The Living Aquarium Update — 125 Fish, Collections, Rewards & More

major update

ARC Aquarium · build 24459128 · published

On SteamNotes only · this build shipped before we watched the app

This is our largest update yet! ARC Aquarium has been expanded with 125 fish species, a permanent collection catalog, new rewards, achievements, redesigned menus, improved performance, and many quality-of-life features.

## 125 Fish to Discover

- Expanded the aquarium from 85 to 125 unique freshwater and saltwater fish species.

- Added individual names, descriptions, prices, growth values, and unlock requirements for every fish.

- Reworked the store so the complete fish catalog loads and displays reliably.

- Added a permanent Collection catalog that records every species you discover.

- Undiscovered fish remain locked in the catalog without revealing their details.

- Added the ability to lock favorite fish.

- Locked fish cannot be sold through the detail panel or by Shift-clicking.

- Improved fish artwork and font support across the complete catalog.

## Breeding, Progression, and Rewards

- Improved breeding support for adult male and female fish of the same species.

- Bred eggs are now correctly tracked through saving, loading, and offline hatching.

- Added a 30-day daily login reward cycle.

- Added 24 in-game achievements covering collecting, breeding, feeding, cleaning, selling, wealth, and level progression.

- Expanded achievement milestones and improved achievement notifications.

- New full-game saves receive a different fish every 15 minutes during the first 105 minutes.

- A special high-level decoration is awarded at the two-hour mark.

- Resetting the game now correctly restarts the introductory reward sequence.

## Economy Rebalance

- Rebalanced fish prices, selling values, EXP requirements, hatch times, and decoration income.

- Fish are now focused on the core buy, raise, breed, and sell gameplay loop.

- Passive income now comes exclusively from decorations.

- Decoration income is displayed more clearly in the store and aquarium interface.

- Existing saves and owned content remain compatible with the new economy.

## A More Lively Aquarium

- Completely rewrote fish swimming, turning, depth movement, and food-seeking behavior.

- Added smoother burst-and-coast swimming for more natural movement.

- Improved fish separation so large groups move more comfortably.

- Improved food targeting and feeding behavior.

- Refined tail animation, bubble movement, bubble timing, and visual effects.

- Improved dirt visuals and aquarium interaction feedback.

- Reduced frame spikes caused by fish movement, feeding, bubbles, and runtime UI updates.

## New Collection and Interface

- Added dedicated Collection, Achievements, Daily Rewards, How to Play, Settings, and Screenshot Sharing dialogs.

- Redesigned the bottom menu with clearer button priorities, consistent sizing, and unified hover effects.

- Moved decoration controls beside the top aquarium HUD for easier access.

- Added consistent headers, close buttons, spacing, and blue scrollbar styling across major dialogs.

- Added Escape-key support to settings, collection, achievements, decoration details, and other applicable dialogs.

- Added a reusable centered confirmation dialog for actions such as resetting the game.

- Improved menu layouts for ultrawide resolutions.

- Added separate music and sound-effect volume controls.

- Added a small FPS counter in the upper-right corner.

- Interface themes now apply consistently to menus, the Collection, sharing tools, and bottom navigation.

- Runtime-created UI now properly respects Chill Mode.

## Login and Loading Experience

- Added a new login screen with Start and Settings buttons.

- Settings can be opened directly over the login screen and closed with Escape.

- Added five randomized aquarium loading backgrounds.

- Added rotating gameplay tips covering feeding, breeding, growth, sickness, and offline progression.

- The loading screen now remains visible for a minimum duration and uses a fully opaque background.

- Fixed loading-screen text material and initialization errors.

## Screenshot Sharing

- Added a dedicated screenshot tool.

- Screenshots hide gameplay UI and capture only the aquarium.

- The ARC Aquarium logo is automatically placed at the top of the captured image.

- Added quick sharing options for popular social platforms and messaging services.

- Improved the sharing dialog layout, button sizes, branding, and theme integration.

## Localization and Accessibility

- Expanded and repaired localization across all 23 supported languages.

- Added translations for the Collection, achievements, rewards, sharing, loading tips, settings, and updated tutorials.

- Improved fallback fonts for Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text.

- Fixed unreadable language dropdown entries.

- Improved text sizing, wrapping, and alignment across the interface.

## Save and Demo Safety

- Added safer atomic save writing, backup recovery, and versioned save migration.

- Full-game and demo saves are now completely independent.

- Playing the demo will no longer overwrite or import progress from the full game.

- Improved demo build safety and full-game upgrade messaging.

- Added reliable catalog loading for both normal and demo builds.

- Added automated build verification for both configurations.

## Additional Fixes

- Fixed overlapping elements in the fish detail panel.

- Fixed store grid sizing for the complete 125-fish catalog.

- Fixed store and Collection scrollbar color inconsistencies.

- Fixed settings not closing correctly from the login screen.

- Fixed decoration details not closing with Escape.

- Fixed reset confirmation dialogs appearing behind the Settings panel.

- Improved toast notifications and removed unwanted colored artifacts.

- Removed unused assets and optimized runtime resource loading.

- Added extensive stability, layout, and performance improvements throughout the game.

Thank you for supporting ARC Aquarium. We hope you enjoy building, growing, and completing your aquarium!