liked the music and graphics, especially the actions of the character during fishing
did not like the difficulty. I gave this two playthroughs, and I think I finished with 100 both times. catching the blue fish became consistent (after I read the instructions) but still took probably over two minutes. the yellow fish seemed impossible. never got the red fish bite. maybe I just suck
I guess this is just a little demo that will be part of a bigger game, but unless I missed something obvious I had to exit through the task manager.
I appreciate the challenge and I would enjoy having to master this to get 1000 points in 5 minutes.
- Hmm, the difficulty? I think once you get what you're supposed to actually do, it's super easy. Did you check the Fishing Tips? If so, is there a part you don't understand? Trying to convey what to do to the player without giving them the literal exact thing to do has proven a little bit difficult, so I think I could improve on that. What you're supposed to do is use pulls to lower their stamina and then reel when their stamina is low.
- Yeah, I didn't want the player to be able to return to the world map or to see the cutscene where you get your reward, so I just looped it.
Yeah, I read the tips. I even followed that advice to the letter. Used pulls to get their stamina to basically 0, them spammed click to reel. Progress was inconsistent and I couldn't tell whether the focus was on pulling them to the right, or pulling them up, but with both the yellow and the blue fish I got to the point where you'd think I'd be dominating but I wasn't. I can record a quick video if you want.
It sounds like you're trying to get them in with just pulls (Z key), when you reel with X (hold it). Here is a sample of intended gameplay: https://streamable.com/oot4d3
Ok I get it now. I was rapid clicking (to reel, right? I caught at least two fish this way) hence why it was nigh impossible. Maybe put (hold) next to the instruction for reel. Maybe I have the controls wrong but I was spamming the reel button.
Really neat minigame, didn't play for too long but the mechanics are solid, the UI and sfx fit very well. Made me feel big brained when I figured out I could bait fish to come closer to shore before they bite.
So, after sleeping on my bed for an hour to restore all my HP, here I come to review your game:
Simple, fun and understandable approach to fishing. Could be better with the following:
Actual button icons on the bottom right instead of just letters.
If you could look around before casting.
More animations for the fish sprites. Maybe only one or two more would be enough.
Hopefully more complex skills or maybe fish "passive" abilities, as currently mashing pull until the fish is tired then reeling, and using your skill as soon as you have a full bar seems to be enough to beat anything.
If you wanna be fancy, make the mountain reflections half their y-size, and make them shimmer.
If you have a big dick, make it so you can attract fish by pulling in a rhythm before one of them bites, and make them only really bite if you pull while they're close, to avoid hooking fish you don't want to.
That's it, hopefully I'll check out your full game later on!
- Buttons icons for the menu are something I want to do but it's actually a pain in the ass to do in rewired. I'll do it eventually but it really is a pain.
- As for more animations for the fish themselves, I'm not sure what I'd actually do. I feel like I have less than what I could have as well. Maybe an idle animation or something? Most of the stuff comes off in their mugshots, so this is a hard one.
- Yeah, complex skills were not on the books for a one and done 5 minute minigame. I am looking at making a full version, and I already have plans for more complexity there.
- As for the mountain reflections, they're about 75% smaller instead of 50%. 50% looked really wrong. As for animating them, it's not a bad idea. Maybe I should!
- You can already lure fish with a rhythm with blues and yellows to lure them to the goal point easier. You can use this to instacatch blues and yellows. Reds are too fast to be lured without a fight. I think you were talking about something more in line with the TEC system in Breath of Fire 3, but I thought that system was ludicrously complex and unintuitive even though it did add a good level of skill to the game.
The require you to wear down their stamina like any other fish before catching. They have large stamina pools, but they actually don't regenerate stamina any faster than the blue fish, meaning that after you've fought him for a while, he's weakened and you can reel him in. He puts up a hell of a fight before that though.
Cool music and transition effects. Feels like there might be potential for more depth if there were a tell for when pulls/reels are more effective for each type of fish.
In the context of being a short palate cleanser in the middle of a full-length platformer game, this is a fun diversion and a pretty substantial minigame.
I feel like difficulty can scale up a bit faster. Until you catch a fish that punishes you for reeling in at certain times, it really just feels like a numbers game in which the player's numbers are higher. Maybe even the smaller fish could have a weaker version of the mechanic just to make catching them less mindless
When casting your line, it would be nice to be able to zoom out or move the camera somewhat. Without being able to see the position of more fish, it doesn't seem too relevant when I cast.
