Windrose

Windrose combines a pirate adventure with survival, exploration and ship battles. The setting is an alternate version of the Golden Age of Piracy, in which a captain clashes with Blackbeard and is drawn into the conflict between pirates, colonial powers and supernatural forces. The world extends over procedurally assembled island areas with hand-crafted dungeons and quests. Anyone who wants to get ahead must not only survive battles, but also outfit ships, gather materials and maintain their own strongholds.

Kraken Express released Windrose in Early Access for Windows PC via Steam on April 14, 2026. A finished version 1.0 has no confirmed date yet. For the Early Access phase, the studio gives a rough duration of one and a half to two and a half years from launch and plans, among other things, additional areas, ships and story content. This is a developer forecast, not a binding date.

Ashlands for Winter 2026/27 is announced as the first major content update. No specific date is known. The PC version, which is already playable, and the planned update must therefore be distinguished from a later full release.

Officially available is a Windows PC version via Steam. The store lists Windows 10 (64-bit) as the minimum OS, full controller support and the "Playable" rating for Steam Deck. The Deck rating is not a separate native Linux or console release. Other native platform versions are not confirmed by the official product information used.

On the islands, gathering raw materials, crafting tools and equipment, and searching for new locations sit side by side. Procedural biomes contain individually designed locations, tasks and enemies. Factions with their own missions, NPC helpers and a reputation system combine exploration with building your own camp. Progress therefore does not come from loot alone: trips must be prepared, materials brought in and sea routes handled.

According to Steam, Windrose requires at least Windows 10 (64-bit), a Core i7-8700K or Ryzen 7 2700X, 16 GB RAM, a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti or Radeon RX 6800, and 30 GB of storage. Recommended are Windows 11, Core i7-10700 or Ryzen 7 5800X, 32 GB RAM and GeForce RTX 3080 or Radeon RX 6800 XT. DirectX 12 and broadband internet are listed in both Steam profiles. When self-hosting, additional RAM may be needed; SSD storage is recommended. The studio explicitly describes the requirements as preliminary.

Players control different ship classes such as the ketch, brig and frigate. At sea, cannon battles alternate with boarding actions, and on land with direct combat. For the major Ashlands update, Kraken Express is developing fundamentally more flexible ship customization: instead of separate ship versions fixed to factions, the class is to form the base on which exterior and interior elements are combined.

Below deck, functional modules such as a workbench and galley are to be installable. Additional storage and further crew interactions are being considered but are not fully confirmed in all details. Free placement anywhere is explicitly not planned: the studio plans limited build points to protect movement and performance on the ships.

Windrose can be played solo offline too. The game also offers online co-op for up to eight players as well as self-hosted worlds and dedicated servers. For the smoothest play, however, the studio recommends groups of four players or fewer, especially in later stages. The group limit should therefore not be confused with a guaranteed constant performance.

With gathered materials you can build simple shelters as well as larger fortified facilities. Equipment and buildings are created through a crafting system that grows as you explore new regions. According to the developer, recruitable NPCs support gathering and production. With Ashlands, Kraken Express plans additional decorations, building variants and a closer link between the home base and the upgradable ship.

Ashlands is planned as the first major content update for Winter 2026/27, not announced as separately priced DLC. According to developer information so far, it is to bring a fourth biome with volcanic areas, additional islands, enemies, resources, recipes, armor and new factions. The Obols' story is set to continue. The studio also promises an additional boss and reworked ship systems.

The announcement published on October 9 confirms the seasonal timeframe. Individual elements shown in the developer blog as work in progress may change before release; the final scope is still open, especially for new ship classes and detailed mechanics.

The Steam listing shows German menus and subtitles, but no German voice audio. For English it also mentions voiced content. It lists adjustable difficulty, separate volume controls, stereo output and gameplay without mandatory quick-time events. A comprehensive, independently tested accessibility rating does not follow from this.

Kraken Express develops Windrose and is also listed as publisher on the Steam store. In Japan, Pocketpair Publishing appears as an additional publisher. The project has been in Early Access since April 2026. Developer updates on Ashlands are published via the official Steam community channel and the publisher website.