It's been a long time coming...

...and Paddle-crane is finally out! I started this project as a semi-noob game developer back in April for FishFest. I had little experience in Unity back then; I worked on game dev stuff on the side and used Unity for my thesis, but I didn't develop a full-blown complete game. I'd have been dishonest if I said that I didn't overscope this game for my skill level back then. Alongside other academics, I had to get used to working more with Unity and all its other parts -- so I didn't finish this within the week-long jam.

But I loved working on this game. It was small enough to not be overwhelming, but big enough to teach me so much. It's such a nice experience! I not only learned a lot more about Unity (Animation system, Sprite Shapes, canvas scaling), but I also improved my pixel art and dipped my toes into making 8-bit SFX with https://jfxr.frozenfractal.com!

I'm so happy to have finished this project even though it's been half a year since its inception. So happy that I wrote a dev log about it even though I dislike doing this kind of thing!

I hope, to people who stumble on this somehow, that you enjoy(ed) my little game. And to the people who have helped me out by giving advice and testing (my friends, family and S/O), picking a palette, and just generally being positive toward such a time-consuming but fulfilling hobby: thank you <3

Moving forward

Aside from bugfixing, I'd actually like to add to the game a bit more after release if people actually happen to like my little creation. Some of my ideas:

• Collectables. Because the core of Paddle-crane was its inspiration to claw machines, I kind of want to add a collection mode where you catch fish and have an aquarium!
• Quests. Before settling with traditional locked levels where you need a certain score to unlock the next level, I've thought of the ability to do quests and gain achievements, which would then unlock the other levels and tie into the collection mode to give you a unique "fish". If I did this back then, though, I probably would never have finished this game. So if there's any interest, this is another update feature I'm looking at.
• Boat Cosmetics / Upgrades affecting the boat's look. I just thought that would be pretty cool.

Anyway, that's all! Thanks for reading this yapfest x3