Welcome, Dear Reader, to our hot-off-the-press interview with Jack and Max Wink, the brothers behind Lunchbox Entertainment, and the developers-in-chief of Sirocco, a distinctive new title within the roguish niche that borrows elements from auto-shooters and merges them with an evolved and polished multiplayer experience.
The interview speaks for itself, so I won’t dawdle for the sake of padding, however, I will note that nowhere in the interview do we discuss the fact that the game is free-to-play, which I think is worth mentioning. That being the case, if Sirocco appeals to your inner ship’s captain, you can check it out absolutely gratis!
Let’s get straight to it! In a nutshell, what is Sirocco?
Jack: Sirocco is a 5v5 competitive multiplayer arena inspired by a Warcraft 3 mod and auto-fire Roguelikes like Vampire Survivors. At its core, Sirocco is about emergent strategy and infinite replayability. We achieve that through deep build diversity and a progression system that changes every match.
PvP and Vampire Survivors-style design don’t usually go together. How are you making it work?
Jack: Most competitive players see randomness as a threat to fairness. Meanwhile, Roguelike fans often feel PvP games don’t deliver the wild, “broken build” moments that make their genre fun. Sirocco is our attempt to prove you can have both.
You can switch ships mid-match, which means you can completely change your abilities on the fly. Further, which ships are available at different times are different each match, so you have to adapt to the circumstances of each game. Since all players have access to the same ships, it’s fair, while also creating a dynamic meta of power spikes and counters. For example, I might play Lurker and stack Ability Range to land absurdly long hooks. That sounds broken—until someone switches to Prism, a ship that reflects abilities. Now my hook can get turned back on me. But those ships could be available at different times from match to match, so you have to get creative with the tools at hand.
Roguelike elements intersecting with new genres is exciting. What’s your take on the evolution of Survivors-likes?
Jack: For us, the beauty of Survivors-likes lies in the combination of emergent progression and infinite replayability. Those terms get thrown around, so here’s what I mean: In Vampire Survivors, you mix characters, weapons, and passive items in different ways each run, and you’re forced to adapt to what you’re offered. That’s emergent strategy and real-time adaptation baked in.
In Sirocco, Captains, Augmentations, and Ships provide the same layers of emergent progression, while Loom Coils (our version of upgrade cards in Survivor-likes) and human opponents drive infinite replayability. Where Sirocco takes it a step further is execution. It’s not just enough to unlock the crazy build – you have to play it well.
The MOBA influence is there. I’ve seen Warcraft 3 mods mentioned—what’s the origin story here?
Jack: Way before auto-fire became a staple of Roguelikes, there was an auto-firing, hero arena in Warcraft 3 called Battleships. It’s weird to call it a MOBA, since it predates the term, but it had many of the elements we associate with the genre today: lanes, minion spawns, hero abilities, and team objectives.
What made it different—what gave it a completely distinct feel from Dota at the time, which would eventually evolve into League and Dota 2—was that your “hero” was a ship that could be swapped out at any point in the game. Additionally, you would equip a bunch of auto-firing weapons, which completely deemphasized the need to “last hit.” Both mechanics centered the game around teamplay and positioning rather than “right clicking” creeps.
Part of our vision for Sirocco was marrying the more strategic, flexible, and less micro intensive vibe of Battleships with the wild build diversity of Roguelikes and we’re pretty excited with what came out of that.
Multiplayer games live or die by their communities. How are you growing yours?
Max: With so many great games out there, building a community that people enjoy being a part of is more important than ever. I also think “community” goes a bit deeper than how people treat each other in game or a Discord. It’s what it means to self identity as a player. More than ever the games you play, says something about your identity. For example, “I’m a Hades player,” “I’m a Fortnite player,” “I’m a WoW player.” Belonging to a community communicates the type of player you are. That’s somewhat because of the games themselves, but more so about how their players relate to each other and other communities.
I think our advantage is that Battleships wasn’t an esport. It was, and still is, competitive, but really it’s a game you play with friends while making friends. Our Discord reflects that. People love Sirocco, but more importantly, they love playing it together. That took work, and it’s something most competitive games overlook.
For growth, I’m sceptical of traditional marketing. We saw a bump from Early Access and sponsored streams, but long-term word of mouth wins. People play what their friends recommend. So we’re focused on being a great game and a great community people want to share.
This kind of game can be intimidating. How are you easing new players in?
Max: Learning under pressure is never easy—especially in PvP. No one has figured it out exactly, but we’ve made it a core design goal.
MOBAs like Dota or League punish new players for not already knowing the meta — like which hero goes in which lane or what item to buy. In Sirocco, you can stay on the starter ship, follow your team, and compete just fine. Stick to basic upgrades and ability augments, and you’ll hold your own.
Players tell us Sirocco feels way more relaxed and approachable than other MOBAs. We’re proud of that.
What’s your #1 piece of advice for new players?
Jack: The starter ship, the Sampan, is strong at every stage of the game, and there are a million ways to play it.
So my tip would be to stay on the Sampan, play with a friend, and upgrade your health early to survive stray harpoons. Don’t stress about min-maxing or reading every tooltip. If you’re upgrading what you can, you’re doing just fine.
Max: Also — losing doesn’t have to suck. People lose in single-player games all the time and don’t care. We want to bring that mindset to multiplayer.
The game’s already looking polished. What can you tell us about your plans?
Max: Right now, we’re focused on player feedback—especially around UI/UX, social features, and quality-of-life polish.
After that, we’ve got new Captains, new Ships, and craftable ship skins coming as we get ready for a full launch a year or two from now.
Finally, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions!
Thank you! we love your site—this was a real pleasure.
