Weekly Dev Update #58
Week of Aug 9th, 2021
Hey there! We’ve been seeing a lot of new traction thanks to the Tiny Team’s event, so if you’re new: welcome! We’re thrilled that you stopped by and hope you’re as excited for Kaiju Fishing as we are. It’s a fishing game that ramps up to hooking Godzilla-sized monsters - what’s not to love?
This week we dropped a nice, healthy update to the Demo available on Steam so let’s talk about it!
TINY TEAMS 2021
First, a super big shout out to the Yogscast Tiny Teams 2021 event on Steam. The event is live now and runs until August 13th and you can watch them play Kaiju Fishing on Friday, Aug 13th at 11am BST (3am PST). It's an early slot for our West Coasters, but you'll probably be able to watch the VOD later! Make sure you stop by.
We are honored to be a part of this showcase, especially alongside so many awesome looking games made by amazing people. Don’t let Kaiju Fishing be the last stop on your indie browsing adventure, make sure to check out as many of the cool projects as you can! And remember to Wishlist and follow the ones you like!
But first, make sure you Wishlist KAIJU FISHING now to stay up to date on our progress and get alerts about the full release!
You can also follow @MutantStudios on Twitter, join our Discord, and join our mailing list to see more behind-the-scenes work on all of our projects. Thank you for your support!
DEMO UPDATE
Kaiju Fishing Patch Notes (August 2021)
Timed perfectly with this event, we just launched a significant patch to the Kaiju Fishing Steam Demo! There’s new fish and new mechanics, so there’s something here for you whether you’re new or returning! This will mostly cover the same stuff that we linked in our Patch Notes for the current build, but we wanted to include the full list here too so you just can't miss em! You can download and play the Kaiju Fishing Demo RIGHT NOW! Check it out!
We have a lot of cover in this Demo update, so let’s dive right in.
Gameplay
Medium Fish
- Medium Fish are finally here! Two different species have been spotted in the enclosed Demo area and are now available to find and catch. Keep your eyes peeled for ‘em - but they’re pretty hard to miss!
- Medium Fishing is a new activity altogether, so get ready for a ride.
- New tutorials for Medium Fishing added.
And keep in mind that Medium Fishing isn’t our final escalation. We have Large and the much anticipated Kaiju lurking for the full release. You might even spot one past the safety of the rocks...
Fishing
- Added a new "Strike" system when fishing. Missing QTEs adds a strike and if you hit the limit the line will break (think 'Striking Out' in baseball). The limit is 3 for all of the fish in the Demo, but there will be a range of Strike Limits in the full release. You will also be able to increase this with the proper bait and items in the full game.
- Fish attacks have had their tension increases lowered across the board with most attacks focused on dealing Strike damage.
- Reeling now increases tension slightly faster.
- Removed movement-based/control-stick "QTEs" and accompanying UI alerts. We didn't like the game-feel of them (including how we were showing feedback for success/failure of the action), especially combined with Strikes. You can still move the rod to steer the fish where you'd like and you should; if the fish gets too far to the side your tension will increase more. Fish will also continue to do the "moves" like zig-zag but with less emphasis on directly impacting tension.
- Increased "second chance" window. This is when you've hit the breaking point of tension, if you stop reeling quickly you can save the catch.
- Cancelling a cast now requires a button/key hold instead of one press. This is to prevent accidental cancelations.
- Reeling now moves fish more directly to the boat's catch areas. This should prevent fish from becoming caught underneath the boat when nearing a catch.
Exploration
Open Sail Movement
- Speed increased from 15 to 35
- Turn speed increased from 0.8 to 1.3
- Time to Full Speed increased from 1.3 to 2 seconds
- Open Sail Camera Adjusted (Orbit ranges increased to be further back and higher up)
- Open Sail Camera FOV decreased
Closed Sail Movement (Cruising)
- Speed increased from 5 to 15
- Turn power increased from .5 to 1
- Time to full speed decreased from 2.5 to 1.2
Environment
- Fish spawns have been adjusted to increase the need to roam. Each zone now only has one type of fish. We want you to explore and find new schools, rather than just hit up the same spot over and over. This will be a part of more complex systems in the full release as we add in baits and other tools.
- Updated the ocean color to give a better sense of depth. We are moving away from having too many shallow areas, so the ocean will be getting darker.
- Updates to splash effects during fishing.
Menus and General Systems
Controls
- Mouse and Keyboard support has been added and tuned. Hopefully this opens up the game to more players who might not have controllers at home! Big thanks to everyone who tested this early over on Itch and on our Discord <3
- Spyglass feature disabled - for now. It wasn’t a priority for us to update here and we feel it isn’t quite polished enough to keep around. It’ll return with new uses later!
Quest
- We've expanded the quest from our shopkeeper to include the Medium Fish and changed some of the dialogue. Part of this was switching ourselves over to a new dialogue manager, so while it looks the same the guts are different and it'll be easier for us to make content as we go. We aren't planning any more major quest updates in the Demo build as we'll be focusing that attention on the full release, but we'll keep you posted.
- Our shopkeeper also has a swanky new ride. For now, he’s parked it by his little island but he’ll be hittin’ the seas in the full release!
Tutorial
- We've done away with our old panels and have moved to more context-based panels. These are meant to give you the information you need immediately before you engage in a new mechanic and should make it all a little easier to digest.
- If you want to see the Tutorials again, a toggle is available in the Settings Menu in the Gameplay section.
UI Updates
- Menus, Alerts, Dialogue Boxes, and Pop-Ups have all been updated to a new style of art.
Bug Fixes
- Fixes to catching fish, including menus and issues with releasing fish.
- Fixes to fishing mechanics, including lingering QTEs and weird interactions.
- Fixes to camera transitions and camera rotations.
- Fixes to controller rumble, which could continue after certain actions.
- Fixes to Quest tracking.
- Fixes to menu navigation.
- Fixes to environment collisions that could cause the boat to get stuck.
Whew, I think that's everything. There might be some additional bug fixes that I didn't cover directly, but overall we hope you experience an improvement in both the visual and gameplay department. Our team has been working their tails off to bring this together and we’re proud of it. We hope you enjoy the Demo! - Mutant
FOLLOW US FOR MORE
That’s it for this week. Be sure to share the game with your friends! Every little bit helps.
As always, thanks for reading! Stay safe out there. <3 If you want to stay up to date with KAIJU FISHING, you can Wishlist the game on Steam, join our Discord or follow us on Twitter @MutantStudios.