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Hey Chrit,

I just gave this a little go. I didn't make it all the way to the end so I'm sure there's more for me to discover.

I will try to revisit this before ratings close and give a full take.

First Impressions:

1. I like the ambience and the graphical style.
2. I think the breathing sound does a good job of setting the tone.

It makes you feel "exposed" and ties well with the "cold" theme.

This combines to make the player feel vulnerable

I had a few incidents where I was looking for a menu or something to help explain things.

The project page text does a good job of explaining what to do but maybe a little cassette tape recording or a journal entry on a piece of paper would be a good way to communicate that information to the player in-game.

Maybe you could start the player waking up at the fire with some notes in hand, he takes a look and then the note doubles as a "new game" menu.

I don't know just spitballing here!

I pressed 'ESC' expecting a settings menu - as I was having some problems with my MOUSE SENSITIVITY.

I had to crank my DPI up to 4 x normal to "look around comfortably"

Again, probably my own fault for using such a stupid low dpi but something to consider.

I notice in your screenshot that theirs a hook on the end of the line.

When I played, I couldn't see any fish hook.

I also was a bit unsure about "how to fish"

I found myself a bit impatient waiting for ol fishy to make his apperance.

So I was wriggling the mouse and tapping keys wondering if it would speed things up.

"Here fishy fishy" with a "tap tap tap" on the keyboard or "wiggle the mouse" to "tempt that little fishy to bite" is what I had in my head.

Maybe there's some controls I missed?

If not, I found the wait between catching fish a bit slow and was a bit more eager to go back to exploring the world / seeing the next thing you had "planned".

I really liked the core loop of fishing, making an offer and the balance between staying warm & finding sticks to burn.

Means I always had motivation to move.

However, I did find it a bit frustrating when I died a few times over and had to keep going back to the fish pond and "sitting there waiting too long" for the fish to then try and make more progress.

I eventually got caught by the monster a fourth time and decided to put it down until I have more time to return.

I will give it another go - and I look forward to seeing what else lies in store.

Really fun and I think you did a good job nailing the brief, balancing the mechanics and putting together something well thought out and with a decent level of polish.

I think it's definitely something that could be built upon further if you chose to do so.

I have opened a ticket/issue on my Git to give this another go and offer some more feedback after I've done a pass on some other submissions needing ratings.

Best of luck

Happy Gaming!

Thanks so much for the detailed feedback!

I agree that there's definitely a lack of direction or instructions in the game. That issue might be a remnant of when I was trying to build a purely atmospheric experience where all you did was fish and keep warm. Once I added the monster and additional mechanics I should have included some instructions for players. I think a cassette or journal entries is a great way of going about that and if I come back to this project I'll definitely add those. The lack of menu and options were due to a lack of time, so I'll implement those as well on the next go around.

As for the fishing, the reason why there was a hook in the screenshots is cause they were from an earlier build where there was only a single lure. In the current build you start with one lure and can find a second one, so they actually change. They're pretty hard to see underwater though, I gotta brighten em up.

The slow fishing is also a product of it originally being a purely atmospheric slow burn horror. I was going for something like Iron Lung, and that probably won't change. However, I did used to have a mechanic where you could leave the rod and lure in the water while you got up and walked around, so I think adding that back in will solve the issue of boring waiting.

Thanks so much for the feedback, really appreciate it!