FISHERY News

Hello everyone,

Apologies for uploading this a little late, it has been a very intense and interesting week. Unfortunately there is no update to the build this week because we are working on a few large changes that are not quite finished yet but we are quite confident that there will be a new build next week.


Hibuna Goldfish (Male):



One of the new fishes that will be in next week's update will be the male Hibuna Goldfish. It took an exhausting 12 hour painting session yesterday and a further 3 hours today to get it's paint job finished (but I may still tweak it at some point). It is such an iconic fish that it is very important to try and get it right. In addition it is also really good practice for painting scale patterns. Some fish have very clear and defined scales and we need to practice painting them so that when come to paint these fish we will be ready. For instance Arowana fish and the boeseman's rainbowfish are on the list of fish that are scary to paint.

We hinted last week that we would have another nice fish (both male and female) ready this week but we need just a few more hours of painting to get it right. On the bright side that means next week there will be 3 new fish added to the game.


Creation Mode Tweaks:


Time was spent this week fixing up quite a few annoyances in the creation settings. We focused on making it less clunky to create objects quickly and accurately. In the above example there are a few new parameters added and enabled to help this process.

There is an option to enable a preview material on the preview representation of the object you are creating. You can keep creating objects with subsequent mouse clicks rather than having to repeatedly return to the menu to drag the icon into the aquarium, which really became annoying. The UI for this has also been simplified.

These creation settings are now more consistent with the creation settings for plumbing objects which should make things less confusing and some more work will be done to the plumbing creating ui and settings to improve player interaction with that system.



The backdrop system has not been changed in a long time and in desperate need for of an update. An important part of this update is making it's user interface more consistent with the other user interfaces of similar creation features in the game. Which means having a nice menu with a panel with settings so players can customize settings within their chosen backdrop.

We have a lot of new backdrops planned and a few in various stages of completion. There are quite a few types of backdrop. At the moment the default backdrop is a flat grey backdrop. It is pretty boring but players may wish to have simple pure coloured backdrops. In the new version of this system players will be able to choose the colour from swatches from it's settings UI. Changing colours and other settings for each backdrop type is going to be the most interesting part of this system.

Ocean Backdrop:


One backdrop currently present in the game is the ocean backdrop. Eventually there will be a range of options that players can customize that include fog colour, enabling details like whales swimming in the distance, submarines, crabs walking about etc.

Radial gradient test example:


We are also adding a few more backgrounds that are most commonly seen in the advertising industry. Essentially these types of backdrops are all about making a nice clean presentation of whatever is the object of focus. There will be options for players to choose style and colours.


Abstract-ish Patterns:


This falls under the category of "abstract patterns". This category of backdrops won't make sense to everyone but some players may wish to express an idea with their aquarium design which is better expressed and enhanced on a backdrop of something that is not exactly in a 3d space. This could include things like old paper (as seen in the image above) or certain types of floral patterns, very subtle gradients, bokeh patterns etc. This category certainly is not for everyone but there will be some interesting ideas added.


There will also be the realistic category which will have backdrops familiar to all. Players have asked for backdrops like, a child's bedroom, a family living room, the lobby of a business, a pet shop. We are definitely going to add these and much much more.

After we have updated the backdrop system next week we will post a new list on the forums with all the ideas we have for backdrops and of course you will all be invited to give us suggestions so stay tuned for that.


I got a little behind this week with replying to stuff in the forums. Most likely I will respond to questions and suggestions on Sunday after a little rest today.

As usual we wish you all a great weekend and look forward to getting a nice big fat juicy update ready for you all next week.

the Fishery Team

Hello everyone,

We are back from our little break and the game build has just been updated. This post might be a little shorter than usual because we have mostly worked on painting new fish this week and the new selection features that have been put into this week's game update were detailed in last week's post.


Female Gold Platy:


Male Gold Platy:



We have added some Gold Platys. It was a good fish to help us ease back into painting after a little break. These were finished quite early in the week and some new fish are already in the process of being painted but not yet finished.

Male Hibuna Goldfish (Work in progress):


The Hibuna Goldfish is in the first stages of being painted. In our research we have found that there can be quite a bit of difference in the colours of these goldfish so to try and show that variation in the game we have made the male version which is shown above to have more red in it's colourings. The female will be more orangey. At least one, but hopefully both, will be in the game next week.

The other fish that is being painted is a very colourful guppy but we wont show it yet because we would rather it be a nice little surprise.


