‘Crooked Waters’ to Bring Co-op Pirate Ship Battles to VR, Launching in Early Access This Week

By
Scott Hayden
-
17

The Netherlands-based Craft Game Studio is bringing Crooked Waters, a multiplayer pirate ship game for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, to Steam Early access this week.

Pitting would-be pirates in a four vs. four battle on the high seas, the goal of Crooked Waters is to sink the other ship. While it sounds simple, cooperation here is the ultimate key to success; players will have to work in concert by navigating the ship it by steering, adjusting the sails to get optimal speed, and loading, aiming and firing cannons at the enemy.

Image courtesy Craft Game Studio

You’ll be able to join up with a randomly selected crew, or invite your friends to join in the battle. A tavern below deck gives you a chance to strategize, play mini-games, or just toss back a few pints of grog while you wait for a match to start.

Image courtesy Craft Game Studio

Craft Game Studio has put special emphasis on the game’s many locomotion schemes, which includes free locomotion, snap-turn, arm-swinging locomotion, and a climbing mechanic that lets you climb the mast to adjust sails and get a better vantage point.

The game is online multiplayer-only, although the developers say this is an issue they’ll keep this in mind while developing the Crooked Waters throughout its Early Access period on Steam; the game is slated to hit Steam on July 13th.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • JJ

    Is this pretty much sea of thieves vr? Because I want that

    • JJ

      This seems like it has a lot more depth than SoTs.

  • Str][ker

    This looks pretty cool. I always loved the original Pirates! from Microprose back in the days old olde. The sea battles were fun but I also loved interacting with the local governments, visiting towns etc. Hopefully this game expands beyond battles at sea to include more depth such as cargo runs and forming alliances. I know I am getting ahead of things here but a guy can dream can’t he?

    • kool

      I’d add procedural generated treasure islands with pirates and traps. It looks like some kind of sword play.

    • Sandy Wich

      VR is all about dreamin bud, you never know though, you’re not really asking much.

      Can’t wait to see where this medium goes in the future. :3

  • Sandy Wich

    What’s sad is the Sea of Thieves developers where specifically asked if they’d make SOT VR, “They’ve been asked this by many ppl btw”, because it’s an obvious match made in heaven and they gave a quick fire set of hilariously bad excuses.

    Basically, seasickness, “bullocks, like they couldn’t reduce the wave size for a VR port”, and lack of time. Which is also nonsense because VR ports take little effort, “especially when said game is already basically a VR game by design, and has almost no content in the game that would need to be altered to make VR work.”

    Yet here we are. An indy developer basically recreates SOT and makes it VR in a couple of months.

    It REALLY shows how little effort went into SOT honestly.

    Can’t wait to try this game. <3

    • JJ

      I agree completely with everything you said, but as an app and game developer in the AR/VR industry, I can confirm VR ports do NOT take little effort.

      It comes down to the game at hand, some are made with features and aspects that just fall into place like SoT while others not so much. People act like there is some VR button that just ports a game over, but there are changes that need to be made to literally every aspect of a game if its becoming vr. From every in world interaction, to UI interaction and graphics, and then overall graphics and the limitations brought on by vr. A ton of post processing effects are lost due to multi camera rendering from vr.

      So your right that SoT dropped the ball with lame excuses but you’re also grossly over simplifying the dev process for VR and VR porting. If its so easy why don’t you do it? if you can’t then you probably shouldn’t make assumptions about it and those who can.

      For example can you explain to me how a Unity basic UI button works and then how you’d get that to work on the same ui in world space? and i dont mean saying using a laser pointer, I mean what talks to what, where and how.

      • Sandy Wich

        A VR port in comparison to making an entire game is nearly effortless. A person doesn’t require education in game design to know that, it’s common sense. It’s been done before, it’s being done now, and the experts themselves have admitted it.

        Bethesda for one. They ported over some of the highest quality, largest and most diverse content single player games in the world to VR in a very short amount of time. The files have been examined and torn apart, the ports ARE lazy. Yet Sea of Thieves, one of the laziest developed, empty of content, “nearly VR by design already”, titles in the world can’t?

        Swapping out for a VR UI, fixing a couple low ceilings, adding basic VR interaction is something university students are doing with their first VR game projects. I hardly believe entire teams of industry leading experts with dozens to hundreds of millions of dollars of funding would have any trouble.

        It’s not about lots of effort, it’s about not getting the go from Microsoft who refuses to participate in the VR industry because they’re cowardly and stupid and think that the Kinect disaster will happen to them again, and all the while they’re missing their entire chance to enter the future of entertainment.

        • JJ

          wow you’re insanely ignorant.
          You most certainly DO require an education in game design to know that, which was made completely obvious by your claims.

