Game Update & Playtesting Call

Hi everyone!

We’ve been hard at work over the past month building a strong foundation for the game, and we’re excited to share the progress with you. This update marks a big step forward, the core systems for fish care, breeding, and trading are now fully playable and ready for expanded testing.

TLDR: Major updates & we are looking for playtesters - You can sign up via our Discord #announcements channel!

Over 20 Fish Species Implemented

You can now collect, care for, breed, and sell a growing roster of aquarium fish. Each species has its own behavior, needs, and genetics. Currently implemented species include:

• Carassius auratus (Goldfish)

• Danio rerio (Zebra Danio)

• Paracheirodon innesi (Neon Tetra)

• Betta splendens (Betta / Siamese Fighting Fish)

• Puntigrus tetrazona (Tiger Barb)

• Puntigrus tetrazona"Moss" (Tiger Barb)

• Puntigrus tetrazona"Gold" (Tiger Barb)

• Danio margaritatus (Celestial Pearl Danio / Galaxy Rasbora)

• Poecilia sphenops"Black" (Molly)

• Poecilia sphenops"Silbermarmor" (Molly)

• Poecilia sphenops"Gold Dust" (Molly)

• Poecilia sphenops"Black Molly Orange Seam" (Molly)

• Gasteropelecus sternicla (Hatchetfish)

• Paracheirodon innesi (Neon Tetra)

• Xiphophorus maculatus"Red Wagtail" (Platy)

• Xiphophorus maculatus"Gold" (Platy)

• Xiphophorus maculatus"Black" (Platy)

• Carnegiella strigata (Marbled Hatchetfish)

• Carnegiella marthae (Blackwing Hatchetfish)

• Poecilia reticulata"Moscow Blue" (Guppy)

• Poecilia reticulata"Platinum White" (Guppy)

• Pterophyllum scalare"Silver" (Freshwater Angelfish)

• Pterophyllum altum (Altum Angelfish)

• Pterophyllum scalare"Marble" (Freshwater Angelfish)

Tank Decoration

Your aquariums can now be customized with 50+ decorations, plants, and stones, allowing you to create unique environments for your fish. One of our goals for the game is to make tanks feel highly aesthetic and personal, giving you plenty of freedom to design aquariums that reflect your own style.

During development, one of the bigger challenges was making a 2D tank feel visually three-dimensional. We wanted decorations to feel layered and natural rather than flat. After a lot of experimentation, we implemented a grid-based placement system that gives you precise control over where objects are placed while still creating a sense of depth inside the aquarium.

This system allows for a lot of creative flexibility when designing tanks. You can mix plants, stones, and decorations in many different layouts to create natural-looking environments. In addition, you can also customize the tank’s floor and background walls, giving even more options to shape the overall look and atmosphere of your aquariums.

Breeding & Genetics

Fish can now breed and pass down genetic traits, making each new generation slightly different from the last. Instead of every fish being identical, each individual has its own genetic profile that influences how it grows, survives, and breeds. Every fish currently has several inheritable traits:

• Size: Determines how large the fish can grow as it matures. Larger fish are generally more impressive and can be more valuable to customers.

• Fertility: Influences how easily a fish can breed and how many offspring it may produce. Fish with high fertility make it much easier to build up a breeding line.

• Hardiness: Determines how well a fish tolerates imperfect environments. Hardy fish lose health more slowly when conditions are not ideal.

When fish breed, their offspring inherit a combination of traits from their parents, with small variations that can make each new fish slightly better (or worse) than the previous generation. Over time, this allows you to selectively breed your fish and gradually improve your lines.

Fish with better traits are typically more valuable, meaning carefully bred fish can sell for significantly higher prices than average ones.

Shop System

You can now display your tanks directly in your shop and sell fish to visiting customers. While this system is still relatively new and currently supports a limited number of shelves, it already allows for a great experience.

Tanks placed on shelves can be instantly clicked to enter, letting you quickly manage your fish without leaving the shop view. You can also watch the tanks live while standing in the shop, giving your store a lively atmosphere as customers enter.

Fish inside tanks displayed on shop shelves are automatically available for sale, but you can lock individual fish if you want to keep them for breeding or improving your genetic lines without changing their tanks.

Next Steps

We’re getting closer to the point where we can invite players into the game, and we’d love for you to be part of it. Over the coming weeks we’ll begin bringing in playtesters to help us shape the experience early on.

The game is still in a very early stage, but that’s exactly why your feedback matters. We’re especially interested in hearing your thoughts on things like fish stats, game difficulty, balancing, and the overall realism of the aquarium systems. If you have experience with aquariums, breeding fish, or simply enjoy games, your perspective could be incredibly valuable.

Playtesters will get a chance to try the game early, share feedback, and directly influence how the systems evolve as development continues.

If you’d like to participate, join our Discord where you can sign up to join our playtest. You will find more information in our #announcements channel.

Development

Over the next month, our main focus will be improving the shop experience and bringing the tanks to life by animating the fish. Seeing the fish move naturally through their environments will add a lot of atmosphere and make aquariums feel much more alive.

At the same time, we’ll continue expanding core systems and polishing the current features. Our goal is to prepare a public demo in the coming months, giving more players the opportunity to explore the game and try out the systems before the full release.

We’re excited about the direction the game is taking, and we’re looking forward to sharing more progress with you soon!