I see that reeling cannot be initiated when low and stamina but can be held until you run out completely. It would be nice to have some marker on the meter that indicates the minimum stamina threshold where you can pull/reel again
It would be nice to be able to release a small fish that you catch on accident when trying to catch a larger one.
cute art as usual and options to rebind controls is appreciated as always
I'm curious whether you plan on making this minigame recurring with harder fish and more complex mechanics, or whether it is a one and done event. Either way, good stuff, keep it up!
-This minigame is going to be a one and done deal in Wonderland In Ruin, but I actually do plan on making a small game of Fishing In Ruin with some more mechanics, fish, maps, etc.
-You're right that it's a bit easy but it's also not meant to test you that hard given that it comes about when bonus stages are unlocked after beating world 3 and is over in 5 minutes.
-The marker for where you can use would be a bit of a pain to make in a way that works in the context of FiR, but I get where you're coming from.
-As for release, I've received this complaint before. It takes a little bit but you can reel normally to break the line on purpose. Otherwise I'm not sure what to do, as I'm looking at FiR being available on mobile, and I already have a lot of buttons for a mobile fishing game with touch buttons... I'm not sure if I can justify adding another button and you can actually use all 3 buttons at once, so it's tough to say what to do. Sometimes controls are a real struggle, huh?
-As for being able to move the camera, I didn't think about that. I'll think about it, as being able to control the camera there does cause problems with the cast meter that I'd probably need to do some shenanigans to resolve that I'm not sure I can afford the time to do, but at the same time I do agree with you so I have mixed feelings.
Also it should be stated that all fish punish the player for reeling during high stamina. 50% stamina = 50% line damage taken. Also, if a fish is using an active skill (Angerjack's Gigant Charge), using Pull will deal a massive amount of damage to line HP (20% in Angerjack's case.) You can tell when he's still doing it by the glowing aura and the angry mugshot. It's really hard to convey how mechanics works sometimes and between Fishing Tips and the Fishing Manual, I don't know if I succeeded.
so i failed the first time because i thought you had to alternate pulling and reeling, because i thought reeling had something to do with controlling the amount of slack you have in the line so it doesn't break and pulling was just a sharp decrease in slack
it doesn't feel like fishing or even a fishing game, like the two i'm most familiar with are far cry v where you control slack in the line and you have to pull against the fish's movement and pokemon where you have to time the pulls to a text prompt
for a minigame it's fine but it feels like a turn based rpg more than anything, also there doesn't appear to be a system for making additional money off it, you just go past a certain amount and you win
art is fine, it's very tohou-esque, i'd either lean into the "it's an rpg battle system thing" with like different types of pull and reel moves and maybe different fish countermoves or make it more like other fishing minigames
I can understand the confusion. This minigame is sort of a mix between Link's Awakening and Breath of Fire 3's fishing systems. Nothing of those are much in the way of simulators. I am looking at doing a full game of this eventually, and I have more stuff planned for it, but it feels like it's mostly fine for a 5 minute minigame in the middle of a puzzle platformer to spice things up.
As for your reward, you actually don't get any money at all for completing it. You get a summon that increases your speed by 25% when you summon her.
I like the character art, but the portrait art not so much. I don´t even know why exactly, maybe because it´s missing the hat?
It´s always annoying if people use Z and/or Y as inputs because I´m on european keyboard layout and those two are switched, you have button remapping though so not a big issue
I think the overall game gets mundane once you realize you can just mindlessly spam pulls until the fish has no more stamina and then reel in. Maybe make it so you have to time the pulls with something the fish does, like you pull when the fish pulls. The ability you have doesn´t really feel like it has much impact either, it´s not useless but just meh
Not sure what else you have planned for this minigame. I´d add maybe something like a chest on the bottom that you can try and catch as ultimate goal. You´d need to catch away the fish first since they´ll always take the hook before it can sink to the chest.
- I'm not so great at art. What hat? Do you mean that the portrait is missing her bow? Her bow is the fairy that you see in the portrait art.- -
- It does get solvable but I have things I'm thinking about for it later. I think it's fine for this though, as it's just a quick 5 minute breather after a bunch of puzzle levels.
