Ahoy, adventurers, and welcome back to our devblog!

Disclaimer: Many of the features you’ll read about here are still in Alpha and subject to significant change in future updates.

It’s hard to believe we’ve already sailed into April, with blossoms on the horizon and the promise of warmer seas ahead. Behind the scenes, our crew has been hard‑at‑work preparing the long-awaited Alpha test.

In the meantime, we wanted to take you on another little behind‑the‑scenes voyage. Game development is hard, and very often things break in the process. The upside: you can have a good laugh about it. Well, if it happens before you release the game, at least.

Pay attention to this one: we’ve added the nicknames of those who participated in our previous event there in the credits. Thank you for being the legends you are!

Following your requests, this devblog dives straight into base building—something that most survival gaming enthusiasts love!

---

In Crosswind, building is about self‑expression, progression, and shaping the world. Every structure should feel rooted in its biome and echo the story you’re living. From your first humble shack to a towering fort, construction always aims to remain a seamless part of the adventure.

Our philosophy is simple: while building is a core part of survival in Crosswind, we’ve designed it to be as welcoming and intuitive as possible. Yes, you’ll need a basic roof to rest and a shelter to house your workbenches—but beyond that, it’s entirely up to you how far you take it.

Whether you prefer the simplicity of a quick shelter or dream of building a sprawling pirate haven, our goal is to shape a system that supports your pace, style, and imagination. It’s a work in progress, of course—and a part of a long journey. But we’re committed to making that first step feel approachable and rewarding. From there, who knows where your creativity might take you?

In practice, we believe building should be:

• Simple. Newcomers, minimalists who just need a roof, or even those curious about survival games but daunted by the idea of complex building systems—all are welcome here.
  
  We’ve made sure you can raise a sturdy shelter in seconds using large modules and one-click blueprints. It’s fast, intuitive, and designed to ease you in gently, so you can get back to exploring and adventuring without being overwhelmed.
  
  
• Flexible. Efficiency lovers get fine‑grained tools: precise angle rotation, optional snapping, Z‑axis nudging, and an in‑menu building preview showing you the exact piece before placing it.
  
  Our unofficial benchmark? If a determined captain can’t kitbash a passable Millennium Falcon, we need to loosen the rules.
  
  
• Beautiful. For builders who treat design as end-game content, snapping can be turned off, small detail pieces can be layered freely, and décor can be stacked to your heart’s content.
  
  And for those who value speed and flow, we’re introducing a special “Quick-Brush” mode: just hold the left mouse button and sweep your cursor to lay down walls, floors, or roofs in one continuous, satisfying motion. Creativity and efficiency shouldn’t be at odds—and with tools like this, they don’t have to be.
  
  
• Performance‑minded. We’re stress‑testing to find out how many blocks you can stack before the frame‑rate flinches. The goal is “a lot.” We’ll do our best to ensure that, with ongoing optimization, ambitious architects won’t have to choose between grand scale and smooth FPS—fingers crossed!

We also support basic terraforming. It’s still early and quite primitive, but it already allows you to shape the ground and prepare terrain for your builds.

Your journey starts with bedrolls, campfires, and makeshift roofs. Soon you’ll be adding workbenches, kilns, and palisades. Just place an upgrade module next to any workstation to unlock new tiers:

• Want to toss your tools around wherever it’s convenient? Go for it.
  
• Prefer to build a majestic blacksmith’s hall with every detail in place? That works too.

No penalties either way—it's all about your style, not restrictions.

Comfort works the same way: hang trophies wherever you like, and the settlement counts their bonus automatically. Beauty is optional; utility never is. Chase pure efficiency or indulge your inner architect—either way, you’ll get every perk with zero debuffs.

In Crosswind, the world may be full of myths and wonders, but it’s still grounded in a sense of physical logic. That’s why we’re also introducing building integrity—a system that gently nudges structures to follow the natural rules of the world they exist in. No floating towers or endless bridges stretching across the sea. It’s not here to stifle your creativity, but to keep your creations feeling rooted, believable, and in harmony with the world around them.

After all, building should feel like a natural extension of the journey—woven into the fabric of your swashbuckling fantasy. In a world inspired by the spirit of Treasure Island and classic high-seas tales, every fort, dock, and lookout should feel like it belongs—each one a testament to the adventure that shaped it.

We’re also adding what we internally call aesthetic merging—a system designed to make modular builds feel more natural and cohesive. Instead of obvious seams and visual clutter between individual pieces, this tech helps smooth out transitions, so even complex constructions look unified and handcrafted rather than like stacked Lego bricks. It’s still a work in progress, but we believe it’ll go a long way in helping your creations feel more like real, lived-in structures and less like game systems showing through.

