Living Lake

by James Black

Catch fish by a lake and relax.

Controls

•     WASD to move.
•     Move mouse to look around.
•     Space to jump.
•     Left ctrl to crouch.
•     Shift to walk.
•     Left mouse button with fishing rod to cast line.
•     Once cast, left mouse to slowly reel in.
•     Right mouse to quickly reel in.
•     T to wait
•     Tab to see what you haven't caught yet

Hint: Look towards a fish while reeling it in to avoid breaking the line.

Catch Times

•     Bass: 6am-8am
•     Catfish: 8pm-6am

Credits

    All sounds from freesound.org

    Draxel font from dafont.com

This game was created in half a semester for my capstone class at UNCC. Below is an edited GDD that describes what I was going for. Anything struck through didn't end up making it in the current release of the game. Most of my time ended up focusing on making the environment, because I didn't have a good workflow for it. Admittedly this game didn't meet what I had set by the GDD more than Living Metal's GDD.

Game Identity / Mantra

Stylized FPS collecting game where the player collects fish and insects. The player “wins” when they collect all there is to collect. Inspiration for this game comes from my own personal experiences at North Carolina’s lakes and how atmospheric and chill they are.

I will be using Unity, Blender, Aseprite, and an audio work station, likely LMMS, to make this project.

Design Pillars

Peace and Tranquility. The game should invoke feelings of relaxation and generate a calm atmosphere. An anxious person could play this game to calm down.

Collect Them All! The player can capture wildlife within the nature reserve and write it down in their notebook. Each creature has a "shiny variant" with a different color scheme.

Place and Time. The player must be at a specific location and time to see the wildlife. Hints will be scattered around the reserve to help players be where they need to be.

Genre/Story/Mechanics Summary

The player is on the Hearthfire Lake Nature Reserve (subject to change) to experience the wonders of nature. When the player starts, they are on the landing pad for the Nature Reserve. They came by a space ship. If I have time, I’d like to allow the player to go into their ship and decorate it with what they found with terrariums and fish tanks.

There will be a day and night cycle that will dictate when certain creatures will appear. When they are present on the reserve, They will move randomly around with a specific radius so that they do not go too far. Fish will give hints where they are with surface splashes. Bugs will make sounds to dictate where they are, to give the player hints.

WASD to move around. Left click to activate whatever is in the player’s hand. E to pick things up. Space bar to jump. Left ctrl to crouch. Tab to open the notebook. T to wait.

Features

Player can use a bug catching net to catch bugs they see around the pond. The bugs can be used as bait for fishing. Unlike the fish who are obscured by water, the bugs are obvious as to what they are. 

Player can also use a fishing rod to collect fish. Obvious fishing spots have water splashing above them. Once hooked, player just must react quick enough to reel fish in. May expand upon this later depending on time, but for now this is how it will be. (This was expanded later and now the player must look at the bobber while avoiding snapping the line)

A kayak can be used to get the player in better spots or just around the lake in general. A stretch goal could also be tree climbing.