          Please find the statement of VR devs saying porting is easy. I’d bet 100$ it doesn’t exist or it was not a developer who said it.

          Seriously where the f do you get your news from?? Microsoft not participating in VR?? Did you know Microsoft owns the largest line of HMDs…. oh and is leading the market in AR headsets too…
          You must live under a rock to make the claims that you’ve made and you must not know a single bit about game development.

          Obviously compared to an entire game a vr port is easier…. because the alternative is making an entire game… so you’re an idiot for making that claim.

          And years ago I was one of the first university students making those changes that you mentioned. My VR work has been showcased across America in most big city museums so I know what i’m talking about.

          Not to mention i have personal accounts for the good majority of indie devs that have released onto steam. Of which we regularly get together to talk about these kinds of topics. Topics like how disrespectful and stupid it is for people who have never developed to think they understand everything about developing apps and games. I regularly talk to people like Patrick, Dante, and Dave. If you don’t know who those three are then I’m wasting my time explaining any of this to you.

          I bet you don’t know a single programming language or even what engines most of these games are made in. So take your uninformed ass home, keep on buying the games we make and shut up because you clearly don’t know shit.

          • Sandy Wich

            Please stop putting me down or putting words into my mouth just because you’re not getting your way in a debate or I’ll stop responding to you. Forever. And I won’t say that again. You should know better than throwing tantrums or calling somebody names by your age.

            Anyways: Bethesda’s Andrew Scharf In an interview with UploadVR-

            UploadVR: All of Skyrim is in VR, which is quite ambitious. What were the BIGGEST CHALLENGES with PORTING the game to a new format like VR?

            Andrew Scharf: PlayStation VR games need to be running at 60 fps at all times, otherwise it can be an uncomfortable experience for the player.

            Their first and largest concern with the VR port was optimizing fps on weak hardware, and they didn’t even bother doing it themselves, they hired it out with Escelation Studios, “40 some ppl in comparison to 100’s working at Bethesda”, which finished the port in 9 months. A port of one of the largest content rich games in video game history. Once again, in comparison to Sea of Thieves, “which has basically ZERO content”, it’s impossible for me to believe it would take them more than a couple months, especially if RARE did it themselves, and even more so considering the game’s ui/gameplay/first person camera already feels like it was made for VR. BTW, you mentioned a, “VR button”, not me.

            Anyways~ Microsoft can own whatever hardware they want. They lied about VR on the X then backtracked, and now they’re avoiding it as they’ve said in a recent interview that there will be no VR support. They pulled the plug, they’re not competing. Just lots and lots of PR while their mixed reality headsets fail to impress while everyone continues to buy PSVR/Rift/Vive/ChineseknockoffVR. By the way, WMR isn’t supposed to be VR, it’s supposed to be AR. But since Microsoft doesn’t care to make content for their platforms in favor for just… Making more platforms, they’ve fallen back on it’s entire purpose and now it kind of IS a VR headset… Which is silly.

            As for calling me an idiot for making the claim about porting ease, “because it’s obvious”, you’re not making sense. That’s specifically why I made that claim in the first place and I’m confused about why you even responded when you confirmed it mid insults. Your entire outrage now seems to really have no purpose at all, other than being outraged?….. I’ll apologize for not specifically saying, “In comparison to making a full game”, in my first statement, but I figured it was obvious. Anyone who’s played a VR port can see they make some basic VR specific content/mechanics, but it’s 1% the effort. Bethesda could port dozens of Elder Scrolls games in the time it would take them to make 1 new from scratch. Probably even more as they get used to porting VR down the road. Maybe 100’s.

            I’m not interested in your personal accomplishments or friends as they have nothing to do with this debate. And I still stand by what I say. VR ports require little effort. ~At least in comparison to making entire games from scratch.

            Anyways I hope whatever is making you act this way gets better bud, you really don’t do yourself any favors behaving the way you do when interacting with others. I won’t be returning to read your reply, that was emotionally taxing reading your abuse, which really didn’t have a purpose if you’d only have asked me to be more specific.

          • Sandy Wich

            Please stop putting me down or putting words into my mouth just because you’re not getting your way in a debate or I’ll stop responding to you. Forever. And I won’t say that again. You should know better than throwing tantrums or calling somebody names by your age.

            Anyways: Bethesda’s Andrew Scharf In an interview with UploadVR-

            UploadVR: All of Skyrim is in VR, which is quite ambitious. What were the BIGGEST CHALLENGES with PORTING the game to a new format like VR?

            Andrew Scharf: PlayStation VR games need to be running at 60 fps at all times, otherwise it can be an uncomfortable experience for the player.

