What follows is a design doc of sorts for a game I dreamed up for Eggjam #25, codenamed "Big Moon Fish". I won't have time to finish the game for the jam, and frankly, I don't think I want to. It's just not the kind of thing I have any interest in building, but I had fun thinking about it! So if you want to steal my idea, go ahead, I'd love to see it! Maybe leave a comment here or shoot me an itch message if it inspires you to make something.

The Basic Idea

When I was trying to think of ideas for Eggjam 25, I thought it would be neat to do a riff on The Big Bell Race (one of many UFO 50 references I'll make in this doc — heads up: there will also be small spoilers for many of these). The idea being you take the mechanics from one game and use them in a racing game. I got the somewhat silly idea to combine a fishing game and a racing game. It would be a bit opposite of The Big Bell Race: instead of thrusting to move up, you'd have to push down to avoid getting reeled up. Which I guess makes you the fish in this scenario?? A bit of a twist compared to a regular fishing game.

So then I thought: but what if there is also a fisher, and you can also control them? And that's where I thought of this game idea that lost all the racing mechanics but is a wacky 1- or 2-player (collaborative) side-scrolling arcade-y fishing game.

The World

You are a fish, swimming in an autoscrolling world full of hazards. You are also a fisher, standing on the banks of the world. Together you (whether one player or two) work together to maneuver through the obstacles and reach the end.

The Controls

I really like the idea of having Mooncat-inspired controls for this game. There's one button that reels the fish in. There's another button that allows the fish to push against the current. That's it. 

For collaborative mode, these two buttons are controlled by different players. In single-player, one person controls them both.

Specifically:

• The game is an auto-scroller, with new map segments coming in from the left. It's only one screen tall.
• By default, the character gradually moves to the bottom of the screen (gravity).
• By default, the character gradually moves to the left of the screen until a certain point (water resistance).
• The fish player can push against the resistance by pressing/holding their button (Z & X on controller,  , or ✥ on keyboard). This will cause them to move to the right. Releasing the button will gradually move them back to the left until the starting point. The character can never move left of this point or right of the screen.
  
• The fisher player can reel the fish in by pressing/holding their button (Z & X on keyboard, or ✥ on controller). This will cause the fish to move up. Releasing the button will gradually move the fish down until they're touching the surface. The surfaces are what limit the fish movement at the bottom of the screen. Perhaps just the water's surface limits it at the top.
• I kind of wonder if the vertical controls should feel a lot different from the horizontal controls, to support the idea of different people controlling them (both two different players and two different characters).

Hazards

The two hazards are walls and other swimming creatures. Walls ordinarily don't hurt you, but watch out! If you get pinned between a wall and the left edge of the screen, you get squished! This causes you to instantly lose all your health.

Beneficial items will often be placed in locations that are a bit risky to get in and out of.

Other swimming creatures damage you if you come into contact with them. Maybe some even have attacks! Like in Campanella, many critters will also be damaged when coming into contact with you, perhaps lessening their threat. Some might shoot things at you.

Objective

Your primary objective is survival. I can imagine two modes: one with regular levels, and a second mode that's an endless runner style where you try to best your previous distance.

You have a health bar, and losing all your health (which can happen all at once if you get squished) sends you back to the beginning of the level.

There are a few items to help you along your way: health refreshes, shields, and speed boosts.

Misc

• Style — I like a lot of bright colors, sunset in the background, maybe a lot like Seaside Drive. Parallaxing would be nice.
• Engine — This would work pretty well as a PICO-8 game. The bright, limited color palette would look good, and the limited control options suit this game just fine. It's also a pretty similar aesthetic to UFO 50.

UFO 50 Inspirations

• The Big Bell Race — what if fishing mechanics were a racing game?
• Mooncat — 2-button controls
• Ninpek — autoscrolling
• Campanella — the walls are dangerous!
• Porgy — plenty of good inspiration here for undersea critters
• Seaside Drive — I was thinking some Seaside Drive-inspired graphics would be super rad! I haven't actually played this one yet, but I suppose it's sort of an autoscroller, as well