About This Game

Trade, smuggle or plunder. The dead are coming either way.

Captain Contraband is a real-time pirate roguelike played on a hand-inked 1600s sea chart. In 40-minute voyages you sail a sea that's different every time, fight with cannons in real time, and collect cursed Sacraments that make you stronger at a price. Then the year runs out, and a ghost tide comes for the map.

Choose your captain

• Feng and The Mingqin. A pirate who inherited her ship as a teenager. She sets the sea ablaze with a flaming broadside, and seals her ship in a phoenix egg to be reborn from the brink.

• Tako and The Little Kraken. A smuggler (probably not just two octopuses in a trenchcoat). Sprays ink to blind pursuers, chokes ships with tentacles, and slips past customs overland.

• Zhivko Yakov and The Hive. A wise old Bulgarian beekeeper who took to the sea so his bees could taste every flower in the world. A trader who fights with honey and bees, and whose ship makes honey as it sails.

Make your fortune your way

• Trade 32 goods: buy where they're made, sell where they're rare.

• Take contracts for deliveries and bounties from the notice board.

• Smuggle past customs, intimidate the officers, or slip ashore with a Smuggler in your crew.

• Plunder merchant ships and loot wrecks.

• Hire a crew of Bruisers, Cannoneers, Divers, Navigators, Smugglers and Traders.

• Upgrade your ship with 42 shipyard upgrades.

Every Sacrament has a price

The undead are gathering power through 39 Unholy Sacraments. Each one makes your ship stronger, and many demand something in return. Stack them into absurd builds, sell them to the Black Market for gold, or buy the one you need from a dealer who doesn't ask questions. Collect eight and the Final Voyage begins early.

Real-time naval combat

Aim your broadside, time your fuses, and keep the wind behind you. Pirates and privateers lead their shots, and ghost ships throw spirits that chase you across the water.

The tide is coming

The clock never stops. When the year ends, the dead flood the sea from one corner, and every port they touch is lost.

The Forgotten Captain

Sail through the storm to the Mouth of Taravosh and face the Forgotten Captain's ghost galleon, its 60 cannons, and the whirlpools of the deep.

A new sea every voyage

Sail the hand-crafted Classic map, or a random world generated from a seed, with its own coasts, straits and 48 ports. Share a seed and challenge a friend to the same sea.

Features

• 3 captains and 3 ships, each with its own abilities and upgrades

• 39 Unholy Sacraments to build around

• Dozens of events where one choice can save or sink you

• 40-minute runs with permadeath: a sunk ship ends the voyage

• Art drawn in the style of 1600s sea charts

Play the free demo, and wishlist to hear the moment the full voyage sets sail.

About the developer

Captain Contraband is made by Madison and his small team of friends at Zweihänder Games. I've been working on this game since 2018 (lol).

Bug reports and ideas are very welcome on Discord: