Starbound Dev Unveils Co-op Pirate Game: Wild Tide

Back in February, the Starbound developer Chucklefish tantalized with a “top-down open world multiplayer pirate game”, and now that game has been unveiled as Wayward Tide.

As elaborated by Chucklefish on its blog, the top-down adventure assigns one to four players the task of exploring five randomly-generated islands. There will be an abundance of combat, treasure hunting, puzzle-solving, and even a touch of betrayal.
You see, although Wayward Tide is primarily a cooperative experience, there will be some competitive elements and generally unseemly behavior thrown into the mix. For instance, there might be a puzzle that requires players to step on pressure plates simultaneously. If one player steps off the plate prematurely, a boulder will crush their comrade. Honor among thieves, huh?
There will be methods to resurrect your fallen friends, though there are no particulars on how this will operate. Ostensibly, it’s still being sorted out.
If all players perish, however, it’s back to the starting town. At least, you’ll retain your loot, so from there you can upgrade your equipment before setting off on further adventures. It all seems somewhat like Rogue Legacy merged with The Binding of Isaac in a cooperative setting, which sounds like a fun evening of couch co-op if you ask me.
While Wayward Tide is being developed by Chucklefish, it’s only a four-person team of new recruits handling it while the rest of the studio is laboring on Starbound’s 1.0 release. A developer’s blog post from last week indicated that it’s “aiming for this year, but could extend into the next. It takes as long as it needs to get everything done, but we’re working as swiftly as we can.”