ridiculous fishing
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This art dealer wants to hang an indie game on your wall
Dutch art dealership and gallery Cook & Becker has been selling fine art prints from video games for a few years now. Thanks to partnerships with companies like Capcom, Naughty Dog, DICE and BioWare, it's offered artwork from critically acclaimed titles like The Last of Us, Mass Effect, Okami, and Mirror's Edge. Now, it's wooing indie developers into its ranks with a new initiative called the Cook & Becker Indie Program. The first fruits from the effort came last month with the release of artwork from Ronimo Games' Awesomenauts, and it's signed deals with both Vlambeer and The Astronauts -- Ridiculous Fishing and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter prints are coming soon.
Indie game bundle and documentary series Super Game Jam out now on Steam
Hotline Miami publisher Devolver Digital has launched the first episode of Super Game Jam, a documentary series that pairs up indie developers for a collection of collaborative game projects that are playable via Steam. Super Game Jam's premiere episode stars Ridiculous Fishing's JW Nijman and Ibb and Obb creator Richard Boeser, a pair of real-life friends who have never previously worked on a game together. Given 48 hours to design a game based on the prompt "breaking up," the pair produced the unconventional racer Navigator, which is now available for play as part of Super Game Jam's initial wave of content. Future episodes will feature developers like Sos Sosowski (McPixel), Jonatan Söderström (Hotline Miami), and Tom Francis (Gunpoint). The next entry in the series, which will team up Impetus creator Dominik Johann with Shelter's Christoffer Hedborg, will launch next month. [Image: Devolver Digital]
'Awful,' 'intimidating,' 'complicated': Indie devs on the guilt of success
It's said that money can't buy happiness. In fact, for some indie game developers, an influx of money can mean just the opposite. In a New Yorker feature, developers like Rami Ismail of Vlambeer (Ridiculous Fishing, Luftrausers), Edmund McMillen of Team Meat (Super Meat Boy) and Davey Wreden of Galactic Cafe (The Stanley Parable) explain how the success of their games have, in some ways, made their lives harder, not easier. Ismail, for example, cited his feelings of guilt over making more money in a single night than his mother makes all year. "Ever since I was a kid I've watched my mom wake up at six in the morning, work all day, come home, make my brother and me dinner," Ismail said. Regarding his overnight success, he told the New Yorker, "It feels awful. I couldn't get rid of the image of my mother in her car, driving to work." McMillen likewise experienced an impact on his familial relationships. He said that after the release of Super Meat Boy and Indie Game: The Movie - a documentary in which he is prominently featured - he had experienced distant relatives and old acquaintances asking him for money. "This success has artificially elevated me; it's caused jealousy, even hatred," McMillen said. "The money has made relationships complicated." Wreden wrote on his studio's site in February that he was experiencing depression, and told the New Yorker that, with the success of The Stanley Parable behind him, he must now look ahead to creating its successor. "It's intimidating to think that we have enough time and resources to do whatever we want," Wreden said. For more on the developing, expanding indie scene, be sure to check out our in-depth feature report. [Image: Vlambeer]
Hit List Q&A: Rami Ismail of Ridiculous Fishing dev Vlambeer
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Rami Ismail of Ridiculous Fishing developer Vlambeer. Rami Ismail is the Business & Development Guy at Vlambeer, a Dutch independent game studio known best for Wasteland Kings, Ridiculous Fishing, Super Crate Box, LUFTRAUSERS, GUN GODZ and Serious Sam: The Random Encounter. At his upcoming 2014 D.I.C.E. Summit talk Rami will present on "No holding back: A look at independent game development during three years of Vlambeer." Rami discusses The Golden Age for independent development, running through the last five years as he learned of the independent gaming scene, founded Vlambeer with co-founder Jan Willem Nijman, and slowly worked his way into a central figure in independent gaming. He will discuss lessons learned and applicable to an ever-changing scene, the importance of technological democratization and the shift in the relation between developers, platforms, consumers and partners.
