Thanks! I was glad that getting outside the normal fishing box was well received. It was certainly something I've been looking for in a game for a while now.
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Game breaking bug. collected all the buffs. got level 10 crew. was starting to level every thing else but noticed i was at negative 1000 gold. was trying to trying to get back to positive gold but found a swordfish that didnt die. i died while buying upgrades but when i respawned i started back in the tutorial area. cant fish but i buy all upgrades for free with no limit it seems.
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really fun, would be nice to have a boss battle in the future as well as the other good suggestions. minor ship changes in size and shape for each level of the upgrade would be a nice touch too.
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Hey there, this game's pretty cool, it's a pretty good start. Design issue: Invincibility frames are incredibly powerful, you can idle in front of Shrimp and Swordfish and still survive, not having to worry about taking damage. And yeah, seconded on boat speed going too fast. I really like the theming between underwater running fish vs. attacking fish, and hope there are even more themes like that with different mechanics.
Oh that's a good point, I think I actually coded the hit detection a bit wrong, I'll fix that up. And totally, I wanted each fish to be a bit different, and eventually mix and match them in levels + hazardous environments.
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I can confirm the bug that DarknessD had, I've just got it and headed to the comments to see if I was missing something about the collection menu.
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Suggestion: Shift Boost Button
Explanation: Instead of having a speed increase perk, have a limited amount of boost that can be activated via hotkey. Allows the player to toggle the perk on and off quickly without going to a menu. Also stays useful at higher levels.
That's a really good idea! Can let you get to the spots you want to better, and I could also have slipstreams or flotsam or something that refill the meter. Lemme put that in the backlog.
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There's a game-breaking bug: it's possible to never unlock the collection menu. I believe this occurs when one dies within the level 2 circle, which can be done by attracting the attention of one of the shrimp. Timing might be important. When this happens, the text about opening the boat shop never disappears, and there's additional text at the second dock about using bait and opening the collection menu to see what each fish prefers. I was wondering why it seemed like everyone else was describing a different game from the one I played. Too bad there's no way I can see to reset. =(
You're a hell of a tester, I didn't even think of that condition. I'm actually adding a settings menu where you can reset shortly, and I'll look into that bug you mentioned :)
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I stopped being able to fish after being 3 exp away from level 10. I just gain an infinite amount of money by being near fishes :>
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Fun, great concept, easy to master. Like everyone else said more content would be awesome. Would love to see: More fish, more collection rewards, harder fish to deal with, something to do with the level system. The core of the game is awesome.
Thanks, appreciate the feedback. I was wondering if ripping out traditional fishing core gameplay out was a bad idea but I'm glad people really enjoy it.
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Since catching all the fish that matter, my boat has since gotten the ability to traverse concrete. I have decided to park my boat on top of the walls and hang up my fishing gear. Awaiting newer and bigger fish... Hopefully not a land shark.
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That's all I have to say about the mechanics, but you should add people to the boat when you increase fisherman, when you upgrade hull and cargo, the ship should visibly change, even if just minor, and when upgrading speed, you change the size of the motor, and if you added effects like waves, the size and shape of them would change with the shape of the boat and how fast it goes. All of these are just suggestions and ideas moving forward, but good luck to you, and all-in-all, had a lot of fun playing, well done.
Totally agree, atm I just add a dinky little fishing rod you can't even see. I've always been a big fan of visual upgrades and arpgs tend to disappoint me when all that happens is a spell gets its damage upgraded. I did want to focus on core mechanics for this version but a future version will definitely shoot for these effects.
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pretty good game, well done. The only critiques I have is that the leveling should do more (give money, select a buff for free, etc.) and that I think there should be more rewards for collection, like increasing range even more, giving an extra damage boost depending upon the number of fisherman on a single fish (boost damage of each fisherman by 5% for each fisherman on a single fish). Also, the red lines were difficult to get used to sometimes fish would suddenly go from white line to off, and others would go red first, even if they were all the same distance from the boat and you had the same amount of range.
