itch.io

Fun concept and lovely art. The way it's presented, I expected the fishing part to be the main loop but I spend more time playing the minigames. I do realize that this is by design and that's where the actual game is and that the crane game is more of a reward thing where you spend the tokens earned by playing the minigames. I got over it XD

The exchange rate of fish for tokens, though... Can't make a living like that XD

41 fish and 5 upgrades later, I can say that this is relaxing indeed. Nicely done.

Cute. I need to get me a rod like that. Probably catch some chorizo and a bottle of red if I find the right spot.

I get the concept and I'd love to give it a serious play but this really can't be played with a laptop trackpad. At least not by an old guy like me. Got a few fishies that did their heroic best to defend against an overpowering horde that chewed them up. It was fun while it lasted. I mean, fun for the horde. Terrible for my fishies.

Lovely concept. Great execution. Nice seeing a different interpretation of the fishing game. 

The only problem I encountered is that you can drag a specimen from the tray to where the buttons are and it doesn't fall in the water and there's no way to move it from there. This means the tray can't be emptied and you're stuck.

Fun art direction and mechanic. I did three fish and got tired. How many do you need for an ending?

You're gonna need a bigger boat!
Some really nice details. The giant fish under the water looks properly horrifying. Love how the bigger fish pull you in.

One more try! Nailed it. True to form.

This game gets so much right. It was a really fun play. My only complaint is that there's no more progression after a bit. You find the squid fairly early on and then there's nothing new to catch. I maxed all my gear. I was hoping for some grand finale when the line reached the maximum but nothing. After 700m, I just let it run on its own. It's now down to 1140m and no end in sight. But getting here was a blast. Easily the best entry I have seen so far. Great job.

Simple, effective, and nicely done. Love the Cambrian lore. Definitely good seeing some of those weird things that are so awesome and get so little camera.

Idea: Roll for rarity, then make the wait be tied to that. So the longer it takes to bite, you build some tension wondering what you will get. Difficulty should also be tied to rarity to increase that tension buildup.  you know you're getting a good one but you'll have to fight for it.

Loving the concept and the story. Loving the art so much. Rules seem simple to understand but like they could lead to some interesting situations. There's a lot of map for only 5 movements so lots of night travel, I guess. Can't wait to recruit the kids and play.

Oh. I don't mean the key bindings. I meant separate side movement and the up and down being a hold to lower and release to reel back up. It could have been just a joystick movement or worse, a mouse point and click XD. You've hit the right balance of familiar enough for me to jump right in but weird enough to make me pause a bit. The kind of setup where a miss makes me say "Aw, c'mon, I got this. One more try"

lol. Fun times. I can see these mechanics getting challenging as the game progresses and the clutter increases. 

As long as the fish are volunteers... XD

Nicely done. It all looks really small in my screen but all playable and nice. I really enjoy games with weird controls. This could be trivially easy with standard controls but where's the fun in that?

I was wondering where all that stuff was coming from. XD Fun little game. It would be nice if swimming over the fished furniture activated a little animation of their use.

You will know you caught a fish by the crunching sounds they make. After a few captures, you hear some bubbling and you level up to a new place with even more confusing sounds XD

Among all the chaos of underwater ploosh and blips, as you turn to the sides, you will hear some percussive sounds that repeat.  The louder you hear them, the more centered they are. Move towards them and their beat will become faster and faster. Get close enough and you will hear the crunch of having captured them.

Agreed. I think a better handling of the sound once you pass a hazard would be the easiest big time improvement.

Turn around like in a one-button 180?

Thanks! :)

The general state of the audio is chaotic and would require some work from someone with better ears and tools. So I'm afraid this is where this stalls as a tech demo until some sound person wants to collab.

A clear edge of the level cue does sound like a much needed addition. Especially since the other fish often leave the level at the edge and you just don't know where your meal went all the sudden.

But yeah, more than 3 days could mean lots of improvement here. Thanks again for playing and giving feedback.

Just getting close enough will get you a capture. Just keep swimming until the clicks get super fast and then you'll hear crunching sounds meaning you got your fish. You can also lunge forward with the up key for a short burst of extra speed to catch the more evasive ones. Ignore the drops, they are just to distract you. Go for the thumps and clunks that repeat at speed. Thanks for playing and commenting.

