How to play
Sea Dwellers is played on a shared server, with a game client for Linux and Windows. It's in early development, so expect rough edges, and expect them to get smoother every week.
Download
Neither installer needs administrator rights, and installing a newer version over an older one keeps your captain's name and settings. On Linux, make the file runnable in its properties (or with chmod +x) and open it. On Windows, the first time you run it you may need to choose "More info" and then "Run anyway", because the game isn't signed by a big publisher.
Getting started
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Install the game
Download the installer for Linux or Windows from above and run it. The game turns up in your applications menu or on the Start menu. A mid-range graphics card from the last ten years is enough; the game is tuned to run at 1080p and 60 frames a second on an eight-year-old desktop.
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Join a server
Start the game, choose Join, and type in the server's address. Pick a name for your captain, and you'll find yourself at a free berth in Hallam Harbor with your own ship tied up beside you.
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Find your feet
You start with a few Credits, a ship and an empty hold. Walk the quay, talk to people, and visit the harbor clerk or any crew's contact to pick up your first job. Most work means a crossing, so check your fuel before you cast off.
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Earn your place
Trade goods between the islands, search the islets for anything worth taking home, and run jobs until a crew is ready to take you in.
Controls
You can play with a keyboard and mouse or an Xbox-style controller, and the on-screen hints switch to match whichever you pick up. On foot you move with W A S D, open doors and talk to people with E, and press V to switch between first person and a view from behind. The same E gets you behind the wheel of a car or boat, or behind the deck gun. M opens the chart of the whole Sound. Drag it to look around, scroll to zoom, press F to see everything at once and Space to find yourself again. Click to drop a marker to steer for, right-click to clear it, and press K to hide the key. F2 opens the short guide that greets every new captain. The player guide covers everything else, from fuel and hands to crews and the law.
When it comes to a fight
Most problems on the islands can be talked around, sailed away from or paid off, but not all of them. Every captain carries a pistol, and every round it fires comes out of the Ammunition you've traded for. Press Q to draw it, click to fire and R to reload. Medicine patches you up when you're hurt; press H to use some.
Nobody dies here. If you're knocked down, you'll wake up at Lifeline Clinic with a headache and a lighter load, because whatever you were carrying is left behind in a bag where you fell. Guards, patrols and raiders all give you a warning before they shoot, so you'll usually know when you've pushed your luck too far.
Money and the law
Traders on every island buy and sell food, materials, fuel, medicine and ammunition for Credits. Prices depend on where you are: each crew sells what it makes cheaply and pays well for what it needs, and a trader who has just bought a hold full of something won't pay as much for the next one. Hauling the right cargo the right way around the ring is how most captains make a living.
The Administration keeps the peace. Attack someone who didn't start it, run someone down in the street, raid a crew's stores, hotwire someone else's car or boat, or walk a pack of ammunition past one of their guards, and you'll be wanted. Their patrols ashore and their patrol boats at sea will both come looking. Defending yourself doesn't count against you. If they catch you, you'll lose what you were carrying and spend a few minutes in the lockup thinking about it, unless you'd rather pay your way out.
Running your own server
The dedicated server runs headless on Linux and happily shares a small office PC with other jobs. It comes as a package for Ubuntu and its relatives, runs quietly in the background as a service, starts itself when the machine boots and keeps everyone's saves between restarts. Players connect on port 7777, UDP for the game and TCP for the automatic updates, so that's the port to forward on your router if friends will join from outside your home. Download the server package.