Loan Shark News

[p]Hello there fisherpeople! Let's see what we caught in our net.[/p][p][/p][h2]Release Date[/h2][p]Salty news for y'all: the Loan Shark is coming for payback on 8th August 2025![/p][p]Get ready for a fishing trip amidst water, debt, and blood.[/p][p][/p][h2]New Trailer[/h2][p]To celebrate the announcement of the release date, we put up an updated version of our trailer.[/p][p]It shares the same structure and beats as the previous one, but showcases all the little tweaks we made to improve the look of the game.[/p][p]Let us know what you think![/p][h2][/h2][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]Stay fishy and wishlist our game![/p][p]- Studio Carota[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]Hello there, fellow fisherpeople![/p][p]Today it's big catch day: the Loan Shark demo has been downloaded more than 1000 times.[/p][p][/p][p]We're also going strong with more than 400 wishlists in the bucket already. This huge increase in less than 15 days was due to Loan Shark participating in the Steam Fishing Fest, the release of the demo and a lot of content creators picking up and playing the demo.[/p][p][/p][p]We know we're still the smallest fish in the pond. And yet, it's motivating, exciting and even a little bit frightening to see how quickly you, the players, have started engaging with our game. Some of you even left reviews on the demo store page![/p][p][/p][p]For all these reasons, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts! We're working hard on polishing Loan Shark towards its release while integrating your feedback. Expect updates in the following weeks.[/p][p][/p][p]Happy fishing![/p][p]Studio Carota[/p][p][/p][p](And if you haven't played the demo yet...)[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]Hey everyone![/p][p]We wanted to take a moment to say a big thank you to all of you who discovered, visited, and wishlisted Loan Shark during Steam's Fishing Fest. This was our first-ever Steam event as developers, and the experience gave us a huge boost—not just in visibility, but in confidence.[/p][p]Thanks to your support, Loan Shark gained 228 new wishlists during the week of the event, pushing us past 289 total wishlists. For a small indie team working on their debut game, that’s huge.[/p][p]We also learned a ton about how Steam works behind the scenes: we experimented with our trailer, tweaked screenshots, and even updated our capsule art multiple times during the event to see what clicked with you.[/p][p]We missed the Fishing Fest Train for the demo, but we’ve been hard at work and we just released a public demo of Loan Shark. If you want to try it out, it’s available on our store page now![/p][p]Once again, thank you for helping us grow during the Fishing Fest. It’s been an eye-opening, motivating experience—and we’re already planning how to do things even better next time.[/p][p]If you happen to be interested on our strategy for the fest, we wrote a newsletter post that goes more in depth on that stuff.[/p][p]🦈 Wishlist the game if you haven’t yet, and stay tuned—August is just around the corner.[/p][p]– Nicola[/p]

[p]Hello there![/p][p][/p][p]The demo for our psychological horror game is out.[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]If you want to get your feet wet in sea and blood, give it a try and let us know what you think about it![/p][p][/p][p]- Studio Carota[/p]

[p]Have you ever felt like you were choking from stress and anxiety while staring at an obstacle you know you cannot overcome?[/p][p][/p][p]That's what Loan Shark is about. You play as a professional angler in debt to the mob. During a night of work on your fishing boat, you catch a weird fish that can talk and offers its help to get you out of debt. The only problem is, help does not come cheap.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h2]What kind of game is Loan Shark?[/h2][p]A short, dark psychological horror game about hopelessness, debt, and fishing. The sea is your mind, the boat is yourself, and you cannot go back until you've fished enough.[/p]

• [p]If you enjoy psychological horror games that deal with adult, contemporary themes like Mouthwashing, you will enjoy Loan Shark.[/p]
• [p]If you appreciate narrative games that merge gameplay and authored storytelling like Paratopic, you will appreciate Loan Shark.[/p]
• [p]If you like short, straight-to-the-point gaming experiences that you can play in one sitting, Loan Shark is perfect for you.[/p]

[p]Wishlist the game and follow us if this is something you want to play. We want to hear from you as we get closer to the release date.[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][hr][/hr][h2]Who we are[/h2][p]Hello there! We are Luca and Nicola, the developers behind Loan Shark.[/p][p]A couple of words about us: we are two game developers from Italy with previous experience in the local game industry. We met and became friends while working for a local game studio. Fast forward to October 2024: we had both left that studio and started collaborating together.[/p][p]We released a small demo project for free on itch.io to test our collaboration. Along the way, we joined forces with Rumpelstiltskin, a friend of ours and a talented all-around artist. The three of us are now working hard on our first commercial game to be released here on Steam.[/p][p]That game is, of course, Loan Shark.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h2]What comes next[/h2][p]This post is the first in a series of dev logs focused on sharing the development process behind Loan Shark with the Steam community.[/p][p]As indie developers, what we need to thrive is a community that enjoys our games and supports our work. We believe we have meaningful things to share and that we just need to find our audience.[/p][p]These dev logs are a small step toward that goal! Part dev diary for us to reflect on the process, part desire to share our daily work and progress. We hope you will enjoy them and get to know the game and us a little better.[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you for reading![/p][p]Luca and Nicola[/p]