Blinkclick Games is swimming on over to Kickstarter for their fishkeeping and aquascaping adventure for Fishkeeper. Self-described as an “underwater Tamagotchi,” the game combines a highly realistic virtual 3D aquarium simulator with a mix of economic strategy.
A new trailer for Fishkeeper was released alongside the launch of the Kickstarter campaign. Besides showing off the vibrant colorful world of aquascaping with the various decorations and fish, the video shows some of the design elements that go into creating and building an aquarium environment. From a wide range of aquarium designs, sizes and shapes there is also a wide variety of freshwater, marine, coral, shrimp, snails, and other aquatic species available for one’s aquarium habitat.
For Fishkeeper the whole goal is for players to buy an aquarium, decorate and arrange its interior, add fish and start breeding. Blinkclick Games wants the game to be special without gimmicky clicker features, “dumb animations,” and half-baked mechanics that have no real connection with reality. The developer has put advanced artificial intelligence for animals, beautiful realistic-stylized graphics and an efficient in-game economy as three design pillars behind this project. An example of this design ideology is the recreation of the mechanics and mechanisms of different fish compatibility or the redundant snails acquired with new plants.
The developers noticed that no playable aquarium simulator was on the market that fulfilled their three pillar criteria. As the idea moved forward the idea of a virtual aquarium became appealing for a means of people to try fishkeeping without some of the real world issues that arise when doing the real thing such as cost, space, item availability, and leaks. In effect this allows Fishkeeper to be a cheaper alternative for a real-world aquarium that acts as both a sandbox for fresh would be aquascapers and a providing ground for advanced experimentation for seasoned fishkeepers.
Previously the developers announced and released a sample of the chill lofi hop beats that will accompany the game. The video sample is just shy of 33 minutes and showed an aquarium setup with Koinu the Doggy Diver and a Maneki-neko cat.
With the launch of the Fishkeeper Kickstarter campaign, Blickclick Games hopes to keep their independent status and bring the game to market. When the game was first announced the world was in a very different place and as the game began to go bigger the studio needed more funds to fully realize the projects new vision. Unfortunately this was at the time COVID-19 hit the world harder which affected every industry including gaming. Now the studio is putting the game’s fate in the hands of the game’s community with this Kickstarter campaign.
The Fishkeeper Kickstarter has just started and will run until Friday, May 7, 2021 when it concludes at 10:26 AM PDT. There are several support tiers that start at about $2 and go all the way up to several thousand dollars in the Lord of the Oceans tier which includes multiple copies of the game, several digital goods, image and name in credits, DLC access, private online meeting with creators, highest mark in the game credits, and several other perks. Visit the game’s Kickstarter page for more details on the campaign.
Fishkeeper will launch on PC for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux through Steam when it is released. Previously the game was planned for a last quarter 2021 release, but now the date is yet to be announced. Players can wishlist the game now on Steam where they can also learn more information about the game.
Blinkclick Games (@BlinkclickG Twitter) is a small fully indie game development studio based in Krakow, Poland. Comprised of video game enthusiasts, the studio’s team has professional gaming industry experience from several companies that include Artifex Mundi, 7LEVELS and Reality Games. In addition the studio runs the game design blog gdmaniac.pl and the mobile strategy games website apptactic.com.
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