-A Fishing Project-

In summer of 2020, I was bored out of my mind, so I decided to make a little game. I didn't want to  make anything too complex, just something for my hobbist interests. I've always loved the fishing mini-games in videogames and I was playing a lot with the RPGMaker software at the time...

So, it came to me. Will I be able to create a fishing game using exclusively the RPGMaker engine? The answer was yes, a three-weeks-long yes. 

The first thing I did was develop the fishing mechanic with a really simple prototype: a character interacting with a tile of water and a randomized event for the obtained fish. I added some constraints for the fish you could obtain depending on your equipment and when I was happy with the result, I decided to develop a narrative for the game and how to obtain resources and new equipment. 

I made an intro cutscene using the RPGMaker assets and transformed the minigame in a fishing contest, so the player could have some motivation to fish. I added some NPCs that you could gift your fish to and a little store where you could buy equipment and sell fishes. Even though, RPGMaker has his own code for the shops, I decided to develop my own, since that would give me more freedom in the interactions with the NPCs. And finally, I added six different finals -each with its own final sequence- depending on your interaction with the NPCs and the fish you presented to the jury. 

In this project, I learnt a few things. First, I really enjoy constructing the narrative of a game. Developing the characters and interactions is fun and incredible rewarding. Second, QA testing is a must. When you spent a lot of time with your game, you can become blind to a lot of little errors, so, having someone else looking at your game and spotting them is amazing. My partner and friends were incredible QA testers. This game could have been a lot worse without their help and advise. 

And looking back, I would love to make the fishing mechanic a little bit more interesting. Like, when the fish bait, you'll need to enter a button sequence in a given time... 

You can download and try it here.