Here Be Dragons has you hunt down the monsters of the sea for Queen and country

here be dragons red zero games

“Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas,” write Red Zero Games, “Vasco da Gama reached India by sea. However, all great explorers would never have reached their goals if they had to face all sea and land threats without help.

“Someone had to defeat dragons and tritons, beforehand. Someone had to vanquish bloody cults. Someone had to banish supernatural ghost ships. The information about these deeds is missing from the archives, and you can’t find it in any great statesmen’s memoir. The knowledge of the “Avant Armada” was completely erased.”

Too bloody right, it’s about time their great deeds were immortalised in a computer game.

Here Be Dragons is built off the Terra Incognita maps. Back when an area of the world hadn’t been explored, or previously mapped out, cartographers would leave the space blank, or, if they were a little more creative, draw pictures of dragons and sea monsters. In Here Be Dragons it is your job to hunt down those monsters and clear the way for the great explorers to sail the seas unharassed.

You’ll need to recruit a crew from the roughest taverns, buy provisions from the shadiest of traders, and kit out your ship with equipment thought unsavoury my moral men.

Using a map filled with references to dragons, cultists, Great Old Ones, and krakens you’re to sail about the sea taking their heads for the Queen.

Back in your home port you can dissect the bodies for research or sell the specimens illegally on the black market.

here be dragons red zero games

Of course, all this will take a toll on your crew. They can go mad or get sick with diseases, they can even be cursed. You’ll need to perform amputations, sections, and exorcisms to keep your ship functioning.

Red Zero Games is a new studio but the makers previously ran Big Daddy’s Creations. Founder Marek Pańczyk says that the games they worked on their have “become the benchmark for digital adaptation of board games.” I’ve not heard of the games myself – “Neuroshima Hex”, “Army of Frogs”, “Caylus”and “Eclipse” – but that aside, the concept and artwork for Here Be Dragons has me interested.