Working Title

Gone Fishin’

Concept Statement

In Gone Fishin’, the player takes the role of a playable small fish and has to survive the brutal ocean and devour small prey to grow larger and survive and prosper in a 2d environment by: 

• Growing in size and exploring the darker depths of the ocean
• Combat various hazards such as electric eels, fisherman’s hooks, and multiple predators such as sharks
• Accumulate points to reach more challenging depths of the ocean

Genre

Survival Action

Concept creation process

Took a concept that is fairly simple and has been done before in similar games that will be shown below, my initial thought process came from the film Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (Rezolak, 2022), which stood out to me as notable from childhood and would make a interesting 2D unity based game. I took the approach of subtractive design to strip it down to the core mechanics of being a small fish in a big ocean full of large predators and having to grow to survive. So, with this process in mind, we needed a baseline that is stripped down to core components required as listed here:

• A Level or set of levels
• A player character (the fish)
• A set of enemy fish or maritime creatures.
• Scripting for movement

With these basic components laid down, we can use our game development skills to use Unity to develop the core gameplay loop further and then expand by adding further mechanics and concepts without running into scope creep issues that could cause delivery issues.

As discussed above, the initial inspiration came from the Star Wars 1 film, but some games also inspired and helped develop ideas on implementing this project in game development methodologies. Some of the video games that inspired me are listed here:

• Feed and Grow: Fish – A 3D early access title developed by Old B1ood, allowing the player to “Hunt and eat other fish – simply grow into larger beasts” (Old B1ood, 2016). While significantly beyond this project's scope, it inspired how to deploy a similar game on a 2D environment with a similar gameplay loop on a simpler scale.
• Fish Eat Fish is a simple browser game in which you eat marine life to gain points, compete against other players, and grow and survive. The gameplay loop is very close to the kind of game I aim to achieve at its core (MobiBrian, 2025).

Audience

The target consumer for this product will be broader, suitable for a wide range of ages, from young people to adults aged 20 to 50+. The primary age group targeted will be the older range as the design philosophy of this product is to keep it very user friendly, fun and easy to play to appeal to older age groups of both genders to appeal to the demographics such as parents of families who have less technical experience and less free time so a quick easy to play fun experience that can be picked up when time suits would be ideal. However, this product would also appeal to younger demographics, such as children and young age groups, such as teenagers.

Competitive Analysis

This game has been created in various forms over the years, as it is a fairly popular concept. This project aims to take the core concept of being a fish and eating marine life, starting with basic hazards to avoid, such as aquatic life and environmental risks. The difficulty will progressively increase as the game progresses, and new mechanics will be added as you progress to deeper ocean parts. The plan to distinguish it from similar games in this market is to apply unique mechanics as the game progressed and including mechanics to make it stand out from competitors but keeping it very simple and refined, which was from research the main thing the set games of this type back, trying to deliver ambitious features such as multiplayer and 3D graphics leading abandonment of project as was seen in the Feed and Grow title which had strong potential but lacked updates for multiple years leading to conclusion its most likely been abandoned due to scope creep. This project plans to stand out from other similar titles by keeping it as simple as possible while maintaining a high level of enjoyment in the core gameplay loop and ensuring any features added are thoroughly tested to ensure minimal issues post-deployment

Game Treatment

Game Description

You are a small fish in a big ocean, surrounded by prey and need to hunt smaller prey to grow stronger and survive the many threats in the deep sea. Embrace the fish-eat-fish lifestyle, grow stronger, become the prey and strive towards the top of the pack. Utilize your skills to evade danger, avoid many hazards from marine life to human fishermen, and venture deeper into the ocean's dark depths to secure more exciting prey.

Key Features

• Eight-way movement to give satisfying control of movement on a two-dimensional plane
• Boost the mechanic to evade larger prey
• A fisherman hook mechanic that will require escaping the lure to avoid a game over
• Unique mechanics, such as the electric eel, electrify its surroundings at proximity.
• Easy prey that serves as a red herring damages the player from the inside.
• Multiple tiers of the ocean's depth, with difficulty increasing as you go deeper, with a fog of war style mechanic.
• Time and Score to encourage replayability.
• Sound effects to enhance the experience and add to the survival theme.
• Different types of fish for the player and enemies.
• Powerup items that enhance player experience, such as magnetic fields for protection (Sehar, A. 2017).
• Animations are used to add polish to the game further and improve the experience.

Concept Art

Reference List

Rezolak. (2022, September 12). Youtube.com <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K8rbkxa7CE>.

Old B1ood. (2016, January 9). Greens s.r.o. <https://store.steampowered.com/app/429050/Feed_and_Grow_Fish/>.

Mobibrian Technology Pte. Ltd. (2025, March 28).  Google Play Store. <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.FishEatFish.FeedGrow&hl=en_AU>.

Sehar, A. (2017). Apple App Store. <https://apps.apple.com/mt/app/fish-eat-fish-attack-survive/id6503143842>.