Not quite sure what to do, as at first I'm just experimenting to see what the buttons do and not getting even a bite. Throw lanterns overboard and it seems to lure fish nearby (almost like chumming) and then they grab the hook sometimes, I let go, it reels in, and my score goes up. No idea how the scoring goes yet. No fish counter. Guess I gotta mess with it more!
Hey fabianb, That's a boat and if player has lanterns left it will be with light, if no lanterns left, window will be empty and you can see nigh time sky through it :roll eyes: But sure, it can be an alien if you like so =) Hey macplash, Thank you for such detailed review and all the questions! I am glad you like game so far. To answer you questions: I will add screen rotation to my checklist and see if I can get it to work There is no description because I wanted to make players discover buttons on their own. I know that is not how it's usually done and that it's better to guide players, but on the other hand there are not so many dangerous buttons (except reset which is well hidden) so player doesn't have high chance to mess up. If that's causing more frustration than usual approach I will definitely change that. You are correct, there is no tutorial and no intro how to play, it's intentional thing to make players try stuff to feel the pace and atmosphere of the game. If it doesn't work, again I will make your life easier in the future All the upgrades you buy, do have subtle but quite important influence on the gameplay. You won't see dramatic change, but on par with getting better at fishing itself you will notice that it's easier to catch fish somehow My game has a tuned system and balance inside. So if you are doing better at game you will get more and more subtle reward. It's very smooth and subtle but it is there and after unlocking everything and then resetting to very beginning change in gameplay will become obvious =) For example line length. At first it's very short, but gets longer with each upgrade. Each lantern upgrade gives you additional shot every session and increases lantern power You are very close, but here how it works: For a good chain, start with a smallest fish visible and then feed it to bigger fish. So basically smaller fish on your hook will be a bait for bigger fish around Spoiler For pearl (secondary currency) to appear you do not need to chain fish, just get lucky For bonus pickups you need to chain of at least 3 fishes. It's not guaranteed that you will get bonus, but you get a chance. The longer chain, the higher chance To find treasure chest you need longer chains and lots of luck =) Hope that sheds some light and makes playing experience more pleasant for you I understand the dangers of the way I designed user experience. But I am trying to design something unique and have players playing right from the main menu. As long as it doesn't cause too much frustration of course.
I'm not a big fan of tilt controls myself but it works pretty much flawlessly in this game. Besides, I can't even imagine how to implement touch controls when you need to move your boat and control fishing rod at the same time. As of right now, it just feels natural.
Next update will fix a several minor bugs and was already submitted to Apple. Currently under review. I will do my best to add control scheme into the next one. That's very rewarding to hear! Thank you I have had an idea about buttons control for a while and now just need time to implement and polish. I am very picky about good controls. Hey bigrand1, You are doing it right! Just mess with the game and try things around Fish counter - another great idea to add. In case it starts to irritate you, check spoilers in my post above or feel free to ask anything about the game. Thank you for your support!
Almakos, thanks for the feedback. I understand the lack of description is meant to be a feature and I can live with that. Anyway, I'd appreciate if at least the upgrades were explained correctly. You know, if you're about to spend some hard earned in game currency on upgrades, you'd like to know what you're doing, right? After your explanation I know now that upgrading fishing rod is increasing its length and upgrading lanters increases their power to attract fish. And that's great to know. And as I wrote earlier, it's nice to be able to uncover game mechanics by myself. It's a part of a gameplay I guess. And finally, you're wrong about me liking the game. I love it! I just wish you good luck with the sales and enough recognition among such a quantity of titles released every week on the App Store. Your game totally deserves proper attention. Fingers crossed!
By the way, are there any statistics? Times played, fishes you catched, etc? I love to see my progression, it can be a thing that keeps me playing.