Ridiculous Fishing, Badland win App Store's Best of 2013 awards
Apple awarded Vlambeer's Ridiculous Fishing its much-coveted iPhone Game of the Year award today, while Frogmind's silhouetted platformer Badland picked up the iPad award. With App Store exposure being so crucial to an app's success, the awards are big wins for the two indie studios, both comprised of just two people. The duo of duos beat competition from major studios in 2K Games and EA PopCap, with runner-up spots going to XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Plants vs. Zombies 2. Kevin Ng's rollercoaster puzzler The Impossible Road and the stylish wordplay of Simogo's Device 6 also picked up runners-up prizes. If you thought those awards, while deserved, were a smidge predictable, be prepared for further non-raising of eyebrows: This year's most downloaded free app (not just games but all apps) was Candy Crush Saga, while Minecraft: Pocket Edition was the best-selling paid app of 2013. It's also worth noting that while Candy Crush Saga is free-to-download, it was also the highest grossing app of 2013 - Minecraft: Pocket Edition came in 11th.
Humble Mobile Bundle 3 hosts Ridiculous Fishing, Swordigo Android debuts
Humble Mobile Bundle 3 launched today boasting an approximate ton of high-profile Android games, including the previously announced Android debut of Vlambeer's Ridiculous Fishing. Touch Foo's side-scrolling action-RPG Swordigo also makes its first appearance on Android as part of Humble Bundle's latest offering. Bundle buyers will receive downloadable copies of Uppercut Games' post-apocalyptic robot battler Epoch, Zach Gage's word puzzler SpellTower, Grapefrukt Games' isometric strategy game Rymdkapsel, and Swordigo. Beat the average purchase price (currently $3.75) and you'll also receive Ridiculous Fishing and Ironhide Games' tower defense game Kingdom Rush. Humble Mobile Bundle 3 will remain available through November 26.
Ridiculous Fishing hooks Android soon, same price as iOS
Vlambeer's amphibious hunting game, Ridiculous Fishing, is on its way to Android after eight months on iOS, the studio announced today. An Android port of Ridiculous Fishing has been on the table basically since the game launched, but the task was daunting, studio co-founder Rami Ismail said in March. However, Vlambeer couldn't ignore the fans for long. "We've always thought of Android with a bit of reluctance, and we still think it's an awfully rough platform to develop for," Ismail tells Joystiq. "In many ways, the development of Ridiculous Fishing was a struggle for us, and to be honest we weren't sure about launching it or not until a week ago. There just were so many requests for the game on Android from our fans, so we couldn't withhold them the game if there was any way to make the game happen. We found a porting partner in Apportable, and they're the ones that really made the game happen on Android." Ridiculous Fishing caused a few waves with its price point, charging $3 rather than the App Store's norm of free-to-play. It worked out: The game sold 300,000 units at $3 by August, and it ended up with an Apple Design Award (plus we liked it a ton). Ridiculous Fishing will cost the same on Android, but it's going to launch with a "sale of sorts," since the Android market appears to behave differently at launch than the App Store, Ismail says. "We're really curious to see what'll happen after the launch – in many ways, we feel that how Ridiculous Fishing performs financially on Android will be an interesting comparison to the iOS ecosystem," he says. "For now, we're adding final tweaks and fixes to make sure that we can launch really, really soon. We really hope Android gamers will be happy with the effort we put into making this happen - this one is for them."
Ridiculous Fishing nears $1 million in sales, but could have been free
For a game as absurd as it is, Ridiculous Fishing has become a ridiculous success, with sales topping 300,000 according to developer Vlambeer. The game costs US$2.99 upfront, which amounts to a rather sizable payday for the indie team. Company founders Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman revealed the sales figure today during a talk at GDC Europe, Joystiq reports. Now that the game is a bona fide App Store darling, its creators also revealed that it was almost sold through a free-to-play model, which is an increasingly popular model for iOS games. One early idea was that various boats would be sold in the game via in-app purchases, priced all the way up to $1,000, though this proposal didn't make it far. As someone who has sunk many hours into this gem (no pun intended), I can safely say that the game would not be nearly as enjoyable with a real-cash economy. As it is, it's an absolute bargain at $3, though I couldn't possibly see shelling out cash for in-game gear, even if the game was free-to-play. In short, Vlambeer absolutely made the right decision.
