Hooking Back

co-authored: @contrebaptiste
Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.46
Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.17
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.04
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.61
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.67
Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.89
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.52
Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.83

Hooking Back


A fishing game about chilling out and losing yourself!

In Hooking Back, you fish a lot of things, except fish!

Send your hook deep in the ocean, and find out what you can find

- ๐Ÿ”Ž Move your hook in the depths, and find items with the Marker System
- ๐ŸŽ Find 30+ illustrated items and complete your collections
- ๐ŸŸ Chill out without bothering any fish!
- ๐Ÿ‘€ Find out more about who you are and what happened!
- ๐ŸŽถ Listen to evolutive music
- ๐Ÿ‘€ A little plot twist after 500M, even though it's not fully implemented

Controls


- Mouse for Menu and launch fishing

While fishing:
- WASD/Arrow keys: Move your hook in the ocean (KNOWN BUG : if WASD doesn't work, try ZQSD or just arrow keys!)
- Move around to find item markers. The bigger the item markers are, the closer to your hook they are!

When an item is grabbed:
- W/Up key: Reel in your hook

Credits


- Code/Design: Matthieu
- Music: Baptiste
- Art: Luna

What's actually here and what was planned

I'm used to Unity, 've been using it for years, but I wanted to try Godot to make an actual game for the first time!

So, programming-wise everything went waaaaaay slower than expected!

The whole idea was to have a narrative game, with the items telling story elements progressively! The story was meant to be progressivly sad, we wanted to make the player feels like the character is slowly falling a sleep and thinking about his memories... We had a whole ending sequence planned where you would actually travel into your memories, but 3 days was waaaaaaaay to short to do that with my Godot skills!

So in the current Jam version:
- There's no fishing minigame, you just press up to reel in the item
- The game has no ending
- There's still some bugs
- It lacks a LOT of polish, I wanted to add a lot of animations/feedbacks but clearly didn't have the time
- only 20% of the musics and sfx created are implemented :'(
- probably a lot of typo
Tools: Godot

Comments20

breadstick
breadstick8 Apr 2025, 23:41
The page at the link doesn't seem to have the game embedded :(
nrankin13
nrankin1324 Apr 2025, 18:34
Ok, so this game is definitely a mood, and I mean that in the best way. Baptiste's music and audio is great, though it could stand to have a little better mixing for when you hook an object -- it feels like it comes at me really loud.

It took me a minute to get a grip on the controls -- namely that you have to actually explore the depths with the hook -- but once I got that in my head, it felt really intuitive and, honestly, fun! This is the type of game you could definitely just pour a beer and play when you want to decompress after a stressful day. Good job!
magus77
magus7724 Apr 2025, 18:45
so no fish were harmed in the making of this game.. good!
kristinamay
kristinamay24 Apr 2025, 18:58
I like this a lot! There's certainly a lot left to be created, but the music is cool and I really like the fundamental concept of the fishing minigame (matching your hook to the little bags). I found that after a little bit, the "a" key stopped making the line move to the left, is that by design? All the other directions worked but that one! In any case, good work.
Joror
Joror24 Apr 2025, 20:16
Cute lil fishing game! Like all the hand-drawn random stuff you added. Cozy music neat to. A bit light on gameplay, but its a nice base.
moi9310124 Apr 2025, 21:36
I really liked the ending twist, but I need something (or... someone ?) to hook (dono, a cloud, a sun, EVERYTHING)
Wallted
Wallted24 Apr 2025, 21:52
I feel it in all my bones that the game was meant to be story driven. The random items, each potentially carrying it's own story and this magnificent chill music already put me into a different place for these few minutes, place of dream and life being life, good and bad, each life experienced in a different way, reminisced by these found piecies. I really like this and did not expect the jam game would make me feel that way at the end of the day. Really looking forward to hear your story in its fullest!
PaulDee42724 Apr 2025, 22:00
I liked the cozy vibes, the art is nice and the music is really good as well. Even if you didn't manage to implement the entirety of it, the adaptive aspect of music also worked pretty nicely. And the story was moving as well. Especially what happens after 500m struck a chord.
Also, how descriptions of certain items didn't seem to make sense until you realize their meaning later. A few quality-of-life improvements I missed were an ability to choose which depth you want to launch to, and also the 'A' key didn't work, though the left arrow luckily does. Overall I liked how the game was at times funny and at times poignant, and while perhaps the actual gameplay was a bit too minimal, I enjoyed the experience.
Shasaur
Shasaur25 Apr 2025, 14:19
Nice and satisfying gameplay loop! The music and chill vibe worked really well for this game :) Also a small thing, but I love how the colour of the water is the same as the Itch.io page, made it much more immersive. Totally agree with Wallted about the story, that would have made the game perfect!
Stending
Stendingauthor25 Apr 2025, 17:19
Thanks so much for your comments guys!

