Pirate survival hit Windrose charts course for major quality-of-life improvements after 1.5M wishlists
The developer of Windrose, the massive pirate survival game that dominated Steam's recent Next Fest, informed fans today on what the team is working on following its highly successful demo. And the good news for fans? It's looking incredibly promising.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN7VeNtXRM8 Though reception to the demo has been positive—with Windrose seeing over 1.5 million wishlists, according to the developer update—the team has been paying attention to all manner of feedback, and has thus far pointed to various quality-of-life improvements that will emerge before the game's final release:Co-op on one ship — manning the cannon: Players will get to have their friends man the batteries.Loot variety: No more fixed loot. No one will have the same adventure twice, and more difficult enemies will hold better loot.Richer co-op: The team explained that while the game is made primarily for a four-player co-op experience, it will try to increase the co-op limit to eight players in case they want to "probably steamroll everything laughing hard, but that’s fine if that’s the way you want to have fun!"Hold to gather resources: As an alternative to clicking, the devs are working with an optional experimental way of gathering materials just by holding the desired button.FOV slider: A field-of-view slider will be added to the game.Shanties feel: The sea shanties will be beefed up by the vocal work of "coarser, less melodic" backing vocals to make the game feel more pirate-y.Signal fire: Players have been using bonfires as lighthouses, so now they're creating a specific signal fire-building element that players will be able to see from miles away.DLSS/FSR support addedController improvements: Windrose is meant as a keyboard-and-mouse experience, but the team is now working on making playing the game via controller more fun.Dismantling workbench: To make surviving easier, players will now get to build a workbench that allows them to dismantle unwanted items and recover their base materials—but not the resources possibly invested into upgrades.Target lock switch: Players will now get to cycle between targets by swiping the mouse across them, or by binding hotkeys that allow them to switch between targets in four directions. Windrose Crew also stated that this is a work-in-progress list and that more additions will likely follow. Windrose challenges players to go from rags to feared pirates, with all the shipwrecked crafting and survival that goes in between. The game does a great job of that, but the most important element is the naval battles, which are possibly the most fun in any game of its kind up to date. Pirate games tend to fall into one of two categories: massive critical and commercial hits like Sid Meier's Pirates, the Monkey Island series, Sea of Thieves, and Assassin's Creed Black Flag, or immediately cast adrift and drowned at sea, like, well, pretty much every pirate game I didn't mention above. If the Destructoid crew is to be believed, Windrose has what it takes to become a total pirate banger in the vein of Valheim, and I'm here for it. Windrose Crew has yet to divulge a release date for Windrose, but it's expected to come out sometime during 2026. You can already play the demo on PC via Steam and see what all the hype is about. The post Pirate survival hit Windrose charts course for major quality-of-life improvements after 1.5M wishlists appeared first on Destructoid.
The developer of Windrose, the massive pirate survival game that dominated Steam's recent Next Fest, informed fans today on what the team is working on following its highly successful demo. And the good news for fans? It's looking incredibly promising.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN7VeNtXRM8 Though reception to the demo has been positive—with Windrose seeing over 1.5 million wishlists, according to the developer update—the team has been paying attention to all manner of feedback, and has thus far pointed to various quality-of-life improvements that will emerge before the game's final release:
- Co-op on one ship — manning the cannon: Players will get to have their friends man the batteries.
- Loot variety: No more fixed loot. No one will have the same adventure twice, and more difficult enemies will hold better loot.
- Richer co-op: The team explained that while the game is made primarily for a four-player co-op experience, it will try to increase the co-op limit to eight players in case they want to "probably steamroll everything laughing hard, but that’s fine if that’s the way you want to have fun!"
- Hold to gather resources: As an alternative to clicking, the devs are working with an optional experimental way of gathering materials just by holding the desired button.
- FOV slider: A field-of-view slider will be added to the game.
- Shanties feel: The sea shanties will be beefed up by the vocal work of "coarser, less melodic" backing vocals to make the game feel more pirate-y.
- Signal fire: Players have been using bonfires as lighthouses, so now they're creating a specific signal fire-building element that players will be able to see from miles away.
- DLSS/FSR support added
- Controller improvements: Windrose is meant as a keyboard-and-mouse experience, but the team is now working on making playing the game via controller more fun.
- Dismantling workbench: To make surviving easier, players will now get to build a workbench that allows them to dismantle unwanted items and recover their base materials—but not the resources possibly invested into upgrades.
- Target lock switch: Players will now get to cycle between targets by swiping the mouse across them, or by binding hotkeys that allow them to switch between targets in four directions.
Windrose challenges players to go from rags to feared pirates, with all the shipwrecked crafting and survival that goes in between. The game does a great job of that, but the most important element is the naval battles, which are possibly the most fun in any game of its kind up to date.
Pirate games tend to fall into one of two categories: massive critical and commercial hits like Sid Meier's Pirates, the Monkey Island series, Sea of Thieves, and Assassin's Creed Black Flag, or immediately cast adrift and drowned at sea, like, well, pretty much every pirate game I didn't mention above. If the Destructoid crew is to be believed, Windrose has what it takes to become a total pirate banger in the vein of Valheim, and I'm here for it.
Windrose Crew has yet to divulge a release date for Windrose, but it's expected to come out sometime during 2026. You can already play the demo on PC via Steam and see what all the hype is about.
The post Pirate survival hit Windrose charts course for major quality-of-life improvements after 1.5M wishlists appeared first on Destructoid.
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