Ridiculous Fishing reels in 300,000 sales at $3, but it was almost F2P
Ridiculous Fishing has sold 300,000 copies on the Apple App Store, Vlambeer founders Jan Willem Nijman and Rami Ismail announced during their GDC Europe presentation. Ismail pointed out that the game sells for $3, so ... "It's nice," Nijman said. Ridiculous Fishing made a statement on the App Store by ditching the popular freemium model and simply charging $3 for a full game, rather than nothing (or close to it) for part of a game. When the game turned into a breakout mobile hit, its price point became a talking point and Vlambeer championed the full-game pricing approach. But Ridiculous Fishing was almost a freemium game. During brainstorming stages, developers Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman considered offering the game for free and then selling a $1,000 in-game boat. In this version of Ridiculous Fishing, players could see their friends' boats sailing around in the background, and they'd theoretically be tempted to collect all the cool boats they saw, even that $1,000 one. In the end, that didn't work with Vlambeer's development style. Nijman also wanted to add a feature that had some fish wearing hats, and when players shot those fish they could collect the hats and wear them. While the hat idea stuck, the rest of that pipe dream was flushed. In the end, it was all for the best, it seems.
Ridiculous Fishing brings a knife to a gill fight
Absurd angling becomes just a tad more convenient in a new update for Ridiculous Fishing (iOS), which adds – among other things – a way to cut your line and restart an attempt instantly. Equip the new knife item, available via the in-game store, if you'd rather not wait for the hook to return after a botched descent. This being Ridiculous Fishing, the knife is not suitable for slashing open your aquatic acquisitions – far too sensible for the game's floating, gun-toting maniac who tosses his asphyxiated prey into the air, shoots them to shreds, and then stands in a revolting rain of fishy entrails. Beyond introducing a $7,000 single-purpose knife, developer Vlambeer has also corrected some bugs (you can now re-equip the Swiss Lure), tossed some extra fishy friends into the Maelstrom environment, and enabled the use of your iThing's music during gameplay. You can't go wrong with Nightwish here – they're Finnish.
How live-streaming development can solve Vlambeer's clone problem
[Image credit: Tommy Rousse] Vlambeer is going to live-stream development of its next game. This wouldn't be notable for many other indie developers, but Vlambeer's history makes this strategy appear, for lack of a stronger term, absolutely illogical. "At this point, all of our big games have been cloned," Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail tells me at E3. He goes down the list: Super Crate Box, Ridiculous Fishing, Luftrausers and Infinite SWAT all have clones. The only acceptable one is the Infinite SWAT "homage," Broforce, from South African team Free Lives, Rami said – it's an example of developers taking inspiration from a game and creating their own world with it. The other ones, though. Those are straight-up clones. These clones caused major problems for Ismail and Vlambeer's other half, Jan Willem Nijman. The Ridiculous Fishing clone affected the team so strongly that they almost stopped developing their own game completely. Ridiculous Fishing almost didn't exist. Because of a clone. Hence, Vlambeer live-streaming development of its next game sounds like a pretty terrible idea. Until Ismail explains his reasoning: "If you look at Ridiculous Fishing, one of the reasons the clone was such a nightmare was because nobody knew that we were working on Ridiculous Fishing. We had to rapidly announce Ridiculous Fishing while the clone story was going down, so people knew that it was our idea first and they stole it from us. With Luftrausers, when SkyFar hit, it was much better, because everybody already knew that Luftrausers was a Vlambeer thing and that SkyFar was a clone." That makes sense, actually. "No, it doesn't," Rami says. But Vlambeer is doing it anyway.
Ridiculous Fishing creator reeling from Apple Design Award, talks TU
Vlambeer founders Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman didn't think Ridiculous Fishing would win an Apple Design Award. Sure, it was in the running, but it was a long shot, and they had other places to be during the ceremony at WWDC on June 10 (E3, anyone?). Just in case, they asked Ridiculous Fishing collaborator and indie extraordinaire Zach Gage to go to the show, and he did. In flip flops. And shorts. And Ridiculous Fishing won. "Holy shit," Ismail laughed during our chat at E3. He was still getting over the fact that Ridiculous Fishing won an Apple Design Award, and that Gage collected it in what's commonly considered summer beach attire. So far Ridiculous Fishing sales have hit the "hundreds of thousands," Ismail said, and after the Design Award, sales spiked again. Even Elijah Wood got hooked on Ridiculous Fishing – or, as Ismail put it, "The Hobbit played it!"
