The most vocal app in my twitter feed (where I tried to stalked as many indie game developer as possible) these few weeks can’t be any other game aside Ridiculous Fishing by Vlambeer!
6 seconds trailer on Vine
The game consisted of a few ridiculous sequence of game play mechanic. First you throw your bait into the water and avoid the fish by tilt your iOS device to dive down as deep as possible. Then once you caught the fish, the bait now will go up back to the surface, and this time, you will want to catch all fish on the way (except those Jellyfish that cost you money if you kill them). I love this part because of the reverse background music make this part of the experience very enjoyable. And last step when the fish reached the surface, the fishes then fly into the sky and you have to pick up your gun and shoot’em up! All the fishes you can’t shoot in the air will go back into water and you won’t get anything from them. Rambo-style background music also make this part of the game play, although seems very violent, feels very pleasant.
Another best part of the game is a series of refined feedback loops. For example, Fish-o-pedia that tell you how many kind of fish you have caught so far, an achievement system and new maps that unlocked through number of new kind of fish you caught, A store that sells items a the price that is always ‘a few session away’. That combined with an unexpected game ending with a meta-story, remind me a bit of a Monster Hunters series in PSP I used to play with my friends a few years ago. The game contains almost endless feedback loops, many of my friends spent 3-digit hours on each version of the game. While not as hardcore, a casual and refined Ridiculous Fishing can easily steal your two-digit hour to complete the whole game.
Rami, co-founder of Vlambeer, was at our thesis class (Colleen’s session) after a recent indie game conference, IndieCade East. I was lucky to play this game before it released and got many valuable feedback on our thesis game from him and others indie game developer that dropped by our class that day. In a long and windy road of indie game developer, self management is one of the most important thing you have to deal with, if you want to make sure what you doing can make your living, that is. We discussed work process technique like Pomodoro technique, that helps maximize the time with a short step goal.
Another interesting note about the game can be read here on article on the verge about the story about how the game had suffered from an iOS clone that was done by other company called Ninja Fishing and how game quality, originality and refinement won over the clone. http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/14/4102068/ridiculous-fishing-ipad-game-from-super-crate-box-team
Game art jam session: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sctsbf8baQ
