Ok, I'll drop the alliteration (amusing and alluring as it may be). This week, we will be looking back at the first two months of development, and laying out a roadmap for the next few months.
Black Hole Fishing has had a relatively short development cycle so far. I am planning on releasing the game before October (I am aiming for August, but will announce a fixed date a little later), so I decided to release an early demo for the Steam Next Fest in June.
The response has been incredible, the game has been added to over 1000 wishlists already! With that said, I should clarify that the current demo is an early preview of the game, not a proper showcase of all the systems. I created a video documenting the past two months of development, so feel free to give it a watch if you're so inclined.
So that's the current state of things. What's next?
The current Next Fest demo features a liner progression cycle. You buy Super Stocker nodes, you place them in the pond, and then you upgrade the speed or fish value. The next major update will introduce the Super Stocker Pro. Instead of upgrading through 8 fish of increasing value, you will be able to buy one of a hundred fish from the magazine (don't worry, they will be sorted into sets and unlocked slowly. There will be time to digest all of the new colors, shapes, patterns, Traits, and tradeoffs).
Speaking of Traits, the new system will also unlock bonus fish that use their traits to affect the world. This can synergize with other fish to create score bonuses, or cause things to happen. Some fish are compatible with the Super Stocker Pro, but other fish must launched one at a time from a Fish Cannon.
The magazine offers a limited selection of traits and visual stylings, so you will eventually want to start creating your own fish. The next game update will include the Fish Press, and more advances tools will come down the road. Keep an eye out for special editions of Fishy Friday where we deep-dive into each of these tools, and the Traits they will unlock.
I'll pause to quote the store page here. These features may change a little as we go on, so consider this a time capsule as well as an update:
Collect Fish: Buy fish from the Fishy Business Magazine. Put them in the pond.
Combine Fish: Shove two fish into the (extremely ethical) Fish Press to create a new fish! The new fish will contain Traits from BOTH of the old fish. What a deal!
Breed Fish: Tired of losing fish to the press? Give two fish an intimate moment, and receive a NEW FISH as a reward! Warning: Cross-breeding will result in randomized traits, repeat until desired results are achieved.
Design Fish: Tired of waiting for the genetic lottery to pay out? Take the genomes into your own hands by directly injecting fish with Traits. Results almost guaranteed!
Collide Fish: Science isn't going to progress itself! Use the Large Halibut Collider to combine fish at relativistic speeds! Discover all six Quantum Sharks, and use them to progress our understanding of destructive singularities at an alarming rate!
But how do we unlock all of this? I tested out a few story ideas: Maybe the magazine is an Eldritch god? Maybe the Fishy Business is run by a supervillain and you are his unwitting pawn. Ultimately, I decided that a good incremental story doesn't need a villain at all. Your goal is to become the world's greatest fisherman. Why not pair that noble goal with an equally noble goal: Becoming the world's greatest scientist!
You start the game with just the cover page of the Fishy Business magazine, unlocking the black hole and starting the game. As you progress, you gain the attention of the mad scientist who runs the Fishy Business. It turns out, he's too busy to leave the lab, so you are the perfect candidate to test out his inventions. Over the course of the campaign, he will send you letters - along with new pages for the Magazine. As you buy and upgrade your equipment, you help him prove his outlandish theories. Unfortunately, his excitement has a tendency to outweigh his caution, so his black hole experiments eventually turn apocalyptic. No worries!
That's all for this week! Keep an eye out for future editions - released every other Friday until the game ships or the singularity destroys us all.
P.S. Yes, I am proud of my Fish .gif page dividers. How can you tell?
P.P.S. Also, I'm planning on starting playtesting in the next month or so. You can join my Discord for more up-to-date information, or just hit the Follow button to get notified. I will make a big announcement, so you won't miss it.