As was said before the other parts of this week's game update about new selection features were talked about in last week's post so we encourage you to look at that for a more in depth explanations.

Selection Mask UI


One small thing that is worth mentioning here though is about the UI for the selection mask. At the moment it is visible all the time when players are able to select things but this wont be the case for too long. A new selection ui is going to be put together that will also included the marquee selection toggle button and this ui can be hidden so there is less clutter on screen. This will be added towards the end of this month.

Next week is going to be quite busy indeed. Aside from painting fish there is a big pile of small changes that need to be made to parts of the fish ai, user interface, creation tools, bug hunting, bug fixing, career mode writing etc etc.

We wish you all a good weekend,

The Fishery Team

Hello everyone,

A warm thank you for all birthday wishes that were written in the comments of last weeks post. I did in fact manage to take it easy this week and have a break. My colleague also felt the time was right to rest a bit so it was a much less intense week for both of us. There won't be an update to the game itself this week but there definitely will be one next week.

I did manage to add some small but interesting features to the game that have been on my mind for some time but it was done in a leisurely, stress free fashion.





Selecting objects at the moment can be quite tedious especially if there are many objects to be selected. A small feature was added to allow players to simply click and drag the mouse to select whole groups of objects without lots of tedious clicking. It is almost like a selection "brush" where players brush their mouse over the scene and it selects whatever it hits. It also solves the problem of selecting fish. Fish can sometimes move a bit fast and making a precise mouse click atop a fish can be tricky. Players can now just chase the fish with the mouse button held to select it and it is a lot easier. This feature can also be used when de-selecting objects.

The next step for easing selection tedium is to add marquee selection. Sometimes known as a selection rectangle. We have the main part of it working but it still needs some tweaks to performance before it can be added to the game. There is a good chance it will be in the game before the end of August.



This is quite a valuable feature to also reduce player annoyance when selecting objects. A selection mask. Essentially players can tell the game what type of object they wish to select in order to prevent them selecting something they have no desire to select but at the same time make it easier to select the things they do want to select. In the above example we are trying to quickly select all the rocks but because there are plants in the way they too get selected which is undesired.



This second example shows how simple it is to select the rocks when we tell the game to ignore the plants when calculating selections. It is much easier to select the rocks and there are no undesired selections.



More progress has been made with the Hibuna goldfish models. These were worked on more today and I think they are ready to go to the painting phase but I will sleep on it and have another look on Monday with fresh eyes to see if I there is anything that jumps out on them that needs tweaking. There is not really much difference in shape between male and female Hibuna's in real life, unless the female of pregnant, so I added some variation to the overall body shape and fins so both models are not identical. There will be similar small differences done to their painted textures that will allow players to see a difference between them more clearly without them look too dissimilar.


The forums have been a little busier than usual this week so more time was spent answering questions and researching fish suggestions. Before I officially add a fish to the fish list based on someone's suggestion I need to do a quick bit of research to make sure it is something we can actually do in terms of animation, model complexity etc. We made a list for food and for plants and already received some suggestions which have been added. There is a lot of Latin to be read on the plant list. More lists will be added soon so remember to check them out as well as the existing ones.

We are back to work on Monday so expect a nice game update next week with at least one new species of fish and a few small feature updates, bug fixes etc.

We wish you all a good weekend,

The Fishery Team

Hello everyone,

The game build has been uploaded so feel free to check it out. It has been quite busy week with work being done on quite a few areas of the game and some of them are ready to show you all.



This is a work in progress model of a Hibuna goldfish. Which depending on where I look on the internet is also called the Common Goldfish or a Red Crucian Carp. You would be surprised how long we spend trying to find the correct names and descriptions to match the visual appearance of our fish. Surprisingly, information found on the internet is not always in accordance with the truth. We have instead ordered a few well respected books/encyclopaedias about fish, one specifically about goldfish which will clarify all in the near future.

As was said before the model is not done yet. Everything is more or less in the right place. The next step is to refine the shapes of the head and body and do another pass shaping the fins. Then small variations will be made to distinguish the genders. there is not a huge amount of difference between male and female Hibunas so we will rely on slightly changing some proportions and shapes a bit so the models are not identical to the naked eye. Furthermore they will be painted with variations. Male Hibunas, much like other goldfish, have these little white dots near they gills.



