Drive a storm-powered ironclad up an insane hostile coastline. Everything in this game is charge — the run, the money, the miracles, the ram.

Built for AI Browser Game Jam 4, theme CHARGE! — and the theme is the resource system, the verb and the fantasy at once.

The two charges

• VOLTS (amber) — stored charge. Stripped from wrecks, trickled in by the trade dynamo while you sail. Spent in coves on permanent upgrades: weapon, defence, speed, income-over-time, income-per-kill, salvage magnet, surge capacity, and more.
• SURGE (blue) — battle charge. Built by kills, spent mid-run on instant abilities: RAMMING SPEED, boarding archers, a hired mercenary sloop, the TEMPEST, extra gun crews, a patch crew. New abilities unlock as renown grows.

The two feed each other: the guns you buy with volts make the kills that build surge; the surge you spend keeps the hull alive to earn more volts. The dynamo pays per second under way, so slow water pays better — the throttle is an economic decision.

The coast

Legs of procedurally charted channel, each ending in a safe cove — shop, breath, save. Skiffs ram, branders explode, towers lead their shots, gunboats pace you, mortar barges drop warning rings you do not stand in. Rocks break the hull; reefs drag the keel; derelict wrecks glow amber for a reason. It gets narrower, meaner and richer the further north you charge.

Sinking is never a restart

The wreckers tow you to the last cove. Every volt, every upgrade and every point of renown is kept. Buy something and charge again — that is the game. Saves are automatic: every cove, every purchase, every unlock, every sinking. Close the tab; CONTINUE picks up the chart where it left off.

Free, browser-playable, ~1 minute to learn. Steer with A/D or arrows, throttle W/S, aim with the mouse, click to fire, 1–6 for abilities.

More from CSAF: our catalogue — including Banneret: Succession, and developer tools for RPG Maker, GameMaker, Unity and Unreal.

More free browser games from CSAF: OTTERBOUND — six otters, one raft, and a river that never ends the same way twice; Banneret: Succession — turn-based medieval tactics, one shot per heir; THE LAST FLOCK — your army is a crowd you shape with movement alone, and it dies.

More free browser games from CSAF

Every one of these plays in one click. No install, no account, and they all save as you go.

• HALFLIGHT — Everything in the vault is decaying. That is what pays you.
• PRISMHORN — You never cast a spell. You cast a rainbow.
• OTTERBOUND — Six otters, one raft, and a river that never ends the same way twice.
• RUSTBLOOM — You never find the key. You forge it.
• THE LAST FLOCK — Your army is a crowd you shape with movement alone — and it dies.
• BANNERET: SUCCESSION — You never move a knight. You plant a banner.
• STARCHART — Every voyage you fly is inscribed forever. The route you took IS the constellation.

We also make the parts

Core Systems Asset Factory builds pixel-art packs and engine tooling for developers. If you build games as well as play them, these are ours:

• VERDANT 01 — Overworld — 239 tiles and four complete 47-mask autotile sets, for RPG Maker MZ, Tiled and Godot.
• VERDANT 02 — Elevation — 149 tiles of top-down elevation: a 47-mask plateau autotile and a four-band cliff.
• MOURNCREST 02 — The Pale Choir — five cultists, four directions, three-frame walks, at native 64px and 128px.
• VERDANT 00 — free sample pack — 64 tiles with one complete autotile, free, if you want to try them first.

Plus plugins and editor tools for RPG Maker MZ, GameMaker, Unity and Unreal — the full catalogue is here.