Broadside — The Bowsprit

You command one ship under sail, and that is all. The camera stays outside her, as in a strategy game: you watch the canvas fill, the hull come round, an enemy topmast fade into the haze.

Orders come two ways. By mouse: click the water to sail there, click a ship to engage. By hand: sail in steps, rudder on the keys — and taking the rudder yourself cancels the standing order at once. After that it is wind, range, and which broadside you managed to bring to bear.

A fight runs ten to twelve broadsides: fewer and you never make a single decision, more and it turns into an endless exchange. The hull is divided into six sectors, and every hit lands somewhere — in the rig, in the side, in the crew. Fog of war hides other ships past a threshold, so half of any action is guessing what is out there.

Devlog

22 September 2026

Damage model: numbers, not vibes

Six sectors, a hit matrix, ten to twelve broadsides to a decision.

A ship is divided into six sectors. Every hit is distributed through a matrix: where it landed, what it touched, what stopped working.

The main decision is tempo. A fight should run ten to twelve broadsides: fewer and you never make a single decision, more and it becomes an exchange with no end to it.

All of those numbers were measured on runs rather than assigned by feel. It is the dull part of the work, the part nobody sees afterwards — and it is what makes a fight feel like a fight.