This was a fun fishing game!

The theme was nicely integrated (maybe it could’ve gone a bit deeper, but it worked well as is), and the mechanics felt smooth and thought out. The “smushify” part wasn’t immediately clear—I didn’t realize it worked automatically—but once I figured it out, it was fine. The animation to smush was cool also :-).

Nice variety in fish types and their characteristics, and the different fishing rods added a good sense of progression. It really kept me playing, wanting to unlock new rods and discover what else the game had to offer.

The pixel art looked good and cohesive. The SFX and audio matched the overall vibe perfectly🎵

If I had to give any tips for even more fun, maybe you could add items or abilities based on the fish you catch—like bombs you can drop, a dash move, or ink to hide from fish and move more freely. Just ideas—but honestly, the game already feels complete and has a strong core game loop.

Really fun to play and a solid, well-made entry for our jam. Keep it up! 🐟🔥

Absolutely loved the pixel art—especially the variety of fish, they’re super well-designed and fun to look at! The concept of using fish as a resource is really creative and fits the theme well. Gameplay is enjoyable, though I think the fishing mechanic could feel a bit smoother—sometimes fish appear too suddenly when casting. Still, a really charming and unique entry. Great job!

This was a great game. Art and animations are very well done and the sound track was really relaxing to hunt for fish by. My one major suggestion would be to add a better explanation as to how to smushify. I found out by accident by making one last random check of the window that you smushify by checking the window to see if one of your fish is in the slots. (Possibly edit the instructions to say something like "Check your Smushify window every time you catch a new kind of fish to see if you have the right combo for a rod upgrade.")

Remember to eat your fish kids, it's good for your stats :)

The progressive disclosure in this game is phenomenal!  For the obstacles, I tried stacking my items to make it easier, but it took too many items to gamble on one throw (and for those to be my least successful catches). I was better off without them, until the game forces you to use it (kracken, electric eel). The environmental progression is awesome, some of the fishes movement is unique (I like the dolphin in particular, SCREW the fish with the yellow hard hat that one can TAKE A HIKE). Art's good, Music good, I wish nemo was catchable, and this game's sense of progression, again, is amazing. I will say though- with everything being a resource, I would have liked to see more of the theme- say, if every part of the fish were a resource too (so catching 1 fish would give you sometimes more than 1 item, say catching an angler fish would give you the sharp teeth as an item, along with the bioluminescent light to see in darker areas of the ocean, and raw fish meat to feed to the fisher or sum). That way, I feel the theme would be more apparent- but man, this is pretty cool.

Nice game !! Enjoyed it 

Beautifully done! There’s a great variety of fish and some really interesting smushing combinations!
While playing, you’re constantly anticipating something epic just around the corner.
Respect!

Really cool game, i love and complete it x3, great idea you get here, a really cool concept and great design and mechanic, excelent game x3

Really nice idea! Seems like a lots of work has gone into making the art. There is a nice progression to the game. The animations are satisfying though how the smushing works isn't all that intuitive to me. Maybe some clue about what earlier parameter was increased by eating the fish, would make more sense. 

Amazing game! Love the idea, I really had fun playing this it deserves to win this jam, the art and sound design were perfect, the gameplay was satisfying and intriguing, absolute 10/10. This fisherman is an absolute unit for being able to straight up an entire Kraken like that lol

This is typically a game you keep playing as you are curious what comes next. The smashing animation is also very fun and well done.
It wasn't very clear to me if the eating upgrades are permanent or single use, I believe it's single use.
Maybe a win audio sound would add a lot for a winning feeling.

Yo! Really had fun catching fish & upgrading the rod. Th games feels so relaxing that i spent a lot of time playing this game. Loved it! 

I LOVE THIS the art is sooo good my only problem with the game is that the camera needs to be zoomed out a little because a lot of the times i dont have enough time to react to an incoming fish

other than that absolutely beautiful

First of all- any game that features the word "smushify" deserves the highest praise!

But seriously- I like how the game was filled with funny design- the animations of the protagonist, the fish design, the fact you build new rods out of the fish! Loved it all! The gameplay itself also fit this. It was fun to catch fish. You could only smushify two types at the time (it would be really easy to overcomplicate it, but you didn't- kudos). The progress was easily seen, and the difficulty was ramping up at a nice, chill pace. 

As for the theme... well, I did not think of fish when I found out the theme was "everything is a resource", but you made it work.

Over all- one of the most fun games I played in this jam so far! Keep up the good work!

Great game, i had a lot of fun paying this. didnt manage to get the keys, but fished a lot :D The basic gameplay mechanics work really well. The movement controls feel really smooth and so does the casting. The smushing fish also give some innovative combinations, so the crafting is really well done. The progression is also great, with getting access to more fish but also getting more difficult with the depth. The artstyle and music also fit the vibe really well. Overall a great entry, well done!

GAMEPLAY: The tutorial's wording was a touch confusing, but jumping into the game wasn't too much trouble. I'm not sure what the point of the meter is, since I can move the bobber around freely. It took a long time to figure out what 'smushify' actually entails and how to use it, since my menu seemed to be stuck on "? + Pufferfish". Turns out, each smush is a set combination that's revealed once you fish up the right fish, which was not explained. Once I got past the first rod, things certainly picked up, and I got interested in seeing what fish were out there.

VISUALS: The artwork is pleasant and works remarkably well with the near-rainy day the sky shows. The rod's animations aren't the cleanest: the bobber should dip and splash into the water, and the fish should have weight once out of the water. Things look tacky without gravity. The animations done by hand were lovely, though--I especially enjoyed the 'chow down'. I also quite liked the fish sprites (with all their quirky details) and the way they move through the water.

AUDIO: The music's nice enough, but got boring after a while with the only sounds breaking it up being reels and splashes.

THEME: 'The fish you pick up' feels like a loose definition of 'everything', seeing as most games only have the one intermediary step of selling fish, but it still does fit the bill.

I ought to mentioned I was very stunned when I fished up an entire Kraken. You certainly got the size right.

I really like the art style and the animations, it feels very chill! Well balanced and had fun playing it, only thing I feel that the game is a little slow, maybe having an option to speed up animations would be nice!

Nice work 🐟🐟🐠

Absolutely genious game design SPLOTH and MrCatMcFly :D I wish the core mechanics of smoothing and chowing would've been taught in form of a tutorial because the UI almost makes it look like a menu instead of different actions do to.

The art design is absolutely lovely. The idea is great and the execution aswell. The difficulty progression feels good aswell with the bubbles and chasing fish.

All in all amazing job!

It was really fun to play, amazing animations and UI. I loved the way you thought fishes as a resource. I think that that audio was also well matched. 
I only got frustrated after the 3rd wave, Even after trying for half an hour I couldn't surpass, you can maybe decrease the number of fishes as they are getting caught. 
Overall an amazing experience.

Well done.