Losing everything while you’re offline is the worst, so we’ve built in safeguards—construction included. Your personal story islands are private by default: solo or invite‑only co‑op, no random visitors.

And just to reassure you—during the upcoming playtest, all building will take place in safe zones only. No raids, no base wipes, no lost progress. Build at your own pace, focus on fun, and help us shape what comes next.

Important note: as the game evolves and new features are added, we’ll occasionally need to reset progress between playtest phases. With so much changing under the hood, occasional wipes are necessary to keep things stable. That said, in the long run, your personal world and its progress are meant to be yours to shape and keep—this core concept won’t change.

We know not everyone dreams in timber and stone. If building’s not your thing, don’t worry—we’re doing our best to keep the experience smooth, flexible, and never overwhelming. You’ll be able to set up what you need and jump right back into the adventure.

Looking further ahead, wanderers—merchants, quest‑givers, or would‑be crewmates—will occasionally arrive at your settlement. You’ll be able to recruit them to help gather materials, craft gear, and support your progression over time. These visitors are the first step toward a broader “crew” system that connects the people you meet on land with the roles they’ll take aboard your ship. We’re still ironing out the details, and we’ll be happy to see whether this direction resonates with you.

We’re also looking into how building might evolve into other parts of the game—more on that later.

---

And that’s a wrap! While this update focused on building, we’ve seen all your questions across the comments—and we’re already charting the course for future devblogs to dive into them. For now, we’re just thrilled to have you aboard. The journey’s just beginning, and we can’t wait to keep shaping Crosswind together.

Yours truly,
— Crosswind Crew

Ahoy, captains!

Another day, another fight upon these cursed shores — this time with uncut gameplay, full arena, and environment details. Remember: that's work-in-progress-pre-alpha-things-can-and-will-change stuff!

Name’s Botsun. Not that bombastic, right?
Until he starts hurling explosives and swinging a busted mast like it’s driftwood.

If you're thinking of challenging him, don’t charge in blind.
One wrong step, and the tide — or rather, the light in your eyes — goes out fast.

Think you could take him down? Prove it.

We want to do a little something for our community this time. Here’s a fun one:

1. Follow us on Steam (if you already are, skip this step).
   
2. Leave a comment here and let us know what you want us to cover in the next devblog.

And we’ll add your nickname to the credits of our next video!

The event is taking place from April 15th to April 22nd.

(Note: overly naughty pirates with questionable nicknames may be left ashore. You’ve been warned!)

Until next time—keep your sails tight and your mast unbroken. The Botsun surely won’t.
— Crosswind Crew

Ahoy, captains! Today we have something new for ya: a music video! We've put together a mix of shanties used in Crosswind along with some work-in-progress footage of our ships, as well as water and weather systems.

All footage was recorded in-game using cinematic camera. We've added a few NPCs on deck (they won't be there in the upcoming Alpha test, but we're working on it for one of the future updates) for extra Yarr Harr vibes!

Ahoy, captains!

Since launching our Steam page on March 19th, we have been overwhelmed by the incredible amount of attention and Alpha Test applications. We’re humbled, grateful, and honestly a bit stunned. Your enthusiasm and anticipation mean the world to us.

With the rapidly increasing number of applications, especially over this past weekend, we have made the decision to temporarily close public sign-ups for the Alpha. The number of applicants has already far exceeded what we initially expected, and it keeps rising fast. While we can’t say for sure how many will participate just yet, it’s already clear that the interest is far greater than what our Alpha server infrastructure can comfortably support.

Having so many people eager to test the game is absolutely amazing—but it also comes with a greater responsibility. That’s why we’re taking some time to thoroughly prepare the current Alpha build. Even though there is a long road ahead, we want to make sure that those who get in will first have a solid and enjoyable experience. We’ll be back soon with more details on the testing schedule and what kind of content you can expect in the Alpha.

Make sure to follow us on Steam so you don’t miss any updates—we can’t wait to share more with you as things unfold!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3041230/Crosswind/

Once again—thank you all for being such a huge inspiration. We couldn’t ask for a better crew to sail with on this long and thrilling journey toward release. And just a friendly reminder: this is Alpha—so the seas ahead might be a bit rough, but that’s all part of the adventure.

— Crosswind Crew

Ahoy,

We’re starting this devblog to keep you up to date on our journey!

Follow Crosswind on Steam so you won’t miss the next one! And let us know in the comments what topics you want us to address in future.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3041230/Crosswind/

Disclaimer: the game is in development. All information here is work-in-progress and subject to change. For now, the digest is in English only, but we will be adding more languages if you like the concept.


