Fish Balls by Gao Ming

[raw]
made by Gao Ming for Ludum Dare 47 (COMPO)
  1. Catch fishes.
  2. Upgrade your pond.
  3. Be the top fisher.

screen-to-gif-(155).gif

ezgif.com-gif-maker.gif

Ratings

Overall 103th 3.819⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Fun 164th 3.611⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 165th 3.639⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Theme 253th 3.722⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 22th 4.361⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Audio 64th 3.806⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Humor 169th 3.045⭐ 35🧑‍⚖️
Mood 44th 3.943⭐ 37🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 9🗨️

Feedback

MayChant
05. Oct 2020 · 03:17 UTC
It's a cute game and I like it a lot. I'm into the music and the art style. I find the progression in the beginning to be a little slow, since the proportion of high-value fish in the pool can only build up over time.
Maxwell3000
05. Oct 2020 · 05:18 UTC
I absolutley love the art style for this game. I wish this was a real claw machine and I could own one of the little fish boys. The gameplay though is a bit slow. I feel like just speeding up the "claw" a bit and increasing the amount of fish in the pool would help a lot. I might just be bad bit it's really annoying when you miss some fish and have to wait for the claw to reset.
testuser
05. Oct 2020 · 05:32 UTC
Nice, calm game. Good audio. I spent a lot of time trying to get more fish and power-ups, but a lot of that time was spent watching the claw move back and forth slowly. I finally caught two large 2-pointers, but they ran into each other when the claw was releasing, so they didn't drop in the pool. Classic claw game shenanigans.
![the-claw.jpg](///raw/4f5/3/z/36360.jpg)
nerdytopic
06. Oct 2020 · 02:49 UTC
I can see where this game was going, and I LOVE how the little fishies tails wiggle a bit. It's absolutely adorable. That being said, this game is *frustratingly* slow at the beginning. I think if you wanted to "balance" this game a bit better, you could make it so at first the fish are relatively easy to catch but not worth much, and only have the first 1 or 2 unlockable fish be affordable. Then, once you've got them hooked you make that third tier unlockable fish *juuuust* a bit grindier. And so on and so forth. Rather than having a wall right at the beginning that is tough to overcome.
Peace Of Cake Games
06. Oct 2020 · 04:40 UTC
Very calming!
guoboism
07. Oct 2020 · 04:07 UTC
![Snipaste_2020-10-07_12-07-14.png](///raw/c56/1/z/3955f.png)
Fun Game!
But can have more kinds of fishes!
PeachTreeOath
09. Oct 2020 · 10:57 UTC
Although the claw is slow, it really made catching the fish all that more satisfying. The first time I got a 2 in 1 I was so happy since they're so valuable.

I remember thinking "I'm not sure I can do a lot more stages of this" after the 1st round. I was pleasantly surprised to see an upgrade shop! Especially one where I could pack the waters with collectible fish. Great choice and it definitely kept me going longer.

The overall physical look & feel of the game is amazing. Very playful and alluring. Would you mind sharing tips on how to achieve the bobbing effect on the fish? I've attempted buoyancy code in the past but never made anything look that good.

Neat entry overall and a pretty unique premise. I've seen lots of space orbit style games. I doubt I'll see another fishing one :)
fachscahfttf
09. Oct 2020 · 11:02 UTC
This was really relaxing to play. The vibe of fishing definetly came up.
This game felt very polished, with the physics, the art and the music/sfx.
It might be a little bit too slow paced, when you miss the fishes, you have to wait too long before you can fish again.

Congratulations on your game.

P.S.: Some way to exit the game else then Alt + F4 would be nice :)
Gonzalol
09. Oct 2020 · 11:05 UTC
It's a good game, you can play it for a long time. By making the players buy new things you keep their attention. The claw it's a little too slow at the beggining
NinjaCatz
09. Oct 2020 · 11:09 UTC
Despite the fact that the idea of ​​the game is very simple, it was fun to play. The graphics are very nice. I can finally use all my Claw-machine skills for free!
Bot12313
09. Oct 2020 · 11:16 UTC
I like this toon-shaded style! Cute game, good job.
Andre Sadie
09. Oct 2020 · 12:04 UTC
Really well rounded beautiful game that kept me busy for longer than I'd like to admit. Eventually I had to give up on my dream to fill the whole pond though ![Screenshot (136).png](///raw/322/31/z/39cd3.png)
NickyKendy
10. Oct 2020 · 10:23 UTC
视觉效果,音乐都超赞!玩法是真的佛系:D 我可以理解不仅是小鸡陷入环状的循环,和作为玩家陷入无止境关卡的循环么
Edalbung
10. Oct 2020 · 14:33 UTC
Really cute game!

