Plenty More Fish

The game's themes surround capitalism, overconsumption, and environmentalism with the player initially being unaware of these themes, slowly discovering for themselves through the game’s systems and mechanics.  

Within the game the core gameplay loop revolves around fishing, upgrading equipment, and more fishing.The upgrade system helps to provide constant milestones for the player to reach, incentivizing them to keep playing to catch more fish, reach the next upgrade, then repeat the cycle.  

The gameplay was made to keep the player wanting more, so that even if they discover the underlying themes of the game they want to continue playing. We hoped this use of procedural rhetoric would make the player question the processes of consumerism, the need to be constantly upgrading and buying the next thing.  

The rules of the game and the “win” states the player can reach are intended to make use of the rhetoric of failure; by not letting the player win it outlines the impossibility of achieving an outcome which accommodates everyone. The fisher wants their job to earn money and support themselves, the corporation wants more fish to feed the increasing demand for product and profit margins, the environment needs time left undisturbed to recover.  

Link to the game! - https://ben-wilsonn.itch.io/plenty-more-fish-in-the-sea