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A li'l game...kinda fishie...


vdub_bobby

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I don't know how I missed this and didn't notice it until Albert posted on the front page of the site! This game is great. I love the graphics, music, gameplay, and the two player feature. It's great how the smaller creatures react when you approach them from the horizontal, and that the shark detects your motion. The different fish graphics and sizes look great, and the gameplay is refreshing (I haven't tried Shark!)!

 

Now that I've joined the game late and seen Fishies after everyone else, here are some of my initial thoughts on possible changes (my two cents worth):

 

-improve the title screen, like you said

-short musical tune when growing immediately after eating a fish

-change or have different music for different growth stages

-room for more deadly creatures, like a squid?

-I can hide at the bottom in the seaweed; will you keep it that way as a place to rest?

-maybe put in a day/night cycle with glowing fish at night

-can you win the single player game?

 

Keep up the great work! :D

 

Are the sharks always deadly?  How about the octopus?  I haven't seen the flashing eel yet.  :)  

 

..Al

You can see the eels earlier in the two player game.
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Nice update! I have to agree... there needs to be more small fish at the very beginning to get the game rolling. By chance, I had one game start up with almost all small fish, and it really helped with the pacing of it.

 

I still think there needs to be an incentive (life meter or something) to keep eating. Otherwise, you can lazily float near the center of the screen waiting for lunch, rather than chase after fish.

 

Not sure if it's intentional or not - but if you just sit there, small fish will just swim right into you. They only run away if you move. (Their vision must be based on movement. ;) )

 

I like the new fish. The game has a more cohesive feel to it.

 

I played around with a couple more sprites, for kicks.

 

First, the shark now swims:

 

shark.gif

 

Then, the waves (on the horizon):

 

waveanim.gif

 

And the individual frames for the shark:

 

sharksprites.gif

 

And the waves (the first frame is intentionally empty, for timing):

 

wavesprites.gif

 

The waves worked out to be eight double-width pixels wide, by two high, I think.

Edited by Nathan Strum
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While I have never played "Shark Shark", I have played another more recent game on the SNES, which is very similar sounding to your game.

 

E.V.O. Search for Eden

http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/snes/evo/

 

Basically you start as a fish and must eat other fish to get experience points so that you can choose wich parts of your fish body to evolve such as better fins (speed agility), stronger jaw (better attack), better scales (defense), etc. The game is a cross between a platformer, RPG, and adventure game. Really strange but fun game. You can eventually evolve lungs, legs and walk onto land. The game doesn't stop there as an amphibian though. You can basically go all the way to being a human.

 

I have always wanted to see more games along the lines of EVO.

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I still think there needs to be an incentive (life meter or something) to keep eating. Otherwise, you can lazily float near the center of the screen waiting for lunch, rather than chase after fish.

Good idea, the fish could loose size again then. So you have to eat, or you will shrink and finally die.

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This is obviously a very clever shark. He's trying to fool you into thinking he's a dolphin.

Very clever. Probably "just a(nother) Pacific Ocean thing"? ;)

 

And waves go up and down, here. Maybe it's just a Pacific Ocean thing. ;)

Probably a longitude thing, in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the North Sea they just move. Even in my bathtub they do. :)

 

I want a PAL version, with dumb Atlantic sharks and ordinary moving waves! :D

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I want a PAL version, with dumb Atlantic sharks and ordinary moving waves! :D

 

Sharks in the Atlantic pretend to be flounders, so they'd have to be limited to the bottom of the screen.

 

That's why the shark in Jaws nailed so many people. East Coast. Flounders. Never saw it coming. Very clever, those sharks. :ponder:

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Well... It's not very often I have a dream about the Atari anymore (like I did in my younger days) but I had one today. I'm not sure where I was at but I opened up a 2600 game.... and behold it was Fishies.

 

Detail is what it is here... I opened it up from a box that was in like one of those Parker Bros. boxes (where the top came off) to get to the game... box all metallic silver with the art on top and the name of the game on the side of the box for 2600. Anywyas... that's all I really remember about the dream.... I did take the cart out but then that's it.

(shrugs shoulders)

 

Figured I would share :)

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I just tried the latest version, looks like it's steadily improving.

 

One thought I had was that the jellyfish's animation speed should be constant, since it doesn't really push itself forward like the other fish. Besides, it looks good when animating at a decent speed.

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Wow. It's great seeing this game evolve and grow in size (much like the subject of the game, the growing fish!). Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing the development of it with us, and taking suggestions. That's way cool you're doing that!

 

As for the title, I was just thinking that the working title Fishies, or maybe just Fish, would work.

 

Looking forward to seeing the inevitable cart label contest for this. :)

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I have been thinking and thinking and I haven't been able to come up with a really good, Wow!, title screen design for this game.

 

Anybody have any ideas?

 

Part of it depends (I think) on the final name for the game. "Fishies" seems to have stuck pretty well. :)

 

Someone had posted a demo here of a very cool rippling water effect, but now I can't seem to find the thread.

 

Anyway, here's a zipped bin of it. (Sorry I can't find the info to give credit where it's due.)

 

While the scrolling part of it really isn't necessary for a title screen, the rippling water would look great reflecting the name of the game.

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I have been thinking and thinking and I haven't been able to come up with a really good, Wow!, title screen design for this game.

 

Anybody have any ideas?

 

Part of it depends (I think) on the final name for the game. "Fishies" seems to have stuck pretty well. :)

Well, I'm not too fond of that name, myself :)

Someone had posted a demo here of a very cool rippling water effect, but now I can't seem to find the thread.

 

Anyway, here's a zipped bin of it. (Sorry I can't find the info to give credit where it's due.)

 

While the scrolling part of it really isn't necessary for a title screen, the rippling water would look great reflecting the name of the game.

That's a good idea. Thanks.
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Speaking of nice suggestions; how about a little help?  :)

 

I have been thinking and thinking and I haven't been able to come up with a really good, Wow!, title screen design for this game.

 

Anybody have any ideas?

 

Why not have an animated submarine with the title roam around the screen?

I have no idea of programming limitations, But just adding the sub animation would keep free some space for other things. Mock-up below.

post-3832-1109217248_thumb.jpg

post-3832-1109217249_thumb.jpg

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A couple of other gameplay-related thoughts... I think the player should have to face the other fish to eat them. Currently, you can back into smaller fish to kill them, and although that's not unusal for a videogame, it seems a little weird in context. It's sort of like the little fish die by swimming up the player's...

 

...well, you get the idea. Instead, maybe the smaller fish should bounce off you if they hit you from behind, and you have to chase them down.

 

Related to that, if the player hits a bigger fish from behind, instead of instantly dying, how about if the bigger fish whips around and pursues the player really fast. Sort of like, "You bumped into me? How dare you! Down the hatch, twerp!" :)

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