It is long overdue that we update the in-game help system so it actually provides help to players. In the previous two weeks we have seen some players express frustration about not knowing how to navigate the camera or are baffled by how the plumbing system works. We don't really have an excuse for not providing such simple features such as in-game help other than we have just been working on everything else in the game. Nevertheless every week from now on we will do our best to add new entries to the help system and update existing ones when we make a change. We have begun with help for the main controls and a more detailed explanation of the current state of the plumbing system. The button for quick help can be found in the top right corner of the screen.



Yes we have added cheese to the game. It is quite often used as bait by people looking to catch fish for sport or food because it's scent underwater is quite strong and curious fish cant resist a nibble. According to most online sources a good number of fish should not actually eat cheese long term because they do not have the ability to digest animal fat. This does tie into some features will be adding later to do with food.

The quality of food that players feed to their fish will affect their lifespan and behaviour over time. If players feed their fish the same fish pellets for a long time their happiness will decrease and their lifespan will shorten. Feeding them some of the more interesting foods we have been adding in previous weeks will have different outcomes such as increases happiness, longer lifespan, increased chance of breeding (ooh la la), reduction of stress etc etc etc. Not to mention in career mode the more interesting food will have a higher cost so players will need to balance their finances in order to feed their fish a really healthy diet. In the forums a food list will shortly be posted that will list all the food currently in the game as well as what we are planning to add so we encourage you to check it out and make suggestions once it is posted.

We are also adding cheese now for reasons explained below.



August 1st is National Swiss Day and our company is based in Switzerland, Furthermore some of you may have seen that Fishery has been on sale this week along with around 50 other Swiss games. So to commemorate these events we thought it would be fun to add the Swiss cheese and the floaty duck painted as the Swiss flag.


Next week we are taking a little bit of a break from normal work because it is my birthday and I have not really had a break yet this year. However knowing myself I will probably finish the goldfish model and add more entries to the in-game help. Also the FAQ on the forums needs updating along with the fish list. The suggestions made by people in the fish list thread has been fantastic and it is just growing and growing. I urge you you all to check it out and contribute.

More lists will certainly be added either tonight or over the weekend. As mentioned above there will be a food list. We are certainly going to add a plant list, coral list, decoration list etc. It really helps us to see what art content we can prioritise so we can reward you all for you patience.

There will of course be an update post like this one showing development progress next week so stay tuned for that. We wish you all a good weekend.

The Fishery Team

Hello everyone,

A new build should be uploaded some time tomorrow (Saturday) if all goes smoothly with testing. We did not get to finish as much as we wanted this week but we still managed to get a new fish in the game.

Female Green Grass Guppy (updated fin colours):


Male Green Grass Guppy:



Finally I have finished the male green grass guppy and updated the female guppy's fins to match the colourings. These are halfmoon guppies. We are also going to add as many of the other types of guppies as we can such as spear tail, flag tail, round tail etc and we will paint as many varieties of colourings as we can too. There seems to be an endless amount of colourings so feel free to check out the fish list on the forums and make suggestions for guppies that you would like us to prioritise. Also feel free to make suggestions for all other types of fish too. The list keeps growing and it gives us a clear picture of what fish are most important for us to include in the game.

Next week I will make the new models for the common goldfish. I also feel a bit of a tingle in the brain to model another variety of goldfish too, perhaps a Ranchu or a black moor.

Fungi:


Fungi has been added into the game. They are a new object type that we introduced in last week's post. The main purpose of fungi is to help remove waste from aquariums without the need for an artificial filter. There are going to be story lines in career mode that require players to gain knowledge about how to create 100% natural and self sustaining aquariums that don't use any plumbing and fungi are just another tool in the toolbox to help players achieve that.

The white mushroom is called Psathyrella Aquatica. It was discovered in 2005 and is the only known gilled mushroom that lives completely submerged underwater and was found anchored in rivers that have quite strong currents. Naturally we had to include it in our game. You can expect to see some more species of fungi added in the future.


There have also been some tweaks to how shadows work. We are using a technique called "Cascaded shadow maps". To put it simply it allows us to calculate the shadows of objects close to the camera with more detail than objects further away. This not only makes things look better but reduces shadow rendering time for objects further away from camera. Objects further away from camera usually take up less screen space, therefore they are seen with less details and we can use a much lower resolution shadow map for their shadows.


Remember to check our progress next week to see some nice new fish models as well as some nice progress in other areas of the game. As usual we hope you all have a good weekend.

The Fishery Team.