The playtest is open — I need people to lose fish

Fish Fights Back is a top-down pixel fishing game where the fight is a real

simulation: a rod with a curve, a drag that slips, line that stretches and

frays on a snag, and a fish with its own stamina and its own idea of where it

would rather be. There is no meter to fill and no button prompt to time.

A lost fish is always traceable to something you did — and I now need

to find out whether that is true for people who are not me.

What you would be testing

The fight, mostly. The thing to learn is the drag — the clutch on the

reel that lets a fish take line before the line breaks. Loosen it when a fish

runs, tighten it when it tires. That is the whole game and it takes a few

fish to feel it. I want to know whether it can be felt, how long that

takes, and what you tried before it clicked.

Two waters — a gravel pit and a canal that fish nothing alike — six species,

and tackle you commit to before the whistle. Host a match for up to eight, or

open the bank and just fish. Works on a Steam Deck; the game notices and

sizes itself for the screen.

What it is not

Finished. The art is placeholder and I am not pretending otherwise — the

lake you see is a stand-in for the one that is coming. The fish are not

placeholders. If you tell me the trees look rough, you are right and I will

say thank you and move on; if you tell me a pike broke you and you did not

know why, that is the report I am running this for.

What I will ask of you

Three things, and they are short: what confused you in the first five

minutes, which fish felt fair and which felt like the game cheating, and — if

you fish with someone — what the clock said when the lake stuttered. Accepted

testers get a one-page note saying exactly that and nothing more.

How to get in

Press Request Access on this page. It is a limited playtest — I let

people in a handful at a time so that I can actually read what comes back —

so it may be a few days. Windows and macOS. Inviting a friend who fishes is

allowed and encouraged: the game is better with two rods on the bank, and so

is the feedback.

The fish fights back. Come and find out whether you do.