The original 2007 version of Plunder! was the last Java game I made for Big Fish Games. Because it existed as part of the now-offline Atlantis game portal, it is no longer playable. Everything in the game was procedurally generated except for the UI graphics.
In Plunder!, a grid was filled with mines and treasure ships. The mines could be in one of three sizes and could explode in two or four directions. If a large mine was clicked, it would explode. The shrapnel from the exploded mine could hit other mines to make them larger, or it could damage or sink treasure ships. The goal was to click on mines in such a way that you could trigger chain reactions between groups of mines and sink ships to claim the treasure chests within. However, you had to be quick to click the treasure chests because they could be damaged, too!
There were also pirate ships on the grid that represented your fleet. To continue to the next level, at least one pirate ship had to be able to cross the grid, but their progress was blocked by the mines. To clear a path, you had to blow up the mines.
The level would end when all possible mines had been detonated. All pirate ships that had not escaped would be captured, but as long as one escaped, you could continue playing. The surviving pirate ships would then count up the spoils!
Some treasure ships could contain special items that could rotate or move mines, explode them even if they were not primed, or move pirate ships.
The treasure generator was a major feature of Plunder! All of the treasures in the game were procedurally generated in a manner similar to how items in games like Diablo or World of Warcraft are created. Each item’s type, materials, and embellishments were chosen and positioned differently. Even the names and adjectives on the rarer treasures (“Scintillating Platinum Scepter of Dread Pirate John”) were procedurally generated. The treasure values were connected to Atlantis’ currency system, so if players collected lots of treasures, they would earn lots of tokens to use.
The 2008 version of Plunder! was a Flash port. It was rewritten in AS3 so it would work on the next version of Atlantis, Big Sea Games.
Since the whole game is played with just clicks, it proved to be ideal for mobile gaming. The latest versions of Plunder! are available for iOS, but they were not written by me.
was the last Java game I made for Big Fish Games