Hi! Here's an honest review of the game!
It's really nice. I really love the visuals. The background is very serene and the fish models are cute and signal well the gameplay mechanics.
You didn't compose the music, but I praise the pick. It very much fits the feel of the game and adds a lot of atmosphere.
Gameplay wise it's pretty good. It's a kind of game that I've only seen few of. Although hovering the mouse to mine was clunky as I had to pay attention to where my fish is, where I'm headed and where my mouse is and if it's hovering over the iron. It would've been better if it was upon clicking and it was automatic, since it would require your attention yet not demand so much of it that it conflicts with the rest of the game.
I really like the skill tree but it could be more impactful. The pricing could be a bit lower but it's alright. It just caps at a low ball number for things rather than go all out and make the grind for the upgrades very worthwhile.
My one question is: How is this a demo and not a short experience? Genuinely, what is the goal here? As is I'd pay $5 or even $10 for it with all the joy in the world. It's a short 30m-1hr experience, and that's okay. But the idea doesn't hold enough water for a 3hr-8hr experience.
However, I don't want to shoot a creator down. If you have a vision I want to see it to fruition. I have worries on how it would be as a full game, but I still want to see what comes out of it. I recommend doing research on E.V.O published by Enix. The entire game is carried by a skill tree and a loop of action sequences. It also has quite a bit of grind and I believe it has ideas that would be valuable. Specifically the aesthetic and change up in gameplay stage to stage, and especially that it doesn't stick to reality 100%. I think making monstrous fishes and going deeper into the abyss would be really cool and offer a challenging late game.
I'll be following because I do want to see where this project goes! Good job on this!