Fish Game News

THIS WEEK'S THEME: BIG TANK, little fish! It runs Feb 14-20! Dream mansions for diminuitive critters!

Submit your aquascapes to the Fish Game Discord to take part in our weekly challenges! Select tanks will find themselves featured in the game.

Last week's stand-out scape is from Discord User jennessamay with their incredible "Orca" sculpture!



Keep an eye out for your past submissions here:



Scape on!

THIS WEEK'S THEME: BLACK & WHITE! It runs Feb 7-13! No further directions, play with shadows and monochromatic critters!

In case you missed it: we launched our first DLC packages (one's free!)! The Julii Corydora in the Free Fish Pack will be great for this week's challenge!

We've also launched a Patreon which gives you the chance to automatically receive DLC on launch, add a new fish name to the game every month, vote on what's next, and more! Read more here!

Submit your aquascapes to the Fish Game Discord to take part in our weekly challenges! Select tanks will find themselves featured in the game.

Last week's stand-out scape is from Discord User Paisen with their incredible stone arch! What great framing on that shot!



Keep an eye out for your past submissions here:



Scape on!

DLC
-Added Free Fish Pack and Asia Fish Pack #1
-Added menus, tutorials, etc. to support the new DLC feature
-Added a new store for DLC content that will help surface DLC items more frequently

Fish Appearance and Behavior
-HUGE audit to all fish textures, animations, and behaviors. Every fish should look/act better. Some fish look/act WAY better. Thank you Erin for combing through HUNDREDS of files by hand to make this possible.
-Updated and improved pectoral fin animations, which are now better connected to actual fish motion/intention
-Updated and improved Fish Iridescence
-Updated and improved Fish Transparency
-Updated and improved lighting on fish, who sometimes had harsh shadows on thin or transparent body parts
-Many quality of life improvements for the internal tools used to make Fish, resulting in better quality, faster production, and fewer headaches
-Updates to fish behavior, especially algae eating, territory guarding, and general movement
-Major improvement to fish schooling, removing "guppy death ball" scenario where an entire school would congregate in one location, oscillating up and down. Schools should now group together and move around as a unit, but not be so glued to each other.

Settings
-Added Resolution Scale setting to render the game window at a lower resolution as an optional way to improve performance
-Added setting to disable Surface Algae and poop. This was included to let players who use the -dx11 fix still play the game without everything covered in green

Misc
-Added warning to the Details Panel when someone is using No Death Mode
-Added functionality to Inspect tool that just zooms in on a point if clicking on hardscape or substrate
-Added names suggested by our Patreon supporters (thank you!)
-Added text to fish details that indicates what size it will grow to be (matching the suggestions when starting a new tank)
-Improved UI/menu animations
-New sounds, especially when interacting with UI buttons or in-tank items

Fixes
-Fixed bug that could erase keeper XP from the UI that had yet to be collected before traveling to a new tank/store
-Corrected typos
-Fixed back button in main menu
-Fixed Grab Highlight bug on fish
-Fixed examine mouseover not always showing the latest history event

Launching today (along with 1 free fish being added to the base game, the Weather Loach!)!

2 new content DLC for Fish Game, as well as adding one new free fish to the base game. We are also launching a Patreon to continue adding more fish to the game. I'm sure you have questions, so please read to the end.

First, however, here's the DLC details!

FREE PACK includes:

• Bloodfin tetra
  
• Bronze corydora
  
• Bicolor red & black common goldfish
  
• Chocolate neon tetra
  
• Julii corydora
  
• Speckled shortfin molly
  
• Creamsicle shortfin molly
  
• Golden common goldfish
  
• Koi guppy (with 4 tail types!)
  
• Green guppy (with 4 tail types)
  

And, as voted on by the community, ASIA PACK #1 includes:

• Bicolor plakat betta (red & blue)
  
• Black line rasbora
  
• Interrupted line danio
  
• Lake tebera rainbowfish
  
• Porthole rasbora
  
• Siamese algae eater
  
• Tiger hillstream loach
  
• White cloud minnow
  
• Zebra hillstream loach
  

Like always, every fish is designed to behave like their real-world counterparts (as closely as our systems allow).

If you were hoping for different fish, good news! That's what the Patreon is for! But first, I'll answer some questions that came up on Discord that I think are very valid:

WHY ARE YOU SHIPPING DLC WHILE OTHER SYSTEMS ARE STILL BEING DEVELOPED?
"I wish ________ fish was in the game" is the #1 thing we hear that is actionable without interrupting core development. Ryan's our only systems developer, Josh is our modeler/tech artist and Erin does all the fish painting. Josh & Erin are able to integrate new fish without having to pull Ryan away from systems design.

WHY START A PATREON?
Fish Game is a niche title made without publisher support. We are so far from profitability. But I'd like us to be able to keep working on it as long as possible for the players who love it and so the people working on it can have jobs.

IS DISCORD GOING BE FOR PATREON SUPPORTERS ONLY? No. Patreon just doesn't have an front-end display option more nuanced than "Discord Access". Patreon subscribers will have access to one channel specifically dedicated to voting on DLC.

WILL IMPORTANT GAMEPLAY FEATURES BE LOCKED BEHIND DLC? No. DLC will be content only: fish, plants, hardscape, and non-essential hardware. Patreon is *solely* for people who want to support Fish Game more than with an initial purchase.

WHAT ARE THE PATREON PERKS?
The full details are on the Patreon Page here. But here are the highlights for most players:

1. We have several content DLC packs ready to go and while we haven't scheduled them all, releases will be regular.
   
2. Memberships above $3/mo will be able to vote on which DLC are released next.
   
3. Memberships above $5/mo will get:
   • DLC Steam codes automatically sent to their inboxes without having to purchase them while subscribed.
     
   • A name of your choice (subject to approval) that the game will randomly assign to fish in stores.
4. There are also higher-level tiers the let you choose a fish you want in the game and help design its behavior.
   

Thanks for reading!

Gord & the Fish Game team

We have VERY EXCITING NEWS coming soon, so stay tuned for our next announcement!
(sorry I also said this last time but jumped the gun a little).

THIS WEEK'S THEME: CAVES! It runs Jan 31-Feb 6! Let's see some scapes! Cozy, scenic, creepy, or whatever you can imagine.

Submit your aquascapes to the Fish Game Discord to take part in our weekly challenges! Select tanks will find themselves featured in the game.

Last week's stand-out scape is from Discord User wisphunt with their fantastically arranged Dutch Style discus tank!



Keep an eye out for your past submissions here:



Scape on!