Gamesby Netcode, Inc.
The Sweet Trade app icon

Sailing and trading adventure

In development

The Sweet TradeWorking title

One skiff, one empty chart, and a whole sea to paint.

Download on theApp StoreComing soon Get it onGoogle PlayComing soon Play it now in yourBrowserComing soon

Not released yet. Store pages will open closer to launch.

The map is the game: one full-screen sea chart, painted in as you sail it. Start alone in a skiff off Port Royal in 1655, chart unknown water, take work in twenty-two ports, trade up through bigger hulls and a crew, then buy an island and grow it into a free port.

Plot a long course and close the tab. Your boat sails on and anchors when it arrives.

Genre
Sailing, exploring, trading
Setting
The Caribbean, 1655
The chart
22 ports, 14 regions, 539 islands
Ships
9 hulls, skiff to man-of-war
Shared sea
Other captains sail beside you
Ads
None

The story

A skiff, a torn chart and a debt.

Port Royal, Jamaica, 1655. Your brother Edmund is gone, and so is his ship, the Swift Return. What he left behind is tied up at the chandler’s dock.

Tobias Wren, the one-eyed chandler, will show you the ropes. After that the sea is yours: real coasts and real ports, a fictional cast, and hundreds of cays that nobody has drawn yet.

Follow Edmund’s chart fragments far enough and they lead somewhere deep. Along the way there are sixteen other tales to chase, among wreckers, logwood cutters, pearl divers and the Brethren of Tortuga.

That’s your brother’s skiff. He left it, a torn chart and a debt. The chart ends at the reef. Nothing else does.
Tobias Wren, chandler of Port Royal

How it plays

Take on work, sail out, find things, come home richer.

  1. 01

    Take on work

    Every port has jobs on the board: cargo to run, surveys to make, people to carry, and stranger errands.

  2. 02

    Sail out

    Tap a destination and your boat finds its way, or take the helm yourself. Day turns to night every ten minutes.

  3. 03

    Find things

    Uncharted cays, wrecks, curios, wildlife for the Codex, and finds that only show after dark.

  4. 04

    Come home richer

    Sell your surveys to the Chartmakers’ Guild, trade ten kinds of goods, and put the silver into a bigger hull.

Ports of call

Twenty-two harbours, each with its own voice.

Every port has a specialty, a standing to earn, and somebody on the quay with an opinion.

  • Hand-painted harbour banner for Tortuga, with torn watercolour edges and a blank name ribbon

    Tortuga

    “The Brethren came for the cattle and stayed for the quarrel. Neither has run out yet.”

    Mère Lalande

  • Hand-painted harbour banner for Nassau, with torn watercolour edges and a blank name ribbon

    Nassau

    “A wreck is only a ship that finished her voyage early. Somebody ought to finish it for her.”

    Betty Trott

  • Hand-painted harbour banner for Havana, with torn watercolour edges and a blank name ribbon

    Havana

    “In Havana a pearl is not a jewel. It is a letter to Seville saying you are still alive.”

    Doña Isabel de Ocampo

  • Hand-painted harbour banner for Portobello, with torn watercolour edges and a blank name ribbon

    Portobello

    “Forty days a year this is the richest town on earth. The other three hundred it is a fever with a fort.”

    Ruy Barrera

  • Hand-painted harbour banner for Willemstad, with torn watercolour edges and a blank name ribbon

    Willemstad

    “We do not ask whose flag you fly. We ask whether the scales balance.”

    Griet Hoogland

  • Hand-painted harbour banner for Santo Domingo, with torn watercolour edges and a blank name ribbon

    Santo Domingo

    “The first charts of these seas were drawn in this building. Half of them are lies, and the other half are worse.”

    Fray Domingo Alcázar

Ship and crew

Bigger boat, bigger world.

Each hull sets how far from home you can sail. Fit better sails, planking, guns and stowage, sign on hands, and fill six officer posts from sailing master to cook.

  • Where you start

    Skiff

    Your brother’s boat.

  • 600 silver

    Shallop

    The first real step out.

  • 5,000 silver

    Sloop

    A captain’s first command.

  • 40,000 silver

    Brigantine

    Room for a proper crew.

  • Explorer

    Barque

    Built for the far edges of the chart.

  • Trader

    Fluyt

    Earned through the Dutch Ledger.

  • 220,000 silver

    Frigate

    Fast, armed and respected.

  • 500,000 silver

    Galleon

    A hold like a warehouse.

  • By commission

    Man-of-War

    Built to order at Old Providence.

A place of your own

Buy a deed. Raise a free port.

Two hundred charter islands are waiting for an owner. Buy the deed to one and build it up through six stages, from Camp and Hamlet to Town, Port and Free Port.

There are twenty-six kinds of building to raise, from a landing and a fishery to a shipwright, a lighthouse and a playhouse. Sixty named notables can settle there, the curios you find go in your museum, and the island keeps growing while you are away.

The shared sea

Alone together, and kind.

  • Sails on the horizon

    Other captains cross your chart in real time. Signal them with four flags: Ahoy!, Fair winds, Follow me, Danger here.

  • Nothing is ever taken

    There is no player-versus-player combat and nobody can take what you own. Skirmishes are against computer ships only.

  • World events

    Regatta Day, Storm Season, the Chartmakers’ Prize, the Admiralty Challenge and the Treasure Fleet.

  • Daily orders

    Three orders a day and a weekly Admiralty challenge, alongside hundreds of charted missions.

  • Ten ranks

    Rise from Greenhorn to Legend of the Main, and earn standing with every port.

  • The black flag

    Privateering papers, fences, pardons and a place on the Governor’s List, for captains who want a reputation.

Fair by design

No shop. No ads.

  • One currency

    Silver, in whole pieces of eight, earned by sailing. There is no premium currency.

  • No ads

    There is no third-party advertising in the game.

  • Your data is yours

    Export everything we hold, or delete your account, from your Netcode account page.

The Sweet Trade

One skiff, one empty chart, and a whole sea to paint.

Download on theApp StoreComing soon Get it onGoogle PlayComing soon Play it now in yourBrowserComing soon

Want your progress saved the day it launches? Create your Netcode account now.