Skip to content
Portlight

Welcome to Portlight

Portlight is a trade-first maritime strategy game played in the terminal. You start as a captain with a small ship and limited silver, and build a merchant career through route arbitrage, contracts, infrastructure investment, financial leverage, and commercial reputation.

What makes Portlight different

Section titled “What makes Portlight different”
  • Prices react to your trades. Dump grain at a port and the price crashes. Every sale shifts the local market.
  • Contracts require proof. Deliver the right goods to the right port with tracked provenance.
  • Infrastructure changes how you trade. Warehouses, brokers, and licenses change trade timing, scale, and access.
  • Reputation opens and closes doors. Four axes — commercial trust, customs heat, regional standing, underworld connections — shape what you can do.
  • The game reads what you built. Your career profile emerges from evidence, not choices. Four victory paths based on what kind of merchant you actually became.

The world

Section titled “The world”
  • 20 ports across 5 regions (Mediterranean, North Atlantic, West Africa, East Indies, South Seas)
  • 18 tradeable goods with scarcity-driven pricing (including contraband)
  • 43 routes tiered by ship class and seasonal danger
  • 9 captain types with distinct starting positions and advantages
  • 5 ship classes from sloop to man-of-war
  • 4 pirate factions controlling different waters
  • 10 recruitable companions across 5 officer roles (marine, navigator, surgeon, smuggler, quartermaster)
  • 134 named NPCs with personality, agenda, and relationship webs
  • 4 victory paths representing different commercial identities

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”