Pixel Piracy

Pixel Piracy is an open world and side-scrolling action-adventure game that uses 16-bit-styled sprites and 2D graphics. The single-player game combines elements of role-playing, particularly the roguelike subgenre, platformer, simulation, and strategy genres. The goal of the game is to defeat four notorious pirate captains, but players are allowed to explore the game's world. The game includes a tutorial that teaches players the game's core mechanics.

After customizing the player character and difficulty settings of the procedurally-generated world, the player takes control of a pirate captain who spawns on an island, where players are given a set of blocks to build their own ship and coins to hire a crew. The pirate captain has nearly complete control over the size of the ship and crew and can upgrade their ship with cannons. The captain can also die by starvation, enemy pirates, or wild animals; the game also has permadeath, which means that the captain does not respawn after death.

Pixel Piracy was developed by Finnish and Spanish independent developers Vitali Kirpu and Alexander Poysky, collectively known as Quadro Delta, and published by Re-Logic. The game was developed using the Unity game engine. Poysky said that Re-Logic and their 2011 indie sandbox game Terraria inspired him to pursue a career in video game development. Re-Logic actively contributed to the development of Pixel Piracy, assisting with quality assurance and design.

Kirpu initially worked entirely alone on the game, but Mikko Arvala later joined as a maintenance developer. Poysky worked as a producer on the game; Pixel Piracy also had its own testing team.

Pixel Piracy received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic. Initially, during its early access phase, reviewers complimented the game for its potential. Craig Pearson of PC Gamer described it as a "fine example of a cute Early Access title". Jose Rodríguez of IGN praised the overall game, saying that it has innovative and enjoyable elements. The game received the Indie DB Indie of the Year award in the Editors Choice category.

Reviewers criticised the gameplay and its mechanics, describing the controls as complicated, and the combat system as perplexing. Writing for Gamekult, Thomas Mangot mentioned that it had bugs upon full release and that the game's artificial intelligence was "chaotic". Pearson characterized the map as vague and said that combat could have been improved. Josephine Lawton of Pure Xbox stated that the ability to control both the pirate captain and the crew "often doesn't work as expected", explaining that the crew often refused to jump on the enemy ship or walk, and that even after the enemy ship was defeated, the crew would not move.

Quadro Delta also worked with Re-Logic on a tactical role-playing game named Pixel Privateers, which was released in 2017. The game adopted elements of Pixel Piracy and Terraria while also featuring an online cooperative mode. It was compared to the Borderlands and Diablo games.

In September 2023, Kirpu announced that an online version of the game, Pixel Piracy Online, was in development. The game has an unknown release date.