Contents
1. Introduction
2. Core Loops
3. Objectives and Progression
4. Game Systems
5. Interactivity

Objectives and Progression

This is a game about a fish tank!

3.1. player goals

  • Collect as many different types of fish as possible
  • Collect all customization items
    • customization for fish, fish tank and rooms
  • Take care of fish for the duration of their life time?
  • Get all fish to their highest affection level and maintain that affection level for maximum money generation
    • Get 10 fish to affection level 10 to get master aquarist badge
  • Discover all random encounters on the walk
  • Discover all locations on the walk
  • Collect all badges relevant to the game
  • In vertical slice: some items and interactions are locked behind fish affection

3.2. progression

  • Main menu
  • Room scene
  • Playing with Fish scene
  • Gachapon scene
  • Walking Fish scene
  • Customize fish scene

Intro Cutscene

The game begins by showing an opening cinematic to the player. In this cinematic, a knock is heard on the players door. Through a first person view, the player gets up from their desk and walks over towards their bedroom door. When they open the door they find a fish tank at the foot of the door with a sticky note from their friend Lonnie.

The sticky note reads: “I got a little something for ya pal! Hope you enjoy it!” After briefly reading the sticky note, the player picks up the fish tank, and shifts it onto their desk, clearing things in the way in order to make room for the tank. Now the player actively looks into the tank and sees an excited little fish swimming around in circles with a big ol fish smile on its face.

[!NOTE] Fun Fact The fish shown in this introduction is also randomized and is a nice little unique preview of the possible fish that the player can get. At the beginning of the game, if there is no save data, this actually becomes the player’s first fish. In subsequent play throughs however, this becomes any random fish that might be obtained by the gachapon.

After bow the happy little fish, the camera pans out to show a full view of the room with the fish tank on the desk and fades to black.

Title Screen / Main Menu

The title screen of the game opens up with a menu overlayed on top a camera that is slowly revolving around the players current fish tank. The fish tank cannot be interacted with in this view, but provides a nice preview of the player’s progress, while allowing them to do main menu things.

The following menu options are initially available to the player:

  • Check out your fish: this option starts the game and allows the player full control over the scene in a smooth transition.
  • Settings: this option gives the player the chance to configure some settings about the game, including controls, and audio levels.
  • Credits: this option gives the player a chance to see the rolling credits and attribution for the game with information about the Fish Head Games team, as well as any third party attribution that is required.

Settings Menu

  • Gameplay:
    • Reset tutorials: this will reset all tutorials in the game and allow players to view the initial guides again.
    • Reset Fish Tank: this will remove all of the save data for the game and essential start the player at square one. A confirmation menu will be show to confirm that this is what the player actually would like to do.
  • Controls
    • Control Scheme Visualization: Provides at least a static controls guide for what buttons to press. Two graphics can by cycled between: one that displays the mouse and keyboard controls, and another that displays the gamepad controls.
  • Audio
    • Sound Effects (SFX): controls the volume of the fish and object / item sound effects.
    • Music Volume: controls the volume of the music.
    • Ambient Tack Override: allows the player to override the track that is playing in any room with their favorite one.

New Game Guides

When the player starts a new game, a series of guides and tool tips are shown to help them understand how the play the game for the first time.

Initial Fish Tank Tutorials

  1. Use the Mouse/Analog stick to view the fish tank from different angles.
  2. “Looks like your fish is hungry” open the inventory menu and select the fish food to give them some grub.
    1. The inventory shows you a list of all your fish among other things. Let’s navigate to the food section at the top.
    2. Now select the fish food you have and click use.
  3. Your fish looks much happier now. But you ran out of food. We’ll have to pick up some more later.
  4. Click on the fish or use the D-Pad to cycle between fish.
  5. Press the A/Space Bar to view information about this fish.
    1. In this menu you may, rename, sell, or perform other actions with your fish.
    2. You must always have at least one fish in your fish tank.
  6. Your fish is energized after that tasty meal. How about you play some fetch with them to burn some energy.
  7. You fish looks very happy after that fun play session. Look! It has even given you a doubloon! How about we take them on a walk to show them off to the world!

Fish Walking

  1. First you will need to plan out your walk with the fish. Try to hit any major spots and presents on the walk for a chance at unique encounters!
  2. Your fish is not the most well equipped for the walk yet, but it will get better over time. Do your best to guide the fish through this new environment.
  3. Nice! Your fish survived the walk and you all snagged another doubloon! How about we try spending them in the store.

Store and Gachapon

  • First things first, we need to keep our fish happy so it will continue giving us doubloons. Let’s buy it some more fish food to keep them alive!
  • Look! The store has a neat looking gachapon machine. Let’s use the doubloon to see what we can nab from it!
  • Wow! Another fish! Looks like if you take care of your fish, you’ll increase your ability to get new fish!