            Their first and largest concern with the VR port was optimizing fps on weak hardware, and they didn’t even bother doing it themselves, they hired it out with Escelation Studios, “40 some ppl in comparison to 100’s working at Bethesda”, which finished the port in 9 months. A port of one of the largest content rich games in video game history. Once again, in comparison to Sea of Thieves, “which has basically ZERO content”, it’s impossible for me to believe it would take them more than a couple months, especially if RARE did it themselves, and even more so considering the game’s ui/gameplay/first person camera already feels like it was made for VR. BTW, you mentioned a, “VR button”, not me.

            Anyways~ Microsoft can own whatever hardware they want. They lied about VR on the X then backtracked, and now they’re avoiding it as they’ve said in a recent interview that there will be no VR support. They pulled the plug, they’re not competing. Just lots and lots of PR while their mixed reality headsets fail to impress while everyone continues to buy PSVR/Rift/Vive/ChineseknockoffVR. By the way, WMR isn’t supposed to be VR, it’s supposed to be AR. But since Microsoft doesn’t care to make content for their platforms in favor for just… Making more platforms, they’ve fallen back on it’s entire purpose and now it kind of IS a VR headset… Which is silly.

            As for calling me an idiot for making the claim about porting ease, “because it’s obvious”, you’re not making sense. That’s specifically why I made that claim in the first place and I’m confused about why you even responded when you confirmed it mid insults. Your entire outrage now seems to really have no purpose at all, other than being outraged?….. I’ll apologize for not specifically saying, “In comparison to making a full game”, in my first statement, but I figured it was obvious. Anyone who’s played a VR port can see they make some basic VR specific content/mechanics, but it’s 1% the effort. Bethesda could port dozens of Elder Scrolls games in the time it would take them to make 1 new from scratch. Probably even more as they get used to porting VR down the road. Maybe 100’s.

            I’m not interested in your personal accomplishments or friends as they have nothing to do with this debate. And I still stand by what I say. VR ports require little effort. ~At least in comparison to making entire games from scratch.

            Anyways I hope whatever is making you act this way gets better bud, you really don’t do yourself any favors behaving the way you do when interacting with others. I won’t be returning to read your reply, that was emotionally taxing reading your abuse, which really didn’t have a purpose if you’d only have asked me to be more specific.

          • Sandy Wich

            I replied to your comment but it’s being flagged as spam, nothing I can do. Either way I’m not really interested in your childish behavior. If you can’t learn to speak to people without insulting them, maybe don’t at all? It’s your future bud.

            Go look for UploadVR’s interview with Pete Hines. The first thing he replies with when ask what are the major challenges of a VR port was getting it to run at 60+ fps on console hardware. That was their primary challenge. He goes on to of course mention other challenges as well, but they weren’t the primary concern. The whole game is already made, they just had to develop a few VR concepts.

            As for Microsoft, they promised VR support for the X, then backtracked and said it’s never happening. As for their mixed reality headsets, “which are supposed to be MR not VR”, they’re just inside/out with no headphones and poor tracking and a cable to pc anyway. They aren’t making content for VR, they aren’t developing new VR technologies, “Hololense is AR not VR”.

            Microsoft’s interest is in AR not VR, and from what I see that’s not about to change.

            And yes, obviously compared to an entire game, a VR port is likely 1% the effort. Hence why I’m confused why you got so offended in the first place, all you had to say is I should have been more specific. Like building a house requires very little effort in comparison to building a condo. It’s still lots of effort if you think of it in terms of 1 person, but certainly not for a crew of 400 people.

            I don’t care about your university life, personal accomplishments or friends. Your personal experiences don’t overshadow an entire industry.

            I still stand by what I said, “while being more specific so not to offend you”. A VR port requires little effort ~in comparison to making a whole new title, hence it being a port.

        • ShiftyInc

          wow you are clueless.

          • JJ

            I just keep coming back to read his comments for entertainment, some are so absent minded it amazes me.

          • Sandy Wich

            I think you just like starting fights with people myself bud

          • Sandy Wich

            Explain to me how I’m clueless?

            An indy studio with 40 some people makes a VR port of one of the largest content rich games in history in 9 months, “likely faster because that’s just when they were acquired, there was almost certainly a transition period.”

            Imagine if Bethesda themselves did it instead of working on other projects? They have 400.

            Obviously there’s wiggle room and other factors but they may have been able to cut it down to 1/10th that time. It’s not unreasonable to believe Skyrim could have been ported in under a month. Maybe a couple weeks.

            Now. Take Sea of Thieves, a game with something like 1/50th the content of Skyrim with a handful of interactions across the entire game.

            RARE has 200 people working at that studio. Just use some common sense man.

            Without trying to be an elitist and trying to bring a bunch of factors nobody here can pinpoint, it’s not unreasonable to think that game could get a working VR demo in a few days.

  • Andrew McEvoy

    That looks like fun! Cool will check it out when it drops.