TIDEWAR

Two captains. One sea. Only one of you is sailing home.

Tidewar is a fast, top-down naval duel in the spirit of Atari's Combat. Steer your warship through island-strewn waters, line up your bow gun and sink your rival before they sink you. Islands block cannon fire, so use them for cover. Grab the power-up crates that float onto the sea, and watch out for the weather.

Play side by side with a friend on one keyboard or with controllers, or take on a computer captain.

Features

• 1 or 2 players. Two people can share one keyboard, or each use a controller. Playing alone? The computer captain comes in Easy, Normal and Hard.
• Three game modes. Sinkings (first to five), Last Ship Standing (rounds with no respawns) and Capture the Flag (steal the enemy flag and bring it home).
• Five map styles. Clear skies, a night battle lit only by your lanterns, drifting fog banks to hide in, a storm whose wind shifts and bends your shots, and reefs that ground ships but let cannonballs fly over.
• Three ships. The fast but fragile destroyer, the all-round cruiser, or the slow but tough battleship.
• Power-ups. Rapid fire, a shield that stops one shot, or a burst of speed.
• Fair, fresh maps. Every match gets new islands, mirrored so neither side has the advantage.
• Colour-blind friendly. Each team has its own colour and its own symbol.
• Retro through and through. Chunky pixel art, chiptune music and crunchy sound effects, all made in code.

Controls

Left player (keyboard): W A S D to sail, Space to fire, E to change ship

Right player (keyboard): Arrow keys to sail, Enter or Right Ctrl to fire, Right Shift to change ship

Controller: Left stick or D-pad to sail, A / Cross or the right trigger to fire, Y / Triangle to change ship

Pause: Esc, or Start / Options on a controller

Touch (phones and tablets): the stick at the bottom left sails, FIRE shoots, SHIP changes ship on the start screen, and II pauses.

You can change the rules, map style, power-ups, sound and display in Options.

Playing

In your browser: click Run game above. Click on the game once so it gets your keyboard. The fullscreen button gives you the best view.

On a phone or tablet: turn it sideways and play 1-player with the on-screen controls.

On Windows: download the zip if you'd rather play the desktop version.

1. Download and unzip the folder (don't run it from inside the zip).
2. Run Tidewar.exe.
3. If Windows shows "Windows protected your PC", click More info, then Run anyway. This appears for new games from small studios.

Needs: a desktop browser (Chrome, Edge or Firefox) or Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit). A keyboard or controller, or a touch screen. On phones and tablets it's 1-player only, in landscape.

Credits

A game by Sterile Games, made with Unity. The art, sound and music were all made in code.
Font: Press Start 2P by CodeMan38, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (the licence is included in the download).