Norwegian development outfit, Trym Studios, is currently working on a realistic seafaring game where you create your own captain, interact with your crew, and attempt to make living wages out at sea by trading goods and crafting rare loot.

Set during the 16th through 17th century, players will navigate the seas in real-time, using realistic simulation-oriented navigation and trade mechanics centered around running cargo from here to there across busy trade routes and dangerous waters.

The objective is to become a powerful merchant by exploring the seas, crafting scrimshaw to sell for some coin, and acquiring loot in any manner that you can in order to trade it at port, or transport it for a fee. Along the way you’ll have to deal with pesky pirates, and defend your ship as you sail the seas. You can see what the pre-alpha gameplay footage is like with the teaser trailer below.

Originally the game was teased during the spring of this year, but as E3 was ramping up and a lot of news was coming out, it was easy for something like Seas of Fortune to get buried under the sea of news.

The game seems to take Rare’s concept for Sea of Thieves and focus more on the trading and simulation aspects of sailing. Players will have to barter and bargain for goods, and they’ll have to interact with and keep the crew pleased, along with reaping the benefits and rewards such as customizing the captain’s cabin, or upgrading your ship with bigger and better gear.

We don’t get many simulation-oriented games set during the Age of Sail or the Victorian era, so it’s nice to see more period-pieces in the works from smaller development studios that experiment with different kinds of gameplay based around historical eras oftentimes ignored by the AAA publishers.

Seas of Fortune is a long ways off, and it won’t be released until sometime in the fourth quarter of 2019. In the meantime you can keep track of the game by visiting the official website.