Here are my feedback:

_Positive points
- Beautiful graphics
- Clever usage of the theme
- Good sound design (Music and SFX)
- Good upgrade system (UI and the upgrades themself)

_Negative points
- Weird speed at beginning of a level

Overall: Very good work!
LTyrosine
10. Oct 2020 · 18:41 UTC
Nice little game! Since early screenshots at main page, I knew this one would be cool. Very well made, relaxing and fun to play;
Garet
10. Oct 2020 · 18:49 UTC
That was so cuuuute !

I saw your blog posts during the jam, glad you working it out ! This is really simple yet fun game where the graphics and music, while remaining simple, are perfect for the genre and blend totally together.

It's very relaxing, that would make a great RPG minigame haha

Congratulations, this is was fun :v:
JHax
10. Oct 2020 · 18:56 UTC
Nice relaxing game - really chill.

Graphics are adorable and the music fits well.

I enjoyed the progression system a lot too :slight_smile:
nsadie
10. Oct 2020 · 19:59 UTC
Very nice, I loved the cute little fish balls!
Very polished, the only thing that I did not enjoy was the slow movement of the claw going back to the pond in the middle, wished a mouse click could skip the wait!
Jvdwijk
10. Oct 2020 · 21:19 UTC
This was a really cute game! Loved the claw machine vibes. This could work really well in an arcade!

I'd recommend making this game into a browser version since Unity can usually be very easily be ported over. (There is a bug in 2020, so I'd recommend building the browser version in 2019.4)

Some small points of feedback:
- I didn't really understand why some duckies were more expensive than others since they gave the same amount of points back.
- You could maybe put the store into the UI of the game and then reset the duckies with a button or something, so the player won't have to go out of the game the entire time.

Loved this game! keep it up ^^
Yword
11. Oct 2020 · 06:47 UTC
Very cute and relaxing gameplay! Really attractive art style and nice music too! ^_^
JoeDev
11. Oct 2020 · 13:55 UTC
Beautiful aesthetics, calm and relaxing game mechanics, and big claw machine / hook-a-duck vibes! Satisfying to collect the lil fishies, and very polished overall for a jam entry
guimoliveira
11. Oct 2020 · 15:24 UTC
Cute game :) I liked it. Good job!
Chris Mulholland
11. Oct 2020 · 15:44 UTC
Very nice little game you've made!
smbe19
11. Oct 2020 · 16:45 UTC
Cute game, but very slow at the start. And really frustrating having to wait for the tool to go back and out again if you did not catch anything...
bereg
12. Oct 2020 · 21:35 UTC
Very cute game, I love the graphics and the meditative yet challenging gameplay. All these loose claws, you know. Great entry, I enjoyed playing it.
SpawnCampGames
16. Oct 2020 · 17:06 UTC
Great game.. I could totally have this running non stop on my 2nd monitor.
elysiagriffin
16. Oct 2020 · 20:33 UTC
Hi, I played your game on my livestream today!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/772381107?t=0h43m21s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin
JoeShanahan
16. Oct 2020 · 20:39 UTC
I started off playing this, and thought it was a bit too slow to be enjoyable, and wanted to stop. But then I saw the upgrade shop, and thought "okay just one more level" and... well I ended up spending a lot longer than I intended :sweat_smile:

I think this mixes the best parts of real life arcade machines with the mechanics from Idle games. The central mechanic is *very* satisfying to take part in. Also, you constantly invest to improve your ability to earn, and that loop is addictive! I think it might need a little bit of tweaking though, as at the start it takes forever to earn upgrades, which makes it a bit more tedious.

Also, the FAILED text kinda clashes with the relaxing nature of the rest of the game. Not passing a level isn't *really* a failure, it's just your opportunity to use the shop. I think if it were reframed as - every three grabs you get to visit the shop - could keep the game exactly the same, but not make the player feel like they messed up.

Every fish caught is progress, and I think encouraging that feeling would make the game even more satisfying to play.
Wxzuir
18. Oct 2020 · 13:31 UTC
The gameplay is cool!
Maybe it could be better if the upgrade shop could bring some brand new experience or gameplay? Something like adding fish is a little boring.
neontropics
24. Oct 2020 · 17:05 UTC
Really cool graphics, and cute audio! Also good physics, everything bops around in a satisfying way.

For me the crane game action is a bit too slow and I do find myself tiring fairly quickly after missing a few fish in a row. That's part of that genre more than this particular game I guess - in real life there's real money on the line and the potential for a real prize, and without these things it doesn't quite have the same allure.