Community27 Jul 2026New "Ship Log" will have EVERYTHING 🏴☠️Ahoy crew, welcome below deck! Another month has flown by. I'm rapidly approaching the due date of my third child now. While we're in a bit of a development limbo period, I've been busily chipping away at the game. In this month's newsletter I'll share a summary of progress and a deep-dive into an upcoming new feature: the "Ship Log" menu. Smooth sailing, Ben July summary · Steam Cloud saves wo…
Don't miss playthroughs from some of our favourite creators here: Play the latest demo build: Check out the Frosty Fest Steam page: Featured in this broadcast: The Geek Cupboard
Ahoy crew, welcome below deck! My lovely wife shared this image with me a few days ago as I was wrapping up the final touches on a huge funding application, the last huge task in a huge month of deadlines and crunch. It was a good hint. I was getting right towards the far edge of "Strain", productivity starting to decline. When I hit submit, suddenly my throat hurt. I'm off sick now. So I'm tak…
Whether you've been checking out the playtests or this will be your first voyage, now is your chance to set sail. No purchase needed. Just download, play, and let us know what you think. Leaving a review on Steam helps us immensely! The demo gives you a full taste of the game - the parry system, tonnes of artefacts, deckbuilding, and the story that sets it all in motion. We've put everything in…
Bug fixes · Fixed issue with opening Discovery List while wave ending locking up the game · Fixed hover tooltip on attacks getting swapped when stances switched · Fixed notice when you collect artefacts from locker barrel sometimes not showing image · Fixed rare lockup bugs if you spam continue/enter during tutorial · Cannon resurrection is faster after the first time you do it · Crab minions n…
Ahoy crew, welcome below deck! The next few months are going to be leviathan -huge... We've got the demo launch, Steam Deck Builders Fest, ANZ Indie Showcase, Ocean Fest, Strategems Fest, and Frosty Games Fest. Demo launch: this is it crew! Our demo drops next week, right alongside Steam Deck Builders Fest. This is our biggest milestone to date and we need YOUR help to get the game out to as ma…
Demo on the horizon Ahoy crew, welcome below deck! We've got exciting news to share this month. Our first ever public Steam demo is coming in early May for Steam Deckbuilder Fest. We'll be officially announcing our participation on the 30th of April. This is a big milestone for our game, and we'd love your wind in our sails as we launch the demo! The best way to support us is by playing the dem…
Ahoy crew! Below Deck, our monthly development newsletter, is back for 2026. This month I’m going to open up about some of the big challenges ahead, and strategic decisions we’re currently making at Cass Bay Games. You’ll also get an early look at some new bosses and gameplay updates. Yours piratically, Ben Ready for another boss fight? Nik Scarr has been cooking up some brilliantly grotesque b…
We'll be broadcasting all week to celebrate being part of Forsty Mini 2025! Watch the stream here. Creators included: · The Geek Cupboard: · TalaVT : · Deep Space Matt:
Ahoy mateys, welcome Below Deck! It’s been a while since I shared a behind the scenes interview with a member of the Cass Bay Games team, so I’m excited to introduce you to Ewan Clark. Ewan is an incredibly gifted music composer, and I’ve been itching to work with him again since he scored two of my short films a decade ago. I’ll also give some behind the scenes insights into our growing sound…
Ahoy mateys, welcome Below Deck! One year ago we started the Below Deck newsletter, alongside the official start of production. Time has flown by and Davy Jones’ Deckhand has come a long way in a year. Check out this before and after comparison. It has been a wild, epic adventure so far. In a year we’ve taken an idea and built it into an extremely fun demo that has been played by nearly 100 pla…
We'll be broadcasting all week to celebrate being part of PAX Australia! This broadcast has now finished. Creators included: · The Geek Cupboard: · TalaVT : · Deep Space Matt:
Ahoy mateys, welcome Below Deck! Things are cooling off from Gamescom in Germany, and heating up for PAX! We’re just a few weeks away from our second business trip of the year, this time to Melbourne, Australia. Tep and I are rather relieved it's just “across the ditch” and not another epic 30 hour journey this time. We are approaching the end of our CODE KickStart funded phase of development a…
