Cloud Corsairs
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About Cloud Corsairs
Cloud Corsairs is an open-world trading and sky-pirate game in pixel art, played in the browser and inspired by the 1987 pirate classic, set above a sea of clouds. You are Captain Wren Halloway with a brig, 24 hands and 800 gold in the League port of Gullhaven, and one career lasts a year of twelve months.
Trade is the heart of it. Seven island ports produce and consume nine goods, from coal and grain to clockwork, silk and aether. Prices follow the stock in each port's warehouse and drift from day to day, harvests, festivals, strikes and wartime blockades push them around, and NPC merchant convoys really carry their cargo from port to port, so a full hold landing ahead of you fills the market you were flying for. The captain's ledger keeps every price you have seen and how old it is. Tavern rumours tell you what is coming, but a sailor's word is right only half the time.
Altitude is a real choice. The mid band rides the jet streams. The high band flies over the storm fronts and above most patrols, but it burns a ton of coal every two days. The low band hides you in the murk where patrols can't see you, and it is the only way to reach the wreck in the Static Shoals.
Two powers share the sky, the Brassmark Imperium and the Vesper League, with the free port of the Rookery between them. Their war meter rises through the year; at war, governors offer letters of marque, blockades close ports and patrols fire on the other flag. Win ranks and land grants from the governors, take prizes, or turn pirate and sack a port.
Battles are fought in real time: turn to bring a broadside to bear, climb above the enemy to drop a charge on her envelope, or dive into the clouds and slip away. Grapple and you meet her captain in a sabre duel on deck, three heights, tap to thrust, hold to parry, while the crews fight behind you.
Act I, Her Trail, is told through talking-head dialogues with portraits: your sister Ilse, an engineer of the Academy, went missing three months ago, and eight story beats lead from Gullhaven to the Eyrie above the northern storm, where you learn she is held. The career saves at every landing and every month. The score counts your bank, your land, your ranks and the story. The islands, ships, clouds and effects are drawn in code; the portraits, port and tavern scenes and the duellists are pixel art made with PixelLab.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do prices work in Cloud Corsairs?
Every port has a warehouse for each of the nine goods. The price depends on how full that warehouse is: an empty one pays up to 1.8 times the base price, a full one half of it. Ports produce some goods and consume others every day, merchant convoys carry real cargo between them, and events like harvests, festivals, strikes and blockades push prices for a few weeks. Selling a big load floods the market, so each lot you sell gets cheaper.
What do the three altitude bands do?
The mid band is the normal one and the only band where jet streams speed you up. The high band flies over storm fronts and is hard for low patrols to spot, but it burns a ton of coal every two days and the ship is slower. The low band is slow too, but it hides you in the clouds, and the wreck in the Static Shoals can only be searched from down there. In battle the higher ship fires first and can drop charges on the one below.
How do I win an airship battle?
Guns fire from both sides of the ship, so turn until the enemy sits in one of the two side cones and fire. Broadsides reach farther and hit harder at the same height. A ship one band above can drop a charge straight down on the enemy. A damaged merchant strikes her colours, and touching her hull in the same band grapples her for a duel. Diving into the low band and flying away is a fair way out of a fight you can't win.
How does the sabre duel work?
You and the enemy captain fight at three heights: high, mid and low. Tap a height to thrust there, hold it to parry there. Watch the chevron in front of the enemy: it shows where the next blow will land. Parry at the right height and the attacker staggers, which leaves a short window for your own blow. Every hit pushes the loser back, and the crews fighting behind you push too. Over the rail, or out of men, and the duel is over.
How long is a career and how is the score counted?
A career is one year of 12 months; a day passes every two seconds on the map, and time stops in port and in dialogues. The game saves at every landing and every month, so a career can be played over two or three sittings. The score is a quarter of your bank plus your land, 100 points for each rank, 150 for each story beat of Act I, 300 for the Aether Convoy and 150 for the treasure, minus 100 for each defeat.
What happens in Act I?
Your sister Ilse, an engineer of the Academy, has been missing for three months. Her letter sends you to the refinery at Saint-Vapeur, and eight story beats lead on through the Academy in Kesselburg, the wreck of the Larkspur, the Rookery and a courier flying above the storm, until you learn where she is held. The objective line at the top of the map and the ledger always show the next step. Act I ends when you know where Ilse is held; rescuing her is not part of Act I, and the rest of the year is yours. Some steps offer a second road, and your last choice decides which yards favour you.
