AquaSim

This is a pixel art game designed to run in a 1280x720 window. Resizing may result in a blurry image or loss of detail. You can enter "full screen" to match your monitor, but the 16:9 aspect ratio is fixed, and the window will be decorated with black bars to force it.

## Original vs current version

Since the original submission, the following things were changed "post jam". The embedded version is the new one, if you wish to play the original, download any of the "XYZ 010.zip" builds.

1. The better food and fish types are now "locked" until you complete simple objectives
   1. An "Unlock Everything" button is available in the cheats menu now
2. The collision box at the bottom of the tank has been adjusted to reduce the chance of fish getting stuck
3. The Koi no longer eat basic food pellets as intended
4. Tooltips have been added to the purchase buttons, when locked they display unlock instructions instead of item description.
5. The Goldfish has left and right "normal" and "hungry" animations

## Inspiration/Theme

This game was made for the Honest Jam 7, under the theme of "Nostalgia." Coincidentally, just a few weeks before the jam began, I discovered that one of my favourite childhood games (Insaniquarium Deluxe) is still on sale on Steam. While playable, the last twenty years of monitor resolution improvements haven't been kind to it. It now plays in a tiny 4" window in the centre of my 34" screen.

While my game can't come close to the variety of aquatic creatures and environments, and I had no time to implement the combat mechanics, I tried to capture the spirit of tending to your virtual fish in a relaxing atmosphere.

## Controls

• 1, 2, 3 - spawn basic pellets, organic food and premium food (the latter 2 require unlocking) in a random location at the top of the tank
• q, w, e - spawn goldfish, koi or piranha (the latter 2 require unlocking) at the top of the tank
• Alternatively, click the icons on the bottom of the screen to purchase the fish and food
• Mouse-click a coin to collect it
• ` (next to 1 on most keyboards) - open the cheat/debug menu (try the game for a few minutes before using these!)

## Gameplay

1. All fish swim randomly around the tank until they feel hungry, and then they swim to the nearest suitable food. Higher-level fish stay "hungry" for longer, giving them more time to find suitable food, but they will need to eat more often to become full or evolve again.
2. Each fish has a timer to determine when it will produce a coin
3. Coins can be used to purchase food and fish
4. Fish that aren't fed will die eventually
5. Coins and food that are not collected will despawn eventually
6. The better the food, the higher the chance of evolving (premium>organic>pellet for koi and goldfish, koi>goldfish for piranhas)
7. Once a fish reaches the max level, it can still "evolve" but at a much slower rate, and all subsequent levels do is restore its hunger to the max
8. Fish types
   1.  goldfish
      1. have 3 levels, with each level, they will produce higher value coins
      2. they will eat any food (not other fish)
      3. at level 1, they can be eaten by piranhas
   2. koi
      1. have 3 levels; with each level, they will produce higher value coins (always more than goldfish)
      2. they will each only organic and premium food
      3. at level 1, they can be eaten by piranhas
   3. piranha
      1. have 2 levels, with each they produce higher value coins (always better than koi)
      2. they will eat only small goldfish and koi
9. the game has no win-or-lose state; it is designed just as a relaxing experience (though technically, as each fish and food costs money, it is possible to soft-lock yourself when all fish die and you have no money left; just use cheats or restart the game when that happens)

## Possible additions

If I had the time, I would like to add some extra features

• animate fish, add more backgrounds and ambience
• Fish and food unlocking, it was meant to be in, but on the last day I had to remove it, maybe in the post jam clean up I will add those in FIXED
• more fish and food types and chains - the most obvious addition is just more variety; though the original never allowed more than 3 basic fish types, and each food supersedes the next, it would be an easy addition.
• enemies, the game is lacking external threats, and I would like to change that
• auto-feeding/collecting creatures or machines. The original also had special creatures that fed other fish, collected their drops, generated rare resources or protected your aquarium from enemies. Having these as late-game, expensive unlocks would give players something to aim for, or if the player had to choose which 2 of 5 special creatures to take into a level, it would add a strategic element.
• Timer/high score leader board - this game would benefit from a "challenge" mode where you would have to reach a certain balance in as short a time as possible or as high a balance as possible in a given time