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Thanks to the dev for replying to our comments- another bonus to this game! I played til I got all the fish bonuses, decided to wait until this game is eventually badged or updated. I agree with Jayenn's comment- maybe add a feature where we can modify our boat speed as needed- I noticed if the boat is slow enough, it can follow ("chase") certain fish and reel them in. When the boat gets faster, it is harder to follow the fish.
haha thanks to you too for the comments. Yea I'm going to be pretty active with comments, I'm used to that from a lot of Ludum Dares. However, I do want to be transparent that I'm in a rapid prototyping mode so expect a new game every 5 wks. After I've gotten a bunch of ideas out of my systems I'll then pick a winner to move forward with.
I like that idea for sure and wonder what the best way to implement that is without having a confusing interface. I suppose a slider shouldn't be too bad but you're right, I didn't account for the higher speeds very well.
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I'm level 9 n got 2292/2300 exp n also got the interesting thing that now when I'm going for a fish, they never die but I get like 2-4000 cargo of 160 n m rich (fished to half a mil in 2 minutes), when I click something to buy though my boat just moves there where my mouse points, also shop menu doesn't show how much i have of what after buying on the left side, when I click something on the left, the right side updates to the new value, also prices stay the same and it doesn't subtract any mone when i buy. After refreshing (or maybe after buyin 44 fisherman :D) my boat doesn't fish anything anymore, so guess for some reason it's broken now :) - besides that, awesome game though, just a bit short so far^^
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Towards the end, I was able to level my boat/skills past the spawn rate and had to wait for the fish to spawn. But it's okay, because I was typing this comment during most of the wait time, lol. Also, everything in "collection" is level 3 and there is no "grats, you have fished all the fish" message or anything. Did I miss something?
Appreciate the feedback! Nope you're right, I don't have a message because I have plans for additional collection levels and additional fish. I don't think I'll get to that in this prototype. If I choose to flesh out this game I will certainly add those in, and also more zones so that you don't go into spawn-starvation mode like you did :)
I wanted to keep the bass a bit challenging for the later game folks. You do have a couple other options though other than speed. If you collect enough shrimp you can slow down the fish, and if you buy more crew you can possibly outdamage him before he gets away.
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Nice little game. Will eventually want to have a way to import/export game save files if it expands past the prototype stage.
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I'm enjoying it! I like having to "fight" fish (but shrimp causes damage? really? lol) but it makes the game more strategic than I thought it would be. One suggestion "Cargo has no room for a nearby fish" probably could be better set as "Cargo has no room for nearby fish" because it still works even if there is only one fish nearby
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Managed to get out of bounds, suppose it's a matter of having enough speed and ramming specific edges under a certain angle
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At Level 9 with 2297 Points, i can stay in the near of a fish, and with no moving, the cargo is filling up without stoppng counting. Reaching more then 10.000
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Great game, had so much fun on it that I spent two hours farming fish.
I found a bug at some point though, the fish doesn't die and the boat load keep increasing way over its intended value.
Screenshot here : https://imgur.com/a/gJdkXip (the load was still increasing at this point, it stopped around 10 000)
Yea, the stats weren't intended to go beyond level 10 so I must've missed some checks there. Will be putting up a fix for that but you already maxed everything out lol, very impressive.
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There needs to be some kind of option to get your fishermen to all focus on one target. The only time splitting between different fish is useful is against minnows or when you're very overleveled against Koi, because any fish that is going to run will inherently run in separate directions and even with the range upgrade they'll escape your range easily before being caught, doubly so since they catch so much slower without your full compliment of fishermen on them. It turns the optimal strategy into trying to pick off stragglers so your guys won't fan out into 5 different fish, catching none of them.
That's a good point. The only real reason I wanted it to fan out more was because it might confuse some players why there are so many lines going forward since you can't easily see the rods. You're right though, it's no fun to really just pick off stragglers all day (like in WoW or something) so I'll consider changing that.
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Really nice,
Except the occasional issues (fishes go through walls...), the physics are pretty satisfying!
More upgrades would be nice (e.g. length of fishing lines) as well as stronger fishes (why not "bosses" fishes).
I haven't completely understood the point of leveling up. Except right at the beginning, it's not really unblocking anything.
