This week I played Fishing Planet, and while I do not play that many sports games, I think it was the designed experience of a fishing game. I was impressed that this game had 9/10 with 60,074 reviews in Steam. I have always liked fishing as a mechanic when playing other type of games (from doing it in Pokemon games to get water pokemons, using it in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in a fishing minigame to get rewards, and Stardew Valley fishing minigame as one of my favorites how it was executed) and how they implement this type of mechanic and what it contributes to the experience as a whole, but it was always as the means to an end, not for the activity itself.
Most of the time I played was a peaceful time while waiting for the fish to take the bait and then I felt a rush of adrenaline to reel in the fish so as not to let it escape, always having my hand on top of the mouse to be ready) but in general I found it a bit boring and not a game for me. This game is an online fishing game, which was nice to see more players playing and fishing, but it didn’t add to my engagement. I would have preferred it to be a single player goal-oriented game with a narrative and a story to follow (thinking of something like Legend of the River King).
This week’s lectures were about user-centered design and playtesting. Even though the game was not for me, I could see the dedication and effort that went into it. The lectures talked about how we should research and engage with our audience to understand what they want and what their needs are, and I feel that they achieved that in the outcome. There were a lot of options in the shops, and every time I leveled up, it unlocked a lot more items (reels, rods, lures, etc.). Also, there was a lot of information about weather casting, water temperature, wind current, day and night cycles, and even licenses (which at first, I thought I had to pay for with money since the game just kept pushing ads and to get the premium version) that I didn’t quite understand, which shows that the designers did their job well.
As for the playtesting part, I’m impressed with how this type of game mimics the real experience and turns it into a fantasy. Maybe I didn’t appreciate all the possible actions since I may have only fished once in my whole life, but if I were a person with more fishing experience, I would be happy to know that they made a product for me with this kind of dedication. I would say that the test users for this type of game would be enthusiastic and veteran fishermen where they see it as a social activity, and people who like to play chill games, to have a broad scope in their audience and be more successful in marketing and sales. I would guess that part of the playtesting was to fish in real life and get the experience, which is interesting that this happens mostly with sports games since most of them tend to mimic the real-life counterpart. It gives a different kind of insight since you’re not just imagining what the fantasy would be like but having the real experience and building up the from there.