Main Blog Ep. 9 - Another Fishing Title

v0.1.18.0

Fishing Mechanic

Reworked the fishing mechanic; Previously the difficulty was random, should be based primarily on what's being caught, and the highest tier items being more difficult to catch.

Join our Discord to see recent updates to this title!

Main Blog Ep. 9 - Another Fishing Title

Since the last post I've spent a lot of time on NPC interactions, roughed in some UI for the inventory system and equipment, and set up shops to sell/buy from. I've added some features to the background like a waterfall, and a second level that will work for progression and exploration. Staring at the default unity background got boring real fast.. Big changes to the fishing mechanic learning curve (this is the only rewrite so far).

Inventory and Equipment

The inventory and equipment system allows players to tap the item they want to equip, automatically placing the equipment into the slot and the subscribers listen and act accordingly. This was the first project I've used custom event arguments on and it worked great first try. A bit of a learning curve, they don't teach us anything like this in college. Events in general were not really touched on. Only equipment can be interacted with in this way, while fish and items will stack. This gives the player the ability to hoard items with a limited amount of space. If equipment is bought at the vendor, that item equips immediately, but can be re-equipped should they need to. If the item purchased is the first one, the default item will be replaced and not stored in the inventory. Tier 1 items are equivalent to the default but offer slightly better rewards as well. Instead it will be considered the new default gear. The exception to this is when a player purchases a new tackle item, and then loses it when they over stress their line. The default item will return and the player can purchase a new tackle, or equip another one, while rods do not break The equipment system is limited to three rods and four tackle currently, but the prototype has been programmed in a way that it can scale up to other levels. The previously purchased equipment, total gold, NPC submission points, and soon the current inventory, will all save persistently between game plays, saving in real time.

NPCS

NPCS now have traits, such as their reward, item requested, and all of their commentary and will now request a specific item, their request page now comes with different dialogue, and will respond according to the player having their request or not. If they don't, the NPC will scold them for wasting their time, but if they do they will get a confirmation. The item they request is listed with its own sprites and the required equipment to get that item is also listed. Once a player submits the correct item the NPC will leave and reward the player with gold & submission points. I added a few placeholder images to stand in for the rewards, rods, and tackle, just so I didn't have to look at the same item over and over.

Submission Points

Submission points can be used to access new areas. As I scale the game up I will give players areas to explore, some flavour text to uncover, hidden around the map, but new areas are gated. Submitting items to NPCs becomes the core focus for progression, while farming gold becomes a secondary objective, but furthers the progression to new areas. I plan to add at least 2 more areas outside of the immediate player area, the dock. I would like an ocean view, and a river, but those will come post release.

Fishing Mechanic

Some changes to the fishing mechanic, previously the stress meter was fairly consistent, and reduced too slowly, so that value was changed to reduce the stress a bit faster allowing the player to continue reeling. Later on in development I realized I had to completely rewrite how the mechanic handled rewarding the player. Previously the difficulty was completely random. Now the difficulty is tied to the end result, so if you are fishing for a tier 3 item, the event will have a difficulty of 3. Primarily to keep everything in line with the level scale/learning curve. I don't want to punish players trying to get a tier 1 item.

Full blog can be found at: https://www.slothfulmedia.com/blog (on or after Aug 9th)