Firsts things first lets talk about what Sweet Fish Odyssey is.
Sweet Fish Odyssey started back around 2010-11 as Lunch Time , my first attempt at a "big" project. You were a hungry but determined parakeet named Chico who fishes up the most coveted and tasty fish, the Golden Aura Catfish. As Chico escapes with his prize, other starving foes try to snatch his meal from him. Chico, against overwhelming odds discovers that the Golden Aura Catfish not only eat enemies, but uses that energy to shoot them down.
Originally, I intended only to be three levels, the mid boss, end boss formula,you know real simple and straight forward. I wanted a limited color palette in order to challenge my self artistically and have an excuse to use old school Game Boy colors I'm fond of. Game play wise
I worked on it for about 2 months till it just ran out of steam. At the time, I never did much as far as pre-production. I just wanted a loose set of mechanics in order to play it as quickly as possible. Doing it this way however made the levels too random and hobbled together.Sort of everything and the kitchen sink type of approach. I liked the core of Lunch Time a lot, the eating of enemies as a power up for different shots, but as a whole the game was too bare bones and lacked a stronger vision to latch on to. Which is why it lost creative energy really quickly.
Thinking on this, I took some time to actually study other games, movies, books, you know actually go outside for once. This made me look at the core in a different light. Not only did core changed , Lunch Time finally has a new title, 10 levels, and a theme to give the art style more meaning.
Memories are the theme.I'll get into the story another day... But today lets look at the Sweet Fish's basic mechanics.
This is the Golden Aura Catfish,(a rough sprite of him). He's curious, jubilant, and kinda dopey. He will eat anything smaller than it's mouth. Eating creates energy which allows you to shoot.
Hunger Level (Hlv)
Enemies, bullets, ect. that you eat will be added to your Hunger level meter. The more that Catfish eats, the more Hlv meter you gain, the more actions that become available. You have to keep him fed though, Golden Aura Catfish burns calories very quickly! If you don't eat for a while, Hlv meter slowly diminishes. You can't shoot if you have no meter.
SHOOTING:
There are 3 Hunger levels that determine which shots can be used.
Normal shot EXShot
LV 1: Straight Bullet ---> Machine Gun Shot
LV 2: Y Shots ---> Sun Shot
LV 3: Nova Burst ---> Nova Flare
These shots are available as long as you have enough Hlv meter.
There are also other shots called EXshots that are a powered up version of that shot.You can gain EXshots by SAVORING eaten enemies and bullets.
Savoring
While eating, press and hold the savor button to savor one or a group of eaten enemies during the catfish's eating animation to Savor them. Savoring , depending on the enemy or bullets, slowly eats the enemy, in which you cannot attack until the enemy is completely eaten. Releasing the savor button BEFORE savoring is complete will force Golden Aura Catfish to spit out his meal, so you'll gain no Hlv meter.
Once you savor an enemy, you'll gain the ability to shoot EXshots for a moment, depending on how many enemies you eat and savor in succession. This is EX mode. In EX mode your Hunger meter stops going down ,shots are more powerful and you gain a score bonus.
In the next post I'll go over other advanced skills and other tricks you can do with your Hlv meter. And if time permits a playable build may surface too, if i'm not too distracted*crosses fingers*
Later! ^___^ /
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