upon release, the game lacked tutorials that explained the game's mechanisms.[8][9] After the introduction of a tutorial, Lawton noted that the tutorial does not introduce the player to most features of the game, while Hawken described the game as "difficult to get into" because of having to remember a lot of mechanisms of the game.[2][3] Pearson was surprised with the 'Plunder' function, which destroys defeated enemy vessels, saying that it killed his captain and crew while they were aboard an enemy ship.[1] Lorenzino noted that sometimes the crew would refuse to leave enemy vessels and that the player could not use the interact option.[15] The game was, however, praised for its sandbox elements.[2][9][10][46] The game's concepts of building were compared to the Sid Meier's Pirates!.[8][16] The game received criticism due to repetitiveness in gameplay mechanics.[5][7][13][18][45] Scott Craft of Player.One rated the game 2 out of 5 stars, saying that "the game fails to offer players any real incentive to keep playing after their first couple of sessions".[5] He noted that his "first few hours" were entertaining, but that the game quickly "get[s] boring".[5]

The game was praised for its graphics and textures.[1][2][5][8][10][28] Pearson said that its graphics and soundtrack contrasted with the difficulty of the gameplay, while Craft said that "Pixel Piracy's rather vibrant aesthetic lends itself well to the subject".[1][5] Lawton, however, disliked that the sprites did not integrate with the backgrounds that she saw as "uninspiring", while Roberto Turrini of The Games Machine sometimes saw the pixel art as baffling.[3][13] Podgorski criticized the game's design regarding ships, stating that there is no effective difference between "a carefully designed warship and a long flat box".[14] Emmanuel González of IGN described the design of islands as "repetitive" but "visually very pleasing".[28] Rodríguez noted that the PC version contains more details than the Xbox One version.[42] The looks of the user interface were criticized and seen as confusing.[8][10][15][14] Additionally, it was noted that the interface is unfriendly to the console versions of the game, due to its point-and-click nature.[7]

The sountrack was commended by reviewers, especially the addition of sea shanties in the game's soundtrack.[3][5][7][42] Lawton, however, said that the overall soundtrack is repetitive and annoying, while Lorenzino, on the other hand, said that the music is "very fitting".[3][15] González said that the game's "sound effects are simple but effective".[28] The voice acting also received praise.[47] Ramón Varela of Vandal compared the game's voice acting to the Worms video game series.[7]

Podgorski noted that while playing, his "game had become uplayable" due to the crew members continuously defecating on the ship.[14]

Accolades

Award Date Category Ref.
Indie DB Indie of the Year December 24, 2013 Editors Choice [48]

Notes

  1. ^ Ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One by Abstraction Games.
  2. ^ Published to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One by 505 Games

