Played the game? Make sure you've left us a review! Let us know your feedback and thoughts via the Steam Review system! We really appreciate each review we receive!
Hey Fools! Developer Daniel here with the tasty Ship of Fools endgame content you’ve all been waiting for! The Great Lighthouse update is finally here for everyone on Steam for free! Grab another fool, load a seagull in a cannon and embark on the Stormstrider because your adventures on the treacherous seas of the Archipelago are not over!
After conquering the final boss AND rescuing all three NPCs, you will face a new challenge - unlocking the Great Lighthouse door (using a quite unconventional method) and restore the Entity of light.
The brighter the light atop the Great Lighthouse shines, the more agitated the enemies become. However, don't be deterred by their anger, because as you progress, you'll be rewarded with more valuable loot and unique prizes. The risk may be high, but the rewards are even greater!
The hard mode gameplay loop goes as follows:
Activate a new brightness level of the lighthouse effectively increasing the difficulty of the game
Beat the game with this brightness level active
Unlock a unique Reward and the next brightness level becomes available for purchase
Each Brightness level and each their rewards will shape new ways to play and explore the game.
As an example, activating the first brightness level not only makes the enemies tougher, but their projectiles can now inflict critical damage upon impact. This added challenge requires you to be quick on your feet and react swiftly to avoid these deadly attacks. However, if you manage to beat the game with this difficulty setting, you'll receive a permanent upgrade to the Stormstrider - The Beacon artifact. The Beacon is a miniature lighthouse that will light up your way through the most troubled waters of the Archipelago. It harnesses the powers of the Entity of Light in a more "portable" way.
You'll need to load The Beacon with a Tendril to light it up!
Once The Beacon is loaded with a Tendril, you'll have a new option available on the map when you are near the storm. It will allow you to consume the loaded Tendril in order to repel the surrounding storm! Very useful to reach those far islands that would have otherwise not been accessible. With this item you can repel ANY type of storm... I wonder what it does in the last sector…
There are 15 brightness levels in the Great Lighthouse to unlock and this was only the first one! I’ll let you discover the 14 others and their rewards by yourselves!
The Great Lighthouse update is adding new challenges to the game and their associated rewards to including:
40+ new items
Siren’s quests
New cannon abilities
New encounters
New NPC
New achievements
And many more for you and your shipmate to explore!
I am also really excited to reveal The Deep Sea duo, the first pack of fools available for purchase as a DLC. As previously stated for the 2023 roadmap, alongside each free major update, we will offer a pack of 2 fools as a way for you guys to support your favorite hard-working devs! Each Fool comes with its own Steam achievement and some can be quite the challenge!
Jules and Angus are deep sea best friends, but most of all they are DEEPLY in love with setting the seas ablaze with carnage!
The whole team has poured their hearts and souls into this major update and we really hope the Great Lighthouse will give Ship of Fools the breath of fresh air it really deserves to keep you playing for a long time! We are truly grateful for all the incredible feedback and comments we received thus far and are excited to continue this epic journey with you on board!
Join us on discord to let us know what you think about this update and tell us what crazy new combos and builds you’ve managed to create!
Grab your shipmates, load up the cannons and face down the Aquapocalypse today! 🦑
Now that the Stormstrider is ready to sail into the Forgotten Waters make sure that you...
Join the official Ship of Fools Discord to chat with your fellow fools and discuss all things about the game! 💬
Played the game? Make sure you've left us a review! Let us know your feedback and thoughts via the Steam Review system! We really appreciate each review we receive!
Played the game? Make sure you've left us a review! Let us know your feedback and thoughts via the Steam Review system! We really appreciate each review we receive!
Join Team17 today on their Twitch channel as they see what lurks within the Great Lighthouse with an exclusive look at what is coming next to Ship Of Fools!
The Great Lighthouse update release date and new Fools announcement
Fools! Are you ready for a scoop? Developer Daniel here to share the utmost exciting announcement!
Mark your calendars for May 9th, the day when The Great Lighthouse update and The Deep Sea Duo DLC will be released on Steam! As previously mentioned for 2023, with every FREE major update, we'll offer a pack of two new characters for purchase to support your favourite hard-working devs!
Have you ever pondered what lies beneath the surface of the Archipelago? Well, we have and we ventured down there so you wouldn't have to. You would not believe it but we returned with these two magnificent beauties from the depths.
Angus, the anglerfish, has a bright future, but a dark past… With a blinding lure, Angus applies a new special ability to perfectly reflected projectiles to transform them into homing torpedoes!
Jules, the diver, thrives under pressure. Their collector’s magnet allows them to gain an additional trinket upon defeating a domain’s ruler. Jules is a character who will have a slower start than others, but a potentially devastating endgame.
