Earlier today the harbour at reefrunner.us had two ships. Tonight it has three. Cloud Dancer: Beyond the Reef is live: a steampunk pirate airship shooter, and the third game in the series after Reef Runner and Jolly Rogue. It’s free, it plays in your browser, and it’s built for phones as much as computers.

Updated October 24: painted art, much bigger rewards, and game controllers. The pictures below are from the updated game; what changed is at the end.

The top of the reefrunner.us home page: Three free pirate games, a short introduction, and the Reef Runner, Jolly Rogue and Cloud Dancer logos above a cartoon sea
Three games, one harbour. Each has its own page now, so you can see what you're in for before you play.

Pirates, but in the air

The first two games kept their feet wet. Reef Runner is a one-button sailing game; Jolly Rogue is a pirate on foot with a gun. Cloud Dancer takes the crew into the sky in a wooden galleon hung under a brass-ribbed gas envelope, and it plays differently from both: you fly anywhere.

  • Drag anywhere to steer. The airship follows how far your thumb moves rather than sitting under it, so your thumb never covers the ship. On a computer it’s the arrow keys.
  • The cannons fire on their own. Your job is where to be, not when to shoot.
  • FULL STEAM is a ramming dash. You can’t be hurt while it lasts, and anything in the way is in trouble. It runs on a steam gauge, so it’s a tool, not a habit.

Hide in the clouds

The sky has layers: islands and the sea far below, a band of cloud banks in the middle, and open sky above. The clouds are the trick. Duck into a cloud bank and the King’s Aerial Navy loses its aim: their shots fly straight instead of at you. You lose your aim too, so it’s a place to catch your breath, not to win from.

There are four skies, about a minute each, in an endless loop: the Reef Skies, the Storm Wall (where lightning flickers a warning before it strikes), the Sky-Forts at sunset, and the Ceiling of the World. The navy brings gyrocopters, zeppelins, balloon mines, flak towers on the islands below, armoured sky pikes and cloud lurkers that only show a periscope until they pop out to fire.

Four bosses

Every sky ends with a boss, and every boss warns you before it strikes.

Cloud Dancer on a phone: the painted pirate airship over a tropical sea, facing HMS Thunderer, a huge brass-banded navy zeppelin with a red war stripe, as glowing enemy shots fan out between them; the boss health bar along the bottom and a FULL STEAM button at the bottom right
HMS Thunderer, the dreadnought at the end of the Reef Skies.
  • HMS Thunderer, a dreadnought zeppelin: broadsides, dropped mines and a swarm of gyrocopters.
  • The Tempest Engine, a lightning coil riding a storm cloud: lightning columns, rings of glowing orbs and rapid bursts.
  • Fort Sovereign, a fortress on a floating rock: turret volleys, mortar shells that burst, and slow homing rockets.
  • The Brass Kraken, a clockwork kraken: tentacles that sweep a whole row of sky after a red warning, ink clouds, and a lunge straight at you.
The Storm Wall in the rain: grey storm clouds over a dark sea, and the Tempest Engine on the right, a brass platform on a storm cloud with a coil of brass rings and a crackling lightning orb, facing the airship on the left
The Tempest Engine, riding a storm cloud through the rain.

Beat one and you get an extra life, a treasure chest, about forty gold coins and a weapon crate. Chain shot, a harpoon that goes through a whole line of enemies, homing rockets and a Gatling gun all turn up in crates.

Spend the plunder

Gold, coal, repairs and gun crates fly to your airship on their own, so nothing you shoot down is lost. A gyrocopter drops a coin, a zeppelin bursts into six, and now and then a wreck leaves a treasure chest worth 25.

After each boss the Sky Market opens for the run you’re in, and it changes how you fight: a wider broadside (three cannonballs, then five), heavy shot, exploding shells that hurt everything nearby, a rear gunner, a pirate wingman gyrocopter that flies and fights beside you, a steam shield that keeps you safe for a moment after FULL STEAM, and a gun rack that keeps a pickup gun until you lose a life. Hull plating, a bigger boiler, faster cannons, a spare crew member and a gun of your choice are there too, and a lodestone makes every coin count double. Gold you don’t spend goes into your chest when the run ends.

The Sky Market in two columns: hull plating, bigger boiler, quick cannons, heavy shot, exploding shells, rear gunner, wingman and steam shield on the left, and gun rack, lodestone, spare crew, a chain-shot gun and cast off on the right, each with its price in gold
The Sky Market after a boss.
The Hangar: the painted airship with a blue striped envelope and a parrot on the bowsprit, beside a list of choices: envelope, pattern, sail, hull, starting gun, crew pet, hull armor, boiler, gun crew and broadside
The Hangar, where banked gold becomes a paint job, a parrot and upgrades that last.

Between runs, the Hangar turns that chest into your airship: envelope colours and patterns, sails, hull paint, a starting gun, a parrot that brings the plunder in faster, and upgrades that last every run. Extra starting hearts, a bigger boiler, a faster gun crew and a three-ball broadside are bought in order, so every run builds toward the next. Like the other two games, it saves on your device, plays offline once it has loaded, and has no ads, no accounts and no tracking.

Coming to the app stores

Cloud Dancer has native apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, built and tested and waiting alongside Reef Runner and Jolly Rogue for app store review. The apps carry the whole game, play with no signal, and are held sideways like a proper shooter. They’ll be linked here when they clear review.

Update, October 24

A day of play feedback, and a lot changed:

  • Painted art. The airship is now the painted ship from the game’s icon, and every sky, enemy and boss was repainted to match: puffy lit clouds and misty islands over the Reef Skies, rain on the Storm Wall, floating forts with waterfalls at sunset, and a sea of cloud under the stars at the Ceiling of the World.
  • Bigger rewards. More gold, treasure chests, prizes that come to you, a Sky Market full of upgrades and Hangar upgrades that last (all above).
  • Softer music that runs longer before it repeats.
  • Game controllers. Xbox and PlayStation controllers work in the browser in all three games, and the coming Android apps will also play on a Fire TV, with its remote or a controller.
The Ceiling of the World: a starry night sky over a sea of clouds with a floating island and a waterfall, the painted airship on the left, and the Brass Kraken on the right, a riveted brass dome with glowing blue eyes and eight clockwork tentacles, firing a column of glowing shots
The Brass Kraken at the Ceiling of the World.

Where to play now