Windward Horizon is an upcoming RPG-adventure set on the high seas, a sequel to the game Windward released on Steam in 2015. Trade, quest, fight, or just sail the world and fish — it’s your choice, and you can do it alone or together with your friends.
You will start as a young pirate with few friends and no port to call your own. Whether you follow the game’s story or sail freely, you will soon encounter other faction leaders that seek to establish their mark upon the world. It will be your choice to join one of the factions or make it all on your own.
Each Windward Horizon campaign features a large procedurally generated world, and no two games will be quite alike. Although you will start in a small ship with few to no skills, as you gain experience and level up, you will acquire talent points. These points can be used to unlock new useful talents in either Defense, Offense or Support specializations. Each of these 3 talent trees contains a different set of skills and abilities, and sub-paths you can choose for a powerful build that suits your playstyle. You can even mix-and-match talents from different specializations to make your own unique build. Many of the crew, mates, and captains you can acquire have their own skills as well, expanding your toolkit further.
Whether you want your ship to be a tough juggernaut that can take a beating and stay afloat, a quick agile schooner that rains fire and explosive barrels on enemies from afar, or someone that keeps your allies afloat by fixing the damage inflicted upon them, you are certain to find something to enjoy. Since the ship’s equipment layout is fully customizable, you can even choose to replace all cannons with armor instead and focus on simply ramming your enemies to death. Whatever works, right?
If the action-filled combat is not really your thing, you can simply sail the seas, discover provinces and towns, engage in trading to earn a profit, fish and dive for treasure, or take up quests for factions in order to advance their agenda. All actions have consequences — provinces require resources in order to function, and providing them will lead to their towns growing and becoming more prosperous. Faction leaders will seek to involve you in their agendas, and helping one may hinder another. Help someone enough times and they may even take over governing the province — which is a way to effectively capture it without bloodshed.
Of course the funds you acquire throughout your journey are not used solely for trading or purchasing equipment upgrades. They can also be used to purchase entirely new ships. Surely you won’t want to sail in a Sloop forever? How about a fast Schooner to explore with, or a massive Frigate to carry all your plunder? Or perhaps a Brigantine is more your style? You can own them all.
However you choose to play the game, it’s best to do it with your friends as Windward Horizon was designed with co-op in mind. So bring your friends, your family, your parrot, put on your sailing pants and then go plunder some booty together.
Windward Horizon is coming to Steam in 2025.