On the same day, The Great Lighthouse update will also be available for everyone! In this update, we crank up a notch the challenge for anyone who has beaten the game at least once.
The Great Lighthouse will propose a total of 15 new difficulty tiers to unlock. In order to unlock a tier, you’ll have to complete the game with the previous tiers active and each time you’ll gain a reward that will add new exciting activities or items in the Archipelago! Spoiler alert, here are the first difficulty tiers and their rewards!
We still have a little more than a week to find a way to open the door of The Great Lighthouse, but bear with us, the lock is really hard to pick…
In the meantime, we found this unusual-looking seagull that looks odd, but quite friendly. Weird.
Now that the Stormstrider is ready to sail into the Forgotten Waters make sure that you...
Join the official Ship of Fools Discord to chat with your fellow fools and discuss all things about the game! 💬
Played the game? Make sure you've left us a review! Let us know your feedback and thoughts via the Steam Review system! We really appreciate each review we receive!
Ship Of Fools Roadmap
Here it is Fools! Developer Daniel here to showcase the long-awaited roadmap that officially shares details about updates to come!
First of all, we are excited to unveil the development strategy we’ve chosen for Ship of Fools in 2023 to ensure a continuous stream of FREE content for you to enjoy. That's right, every major update this year will be absolutely free for all players. In addition, with each of those updates, a pack of 2 new Fools will be available for purchase at a fair price. These new Fools will bring fresh flavors and new gameplay to the game, and you can buy them to show support for our ongoing development efforts. We truly value providing each and every one of you with the complete Ship of Fools experience, so that’s why we're not only bringing you these two free updates, but we’ll also ensure that the paid Fools are available for both players in online games, even if one of them hasn't purchased the pack.
Soon, The Great Lighthouse update will roll out, giving Ship of Fools a huge breath of fresh air introducing a ladder of new challenges for players who have beaten the game. In this new chapter, players will be tasked to restore The Great Lighthouse once again to bring a definitive (or not) end to the Aquapocalypse. With every brightness level the lighthouse gains, a new challenge will be added to the game alongside rewards such as new items, encounters, game mechanics, and much more for you to discover!
This update will add more than 40 brand-new items to the game bringing the total item count to 168! Most of those items will be introduced as rewards of the Great Lighthouse restoration, but some will be available from the get-go in the base item set. We are really excited to see what new synergies and crazy builds you guys are going to uncover with these new items!
Secondly, we are really excited to confirm that a second FREE update will be introduced later this year! Fish and Ships will bring another layer of challenges with new boats that will have their own unique objectives to twist the Ship of Fools experience once again. And yes, you guessed it - this second update will also come with another pack of 2 new Fools for you to support us if you wish.
We really hope that you will love the content that we are putting together for you in the coming year. With these new additions, we can’t wait to see how deep you will venture down the troubled waters of the Archipelago in trying to dispel the Everlasting Storm once and for all!
Now that the Stormstrider is ready to sail into the Forgotten Waters make sure that you...
Join the official Ship of Fools Discord to chat with your fellow fools and discuss all things about the game! 💬
Played the game? Make sure you've left us a review! Let us know your feedback and thoughts via the Steam Review system! We really appreciate each review we receive!
Save on Ship of Fools and other games in the Teamwork Is Dreamwork Bundle
Join forces with friends and experience the ultimate cooperative adventure with the 'Teamwork is Dreamwork' game bundle!
Save 20% and explore the high seas in Ship of Fools, solve puzzles and overcome obstacles in Biped, communicate and coordinate in Operation Tango, and work together to conquer challenges in Pico Park.
Get ready for an unforgettable cooperative gaming experience that will test your teamwork skills like never before!
Played the game? Make sure you've left us a review! Let us know your feedback and thoughts via the Steam Review system! We really appreciate each review we receive!
New Endgame Content Ahead + Steam Spring Sale
Hey Fools! Developer Daniel here to share some exciting news regarding the future of Ship of Fools!
First and foremost, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who took the time to provide us with feedback on your gameplay experience. We value your input greatly and are continuously striving to improve the game based on your suggestions.
Listening to your feedback, we noticed that we are not the only ones who are eager for more endgame content. We hear you loud and clear and have been working relentlessly behind the scenes over the past few months to create an array of new and thrilling features.
While we're not prepared to reveal all the details just yet, we can confirm that new and FREE updates are in the works, which will bring a plethora of new endgame content to set foot on the Archipelago. Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks as we release more information about what's to come. Rest assured that your voyage on the Stormstrider is far from over, and we'll be sharing a detailed roadmap soon that outlines the upcoming updates for the game.
