Smilegate's global game platform Stove on the 26th announced the results of the global demo test for the upcoming pirate survival open-world adventure "Windrose" and the direction for future improvements.
"Windrose" ranked among the top popular demos at the recent Steam Next Fest, surpassing 800,000 cumulative global demo players. The wishlist count also exceeded 1.5 million, confirming strong interest from users worldwide.
Developer Windrose Crew, based on user feedback gathered during the demo period, disclosed overall improvements ahead of the Early Access launch. In particular, it signaled an expansion of content centered on co-op play. Tests are underway to expand the maximum number of co-op players from the existing four to up to eight, and a feature will be introduced that lets players directly man each of a ship's gun emplacements to heighten immersion in naval combat.
The exploration and reward systems will also be overhauled. Moving away from obtaining specific items at fixed locations, a randomized loot system has been applied to increase variables in combat and exploration. The design strengthens rewards as combat risk increases, aiming to boost tension and a sense of achievement during play.
Quality-of-life improvements will come alongside these changes. Resource gathering will adopt a press-and-hold button input to reduce control burden, and survival conveniences such as beacons to aid night sailing and a dismantling workbench to recycle surplus resources will be added. In addition, a hotkey-based target-switching feature has been introduced to make combat flow more intuitive.
Work is also underway to improve technical polish. The game will offer a field of view (FOV) adjustment option, support NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR upscaling technologies, and proceed in stages with controller optimization. Sound design is also being reinforced to enhance the atmosphere of the pirate setting.