Ahoy! Here's a little fishing game for you.
The main goal of this project was to experiment with a bunch of fun rendering effects that aren't super common in Pico-8...
...so hopefully the gameplay is worthwhile enough to justify its own inclusion.
Some features:
- 3D character animation (with knees and elbows!)
- Spriteless animated fish rendering
- Water which visualizes a flow-velocity field
- Fullscreen "day to night" transition filter
- Realtime shadows, including soft shadows from the player
- "Windy grass" rendering
- Procedurally generated maps
- A shop with four gadgets
- Something unexpected, which I don't want to spoil for you
The version of the code that's included here is obfuscated to be illegible, but you can buy the real source code (formatted properly, with optional comments) on itch.io - the price is "$1 or more."
Thanks for reading - I hope you enjoy the game!
First update - fixed a bug in the minified version which broke all the item unlocks. Sorry about that!
Second update - didn't change the game, but the itch.io page is live, so I added a link above.
The gameplay is amazing and the graphics are amazing.
One of my new favorites.
Wow an instant add to my Pico8 collection. But man that night-time monster is terrifying! D:
I absolutely LOVE the night-time pallet swap though, everything looks so good at night. It would be nice to have a freeplay mode where we could fish at day or night with no threat of monster. Because I don't get to enjoy the beautiful night-time graphics for very long before I'm chased off!
Thanks for the comments, y'all!
@Cabledragon: If you download the cart, you can make it night time all the time by going to line 434 and making a little edit. It says:
local fa=max(....) |
You can change that to this:
local fa=0 |
...to make it permanently night time.
If you also want to make the day last longer, look at line 200 - "cx=60" says that each day is 60 seconds long.
(Sorry about the weird variable names; this is the obfuscated version!)
oh boy it's neat to finally get to play this after seeing the GIFs on twitter
this is so cool! all the little animation and graphical effects combine to make a really beautiful environment. and the fishing mechanic with the flow velocities is satisfying to interact with :)
I do agree with Cabledragon though in that some kind of a no-monster mode would be a nice option, since the atmosphere is otherwise so relaxing :)
Thank you very much!
I ran out of tokens for adding extra features like an optional no-nighttime mode, but you could add your own special rules like that by editing the code - the very end of the above post tells how to extend the daytime in the obfuscated BBS version
Hey 2D,
Well done for creating a lovely and relaxing (for the most-part!) little fishing game.
The graphics are amazing for PICO-8, you really know how to push this console.
Loved the background music too - perfect for this game.
One Q: What are you supposed to do at night to avoid the monster, go back to your hut? If so, I kept forgetting where it was! :D
Thanks
Thank you very much!
The game mechanics here are...uh, far from perfect, but here's a rundown of the intentions, at least.
All you can do about the monster (...initially, at least) is escape to the hut. Getting lost is a part of the fishing routine - you have to pay enough attention to the map to find good spots, but if you get too distracted by doing that, you lose track of how to get back. The Clock makes it easier to plan ahead, but then the Sensor makes it a bit tougher, because it makes the fish-search more distracting. Then the Compass makes it easier again by pointing you in the shortest direction home.
Ultimately, I think these mechanics are a little too indirect, and I think it makes them a bit hard to read.
With the first three pieces of equipment, you can fish safely and efficiently - the harpoon is mostly just included for the sake of having an ending
Ah, I feel dumb that I didn't realise these points.
Thank you for explaining it - will come in handy! :D
IMHO, I feel the impressive character animation would be more appropriate in a melee fighting game!
I must not be a "fishing game" type of guy :]
I agree with freds72, I think the stick-figure animation system would work really well in a fighter. I don't know if it's your cup of tea to write one, but it'd be a very worthy idea, I think.
Reminds me of those stick-fighter-beat-em-up gifs from the 00's. Also the stick-figure Counter-Strike animations that used to make me giggle.
By the way, nice work on the camera and on the directional movement. Very fluid, and that's hard to do well with a dpad.
Thanks!
Yep, the original plan was to do a brawler or a zelda-like (the original filename was "zeldo.p8"), but once I got some character animation working and started thinking about water, it got pretty clear that I'd run out of tokens very fast.
I could imagine a more elaborate action game using these concepts in Unity (with "pico style" rendering), though...
Wow this game is fantastic!
I love it.
Wasn't easy to get to the harpoon, but I wished I could keep playing forever, alas, I vanquished the source of my anxiety ;)
If you're interested in reclaiming a few tokens, changing things like
local a=b
local c=d
to
local a,c=b,d
might be an easy win (depending on how your minimizer works).
edit: it does incur a slight overhead if you use the same thing on a line that isn't a local declaration.
This is a really cool game, despite its 'tech demo' origin. Super simple but very clever. As a player I tend to get used to things and assume others, so I was playing just for the upgrades and to get more fish. Once I got the last upgrade the game suddenly became meaningless, until I got bored and tried the harpoon on the monster. It's weird. I got used to the monster there as an unquestionable part of the whole thing. DEEP STUFF MAAAN
And the tech part is awesome too, of course.
I've been seeing your tweets forever while you were working on this ^_^. Looking forward to finally trying it out.
Wow, a very cool game! So relaxing... and SUDDENLY TERRIFYING!
I have lots of Pico-8 tricks to learn, apparently. :)
Thanks Tom! Pretty exciting to see Legit Industry Vets poking around in here!
First time I'm playing this. You might increase the time till nightfall, have animation for the player sitting when he is fishing, and to give a bit of a struggle to catch that fish.
Here is a fishing game where you can see the struggle.
https://youtu.be/e3hK4vCilW4?t=221
I don't recommend you show underwater as that would be a lot more work, but maybe show the resistance in the line with the fish and the player and the player must press and hold (O) key just at the right times or the fish gets away.
I like how this builds up to getting better items. Gold star.
I think there is a glitch, its been a while but when I bought the harpoon, I decided to face my fear and use it on that "thing". The game told me about how I had overame anxiety and my inner demons. I dunno. When I tried it again, it wouldn't work.
i wish there was more of this game, i could play it for hours.
dude I expected a cool ass jumpscare if the monster caught you. My disappoint is very immeasurable now. Cool fishing game never less.
[Please log in to post a comment]
