Cursed Crew - A game by Cracklewock Games studio!

Hello everyone! I promised you some big news a while ago, and it's about time I deliver!

It was all under wraps until we had something to show, but me and Roolo (author of Giddy-up, Dual Wield, What the Hack, Run and Gun and Search and Destroy mods) have started our own video game design studio - Cracklewock Games.

We have been working for quite a while now on our own video game - Cursed Crew, and I'd like to present it to you now and talk to you about what this means.

Cursed crew is a roguelike crew management game taking place on a 17th century ship in a fantasy setting. You control a captain that needs to keep the ship’s crew alive in a harsh world with environmental hazards, pirates, stowaways, sea monsters and more. The game ends when the ship sinks, the crew dies, or when the player succeeds in completing all stages of the game and defeating the end boss.

Key features

• You control the captain, and get to boss around your crew. Generally, you don’t directly control your men, instead you give orders, and hope they obey!
• A storyteller tells what happens to your ship each day, but you can influence this by filling certain gaps in the story.
• As your journey progresses, your crew will become more and more cursed. Curses dramatically affect the game in a positive, and at the same time a negative way.
• Long ranged bombarding action, somewhat similar to how it’s done in the FTL game.
• Board enemy ships, or be boarded, and engage in close ranged combat.
• Survive in a harsh world. Make sure that your crew is happy, your ship is well stocked, and that you’re prepared to face the dangers that are presented to you.

My role in the project

I am a graphic designer working full time on this game. This means that all artwork you will find in it comes from under my brush - this includes social media too! I am one hundred percent certain that if you like the quality of Vanilla Expanded and the professionalism we deliver, you will also enjoy Cursed Crew once it finally releases! The art style is inspired by the early Tim Burton style - hand drawn characters with eyes devoid of life, cruising across the endless, grim sea, struggling to cope with their own sanity. While the game is centered around being 'dark', you can't really have drama without some comedy - so you can surely expect some interesting quirks, play on words and truly bizarre assets!

What this means for Vanilla Expanded?

Absolutely nothing! Vanilla Expanded proceeds as planned - we have a huge list of truly amazing mods to release this year, and nothing can change that. Of course I slowed down a bit due to mental health reasons (releasing three mods in a month was my goal, but that really drains the character), so the goal now is to have 1 or 2 mod releases a month. I hope you are still satisfied though! If not, please let me know and I'm sure we can work something out.

Cracklewock Games has a Patreon!

As you know, developing a game costs money. Before we release it, there is absolutely no revenue in it - this means we are doing it 'for free'. We have decided that the best course of action is to set up a Patreon account for our studio. This gives us some budget we can spend on various things. Link to this patreon can be found here.

Should I support Cursed Crew instead of Vanilla Expanded?

As you know we have set up Patreon for Cursed Crew - however one thing you need to remember: If you're only interested in Vanilla Expanded, money given to our Cracklewock Games patreon is not going to be used to fuel Vanilla Expanded. It's money going 100% into development of Cursed Crew - be it paying sound artists, voice actors etc! If you are interested in supporting Cursed Crew though, nothing stops you from supporting both! Or Cursed Crew alone. Come on, it's your money, I won't tell you how to spend it! You get awesome benefits either way!

Cursed Crew Patreon features in-depth development blog completely free for everyone to see! You don't need to be a patron! We also have a completely free Discord too! You can find the link in the description of the Cursed Crew patreon page.

Why are you sharing this?

Modding is one thing, but at the end of the day, it rarely can put money on the table. We have decided to go wild and release something we can work on without limitations of 'vanilla game'. We can make the world absolutely anything we want, and trust me, the game will bring you to tears and make you laugh maniacally. I sincerely think that if you like RimWorld (Or FTL, or Don't Starve), then you will love Cursed Crew as well! Since this Patreon is only for Vanilla Expanded things, I will not be sharing Cursed Crew content here, so don't worry about seeing unwanted posts if you don't want to hear news about Cursed Crew!

Status update on Vanilla Expanded mods?

We have recently released Endangered Animals pack which spent a lot of time in the making. Right now we're working hard on Classical faction, Anima Forest biome and Rim-Effect - the last one actually got moved up the timeline since we blasted right through it and almost got a testing version up!

I would really like to hear your opinion. I know it's a lengthy post but I hope you made it this far down! Let me know what you think and thank you all very much for your support!