Sim:WTF

"Every successful video game is eventually reduced to an acronym in the popular lexicon."

—Tony Lovell

A destroyer is caught in a searchlight

With the Fleet is an extremely indie simulation effort in which players have a first-person perspective of World War I naval action.

• No orbiting cameras here – players use their eyeballs
• No typing chat – sailors talk to each other
• No ships devoid of humanity – numerous AI- and player-sailors work together
• No HUDs or GUI busyboxes – sailors manipulate the 3D environment

What is the Status?

Recent Windows and Mac OS playtests demonstrate multiple player- and AI-actuated sailors walking the deck of a destroyer, using the equipment on board and conversing via VOIP and speech recognition. Development continues toward creating a global game continuously running and able to support large battles with multiple players aboard each ship.

Anyone who feels they might be able to contribute artwork, coding, or other expertise are welcome to inquire to join a playtest.

Design Principles

<video id="z6JRQauZvis" height="373" width="640" desc="Demo, August 2016" frame="true"/> With the Fleet will be a massively-multiplayer naval simulation with a first-person perspective set in the period 1890-1925. It is under active development and is currently in a demonstrable prototype form.

My design tenets repudiate those of pretty much every other naval game.

• each player is a sailor, not a ship
• you have a role – some players command others
• you see from your sailor's eyes, not from a voyeuristic ship-orbiting camera
• there will no neon "HUDs" overlaying the screen
• you will feel like you belong to a "band of brothers"
• you will learn something
• the pace will be slow – the action will be momentous
• submarines and aircraft are ancillary to the real fun

See Also

• Developer's Blog
• Youtube Playlist of Development videos
• Videos of Fleet Action Imminent, the "prequel"
• Slack for people developing Naval sims on Unity3D