Fishy Business
Fishy Business is a cosy pixel art fishing game where you cast your line, catch unique fish, and survive each day’s money quota. Travel through charming levels—from murky lakes to hot summer beaches—and master a skill-based catching system. Relaxing, addictive, and full of personality, this is fishing like you’ve never seen it before.
As one of the game designers, I created the core fishing, designed upgrade paths for rods, and balanced fish behaviours and economy for engaging progression. I also collaborated with the artists to develop distinct level aesthetics and with programmers/designers to ensure tight integration of mechanics and player feedback. Fishy Business was nominated to be showcased at the end-of-year showcase, “Game Over”.
Summary
I was one of the 2 game designers for Fishy Business and contributed across multiple development areas to deliver a relaxing, progression-driven fishing experience. My work focused on building a complete gameplay loop around daily quotas, designing upgrade systems and fish behaviour and ensuring level variety and visual charm.
Game Design
Art & Visual Direction
Defined level themes with distinct identities and backgrounds, storytelling.
Directed fish variety design to reflect rarity, challenge and value progression.
Proposed layered environmental details like trash, coral, to enhance immersion.
Designed core gameplay loop based on daily quota goals and risk-reward fishing.
Developed a nice catching mechanic with difficulty scaling and skill-based input.
Designed fail states and narrative consequences for unmet quotas to raise stakes.
Implementation & Collaboration
Coordinated level layout planning with artists, integrating depth and interaction zones.
Worked with team members to concept and balance fish behaviour and spawn conditions.
Assisted in SFX direction, identifying needed sounds and syncing them to in-game events.
Presented Fishy Business at the end-of-year showcase, where it was nominated for “Game Over”.