Yup. There's an annoying bug that I can't figure out that freezes the game when the level loads. There's also another that messes up the echoes volume modulation at some random point and stays until a new level loads. Work In Progress eternal.

Fishies are evasive little things and I do get lots of misses myself. I have discovered that swimming in long S curves gives me a better chance to capture stuff. Also, when I have a miss like you describe, often a quick circle round gets me a meal.

A quick round down of the types of fish present in a level would be a great idea. Or maybe just the new one? Solid suggestion. Thanks. And thanks for playing and commenting :)

What is this color thing you speak of? Right now the game is at the tech demo stage. I do have ideas for progression but they are unlikely to happen unless I find a sound person who wants to give this some love. Controller rumble is currently broken for me and not an option until I figure it out again. Wind sounds for speed are there but get lost in the mix. Success sound is such a good and obvious idea that I'm almost embarrassed I didn't do it and hadn't thought of it until just now XD

Thanks for playing and commenting.

Got the new version. Still damaged :(

is an og but wal

Surgery is never fun but after it you get a lot of time to play games! 

ogwals unite!

6 stars across the board. 

...

Actually, 5.9 stars. It would be better if I could read signs without having to bump into them.

I think it's the lock-on system that really makes a difference here. Especially when using a gamepad, a lot of people tend to drift to one side so it's real nice that the system eliminates that issue which is a complete non-issue when you can see you're drifting and instinctively correct it. And as you said, while lock systems have always existed for combat, it's real nice and possibly novel having it for general navigation.

Really good game. Haven't finished it yet but I take that as a good thing. 

Very minor suggestions to reduce friction. Let me switch to map from inventory and viceversa instead of Escaping my way out before choosing the other one. If using the shovel (for example) is the only interaction available in a room, let the interaction key do that instead of having to go to inventory to press the shovel.

The music for the red rooms in way louder than the others. I can easily adjust the volume levels to make it all right but I shouldn't have to.

There's a point in the moon pool and another room where the voice of the creature and the narrator overlap.

I'd love the option to have all the voiced text on screen to read.

But this is all minor stuff and nice to have things rather than must haves. You have a really good thing going here.

The Mac version tells me:

“Project Softspace v1” is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash.

The Mac version tells me that the application "Game" can't be opened.

Well, shame on you for having players that don't follow instructions XD
This was a ton of fun. Easily my favorite all around. A very clever idea and clean execution. Great job!

I know this is a me thing but one thing I like about your game is that it is a universe discovery game that isn't framed in exploitation and conquest. Extracting resources would change that. As it is in all games I play and love, not a deal breaker even for me, much less for the rest of humanity.
One idea for a mechanic that would encourage long term play would be to complete collections. I don't know how long your lists of name elements are and how likely it is to get repeats but it would be fun to create a room of all yogurt related instruments. Or maybe it would make more sense to use the additional properties for it. All stolen instruments or some such. I think something along these lines would be much in keeping with the museum theme.

Check the referrers in your analytics. You're on the top row of itch's New and Popular page. That may be it.

More than silly or off-putting, I found it confusing. Maybe some form of clicks and rubs that sound more like drawing and cocking a gun like the opponent is cheating and getting ready to shoot before the signal? Or some... old western sounds like horses neighing or wagon wheels squeaks? Rooster crowing? Church bell ringing? Gun firing in the distance? Anything that doesn't break suspension of disbelief rather than going for silly, I'd suggest.

I really wish I had how to skip the dialogs for a replay

Abstract, polished, and fun in ways that can't really be objectively explained. 

My only observation is that it's really easy to spam the searches using the gamepad. Just twiddling sticks around for a second is enough to clear all the discoveries on any body. No idea how to "fix" that or whether that's at all a problem that needs fixing. I guess that having a cat roll over the keyboard would have the same effect. My dog proved uncooperative to playtest that.

Not sure what the deal is with the basement. Further exploration is needed.

I'll wait for it to come together. Right now it's a spacebar simulator. What's that barking sound between ready and fire?

I connect and wait but there's nobody to play with. 

Nice start. I look forward to seeing progress and trying the free roam.