Pirates of West Indies board game YouTube videos
Campaign will launch soon...but first we will be busy this year showing the game progress and letting people play test it.
Game Overview and understanding the Port Actions and Markets
Master the seas! In this tutorial, we break down everything you need to know about movement and navigation in Pirates of West Indies.
Master the crew! In this tutorial, we break down everything you need to know about crew specialties and stats in Pirates of West Indies.
Crew Validation! In this tutorial, we break down everything you need to know about crew validation process in Pirates of West Indies.
Dice Tower East Convention 2026
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A Note on Art, Craft, and Independence
Pirates of West Indies is the result of years of design, development, playtesting, and refinement by a single independent creator. Every mechanic, system, rule, and gameplay experience has been carefully designed, tested, and balanced with one goal in mind: creating an immersive and memorable pirate adventure.
Whenever possible, I choose to work with professional artists. Several key visual elements of this project have been created through collaborations with talented illustrators, and every component has been personally designed, edited, and assembled to ensure the game reflects the quality and experience I envisioned.
At the same time, Pirates of West Indies is an exceptionally content-rich game. Its expansive sandbox world includes hundreds of unique cards, crew members, ships, encounters, locations, events, and other components that require individual illustrations. For a large publishing company, commissioning original artwork for every asset may be feasible. For a small independent studio, however, doing so would increase production costs to the point where the game's intended scope—or its final retail price—would become unrealistic for many players.
For that reason, I have chosen to incorporate AI-assisted tools into parts of my art production workflow. These tools are used selectively for supporting illustrations that help bring the world to life while allowing the project to remain financially accessible. They do not create the game itself. The design, mechanics, rules, balancing, world-building, writing, component layout, graphic design, editing, and overall creative direction are entirely my own. Every AI-assisted illustration has been individually generated, carefully evaluated, refined, edited when necessary, and integrated by me to ensure it serves the game's theme, atmosphere, and visual consistency.
My goal has never been to replace artists, but to bridge the gap between creative ambition and the realities of independent publishing. Without AI-assisted artwork for certain supporting assets, many illustrations would have remained placeholders, or the final cost of the game would have been significantly higher.
As the project continues to grow, I look forward to expanding my collaborations with professional artists whenever resources allow. Supporting talented creators remains an important part of my long-term vision for Pirates of West Indies.
Thank you for supporting independent creators and for joining me on this adventure across the Caribbean.
Regards,
Hector D. Sanchez
Swanchyboy Studios