Worldbuilding will play a very large part in allowing the player to feel a sense of wonder and discovery. I want the player to feel like they are finding the coolest fishing spot, hidden away on a mountain or in a forest.
So for this to work I came up with the idea of creating ‘waypoints’ that the player can find. These would be in the form of a statue or an engraved rock. This way the player can explore wherever they want, but they will still feel a sense of progression and reward within the game.
After looking into the history of fishing I discovered that lots of settlements built/carved statues of river gods in order to bring luck to their fishing.
The Image shown on the left is a Lepenski Vir sculpture that was found on what is believed to be their settlement. The sculpture dates back to 7000BC and carved from round sandstone cobbles found on the river banks. Many fish like features can be noticed in these sculptures which is why it is suggested to have a connection with the river gods. These sculptures have also been found to have reminants of red pigments on them.
The idea behind having these sculptures is that the player will offer them fish in return for progression. The statue will reward the player with a new way to fish. These fishing methods may also allow the player to travel to places that they couldn’t before.
So for example if there is a fast flowing river with no bridge, the statue could offer the player a bear transformation, which will allow them to do salmon catching, but also cross the river too.
The statue could also offer tools like boats which could allow the player to journey out futher to sea, but also try trawl fishing and open the opportunity to catching more exotic ocean fish.
Sketches of statues and ideas of how the player could give them the fish.
The last statue (On the right) could be potentially useful in giving the player a clue as to what particular fish they may need to catch as the fish shape can be outlined on the statues body.
A bowl infront of the statue may give the indication that the player needs to give the statue multiple fish in order to progress.
Guiding the player while giving them freedom…
Statues giving the player progressive tools will allow me to section off parts of the map that the player may be extremely curious about. However I still want the player to feel freedom within the world, so they should be able to navigate the whole area in whatever way they choose to, with some key pinicle points outlining the narrative progression of the world.
Below are some key points that include areas that are hard to traverse, and how they can be traversed with the player offering fish to the statues in return for tools:
- A rapid river (Bear Transform Mechanic)
- Out into the ocean (Boat tool)
- High up in the trees/on a cliff (Bird Transform Mechanic)
- Deep underwater (A Fish/Gill Transform Mechanic)
Another sense of progression will be with fish, different tools will allow different methods of fishing. This should engage the player into finding more fish as they gain more tools from the statues. These tools will not allow for the player to travel further or traverse tricky terrain, but they will enable the player to find a more diverse range of fish to give to the statues.
Below are some ideas for potential tools.
- Spear (Spearfishing)
- Fishing Rod (Angling)
- Lure (Fly Fishing)
- Net (Rock Pooling)
- Harpoon (Harpoon fishing, Upgrade to the Spear)
- Explosives (Blast Fishing)
- Big Boat Net (Trawling)
These tools will have to be refined and explained more in another blog, but for now it gives me a good idea as to what I could include in the world and how I could build the world to go hand-in-hand with the mechanics.
RPG Fishing Game 