reefrunner.us used to be one game’s front door. It is now a harbour with two ships tied up in it: Reef Runner, the cartoon sailing game that has lived there since September, and Jolly Rogue, a brand-new pixel-art run-and-gun. Pick one, press Set Sail, and you are playing. Both are free, both run in the browser, and both now have native apps on the way to store review.

The new front page

The home page is split down the middle. Each half dresses as its own game: Reef Runner gets its sunny cartoon horizon, Jolly Rogue gets a night-blue sea and square pixel edges. Each half has the game’s logo, one line about it, a Set Sail button that goes straight into the game, and a link to that game’s own page if you want to read first.

The reefrunner.us home page on a computer: the left half shows the Reef Runner logo over a cartoon sea with the line Steer your pirate ship past storms and sandbars and sink the King's navy, a Set sail button and an About Reef Runner link; the right half shows the Jolly Rogue logo on a dark blue background with the line Run, jump and shoot through four rival crews and their bosses, a SET SAIL button and an About Jolly Rogue link; a gold coin reading or sits on the line between them
Two games, one choice. Each half looks like the game it leads to.

On a phone held upright the two halves stack, one game above the other, so neither one gets squeezed into a sliver.

The same home page on a phone: Reef Runner's half on top with its logo, line, Set sail button and About link, the or coin on the seam, and Jolly Rogue's half underneath with its logo, line, SET SAIL button and About link, then a footer with privacy and support links for both games
On a phone, one above the other.

Nothing moved for anyone who already plays Reef Runner. The game is still at reefrunner.us/play/, so a bookmark or a home-screen icon still lands in the same place. Its old front page now lives at reefrunner.us/reef-runner/, with the controls, the enemies and the ways to play.

The new game: Jolly Rogue

Jolly Rogue is a side-scrolling run-and-gun in the spirit of the old arcade classics, with a pirate on foot instead of a soldier. You run right through an endless voyage across four areas: Palm Tree Island, a merchant ship’s deck, the hold below it and a pirate ship. Each area belongs to a rival crew with its own colours, and each ends with a boss: the Big Guy, the Captain, Cucumber and the Whale.

Jolly Rogue on a phone held sideways: the captain in a purple hat aiming a three-barrel pistol on a grassy island with palm trees, gold coins floating above and a treasure chest on a ledge ahead; seven hearts, lives and gold in the top corner, a see-through D-pad bottom left and round FIRE and JUMP buttons bottom right
Palm Tree Island. D-pad on the left, JUMP and FIRE on the right.
  • Aim in eight directions and shoot your way through crabs, toothy fish that spit pearls, sharpshooting seashells, bomb-throwing starfish, bald brutes and cannons you have to duck under. Get close and your blade swings on its own.
  • Every pirate can double jump. Tap JUMP, then tap it again in the air.
  • Pick up better guns: a rifle, a three-barrel pistol, a blunderbuss, grenadoes and a swivel gun.
  • Three lives and a row of hearts (six to nine, depending on your class), with an extra life for every boss and for every 100 gold you grab in a run.
Jolly Rogue boss fight on the merchant ship's deck: a big pirate captain in a pink coat and skull hat with his arms raised, a health bar labelled THE CAPTAIN along the bottom, and small sailing ships on the sea behind
The Captain, waiting at the end of the merchant ship. Every boss warns you before it strikes.

Gold you keep between runs goes to the Captain’s Quarters. Play as the captain or the she-captain, then spend on coats, hats, pants, whole outfits, blades, guns, a class (Swashbuckler, Brawler or Gunner) and a pet. The parrot spots treasure ahead; the monkey pockets coins. Beat a boss and the Black Market opens for the run you are in: more hearts, a gun of your choice and a few other upgrades.

The Captain's Quarters screen: a large pixel-art she-captain on the left and a parchment list of choices on the right, with rows for Pirate, Coat, Hat, Pants, Outfit, Class, Blade, Gun and Pet, and BUY and DONE buttons at the bottom
The Captain's Quarters, where banked gold becomes a wardrobe.

It plays with a keyboard on a computer or by touch on a phone, where a see-through D-pad sits under your left thumb and JUMP and FIRE sit under your right. In the browser it plays sideways or upright; held upright, the view zooms in around your captain so nothing is too small to read. Like Reef Runner, it saves on your device, plays offline once it has loaded, and has no ads, no accounts and no tracking.

The pixel art is Pixel Frog’s Treasure Hunters and Pirate Bomb packs, released free for anyone to use. The guns, the parrot and monkey, the hearts and the she-captain’s hair are drawn to match.

Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play

Both games have native apps for iPhone, iPad and Android. They are built, they are running on my own phone for testing, and they are heading into app store review next. The apps carry the whole game inside them, so they play with no signal at all. The Jolly Rogue app plays in landscape only, the way a run-and-gun wants to be held. Reef Runner’s app turns with your phone, upright or sideways.

When they clear review they will be linked from each game’s page and from here.

Where to play now