The idea for this game has been brewing ever since I saw Master and Commander, many years ago. The role of the frigate commander seems to me to be crying out for a game. There is something about the romantic image of a king’s officer, thousands of miles from home, perusing the enemy in epic chases, struggling to gain the weather gage, fighting bloody battles, and skilfully managing ship and crew alike as one complex machine.

The age of sail has seen many games, but most of these tend to focus on piracy or trading. Moreover, most games that actually let you command individual capital ships tend to speed up and simplify the action too much. Sid Meier’s Pirates is the obvious example; it’s a great game, but it doesn’t quite scratch that itch.

In my mind, the core of a proper age of sail combat game has to be a simulation of the ship and its systems. You surely don’t need to simulate it to DCS levels, but it should be complex enough to support some of the drama from the stories. It is my hope that a game built around this can bring out the excitement and tension of the challenges faced by navy commanders of the time.

My vision for the game looks something like this:

• Sailing simulation with full sail management

• Ballistics with realistic speeds, ranges, reloading times etc.

• Destructible ships with location based damage and individually destructible masts and sails

• Crew management taking into account morale, experience and training

• Seamless, full-size map with restricted fast-travel and realistic navigation

• Procedurally generated missions pitting you against AI opponents in epic, destructive battles

To be honest I really don’t know if this will work as a game. This is kind of an experiment!