Starbound developer Chucklefish has taken to the company blog to reveal their next game, Wayward Tide, a co-operative top-down action adventure game set in a "treacherous archipelago during the golden age of piracy."
As detailed by Chucklefish, you and up to three other friends will work your way through five randomly generated mysterious islands, of "ever increasing" riches and difficulty. There's dangerous enemies, loads of treasures, deadly traps, and fiendish puzzles. Chucklefish says one of the key features they're focusing on "is the nature of the puzzles and traps, which will introduce a competitive edge despite Wayward Tide being a mostly co-op experience.
"For instance, you and your friends might find yourself dealing with a pressure plate trap," the team describes. "The solution would involve everyone stepping off at the same time. Stepping off too early will unhelpfully drop a boulder on your friend. We’re currently planning on a way to resurrect co-op players from time to time, so it’s not game over if a few of you get killed along the way."
If all players die, however, it's back to the starting town. The good news is that your treasure will carry over, allowing you to at least upgrade in the town stores. The next attempt at the island, however, will be a difference experience. It sounds a bit like Rogue Legacy mixed with The Binding of Isaac in co-op, which sounds pretty damn sweet.
Chucklefish admits there are still plenty of decisions to be made regarding Wayward Tide, but that they also recognize a big part of Starbound's success is due to the modding scene. Because of that, they intend to make the development toolset for Wayward Tide available shortly after the game is released.
Unfortunately, it might be quite a while before we actually get to play Wayward Tide. It's being developed by just a four-person team working independently from the Starbound crew who are working feverishly on Starbound's 1.0 release. No specific platforms were announced for Wayward Tide, but I'd expect it on PC at least.
