Survive the North
Gather resources, craft essential equipment, overcome the weather and the land, and build the foundations of your adventure. Everything begins with what the shore gives you and what you can make of it.
Ships and Shanties — Forge your legend upon the waves
Survive the unforgiving North. Build your ship, gather your crew, and venture into a world of storms, steel and forgotten legends.
The world
A world forged by storm and steel
An unforgiving maritime world, and the freedom to make something of it.
Ships and Shanties leaves you on a cold, weather-beaten coast with little more than your hands. Gather what the shore offers, craft what you need, and work towards the ship that will carry you out to sea.
From there the story is yours: shaped by the vessels you build, the places you discover, and the companions who sail beside you.
Core experiences
Everything the North asks of you
Build your vessel
Begin with a hull and develop a ship capable of carrying you into increasingly dangerous waters. In Ships and Shanties, the ship is not an accessory. It is how you grow.
Explore the unknown
Discover islands, fjords, settlements, ruins and forgotten maritime landmarks. Sail past the edge of what you know and find what the weather has been hiding.
Sail together
Take the voyage with friends. Share the work of survival and construction, and experience seafaring cooperatively.
Face the dangers of the sea
Ships can be equipped for naval activity, including different categories of mounted weapons. Out past the harbour there is no promise of a safe return.
Shipbuilding
Your ship. Your creation. Your legend.
From a bare hull to a vessel ready for the open sea. Step through the journey.
Lay the hull
Every ship starts as a hull foundation: a keel, a stem and a stern, and the frames that give a vessel its shape. It is modest, and it is yours.
- 1Keel and frames
A conceptual progression drawn from the game’s design intent. It is an illustration for this website, not a depiction of final in-game ship stages.
The world
Beyond the horizon
Geographically real, mythically curated.
A cold coastal world, harsh and beautiful, where the weather is as much an adversary as anything you will meet. The art direction draws on places like these:
- 01Black spruce coastlines
- 02Fjords with sheer rock walls
- 03Storm beaches strewn with wreckage
- 04Pine highlands
- 05Frozen marsh
- 06Volcanic blackstone islands
- 07Whale-bone coves
- 08Ruined sea shrines
Cooperative multiplayer
No legend is forged alone
Warm light against a cold sea: the best part of any voyage is who is on deck.
- Share a world with friends and plan the voyage together.
- Divide the labour of survival, construction and exploration.
- Face difficult encounters as a crew, in a game you host yourselves.
Joining through Steam friends and by direct connection are both part of the intended multiplayer experience.
Progression
From driftwood to legend
Higher tiers are not shinier. They are more storied.
- TIER I
Driftwood
Rough survival gear: driftwood, rope, hides and basic iron. Made to get you through the first cold night.
- TIER II
Raider craft
Functional gear with better leatherwork, broad shields and fragments of mail. Practical, and starting to look the part.
- TIER III
Clan pride
Embossed metal, carved details and dyed cloth. Heirloom pieces that tell where they have been.
- TIER IV
Legend
Rare metals, subtle runic inlays and the quiet weathering of the supernatural. More storied than shiny.
These tiers describe the direction of the game’s equipment art and progression. Item lists, recipes and statistics are not final and are not shown here.
Media
Glimpses from the north
Low sun, cold waterIllustrative artwork- Dawn haze in the fjordIllustrative artwork
- Driftwood and fireIllustrative artwork
- The slipway at duskIllustrative artwork
- The drowned shrineIllustrative artwork
Until in-game screenshots and trailers are approved for release, this gallery shows illustrative artwork made for the website. It is labelled as such and is not gameplay footage.
Development journal
Tales from the shipyard
The shipyard is quiet
The first entry in the journal is still being written
Development updates, feature reveals and shipbuilding progress will be published here as they are confirmed. Nothing is posted until it is real.
Every voyage begins somewhere
The sea is calling
Follow the development of Ships and Shanties and prepare for the journey ahead.
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