Today I questioned the core philosophy of Fishyphus and how it’s reinforced throughout the game. This led to several breakthroughs in how the reaper behaves and how the game progresses through multiple plays.

This build adds two important mechanics for the reaper: a spawn timer and a new rushing status effect. The reaper now spawns after a set number of fishing attempts, which increases regularly with higher scores. The reaper now rushes toward the sailor when beyond a certain range, which similarly grows with the high score. At first defeat is inevitable, but the Sisyphean task of survival becomes easier with each attempt.

Today’s progress included:

• Implementing the monster spawn timer and bonuses.
• Implementing the monster rush status and bonuses.
• Making it easier to find the sweet spot for catching fish.
• Tweaking the mix and tonality of minigame cues.
• Fixing a few bugs within the fishing minigame.
• Autosaving when fish are caught.
• Improving the haptics when death is near.
• Synthesizing the death sounds.

The game is fast approaching what I might consider a v1.0.0 milestone. After that, I’d like to consider what mechanics could be added to give sailors more tools for survival, and possibly fight back.