-Second Wind is definitely not a great skill in itself, but I preferred that one with how it allows you to do different things as the default, instead of Gigant Pull or Gigant Reel, which both have more particular usages.
Ohh yeah I meant the bow. I mainly meant the small portrait on the bottom left when you got a fish on the hook. I feel like the bow/fairy should be there too then. I wonder what the full game looks like, might give it a try at some point.
Oh right, she's not there on her mugshot because they're not always together in the main game and I don't have different graphics for whether or not the fairy is docked on the cat or not. I haven't even thought about it until now but I'll consider it!Do give the full game a try if you're interested! The current demo has 8 level and 15 missions in it, and can take 20~40 minutes to beat depending on how much you do.
Comments
How can you expect me to catch fish when they're all so cute and make sad faces when they're low on stamina?!
Deal with it, nerd!
>:(
I love the music in the game especially the seamless transition into the fishing music
super fun little game and water-tight on my playthrough at least, didn't catch any bugs or general issues! good job!
This was the first time me and my my musician had ever did dynamic music like that. It turned out a lot better than expected!
- Hmm, the difficulty? I think once you get what you're supposed to actually do, it's super easy. Did you check the Fishing Tips? If so, is there a part you don't understand? Trying to convey what to do to the player without giving them the literal exact thing to do has proven a little bit difficult, so I think I could improve on that. What you're supposed to do is use pulls to lower their stamina and then reel when their stamina is low.
- Yeah, I didn't want the player to be able to return to the world map or to see the cutscene where you get your reward, so I just looped it.
Yeah, I read the tips. I even followed that advice to the letter. Used pulls to get their stamina to basically 0, them spammed click to reel. Progress was inconsistent and I couldn't tell whether the focus was on pulling them to the right, or pulling them up, but with both the yellow and the blue fish I got to the point where you'd think I'd be dominating but I wasn't. I can record a quick video if you want.
It sounds like you're trying to get them in with just pulls (Z key), when you reel with X (hold it). Here is a sample of intended gameplay: https://streamable.com/oot4d3
Ok I get it now. I was rapid clicking (to reel, right? I caught at least two fish this way) hence why it was nigh impossible. Maybe put (hold) next to the instruction for reel. Maybe I have the controls wrong but I was spamming the reel button.
Oh that sounds awful, bro. I'll consider it! Thanks for playing!
Really neat minigame, didn't play for too long but the mechanics are solid, the UI and sfx fit very well. Made me feel big brained when I figured out I could bait fish to come closer to shore before they bite.
That in itself wasn't intentional but I was excited as well when that happened to me in testing and I instantly caught a yellow!
This seems to be a recurring desire so I've put it on the list to look into.
This is so polished and juicy, god damn.
So, after sleeping on my bed for an hour to restore all my HP, here I come to review your game:
Simple, fun and understandable approach to fishing. Could be better with the following:
That's it, hopefully I'll check out your full game later on!
- Buttons icons for the menu are something I want to do but it's actually a pain in the ass to do in rewired. I'll do it eventually but it really is a pain.
- As for more animations for the fish themselves, I'm not sure what I'd actually do. I feel like I have less than what I could have as well. Maybe an idle animation or something? Most of the stuff comes off in their mugshots, so this is a hard one.
- Yeah, complex skills were not on the books for a one and done 5 minute minigame. I am looking at making a full version, and I already have plans for more complexity there.
- As for the mountain reflections, they're about 75% smaller instead of 50%. 50% looked really wrong. As for animating them, it's not a bad idea. Maybe I should!
- You can already lure fish with a rhythm with blues and yellows to lure them to the goal point easier. You can use this to instacatch blues and yellows. Reds are too fast to be lured without a fight. I think you were talking about something more in line with the TEC system in Breath of Fire 3, but I thought that system was ludicrously complex and unintuitive even though it did add a good level of skill to the game.
That's pretty fun minigame.
At first I lost, but second time could beat it. Once even caught a yellow fish.
Cool music and sound effects.
Did you catch the red fish?
Nah, could'nt do it, at first I thought they are not for fishing, but now as you ask this I see they just require more skill.
The require you to wear down their stamina like any other fish before catching. They have large stamina pools, but they actually don't regenerate stamina any faster than the blue fish, meaning that after you've fought him for a while, he's weakened and you can reel him in. He puts up a hell of a fight before that though.