Wow, just wow. We are truly humbled by your excitement about Crosswind. Our goal was to get 8000 signups by mid April, and here we are with ten times more a week after the game page appeared on Steam. You are THE BEST! You have no idea how much your support means to us. From the bottom of our swashbuckling hearts – thank YOU!

With great numbers comes great responsibility. Frankly speaking, we are really nervous. It’s gonna be our first non-NDA test, and while making the decision to go this way, we never thought it would explode like this. We want you to have proper expectations: we are in the alpha stage. And the playtest will feature only a part of Crosswind as we envision it. You did see our graphical roadmap on the game page, did you? Let’s get it over with and call it Alpha Playtest. It makes us a bit less nervous, okay?

Just a heads-up: most likely we will delay the Alpha start from mid-late April to early May. With this amount of attention, we want to double check everything internally. We will be back with more info on it later!


That was one of the most popular questions, and we understand why: our vision of Crosswind has a lot of various gameplay types combined. Let’s decompose it in a brutally honest way, remembering that not all of it will be implemented in the upcoming Alpha:

• At its heart Crosswind is a survival game with biomes/bosses progression. Think of “Valheim with pirates and naval combat”. You explore a biome, master its challenges, craft the best possible gear, defeat the boss and unlock the next biome.
  
• The game structure: “a player-controlled world plus various shared zones”.
  
• Each player has their own world where the main game story unfolds. It’s a big archipelago with a dozen islands, a combination of biomes, resources, enemies and secrets. The bulk of it is procedurally generated with some of the key points of interest hand-crafted, which means your world won’t be the same as your friend’s.
  
• You have full control over your world in regards to who can visit it.
  
• You can keep it private. Or you can invite your buddies to explore, craft, build, fight with you. We want you to experience the core game story the way you want: solo or with friends. That part of Crosswind is a “play at your own pace and enjoy the adventure” type.
  
• The MMO part comes as shared zones for various PvE and PvP activities. During the main story, you unlock the ability to travel to other locations. These are shared among players. For example, on the playtest we’ll have a very early prototype of Tortuga. Right now it’s just a place to trade in some goods and meet other players, but in future we will turn it into a fully functional social hub brimming with life where you can find new activities, meet new friends...or maybe challenge someone to a duel! Other zones (for example, a naval PvP zone) and other activities will be added later as development goes, expanding the MMO part of Crosswind.
  
• We see PvP as an additional way to enjoy the game. It will be optional, and it will take time to be properly implemented. That’s one of the concepts we strongly believe in: PvP should be there, it should be fun, but it should not be forced upon anyone.
  
• You can absolutely play the game solo, just like many classic survival games. That’s why we also have the “Single-player” tag. But – there is no offline mode, and we do not plan to have it, as it is not compatible with the MMO part.

To sum up: the upcoming Alpha Test is PvE/survival focused. We need to ensure you are happy with the “survival” part of the game before moving on to develop and playtest the “MMO” part.

Now, time to share some insights!


We’ve received a lot of questions about naval combat. There was no raw footage of it in the trailer, so that’s totally understandable. We’ll happily make a new showcase video for you a bit later!

In the meantime, let’s refresh a few points:

Naval combat is largely inspired by Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. So one player commands one ship. However, our aim is to go a bit further, bringing more room for tactics and skill to the table. It won’t happen immediately on Alpha, but that’s the direction we’ll travel.

Before introducing wind to naval combat as a factor, we need to test other things first. We already have a comprehensive wind system in the game, you’ll notice how plants, trees, flags and ship sails react to it. When we are happy with the core ship combat (which is mostly blasting other people’s ships to pieces), we will address the wind and its role in it.

Damage system in Alpha will be relatively simple. The aft of the ship is a weak spot, it will receive more damage when hit, so don’t let other captains broadside you from behind! When we get the basics right, we will be looking at additional layers of complexity, like cannonball ricochets, critical damage, ammo types, etc. There will be a lot more testing in the future related to this.

There will be boarding actions. We can’t imagine a pirate game without boarding, and hopefully you’ll see its first very rough implementation on the playtest.

Ship customization will be added later. We believe that your ship should feel like home, so there will be a lot of various ways to make her truly yours. No building ships from scratch though – we will be adding predefined, highly detailed ship classes, like sailboat, cutter, frigate and others, with the ability to customize them.


Another thing in development is bringing life to your future bases and outposts.

You will be able to automate mundane tasks. Chopping palm trees is reasonable when you’re a survivor stranded after your mission went wrong. But that’s not a task worthy of a seasoned captain! With time, you will unlock NPC workers and the ability to send them on expeditions. Keep them fed, well paid, and they will happily chop trees, mine stone and hunt some tasty wildlife for you and your crew!

