A Fish Game for Fish Enthusiasts!

06 Oct 2023Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

Hello, friends and fellow fishkeepers!

Welcome to Fish Game, a game about, well, fish. Whether you’re already an avid fishkeeper or a sim-gamer, we’re glad you’re here! We’re oh so excited that you’ll have a chance to check out our demo during this October 2023 edition of Steam Next Fest.

In a nutshell: Fish Game is an aquarium game where your fantasies of fish keeping can come to fruition. It’s a game where you raise and feed fish, make sure they’re happy, maybe separate them out into different tanks if they don’t get along, and decorate your tanks. Aquascape with live plants that grow and enhance your water chemistry. Enjoy plentiful hardscape, both natural and fun. It’s a lot easier to show than tell, so why not check out this trailer below to get a better idea?

https://youtu.be/S1IWqKXIPsw?si=AnGi5FTm6xHAKF-R

The Demo

For the demo, you can expect to experience

Easy tank scaping
System interactions: plants will grow in response to lighting, and fish health will be affected by water chemistry (ammonia and oxygen)
Simplified fish behavior systems that interact with each other

And here are some things that you’ll see in the demo, that we’ll be continuing to refine and improve

Tank water cycle - we’ll be building this out with some more features. In the meantime, water chemistry should be solid but on rare occasions, things might get (irreparably) out of hand
More robust plant/fish growth and behavior - we’ll be integrating more systems that will have an impact on plants and fish, which will result in more intricate behaviors
Some issues with behavior labelling and alerts
Finicky hardscape rotation and plant grabbing - hardscape manipulation and plant movement is not the best yet, but we’re working on it!
Some wonky or weird (and hopefully hilarious) fish activity as we continue to smooth things out!

Community Feedback and Improvements to Come

For this initial demo, the bones of the game’s mechanics are all there, and we’ll be working hard to further enrich the player experience between now and Early Access, and beyond to the 1.0 release. Community engagement is vital to the development of a niche game such as Fish Game, so we look forward to adopting your feedback and suggestions, and continuing our development based on what you, the players, enjoy and find fun.

Here is a form where you can share your thoughts with us and report any bugs that you come across.

Although we’ll be listening to all your suggestions, we won’t be able to implement every single one–the more successful the game is, though, the more we’ll be able to get to, so please tell your friends about Fish Game and share images and videos of your tanks!

What to Expect When the Game Goes to Early Access

If you enjoy the demo and want to know what’s to come when the game goes to Early Access, here’s a quick rundown!

Dozens of more fish and plant species
Many more hardscape options
More unique and fun stores to shop at
A straightforward progression system, where features become unlocked as people play through the game at their own pace
Advanced tools for monitoring and obtaining more nitty gritty details about your fish and plant behaviors and interactions

Please note that demo tanks will not translate to the full game in Early Access

Socials

Thanks for reading thus far. We can’t wait to tell you more about Fish Game, and we have a hunch you won’t have to wait long for more news. There’s so much we want to share, so check back here, wishlist the game, and/or join us on our socials!

- The Fish Game Dev Team