Cool music and transition effects. Feels like there might be potential for more depth if there were a tell for when pulls/reels are more effective for each type of fish.
In the context of being a short palate cleanser in the middle of a full-length platformer game, this is a fun diversion and a pretty substantial minigame.
I'm curious whether you plan on making this minigame recurring with harder fish and more complex mechanics, or whether it is a one and done event. Either way, good stuff, keep it up!
-This minigame is going to be a one and done deal in Wonderland In Ruin, but I actually do plan on making a small game of Fishing In Ruin with some more mechanics, fish, maps, etc.
-You're right that it's a bit easy but it's also not meant to test you that hard given that it comes about when bonus stages are unlocked after beating world 3 and is over in 5 minutes.
-The marker for where you can use would be a bit of a pain to make in a way that works in the context of FiR, but I get where you're coming from.
-As for release, I've received this complaint before. It takes a little bit but you can reel normally to break the line on purpose. Otherwise I'm not sure what to do, as I'm looking at FiR being available on mobile, and I already have a lot of buttons for a mobile fishing game with touch buttons... I'm not sure if I can justify adding another button and you can actually use all 3 buttons at once, so it's tough to say what to do. Sometimes controls are a real struggle, huh?
-As for being able to move the camera, I didn't think about that. I'll think about it, as being able to control the camera there does cause problems with the cast meter that I'd probably need to do some shenanigans to resolve that I'm not sure I can afford the time to do, but at the same time I do agree with you so I have mixed feelings.
Thanks for playing my demo, Donny!
Also it should be stated that all fish punish the player for reeling during high stamina. 50% stamina = 50% line damage taken. Also, if a fish is using an active skill (Angerjack's Gigant Charge), using Pull will deal a massive amount of damage to line HP (20% in Angerjack's case.) You can tell when he's still doing it by the glowing aura and the angry mugshot. It's really hard to convey how mechanics works sometimes and between Fishing Tips and the Fishing Manual, I don't know if I succeeded.
so i failed the first time because i thought you had to alternate pulling and reeling, because i thought reeling had something to do with controlling the amount of slack you have in the line so it doesn't break and pulling was just a sharp decrease in slack
it doesn't feel like fishing or even a fishing game, like the two i'm most familiar with are far cry v where you control slack in the line and you have to pull against the fish's movement and pokemon where you have to time the pulls to a text prompt
for a minigame it's fine but it feels like a turn based rpg more than anything, also there doesn't appear to be a system for making additional money off it, you just go past a certain amount and you win
art is fine, it's very tohou-esque, i'd either lean into the "it's an rpg battle system thing" with like different types of pull and reel moves and maybe different fish countermoves or make it more like other fishing minigames
I can understand the confusion. This minigame is sort of a mix between Link's Awakening and Breath of Fire 3's fishing systems. Nothing of those are much in the way of simulators. I am looking at doing a full game of this eventually, and I have more stuff planned for it, but it feels like it's mostly fine for a 5 minute minigame in the middle of a puzzle platformer to spice things up.
As for your reward, you actually don't get any money at all for completing it. You get a summon that increases your speed by 25% when you summon her.
Not sure what else you have planned for this minigame. I´d add maybe something like a chest on the bottom that you can try and catch as ultimate goal. You´d need to catch away the fish first since they´ll always take the hook before it can sink to the chest.
- I'm not so great at art. What hat? Do you mean that the portrait is missing her bow? Her bow is the fairy that you see in the portrait art.- -
- It does get solvable but I have things I'm thinking about for it later. I think it's fine for this though, as it's just a quick 5 minute breather after a bunch of puzzle levels.
-Second Wind is definitely not a great skill in itself, but I preferred that one with how it allows you to do different things as the default, instead of Gigant Pull or Gigant Reel, which both have more particular usages.
Thanks for playing, friend!
Ohh yeah I meant the bow. I mainly meant the small portrait on the bottom left when you got a fish on the hook. I feel like the bow/fairy should be there too then. I wonder what the full game looks like, might give it a try at some point.
Oh right, she's not there on her mugshot because they're not always together in the main game and I don't have different graphics for whether or not the fairy is docked on the cat or not. I haven't even thought about it until now but I'll consider it!Do give the full game a try if you're interested! The current demo has 8 level and 15 missions in it, and can take 20~40 minutes to beat depending on how much you do.