As a token of our appreciation for your continued support, we are offering the game's first-ever 20% discount as part of the Steam Spring Sale, starting this Thursday, March 16th! Take advantage of this limited-time opportunity to invite new shipmates on board to prepare for the new challenges that might be coming your way. Don't let this chance sail by!
Lastly, as we continue to work hard to bring you the best possible experience, we want to leave you with a friendly reminder. Remember the age-old adage: only a fool would build a locked door only to lose the key at sea...
Now that the Stormstrider is ready to sail into the Forgotten Waters make sure that you...
Join the official Ship of Fools Discord to chat with your fellow fools and discuss all things about the game! 💬
Played the game? Make sure you've left us a review! Let us know your feedback and thoughts via the Steam Review system! We really appreciate each review we receive!
I’m Philippe, my favourite Fool is Shelbie, and I’m the composer and lead audio designer on Ship of Fools! I’d like to share with you all some cool details about what you hear in our game.
The music of Ship of Fools started with a live meeting with Antoine and Étienne back in 2020, where I’d play the piano and we explored ideas together until we found a melodic direction that we all liked. The material of that recording session eventually became the main theme of the game, and I often went back to it to pull motifs and ideas to keep a good cohesion throughout the OST. Here’s what that track became when I had to arrange it for our very first pitch:
Sound on! 🔊
The soundtrack was then composed over the next two years. For each new sector, I’d receive some early concept art and I would draw inspiration from it when writing the music. About 95% of the OST was made using virtual instruments with plugins within Nuendo, and I challenged myself to try to imitate a real orchestra as well as I could by playing every part separately on my MIDI keyboard. I learned a lot about sound and arranging by doing so! Every so often I’d use some live instruments like a pandeiro or nylon guitar, and besides these few layers, only the electric guitar in the Eye of the Storm wasn’t a sampled instrument. 🎸
Once a track was done, I’d implement it in Wwise, the audio engine we used for the game. Since I knew I’d use its features from the start, I was able to think ahead about some elements while composing. I wanted the soundtrack to have dynamic cues, but also be melodic and rhythmically “busy”, which proved to be a challenge sometimes. For example, when going into battle and transitioning from a “calm” state to a “combat” state, just fading between two music tracks with a different intensity didn’t really give me the feeling I was looking for. Instead, I made it so that most of the musical transitions happen exactly on a bar (or a beat sometimes), often skipping to the beginning of the next section, and with a percussive element added on top to help it flow better while adding impact. 🥁 Here’s what it sounds like:
Sound on! 🔊
I also chose to split most tracks into different sections so that I could add “horizontal” variation when implementing the music in the engine. For example, the structure of a song might go from ABCDE to ABACD on the next repeat, then CABD, etc. This also meant that I had to carefully balance the chord progressions and not stray too far from the original key. In contrast, the music that plays on islands is dynamic on a “vertical” level; it is always the same 4 chords pattern repeating, but the layered instruments are chosen at random. Give it a listen next time you play a run!
Now for more fun little technical details! Using Wwise also allowed us to do some pretty funky things when we wished to. For example, all the resonance projectiles are tuned to the track that’s currently playing 🎶 We got the idea in part from Mario Odyssey when we heard the many cool musically-informed elements like the tropical wiggler. Here’s a little snippet of how it sounds on our side:
Sound on! 🔊
How does it work? Well, I had to annotate every chord of every song in the game (which may or may not have taken ages), triggering an event that basically says: “Hey, we’re playing this chord now! If you fire a resonance projectile, you should only play these notes over it!”
Speaking of notes, I’m not sure anyone has found out about this easter egg I’ve hidden in the audio, so here’s a hint! I’m a big fan of Koji Kondo, and you might be able to recognize some of his music in the soundscape of the game. Those with good ears could spot it near a ripple or some moss, slowly singing the passage of time..
Well, on that note, I think it’s time for me to rap things up! Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this little blog post!
Sound on! 🔊
Alright everybody please get on board The ship of fools devblog is sailing the fjord I thank you for reading this humble verse About the sounds of our little made-up universe
I really had a good time working on our game And if you don’t like the soundtrack i’m the one to blame (shame) Now if you got a question just give me a whack And be sure to let me know via feedback! (In our Discord)
drops mic
Now that the Stormstrider is ready to sail into the Forgotten Waters make sure that you...
Join the official Ship of Fools Discord to chat with your fellow fools and discuss all things about the game! 💬
Played the game? Make sure you've left us a review! Let us know your feedback and thoughts via the Steam Review system! We really appreciate each review we receive!
Played the game? Make sure you've left us a review! Let us know your feedback and thoughts via the Steam Review system! We really appreciate each review we receive!
