The card-game genre can feel over-saturated at the moment and a bit harder to stand out in, which is why I was so pleased with Davy Jones’ Deckhand, which had me locked in as I did battle on the deck, and attempted not to end up swimming towards Davey Jones’ locker.

When the demo for Davy Jones’ Deckhand began, for a split second, I thought, “This seems like a lot of systems for me to wrap my head around on a con floor,” but I was pleasantly surprised at just how easily I managed to pick up everything. I think it’s the amount of numbers and cards on-screen at first that scared me off, but you’re playing as two characters, one in a battle position at the front, another in the secondary position, and then several enemies will be across from you. All of you, allies and enemies alike, will have four numbers above your heads which represent your health, parry/defence and then your attack. Breaking through your opponent’s defence to land damage is one thing, but the core design choice here that made each turn in this card combat game feel so good was matching your parry metre to your enemy’s attack and then having your character do a repose on their turn.  I quickly learned it was much better to play defensively and land that than swing out widely with a two-three damage card just because I hadn’t used all my actions in one turn.

The cards themselves, other than letting you perform a variety of attacks, also allow you to change the stance of your two characters, which gives different abilities and also changes their stats. You also have cards that can do special attacks or simply raise some stats for the current battle.

The demo was primarily focused on the battles, which I was thankful for. Still, it also seems that exploration and player choice will play a big factor between battles, as you’re able to move the telescope around between battles and pick where you want to go next, and the type of rewards you’ll get to those locations. There also seems to be some rogue-light elements to this.

The art style was also fantastic, with this clear-line, Tintin-inspired character design, and the team seems to be looking to have fun with bright environments and systems, rather than a brooding pirate game.

The developers showcasing the game at the CODE/New Zealand games area were also dressed in pirate costumes, which earned them +10 points already. However, their very relaxed “ahoy” to everyone who walked up to their game was also very charming.

[Explosion Network attended PAX Australia 2025 with a provided Media Pass.]