It took me a a minute to get the hang of it, maybe some fishing animation could help. I love the game objective to bring back the fish you catch, and how you have to look closely to find the underwater fish, very cool concept. The graphics were well-done and 2-boat gameplay was tricky but definitely a fun twist.
Play game
Pirate Bay's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| IDEA | Was this game innovative, or did it use interesting mechanics? | #50 | 3.857 | 3.857 |
| VISUAL | Did this game have nice graphics, art or design? | #141 | 3.286 | 3.286 |
| FUN | Was this game satisfying to play or did it bring you joy? | #150 | 3.143 | 3.143 |
| Overall | #163 | 2.943 | 2.943 |
| MOOD | Did this game have atmosphere, or did it make you feel something? | #185 | 2.857 | 2.857 |
| AUDIO | Did this game have great music or sound design? | #262 | 1.571 | 1.571 |
Ranked from 7 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Let people know how long this project has been going, or share a bit of its history.
I created first prototype of this game in December 2020 using microStudio - https://microstudio.dev - because of my personal challenge of making one game each day. I liked the idea and I wanted to work more on it. It is still far from finished, but this jam inspired me to push the next update sooner. :)
Comments
3 years ago(+1)
I have an idea for a simple fishing animation and I will add it for sure. And I want collected fish to be visible on the boat, so that it will tell more than just numbers above the boat.
It just came to my mind that I might remove the numbers above boats if I make it clear graphically that the boat can fit maximum of 5 fish. And if I add a person inside the boat (what I plan to do), that person might tell the player something like "We can't collect more fish, it's time to deliver them to the bay" to make it more clear that trying to collect more will not have any effect. What do you think about that?
I am happy you like the graphics. :) I was so happy when I created the winning animation. :D And I personally love the waves effect. ^^
I will work on informing player about the rules and the need of being careful when multiple boats are around. I belive I will bring some update this week and I will start with tutorials or any other good ways to communicate player what is happening or what the game expects from you.
3 years ago(+1)
I have just uploaded an update and descriped it in new devlog post. :) No fishing animation yet, but will come soon! :D
3 years ago(+1)
Hm, no, it must be a bug. But I must say I experienced it few times, but I wasn't sure if really clicked in the right place. Your experience prooves it is something I should look into.
It might be cause by the fact game checks if fish is on the spot where when the boat arrives, not when you click. When you add that fish move around slightly, it might be possible that when the boat arrives, fish moved few pixel away and "fish check" on that square returns false now.
I have just checked it by playing few times and it seems to be the reason. I will fix that soon. Thanks for pointing this out!
3 years ago(+1)
I updated the game with fix to the scenario I was able to reproduce. I would be super grateful if you can check if the bug you mentioned is gone. I described all the changes in this devlog post.
Thanks for your feedback! I'm glad you like it. :) And yeah, the tutorial is a must, I agree. :D
Interesting suggestion about restarting the level instead of restarting the whole game. I will experiment with that. It might fit nicely with the general idea for the "ending" of the game I have in my mind. Thanks for sharing your idea!
3 years ago(+1)
I have changed how restarting works according to your suggestion and described it in new devlog post. :)
3 years ago(+1)
Thanks for your comment! Yeah, I know it might not be clear, I will take handle it in next update. :) I have changed some stuff in the game kind of last minute before the deadline and I didn't have time to make those changes clearly understandable by the players.
The general idea is that you command boats that are should collect fish and bring it back to the building on the bottom. To move the boat you have to click on the sea, but only within a small range from the boat. If you click on the fish and the boat is close enough, it will go there and collect fish. Each boat can collect maximum of 5 fish. After collecting, you have to go back to the building at the bottom and deliver fish by clicking on the building. You pass the level when you deliver required amount of fish.
Each level brings more boats and more fish required. You have to be careful, as all boats react to clicks next to them and if they collide, you have to start from the beginning.
Is it more clear now?
I am not sure how to mark how far from the boat you can click if you want the boat to move there. I want it to not just be visible, but also to fit the game. Something that game to my mind was that I could add people on the boat - one person would command where the boat should go and the range limit would be justified by limited sight range of that commanding pirate. Sounds like a possible solution, but I am not convinced. Do you have any suggestions on that?
Ah, that makes a lot more sense. That's a really cool system now that I understand it. Maybe you could communicate more of what's happening with sounds. Maybe you could personify the mouse click as something that could interact with the boats. Like a horn with a ripple coming out of it that only extends so far.
3 years ago(+1)
Thanks!
Yeah, in one moment I thought about something like that. I will experiment with that and I will bring an update with this idea. Thanks for sharing it! :)
Nice update. Noticed a bug where even after you lost, you can continue playing in the background and then still move onto the next level. Might want to make it any click will restart the game rather than clicking a specific area.
Also was thinking the game is pretty easy right now if you play it slow. Would be nice to have some way to encourage a higher level of play, like a time based score, or having fish spawn in and out so you have to rush to get to them.
3 years ago(+1)
I love the idea of fish spawning for some short period of time! I will look into it, thanks! It brought me the idea of bringing the time passing also by the change of light - the longer you play, the more dark everything becomes. And I could add some points system as you suggested. Additionally, I imagine a pirate saying something like "Wow, we did it before the noon. A grog time now!" when you finish early, or "Arrgh, I hate fishing after the dusk" to add some reasoning to the higher/lower points. :D
I plan to make colliding with rocks also cause the need to restart the game, I think it would play nicely with fish available for just a short period of time.
Thanks for the bug report. I will fix the clicking after win/lose. I considered just blocking boats movement after losing/winning condition is met. I will check your suggestion, thank you!
3 years ago(+1)
The clicking behaviour on win/lose screen is now changed according to your suggestion. I described all the changes in this devlog post. No spawning fish yet, but I belive I will add it soon. :D
3 years ago(+1)
Thanks! I think that having sounds here might make it a lot more fun to play. By the jam deadline microStudio, the engine I used, didn't have option to use sound files, only built-in basic synth. But now it is available, so I will add some sounds and music for sure. :)
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.