Dear macplash, your words are music to my ears. Thank you. I totally agree with you on the upgrade description and general lack of explanation. I'll think how I can improve user experience and decrease confusion. Hey fabianb, Unfortunately not at the moment. But point taken and I've put this onto my checklist. On a side note I have achievements coming sometime soon and there will be things like 100 fish, 10000 fish caught, etc. But statistics is something I also would love to include later on Thanks for the idea!
You're welcome Just bought the game 30 min ago. It's actually really awesome I'm now 3rd on the highscore list, wasn't too hard # Competition is too easy I guess hehe
Hi guys, Bought and played. First things first, the menu is confusing, I know it's the way it is to make it more surreal and fit with the whole game art but sometimes words telling you what things are is a good thing! Lol. After much pressing and etc I figured out that throwing a lantern over attracts a fish or two. I didn't know that about the moon phase and I definently didn't know that about the red star that falls. I was trying to catch them all! Also when I run out of lanterns an hour glass shows up, I press it and the screen fades away and comes back with no stars. I'm assuming I lost at that point? Is it not supposed to get to that level? Do I hook a little fish and just leave him hanging and a big one will show up? There's not much instruction..... The art is fantastic! Edit: I don't know how I missed the second page but I'll read that all my questions might be moot. Hah, oh! Btw, I didn't say anything really about wether or not to get it. In all honesty? It's pretty fun, it's simple quick fun that looks fantastic. I was playing it at 3am with the lights off and was loving it. It's worth getting. Just needs in game instruction. Edit2: Okay now I read that it's not supposed to have descriptions because they want you to figure it out as you go along. Hmmmm. It doesn't come across as a game that would need/want to make you figure everything out. If anything I would have instruction in there but come up with a way to instruct the player that showcases the art or gives you more wow factor. Not that it needs more mind you, for a game that really has a simple premise it looks/plays phenomonally. I like it
Thank you anabolicMike for your comments and questions. I can see now that game definitely requires more guidance inside. I've taken notes about that in my To Do checklist and will try to come up with something more ergonomic than what there is now. I hope it is more or less clear for you how to play the game now. There are some dark areas left still, but should be nothing critical. You might find this info interesting, but I can unlock everything in the game in a matter of 30-40 minutes (depending on luck), while for others it might take couple of hours or much longer than that, which is not a bad thing. As I wanted to make kind of soothing and relaxing game with a little bit of action and adventure.
Well, so here I am again. I've been playing this game since morning, I almost forgot to pick up my son from school. So, I unlocked everything. After reading your previous statement Almakos, that it's possible to unlock it in 30-40 minutes sounds crazy, just crazy. Anyway, took me almost a whole day to unlock everything and to have all 4 stages completed with 3 stars. I'm 1st in Best Star Catcher leaderboards on Game Center with almost half a million points, 2nd in Best Fisherman leaderboards even though I still don't get it how the score is determined. My in game score (the value on the bottom of the screen) is almost 11 millions so it's kinda strange the scores on leaderboards are different. Yeah, I catched octopus, I catched hippocampus but how the hell am I supposed to catch jellyfish?! Other than that, I'm pretty much satisfied. For its 1,99€ asking price there's huge amount of gameplay, hours and hours of fun, stunning visuals and enjoyable music. Wow, I'm just impressed! Thanks for the game Almakos, you did a great job!
Ha ha, that bit about almost forgetting to pick up your son made me chuckle Luckily everything is fine ))) Now to explain a bit how scoring works...'Best Fisherman' shows your highest score during single fishing session. It doesn't take into account your global game score if you know what I mean... Global score which you see at the bottom of the Main Menu is combined from all game sessions you've played and includes Starfall levels as well. As for the Jellyfish you just break the big one with a hook and catch small ones afterwards. After that you will see both of them on the main menu screen and in your surreal aquarium at the level selection screen Thank you for the kind words macplash. It was a great pleasure and joy to read your feedback and know that you liked the game. Cheers! p.s. did Touch Arcade just changed how their forum looks? sweet
So I made it to the top with 377K at long last but it didn't take long and I'm 2nd again. The person on the 1st place has the score of 980K, is that even possible to achieve during one single session?! There's no possibility to have more than 25 lanterns. Also, Spoiler anytime you pull your fishing rod out of the water you loose one lantern so it's essential to do it as less as possible , right? So how's that possible to get score almost 3 times higher? I just don't get it. Well, it makes me to keep trying, to get better, but I'm still not certain it's possible to score that high. Yeah, when you wrote it appears in the main screen's aquarium I realized I must have done it already, because it's there. It didn't occur to me I can break the poor thing with the hook. Feels kinda unhuman, but than, it's just a jellyfish, right? Let's smash it with that hook for what it's worth Thanks for the guide, I highly doubt I'd figure it all by myself.
