itch.io

I agree that the fish sprites have a lot of visual charm and would work well in a final product. Combining fishing minigames with tower defense is a great idea! I like that objects like weeds and rocks can be used to buff a fish and that catching fish grants XP that can be used to upgrade their abilities.

It's kinda disappointing though that most of your catches grant 0 XP. I understand that you intend to implement fishing upgrades, but it feels better from a player perspective to get even just 1 XP per fish with a vanilla fishing rod to buy an upgrade that costs 2 XP rather than catching 2 fish to gain 1 XP to buy an upgrade that costs 1 XP. It's the same amount of work, but getting at least 1 XP from each catch is a more rewarding player experience (at least imo haha).

That's only a suggestion though. This is a really cool prototype with a lot of unique elements and it'll be cool to see where you go with this. :)

Thank you! I had a lot of fun designing tiny pixel versions of these critters :)

Of course, I'm glad it's helpful to you. :) And yeah, everything I said is merely a suggestion.  There's lots of possible solutions to explore: best of luck finding one that works with your vision! Thanks for sharing this, can't wait to see where you go with this project. :)

Because every enemy has high health and you can only shoot in one direction, the window you can reasonably kill an enemy closes quickly, and you are discouraged from engaging with most of them; the most efficient strategy to beat a wave becomes selecting one enemy to destroy so you can loop around behind the enemy lines.

If this is to be a shmup, shooting enemies should be essential to the gameplay. I think the game would be a lot more engaging if the enemies remained on screen until they were all killed (maybe reversing direction when they reach the edge of the screen), and if the player character could flip around to blast enemies (pressing "Z" to flip vertically or something).

That said, the controls feel great, the enemy designs are super cool, and I think you have a great variety of enemy attacks. It's also cool that enemy path movements are telegraphed and you can see which enemies will appear in the next wave.

This is a great remake. :D I like all the different upgrades you can choose and how you choose which ones to swap out or you can combine certain weapons upgrades.

This is a really fun game that offers a surprising amount of content! The art is great; all the fish are visually distinct and pretty to look at. I can't bear to trade enough away to leave my shelves bare, haha. I got nearly all the achievements except the last two. Based on the clue, I'm guessing there's a random chance to catch a dogfish?

I enjoyed playing the matching game probably more than I should have. So satisfying when you make all the matches with 4 flips left! I think some kind of indicator that you've unlocked a new achievement, like a brief banner appearing, would be really cool :D

This was fun to play, even without any fish sprites! The completionist in me refused to stop playing until I had caught at least one of all the fish. The animations are great; I absolutely adore Ori. Well done!

This is awesome!!! Fishing to feed an eldritch monster is such a fun idea, and there is a great variety of catchables. All of the sprites for the various critters and items are fantastic. My favorite piece of treasure I discovered is the sarcatphagus. :'3 I also love that you included at least one prehistoric fish in the game!

An astronaut catching space fish is such a cool idea, and I like the sprite for the fish a lot. :) Are there more than one species of fish? I only ever encountered the Magneto-Mahl. 

The steering mechanic is also interesting because not only do you have to manage the line tension, but you must also avoid obstacles. Steering the fish away from the space debris is quite tricky though, as its response to key input is exceptionally minimal, it can change direction suddenly, and the rocks spawn close together. I think adjusting at least one of these values could keep the game challenging but make losing the fish feel less like the result of unfortunate RNG.

Also, in case you weren't aware, I want to quickly mention that the out of bounds area is displaying when the game runs. Nice work overall though!

Oh wow, this is incredible! I love the detailed pixel art combined with a more muted color palette.  I like how you can dredge up debris and small vertebrates as well. This is such a clever interpretation of the prompt and a unique experience.

The sound design also really stands out to me; I think you did a great job selecting immersive ambience and effects that mesh well with the relaxing gameplay.

And of course, I love the Invertebrate Index! Finding all the creatures is definitely my favorite part about fishing games as well. :) I played yours until I stopped finding new creatures. I wasn't able to find any waterboatmen, freshwater amphipods, or planarian worms. Are these the invertebrates you have yet to add?

 Really excellent all around, I will definitely keep an eye out for any updates to this project. :)

Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm happy my game made you more curious about these critters. :D I also had a lot of Wikipedia tabs open while researching for the game, haha.

No Cambrian-themed game would be complete without Opabinia!

Thank you for checking out my game, I'm so happy you enjoyed it enough to consider recommending to friends! This was a great game jam idea. Thanks for hosting it. :)

There is a basic rarity system (9 commons, 5 uncommons, and 1 rare), and the meter's starting fill level and drain rate are tied to creature rarity, but I should probably make this more obvious in-game. I also like the idea of scaling wait time with creature rarity.

Thank you for your great suggestions! And thanks so much for playing my game. :)

I thoroughly enjoyed this game. :) There's lots to discover through simple yet engaging creature-collector mechanics and puzzles. My personal favorite friends are Jake and Moth, but don't tell the others! Other highlights were the Infinite Pantry and the Fridge of Variable Provisions.

My only wish is that there was a sort of "endless mode" once you complete the game. I beat the game before collecting all the recipe cards, so I was a bit confused when I clicked "resume game" after the credits rolled and it had reset some of my progress (befriending Pants).

Also, I wish I could pet Jake...but these are minor wants. :) The game is well-designed and full of charm and wonder. I highly recommend it!