Gameplay / Fun / Engagement: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Art Style / Visuals: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Audio / Sound Design: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Theme: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was actually pretty fun. The whole idea of throwing the fish around and trying to get back to water before drying out works really well. It also takes a little bit of practice which I like because you actually start getting better after a few tries.
The biggest thing Id fix is the trajectory line. Right now it looks like its showing exactly where the fish will go but it really isnt accurate enough. That makes some deaths feel like the game lied to me instead of me making a bad jump 😭 I think there are two good ways to fix it. Either make the arc match the real physics perfectly or remove the arc completely and just show a simple direction + power arrow. A little dot where the fish is expected to land could work too.
I would also make checkpoints a bit more forgiving. Some sections are quite hard and repeating a long part after one mistake can get annoying fast. Making more water pools act as checkpoints would keep the difficulty but remove some of the frustration.
Visually I like it. 4/5 from me. I think the fish could use more animation though. Some squash when landing. A little stretch when launching. Bigger splash particles when you reach water. Maybe a tiny screen shake on a hard impact. Stuff like that would make every flop feel MUCH better without changing the actual gameplay.
Another thing Id improve is feedback when youre about to dry out. Maybe the fish could slowly change color or the screen could get slightly warmer instead of only relying on the meter. A small warning sound near the end would help too. That would make it easier to understand the danger without constantly looking at the UI.
For the harder obstacles Id also check the hitboxes. If something looks like I barely avoided it but I still die then it starts feeling unfair. Making the fish collision slightly smaller than the sprite could actually make those close calls feel really satisfying.
And Id add a quick restart button. In this kind of game you die a lot so restarting should be almost instant. Something like R to restart from the last checkpoint would make trying difficult parts way less annoying.
Theme is definitely 5/5 for me though. A fish literally flopping its way home while slowly drying out is simple but it fits the theme REALLY well 😂
Good game and honestly the main mechanic is already fun. I think better trajectory feedback + smoother checkpoints + more animation would improve it a lot.
If you have some time please check out my game too! Id really appreciate a rating and some feedback :)