It will take some time, but there will be visible life in your base, too. Though, if you take a look at this butcher prototype, we may need to reduce his enthusiasm a bit. Someone may get hurt…


We want you to feel grounded in the world of Crosswind, and creating your very own character plays a big role in it. When you start your journey, you can go with a simple set of presets or dive into additional customization.

You’ll be able to select body type, thematic origin, and overall build—from bulky to slender. Facial features such as head shape, nose, ears, and brow are all adjustable, along with eye color, hairstyles, and facial hair. Tattoos, scars, and skin details help round out your backstory without saying a word.

It’s still work-in-progress, but even now, these tools offer a good deal of flexibility—and we’ll keep expanding them as we go.

GO WISHLIST YOURSELF CROSSWIND!

---

A huge thank you to everyone who took part. Nearly two thousand adventurers joined in, helped us set the right tags for Crosswind on Steam, and tossed their hat in for a chance to win a playtest key.

We’ve randomly selected 100 winners, and here they are:
[expand type=details expanded=false]
adizzy79
Adlet
Aeris
AngelLow
Arcaniat
Atlas Primus
Basjeseten
Bluelion_tv
BlutAura
Bobrito Bandito
BOT Marty
CoreDonut
CptCrits
CraZyToEzDK
CuCu4CocoaPuffs
Darmo
dazza386
db Idaho -_-*
Degril
Devaller
Disposable Henchman
DocAceZ
Drakeye
draug4
egonswag
Feller Nation
FubarGamez
GabShark
Gandork
Garother
Geuwl
goldun
Gr33nyZ
HellishMist_TTV
Hex: Gormless Stoner
HxToga
iamskitt1ez
ILSantu
Ingram88
Insin
InstructorTiny
ITS A TARP
jan20021
jimboslice
John H. Showdown
Judas
KalumStorey
kevengers
Kool kody
Krohm
LenisPord
Lightning Lay
Lil Draltarin
lubie placki
LUCKY
Mandar
marchefox
MashaDulo
Mato
Mikele
Mirandarp36
Mochi
moraden
Muirghen
MysticTrev
NukeLaCoog
Ostolach
P0ckii
Pepsy
Phorr
Poluf
ProfGaryOak
Pumpkin
reaper
Red Death
ReueLopes
Rodriguez
Saac
Skuior
SnodRod
SoloQStudios TTV
SoullessRob
SpeerSword
stark
THEBOAT
tomflappybones
Too Much Dog
varkitozz
vash
VonShadow
VooDoo
w h y
wolly
wy
Xari
Xill
YAR King
Zeyphrenn
zxdual
哎呦凉白开
[/expand]
🏴‍☠️ Congratulations to all the winners!

As we begin rolling out the upcoming playtest in several weeks, we’ll be reaching out to each of you via Steam DMs to deliver your keys.

Thanks for your attention, captains. It’s been a wild week, but we feel humbled and grateful thanks to all of you ❤

Don’t forget to follow Crosswind on the game page to stay up to date!

Yours,
Crosswind Crew.

Hey there, captains! We've heard you loud and clear: you want more gameplay footage. So we did a quick test run on our second boss in the current playtest build. It's not fully ready, do keep it in mind, but it will give you a good idea of how the combat looks like.

Fighting through this boss (by the way, do you know who he is? let us know in the comments!) allows you to rescue your kidnapped ship navigator, which, in return, allows you to sail your ship to Tortuga (and other additional locations in future). It also sets off chain of events...pretty important for the game story.

If the fight looks too tough, worry not: you can always bolster your damage and health by crafting advanced gear and consumables, or bringing some ragtag friends along!

Ahoy, captains!

Over 15,000 players have already applied to join the Crosswind playtest — thank you for being part of the journey from day one!

To celebrate, we’re giving away 100 guaranteed playtest keys to players who help us tag the game on Steam and leave a comment with their Top 5 tags for Crosswind.

Getting a key means guaranteed access when the playtest starts — otherwise, access is handed out randomly by Steam based on limited slots.

• Visit our Steam Page.
  
• Just under the short description (beneath the main banner), you’ll see a row of tags.
  
• Click on all the tags that fit — we’ve added the most relevant ones already, but feel free to suggest more!
  
• Then scroll down and leave a comment under this post with your Top 5 tags for Crosswind.

It only takes a minute — and it makes a huge difference & gives you a chance to be among the very first to playtest the game!

Why it matters:
Steam uses tags to recommend games to players who are most likely to enjoy them. The more accurate and relevant the tags, the better chance we have of reaching players who’ll love what we’re building. Think of it as helping the game find its crew.

Winners will be announced next Friday, March 28th!

Hoist the colors (and tags) high!

— Crosswind Crew