To celebrate the Games Made in New Zealand Steam sale we'll be broadcasting all week! Update: This broadcast has now finished. Creators included: · The Geek Cupboard: · TalaVT: · Deep Space Matt:
Ahoy mateys, welcome Below Deck! Tepene and I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Germany. Thirty hours of travel, four nights in Cologne, and then straight back again. We’re tired. Our feet hurt from being on our toes non-stop working the booth at Gamescom, and our backs hurt from sitting through the long haul flights. Despite all this, we’re absolutely buzzing from the event. It was a real…
It has been a quiet couple of months since our last online playtest back in June. We've been working hard on this new build, and also on our pitch and preparations for Gamescom. We travel to Germany in less than a weeks time! So what's new in this playtest? · 2x new bosses · Voyage selection screen · Intro cinematic · First death "contract signing" scene · Save system improvements · A dedicated…
Ahoy mateys, welcome Below Deck! As we look ahead to Gamescom next month, we’ve been keeping priorities in order and adding a much anticipated feature to our demo: insults. ( ABOVE: Secret of Monkey Island, 1990) What’s a pirate sword fight without a few sizzling roasts? We’re excited to offer players a dedicated insult button with contextual insults and humiliating comebacks. Press F during yo…
Ahoy mateys, welcome Below Deck! We're off to Gamescom 🛫 We have exciting news to share this month. Cass Bay Games have received another grant from CODE NZ , this time it’s to fund a trip to Cologne, Germany to pitch Davy Jones’ Deckhand at Gamescom , the biggest games event in the world! Ben and Tepene will be flying over in August with a pitch deck and a dream. We’ll be attending the busines…
Ahoy mateys, welcome Below Deck! This month we’re chatting to an important member of the small Cass Bay Games team, character artist Nik Scarr! We’re excited to share a bit more about Nik and his awesome contribution to the game. Nik has not only been responsible for the rendering of character sprites, but also the concepts and designs of many of the weird and wonderful characters in the game.…
Ahoy mateys, We’re just slipping through in time for an April edition of ‘Below Deck’. What a month it has been! We ran our second public playtest and it has been amazing to see so many players truly enjoying our pre-alpha build. In this newsletter we’ll share a few cool insights and content from the playtest, and give you an idea of what’s next for Davy Jones’ Deckhand. Some of our favorite pl…
Hey crew, It has been so exciting to share our newest build with you all. The team and I are extremely grateful for all the feedback, bug reports, gameplay clips and tavern banter so far. If you haven’t managed to play yet, don’t worry! The build will stay live and available to you until our next playtest. After several patches, the most recent and stable build is version 0.78.12. My sincere ap…
Next playtest EST - 10th April NZT - 11th April What will be in the new build? ✅ 3 playable weapons ✅ Save system with item discovery ✅ 15+ unique enemy types ✅ 15+ game changing artefacts ✅ New features: path selection, card removal, custom seeds How to join If you haven’t signed up to be a playtester yet, you can do so here: Playtester sign-up form
Head on over to the Cass Bay Games discord server for a live developer stream. Watch us get destroyed by our own game, and ask us anything! Friday 11th April · NZT - 8pm-10pm · BST - 9am-11am · EDT - 4am-6am Click to join our Discord
Davy Jones' Deckhand is now available to wishlist. Check out reveal trailer! Break free from Davy Jones’ locker in this wild swashbuckling adventure where every voyage is a roguelike deckbuilder! Craft the perfect deck, carefully select your ship’s cargo, and hone your strategy to survive brutal voyages, as you sail the globe as an undead pirate on a daunting quest to kill the dreaded Leviathan…
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Announcements are the developer’s own posts to the game’s Steam news feed: updates and their patch notes, in-game events, releases and sales. The important ones are marked on the players chart.