That's totally possible, no cheating involved I personally got 1.2 mil in fishing and 2.2 in starfall in developer's sandbox mode. Spoiler Top all the upgrades possible and go to level one under full moon. Jellyfish is your best friend as can get crazy chains with them. Full moon gives you extra lantern There are heavy fishes, there are light fishes. Beauty of jellyfish is that, they are very lightweight and you can put a dozen of them without snapping the fishing line Spoiler Correct, you have single pool of lanterns and each time you pull one gets deducted. Some real life jellyfish regenerate after fragmentation so it is a way of asexual reproduction. Though I doubt there is much of education value in my game
Thanks to the dev for sharing a promo code. Had a spin with it and it is pretty entertaining. You throw baits then start fishing. Control is pretty smooth and accurate here too. I usually dont fancy accelerometer type of control. But this one is pretty spot on. also works very well even on a large screen iPad. The graphics are really good for it's art style. Like neons really stand out in dark environment. I especially enjoyed the star catching session where you roll the bow to collect the yellow starts while avoiding the red one. It's a very relaxing game. A great game to keep you entertain if you are trying to look for something to past time. This definitely will stay on my device for quite awhile.
Hey kopicha, Thank you very much for sharing your impression! Glad you liked the relaxing experience of my game. Let me know if encounter any issues or will come up with advice or suggestion! Cheers!
This game is brimming with possibilities. The graphics look wonderful and the controls work great. It has a real unique feel to it. As mentioned before it's lacking basic instructions and a tutorial. I'm finding each fishing session is much to short but that might be because I have no idea what I'm doing. I hope the developer keeps working at it because I could see a lot of potential.
Cheers Klink,First sessions may seem a bit short but at later stages you will spend several minutes per each, which is quite OK and even too long I'd say I'll try to explain how to play better in further updates Glad that not many complaints about controls so far. As accelerometer is quite tricky to make work well.
I know I am beating a dead horse, but... ... First Thx for a promo code appreciate it and here is my feedback: - this game needs a proper tutorial. Or an introduction or it will put a lot of people off. There are so many new games coming out each week that I find myself often times trying out a game for like 15 minutes and then either delete or keep it (I will spend some more time on games I bought than on games that are free but that's just how I do it). And I really had to force me to keep at it and it is really taking a lot of those "woah nice game" first minute moments away from me. I don't really know if it helps you, but the game that did it right for me was altos adventure. The tutorial is short, seamless and explains almost everything but certainly everything you need to know to play it right away and know what you are doing. - the graphics look really nice and relaxing and I do not quite remember a game with a similar style so well done! - gameplay wise (besides I so mit know what I am doing mostly) it is a smooth experience, the controls work nicely but I am looking forward to some tiltless controls too. - I guess atm I would be frustrated If I bought the game as the lack of introduction is a big nogo for me. Once that's fixed the price sounds reasonable especially Id more content is added in the future. - I would rate it 3/5 normally cause again not knowing what I am doing is often times insta delete for me, but the dev is kind, active here and working on some sort of explanation so I will numb it up a star. If you are interessted I'm the game I would recommend waiting for a tutorial though. Thx for a code once more hope the feedback helps! Overall 4/5