You're right about that one, the level ups are just a gating mechanic for zones and features but........there's only 3 zones so it's not a big deal in this version. Thanks for the suggestions!
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I guess I broke the game. I stayed on the top of a swordfish getting damage while capturing him. My cargo went to 2000/32. Now I have a lot of money, but I can't buy any upgrade anymore and my fishermans aren't fishing
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maybe you could make two kinds of walls: one fish can swim under and one where they can't, so they can still escape from being trapped, but they can't leave the stage. Alternatively you could let them swim back to their spawn location after a set amount of time.
That's good feedback. It actually played like that in my initial tests, but I found I just kept trapping fish against the wall and it didn't feel quite right. I wonder if there's another solution...
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May make sense to have a toggle that swaps between focus fire (all lines on one fish) vs splitting by available fish.
That's a good idea, kinda like in a TD where you can choose to hit the weakest, or hit the nearest, etc. Tbh that algorithm is just plain buggy and favors FFing right now :x
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Great game, it got potential! Not sure if you had idle in mind but an upgrade that makes the boat go sell and come back to where it was could make some nice afk gold farm (it would stop if the boat sink)
I actually wanted to have helper ships you could buy to autofish for you. An additional system I coded up but couldn't get to fit was a bait system where you needed smaller fish to catch the larger fish. I was hoping you could use the helper ships to essentially grind bait for you to keep progressing. Nice game design eye!
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Fun start. It's really easy to sell fish, which could cause problems with your bait system. Maybe set up a separate inventory where you store bait, that doesn't auto-sell?
Yea that was actually the primary reason I nixed the bait system, I knew it would require a lot of UI thought and design and I was running out of time. I'll be revisiting the bait system in the future but it does look like the game is doing alright w/o it so far.
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I WANT MORE. I want to hunt whales, I want to throw dynamite into the ocean, I want to dreg up cthulhu himself from the sea!
I'm glad I'm getting people like you to play the game. I definitely didn't intend this to be a realistic fishing game, but more of a fantasy arpg experience. If I decide this is the prototype I eventually go with, you will absolutely see those features!
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I think that, while sitting at dock, I shouldn't be filling up my hold with fish *or* getting attacked. Especially not while reading menues.
Ahh I didn't think about that. I can certainly make them unaggro you in the dock, but I hope that doesn't become abusable. Not a big deal with a prototype version like this, but will be in a full version.
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I wish you could just add on this like idk 10 more fishes and like 2 more areas to keep ppl intrested til you come with the big content or do like idk 1000 fishes bonuses smt to keep me playing it's too good to stop.
Thanks man, it does pain me to see the positive responses and put a hold on the game, but this rapid experimentation process will really help me zero in on what players want and what niche needs to be filled. You can definitely look forward to the next game being just as unique and innovative.
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Could you add a key toggle to make the boat passively follow the cursor? I have bad wrists, so constantly holding lmb while moving around is actually quite strenuous after 5-10 mins.
Definitely, I can do that and also just have WASD keys. I apologize for not even thinking about how annoying it could be to hold down the mouse for that long.
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Somehow I just broke the game. I caught one of the medium fish in the top left area and it registered way above my capacity. Once I sold it, my gold jumped to $37k and I tried to upgrade. Nothing registered, although a reset showed stats did increase. I can't catch anything now though and my boat drives straight thru walls...I can no longer even find the fishing area. So whatever happened, it broke everything all at once.
Hah yea, it seems like that's an issue when the stats go too high. I was holding off on a new version but I do want to release a quick patch to address the immediate issues. Thanks for letting me know!
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please tell me you made a discord channel for this game , I'll give you so many ideas , you'll make a AAA Action RPG like this that will sell soo good it's not even funny , release on steam , make mil $. just please make a Discord channel for this game community you can get all kinds of ideas and conversations going there.
To be completely honest, I didn't think the game would get this kind of reception. Here is my plan: I'd like to play around with unique incremental game ideas so I am going to put out rapid, 5-wk prototypes each exploring a different design hypothesis. I was planning to make a Discord for game #2 and beyond but I may have to do that earlier than planned. Thanks for the reply!