This is truly the best game I've played in this Game Jam and here's why:
From start to finish you can see how much work and love has been put into it, there's nice artwork, suitable soundtrack and good mechanics, player easily sympathizes with all the characters and the subtle plot we get is very enjoyable. At first seemingly simple game gives us an important mission which ends with a really satisfying result. There's no words to describe how satisfied I am with this experience, great job, I hope you guys win, and I'll be waiting for an official release <3
PROS:
+ Miss Cheesecake is an adorable name for a boat
+ I love all the character designs, especially the dirty rat Barry
+ boat has a reverse gear - very useful!
+ good variety of fish with nice graphics and funny names
+ you need to start moving the boat forward before being able to do any turns - that adds to the realism
+ I love the creative mechanic of catching fish here!
+ Great idea with making fish in the water different colors and shapes, we can actually differentiate them, which is not so common in the recent fishing games
+ Soundtrack is very pleasant, you know it’s looped (hah) but it doesn’t feel that repetitive nor annoying at all
+ Super cool that you added eels! Original!
+ Loved the little void fish quest, makes the game deeper than just about fishing for your own benefit
+ Chunky Tuna fan here
+ final ending of the game is very cute, very emotional, great feels
+ Loopy makes some adorable expressions and the Credits screen is adorable too, nothing’s overwhelming nor over the top
CONS:
-while in menu, sliders that’s supposed to turn off the ambient sounds or music don’t do its job, only master works, so you can’t get rid of the seagull scream effect until you start the game (that’s when everything starts working)
-check marks on all the items in the store - I was confused at first if they’re selected or if I need to select them (I did and they turned green, but I think I’d like empty boxes more, or a box saying „select”)
SUGGESTIONS:
- add an option that would allow player to go back to the previous hint in the tutorial (I skipped one by accident and I don’t want to redo the whole thing)
- make the deeper waters darker in color?
- It would be nice if the characters in the stores said something, maybe give them little quotes to say every few times we go to their stores?
- Maybe add some occasional seaweed or coral or trash we could catch on purpose or not?
- Boat damage?
- Squids or octopuses? They attack the boat?
- Random lighthouse for the scenery? Make it haunted? (I mean there’s one thing that kinda looks like one, but it would need to be a little tilted for me to recognize it for sure)
- A store that sells new boats for some crazy expensive prices and then the beaver could have separate updates for those? I don’t think I saw the option of changing the whole boat often in games of this kind
- There could be one a spot on the map where neither radar nor GPS works and Loopy could comment on that - maybe near the haunted lighthouse! Nothing more spooky than that, but just a little Easter Egg?
- Option in the settings to change the color of the boat?
- Maybe decrease value of fish a little bit? Earning money seems too easy for me. Or add different difficulty levels? One for new fishermen and one for the pro ones? So if someone finds themselves getting bored of the easy difficulty starting automatically after the tutorial, they could make the game more engaging for themselves?
- Maybe after finishing the final quest give the player an option to either leave to the menu and let the rodents live happily ever after OR to stay and get silly rich? Chris could have a little house on his little island that’s now connected to others?
THANK YOU FOR A GREAT GAMING EXPERIENCE!