@wallted Thanks for the kind words, would love to make a post-jam version with a more thoughtful story, if I find the time for that I'll send it to you if you're ok with that! :smile:

@loiclegrosfrere Thanks! Yeah that was the whole idea, we wanted to make the player fish himself and travel in the depths, but didn't have the time :'( Maybe in a post-jam!

@breadstick Thanks! We got some issue with itch, but it's up now if you wanna try it! Tryed to contact you on reddit to warn you, hope it's not to inappropiate! :smile:
Untitled Studios
Untitled Studios25 Apr 2025, 17:47
The adaptive music is absolutely delightful and gorgeous. The art is charming, and the game is swell. This one is just so full of joy- from the guy leaning back in the boat to throw out the hook, to the lovely little drawings of all the things you find. Great stuff, guys!
slow chaz25 Apr 2025, 18:08
love this take on fishing! great art too. think this is a cool concept to continue with
OadT
OadT25 Apr 2025, 18:30
Wow, for only 20% of the sound being implemented this is really fantatastic audio! Generally very cozy game with these nice graphics! As you already said some polishing is missing (like e.g. also the A button doesn't seem to work for me?) but the atmosphere is definitely already there!
Samuel Hollywood-Summers
Samuel Hollywood-Summers25 Apr 2025, 19:00
I found this really enjoyable. Relaxing and un-challenging gameplay is what you want from a fishing game (even if there are no fish). The interactive music was ambitious and alternating to the guitar-forward variation of the music on catching a bite is a nice touch. I particularly liked the change when finding the violin, though I would prefer for that to stick around longer (or permanently?). The big problem with the music, though, is that it fails on the basics: it does not loop seamlessly! With a loop this short, it really does become annoying, and diminishes the impact of the otherwise really great music that captures the mood of the game so well. I intended to collect all of the items, but got a bug where my hook disappeared off-screen and got stuck when reeling in one of the deeper items. Good job pulling this together in an unfamiliar engine, and thanks for sharing!
Texugo
Texugo25 Apr 2025, 19:14
This is an awesome jam game for what could be a great full fledged fishing game in the future! The art is great, the vibes are spot on and the sounds? top tier! Really wish to see this with a narrative and the intended ending of you hooking yourself!
Stending
Stendingauthor25 Apr 2025, 19:35
@untitled-studios @oadt @samuel-hollywood-summers @texugo Thanks so much for your nice words on the music and on the game!!

@oadt Yeah still didn't fix the A bug, I believe I made the control AZERY instead of QWERTY? Godot have a feature specifically for that and I believe I missunderstood it

@samuel-hollywood-summers Yeah I totally didn't have the time to smooth the loop... I believe we did a little fade in/out effect to hide a little glitch sound on the loop, but I believe that give another annoying feeling... I'll try to fix this in a post jam!
Thank you too for reporting the bug, sad you didn't get to see the little twist!
cherrybcake
cherrybcake25 Apr 2025, 21:18
Ah such a chill and fun game, the music is just amazing, and how it changes based on what's happening? Perfect! And I love the messages on each item, this game has soul. Good job!
gquibao
gquibao25 Apr 2025, 23:08
This game is so good. I love fishing in games and this scratched that itch really well. Really funny and fun as hell to play. I loved the visuals and the music and SFXs were great. It has a great cozy vibe, one of my favorite entries of this LD.
digital bacon
digital bacon26 Apr 2025, 11:40
Cute game, enjoyed the casual vibes -- excellent work!

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