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Pearson, Craig (January 29, 2014). "The Early Access Report – Divinity: Original Sin, Pixel Piracy and Final Rush". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on September 30, 2023. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Hawken, Kieren (February 28, 2016). "Pixel Piracy Review". GameSpew. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lawton, Josephine (February 25, 2016). "Pixel Piracy: Review". Pure Xbox. Archived from the original on March 28, 2016. Retrieved August 13, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. ^ a b c "Pixel Piracy". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Craft, Scott (August 11, 2014). "Pixel Piracy Review: What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor?". Player.One. Archived from the original on August 15, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  6. ^ a b Pearson, Craig (December 3, 2013). "Pixel Piracy Devs Pirate Pixel Piracy". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Varela, Ramón (February 18, 2016). "Análisis de Pixel Piracy (PS4, PC, Xbox One)" [Pixel Piracy Review (PS4, PC, Xbox One)]. Vandal (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Čmelik, Jan (September 1, 2014). "Pixel Piracy". Svet kompjutera (in Serbian). Archived from the original on May 15, 2017. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  9. ^ a b c d e Esteve, Jaume (June 7, 2014). "Pixel Piracy: Piratas, piratería y estética retro" [Pixel Piracy: Pirates, piracy, and retro aesthetics]. IGN (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Mangot, Thomas (August 4, 2014). "Test: Pixel Piracy (PC)". Gamekult (in French). Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 14, 2024.
  11. ^ a b "Pixel Piracy: Primeras impresiones" [Pixel Piracy: First impressions]. Eurogamer (in Spanish). August 4, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  12. ^ Pearson, Craig (October 9, 2013). "Place Planks And Plunder: Pixel Piracy". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  13. ^ a b c d e Turrini, Roberto (February 26, 2016). "Pixel Piracy – Recensione" [Pixel Piracy – Review]. The Games Machine (in Italian). Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Podgorski, Daniel (February 10, 2016). "Swashbuckling Bored: The Bad Design Choices, Game-breaking Bugs, and Superficial Execution of Quadro Delta's Pixel Piracy". The Gemsbok. Archived from the original on December 27, 2023. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Lorenzino, Lucio (August 14, 2014). "Review: Pixel Piracy". Enemy Slime. Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  16. ^ a b c Serino, Francesco (February 20, 2016). "Recensione Pixel Piracy" [Pixel Piracy Review]. Everyeye (in Italian). Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  17. ^ Robinson, Martin (June 23, 2014). "Video: Pixel Piracy live stream". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on May 21, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  18. ^ a b c Ostrowski, Andrzej (February 24, 2016). "Recenzja: Pixel Piracy (PS4)" [Review: Pixel Piracy (PS4)]. ppe (in Polish). Archived from the original on August 15, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Priestman, Chris (May 15, 2015). "Why The Pixel Piracy Developer Apologized To Its Community, And How It Bounced Back". Siliconera. Archived from the original on July 10, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  20. ^ "Piętnaście pikseli na "umrzyka skrzyni"!" [Fifteen pixels for a "dead box"!]. Gamer.mag (in Polish). Vol. 10, no. 31. November 28, 2014.
  21. ^ Vitali, Kirpu [@PixelPiracyGame] (September 15, 2023). "Pixel Piracy still runs on Unity4, Do you want a runtime fee for a game that was made in 2013? 🤣 @unity" (Tweet). Retrieved August 15, 2024 – via Twitter.
  22. ^ Poysky, Alexander (July 3, 2013). "What is Pixel Piracy Simulator?". Indie DB. Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  23. ^ a b Gera, Emily (December 3, 2013). "Pixel Piracy studio gives gamers official blessing to pirate the game". Polygon. Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  24. ^ Quadro Delta (December 12, 2013). "Thank you all for trying our Early Access release!". Steam. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
  25. ^ Grisci, Bruno (December 3, 2013). "Yarr! Estúdio independente libera cópia pirata de seu jogo de piratas" [Yarr! Independent Studio Releases Pirated Copy of Its Pirate Game]. GameBlast (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on March 25, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  26. ^ Spinks, Andrew (June 2, 2016). "1.2.4 Changelog". Terraria Forums. Archived from the original on June 2, 2016. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
  27. ^ a b "Pixel Piracy". OpenCritic. Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  28. ^ a b c d González, Emmanuel (September 13, 2014). "Pixel Piracy – Análisis" [Pixel Piracy – Review]. IGN (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 15, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  29. ^ Quadro Delta (July 31, 2014). Pixel Piracy (PC). Re-Logic. Scene: Credits.
  30. ^ Thomas, Lucas M. (February 16, 2016) [February 15, 2016]. "Out This Week: Street Fighter V, Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and Conquest". IGN. Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  31. ^ "Pixel Piracy Official Terraria Items Trailer". IGN. February 16, 2016. Archived from the original on August 15, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  32. ^ Quadro Delta (February 10, 2016). "1.1.25 & 1.1.26 Patchnotes". Steam. Archived from the original on August 15, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  33. ^ a b "日本語にも翻訳可能に！ユーザーの愛がインディーゲーム作者の情熱蘇らせる―「少年ジャンプのような週刊更新を目指したい」精力的に更新続く復活の2D海賊シム『Pixel Piracy』" [Now available in Japanese! The love of users revives the passion of indie game creators – "We want to aim for weekly updates like Shonen Jump" Revived 2D pirate sim "Pixel Piracy" continues to be updated energetically]. GameSpark (in Japanese). May 29, 2023. Archived from the original on September 23, 2023. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  34. ^ Kirpu, Vitali (February 13, 2023). "Pixel Piracy – Shrimp Legacy". Steam. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  35. ^ Anderton, Joe (April 15, 2023). "PlayStation Plus losing 50 games in May — including Spider-Man". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on May 24, 2023. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  36. ^ Vitali, Kirpu [@PixelPiracyGame] (September 30, 2023). "Pixel Piracy Online Steam Page is now Up. Please RT & Wishlist, Jolly Roger thanks! 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ #gamedev #indiedev #mmo #games #madewithunity" (Tweet). Retrieved August 15, 2024 – via Twitter.
  37. ^ "Pixel Piracy Online". Kotaku. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  38. ^ a b Saed, Sherif (January 27, 2016). "Terraria devs announce Pixel Privateers". VG247. Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  39. ^ a b "Pixel Privateers Is Like Squad-Based Borderlands". Kotaku. February 25, 2017. Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  40. ^ Meer, Alec (March 17, 2017). "Wot I Think: Pixel Privateers". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on August 3, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  41. ^ a b c d e "Pixel Piracy". Metacritic. Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
  42. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez, Jose A. (February 24, 2016). "Pixel Piracy – Análisis" [Pixel Piracy – Review]. IGN (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  43. ^ Fazio, Lorenzo (April 1, 2016). "Pixel Piracy – recensione" [Pixel Piracy – review]. Eurogamer (in Italian). Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  44. ^ Lusth, Kahn (September 1, 2014). "Test: Pixel Piracy". Canard PC (in French). p. 70.
  45. ^ a b Spotti, Davide (February 26, 2016). "All'arrembaggio!" [To the boarding!]. Multiplayer.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on August 13, 2024. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  46. ^ Baki, Győző (March 1, 2016). "Recensione – Pixel Piracy" [Review – Pixel Piracy]. Mondo Xbox (in Italian). Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  47. ^ Mozuch, Mo (March 21, 2014). "Pixel Piracy Review: Low-Res Adventure On The High Seas Is A Barrel O' Fun [VIDEO]". Player.One. Archived from the original on July 25, 2021. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  48. ^ "Indie Of The Year 2013 Editor Choice". Indie DB. December 24, 2013. Archived from the original on August 15, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.

Further reading

  • Converse, Cris (March 10, 2016). Pixel Piracy Game Guide. BooksMango. ISBN 9781633237155.
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