The material below was prepared during the development of the Corsairs Legacy pirate life simulation game by Ukrainian Mauris studio in order to popularize the marine theme in general and pirate games in particular. You can follow the project news on our website, YouTube channel, and Telegram.

Tempest: Pirate Action RPG was released on August 22, 2016, and is still supported to this day. The platforms are both Mobile and Desktop. Now the game holds 70% of positive reviews on Steam. It is in the circles of fans of pirate games pirates Tempest is popular. Here we will talk about the key moments of Tempest development, which Avrelii, who created Tempest: Pirate Action RPG almost alone, told about in his interview on September 7, 2021.

As Avrelii says, in order to create a project on such a subject, one must also be indifferent to it. The developer liked the genre after his gaming experience in Sea Dogs, which he considers the standard of a pirate game. After these games, there was a desire to create something of his own within the setting. Skills and opportunities appeared after 20 years.

At first, Tempest: Pirate Action RPG project was developed by him alone. Then his wife, with whom he works to this day, began to help Avrelii with graphics. Later, HeroCraft became interested in the game (today it is they who are promoting Tempest). The company acted as a publisher and also involved its programmers and game designers in the project. Specifically, Avrelii worked with HeroCraft even before Tempest with a small project called Crazy Soccer, which helped him establish contacts. In a few months, he created a draft of Tempest Pirate Action RPG, which he demonstrated to the company, offering further cooperation.

HeroCraft wanted to make Tempest a larger project, and half a year later, an open-world Tempest Pirate Action RPG prototype was ready. Avrelii notes that he intended to introduce navigational elements in which the player would have to navigate using the sides of the horizon, the sun, and stars, without a detailed map and fast travel. Later, for convenience and the mass consumer, they decided to abandon this.

Avrelii participated in the development of Tempest Pirate Action RPG for about 5 years, and the last two years belong to the post-release stage. Right before the release itself, HeroCraft was much more in control. Avrelii himself went full head into Tempest development, leaving all questions of the marketing nature to the company. Initially, Tempest Pirate Action RPG was released in early access, where it stayed for about six months. Avrelii notes that early access is a huge advantage for a developer if they are open to feedback. “You feel freer, the circumstances are not so tight. You can focus on development.”

After 5 years, Aurelius left the Tempest Pirate Action RPG project, leaving a convenient toolkit for the company to support the game. “Whatever I wanted, I did. They have a team, they have appointed people who support the project.” Avrelii also says that he did not plan any DLC for the Tempest Pirate Action RPG game, this initiative belongs directly to HeroCraft. Moreover, many of the things that, according to him, other developers add to the game in DLC format, they did as part of early access.

Part of the audience expressed a negative attitude towards the abundant elements of mysticism in the Tempest Pirate Action RPG game. According to Avrelii himself, they embellished the theme used. He also spoke on this issue: “From a concept point of view, creating dry historical content is boring even in terms of development. If you want to implement it and if there is an opportunity to bring something that has never been seen before, then you should do it. Someone condemns, however, for someone this may be exactly what the Tempest: Pirate Action RPG project has made different and more unique among other projects.”

When asked if publishing companies are so necessary for indie developers today, Avrelii said the following: “If someone is new and needs to promote, maybe it will be better with a publisher.”

Avrelii calls the reasons for his leaving Tempest Pirate Action RPG the fulfillment of all his goals and burnout in relation to the pirate theme but says that he may return to it in the future. Due to the greater availability of Early Access, he has no plans to continue his partnership with HeroCraft. “Why waste time? 5 years is, in principle, too much for Tempest, the project changed its essence 3 times on the fly. Now my understanding: if you do it, you have to do it once, without alterations. To avoid rework, you must personally keep everything under control.”

We hope this material was useful to you!

Learn more about the Corsairs Legacy – Historical Pirate RPG Simulator project and add it to your wishlist on the game page on Steam.