Bellows Below - A Survival Horror Fishing Game

Back in December of 2023 we tasked ourselves with making a game in 3 weeks for Bigmode Game Jam 2023. For this game jam we thought it would be fun to experiment with unlikely game genre combinations, and we ended up with a survival horror fishing game. In order to fit the jam's theme "mode" we added a Game Boy like device called the FishMan. The player must switch between using the FishMan as a tool for fishing (fishing mode) and run around the pond collecting worms and watching out for creatures lurking in the woods (survival mode).  These two modes are often juggled at the same time resulting in a paranoia induced multitasking experience comparable to gameplay of Five Nights at Freddy's.

After the Game Jam we discovered that there was a tricky learning curve to the actual fishing, and a lot of player's struggled with this. We added a help button that will give player's guidance on each part of the fishing process and we hope that makes a difference. At the start of development we all agreed to not use our limited time on making a tutorial but instead give the player all the time they need to familiarize themselves with the mechanics before starting the first shift, as well as have fishing be the only focus for the first shift. Hopefully we made the right call but we'd love more feedback on this.

We just released a BIG update for the game. We added a shop to buy fishing upgrades and traps, added different endings as well as some quality of life and bug fixes. If you check it out, THANK YOU! Please report bugs and let us know if you have any ideas to make the game better.