Microsoft's message to indies with Xbox One: 'It was sort of weird'
Microsoft's reveal of its next-gen console, the Xbox One, was high on broad entertainment apps such as Skype, interactive programming, media management and Kinect-powered features. Games saw a smaller showing, with two new announcements and a trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts. Indie games got an even smaller nod – that is, none at all. E3 is right around the corner, with the Microsoft conference on June 10. Maybe that's where all of the Xbox One games are hiding, along with the console's indie plan. We asked a handful of indie developers what Microsoft's presentation today said to them specifically, and what they want to see at E3. Below we have responses from Rami Ismail of Ridiculous Fishing fame, Octodad's Philip Tibitoski, DLC Quest's Ben Kane, Charlie Murder's James Silva, Retro City Rampage's Brian Provinciano and Fez's Phil Fish.
Vlambeer 'fully intends' to fight Luftrausers clone
Indie developer Vlambeer is getting used to its games being cloned before final release, with the developer discovering today that its upcoming game Luftrausers has a clone called SkyFar on the iOS App Store. Freelance journalist Scott Nichols noticed the clone today, following its App Store release on March 24."We obviously endured a bit of a scare when news arrived of Luftrausers being cloned and released ahead of our own release schedule by another developer," Vlambeer lead Rami Ismail told us. "This time, however, it's not 'just' the idea of the game that has been cloned, but also the visual style. This gives us much more room to fight the whole thing, and we fully intend to."Ismail continued, "The developer of the clone has gotten in touch with us after Twitter exploded and let us know that 'acttuly we genrated our assets, Codes and all newly' and that the gameplay as indicated on the screenshots 'is not there in game as in the screen shots. We just done those screnshots for public attraction'. They signed off with the note that 'we really dont think it links your game at all.'"Vlambeer was famously at the heart of another cloning incident, when its 2010 browser-based game Ridiculous Fishing was cloned in 2011, while the developer was in the process of porting it for the platform. Another key issue with that clone, Ninja Fishing, was that it became a hit on the App Store. SkyFar hasn't seen such traction.
Vlambeer's Android dreams and why $0.99 makes it hard to be indie
Vlambeer, the team behind confirmed iOS smash hit Ridiculous Fishing, is considering the logistics of porting the game to Android, creator Rami Ismail wrote in a Reddit AMA yesterday. Don't shoot your hopes sky-high just yet, though."We're still arguing about an Android release," Ismail said. "There are a lot of things to consider and a lot of things that we just don't know too much about since we've yet to make a game for Android. As soon as we figure all that stuff out, we'll see what we can do."Ridiculous Fishing costs $3 on the App Store, higher than the accepted average of $0.99 per game, though it offers absolutely no microtransactions. This was a pointed decision: "Developers shouldn't be scared to charge $3 for a game," Ismail said."The problem is that at $0.99, you'll need to sell endless amounts of copies to be able to survive as an indie developer. Most games don't even get close to that. A direct result of the whole race-to-the-bottom in prices is the prevalance of free-to-play on iOS – it seems to be a safer bet. But since it's almost impossible to do F2P in a non-evil way and without sacrificing the elegance of your game design, we'll prefer to charge $3."
Chat with the Ridiculous Fishing developers on Reddit right now
Heads up for anyone addicted to Ridiculous Fishing (looking at you, JC Fletcher): The devs are doing a Reddit AMA right now. The team answering questions is a conglomerate of iOS and indie hotshots, including Super Crate Box's Vlambeer (Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman), Zach Gage of Spelltower fame, Hundreds collaborator Greg Wohlwend, The Stanley Parable's Davey Wreden, Hotline Miami sound man Eirik Suhrke and indie trailer expert Kert Gartner.Ridiculous Fishing has a history as storied as its in-game ARG (written by Wreden), so if you have questions about cloning, microtransactions, adorable art or anything else, direct them to Reddit.
Metareview: Ridiculous Fishing
Clone victim Ridiculous Fishing is angling for attention and, as we noted in our review, it is certainly ridiculous. We aren't the only ones who think so. Touch Arcade (100/100): "Ridiculous Fishing is such a complete package that it's an effortless recommendation. It totally captures that gameplay niche of a game you can load up and play for a few minutes while providing a feel of progression that also makes the title suitable for substantially longer play sessions." Edge (90/100): "This is, ultimately, a simple little smartphone title, modest in its ambitions. That isn't to say it's a minor release, merely that it's a much smaller game than the story surrounding it." IGN (80/100): "Ridiculous Fishing could have probably been made even more ridiculous. The four fishing spots don't really feel distinct from one another. The geometric, almost cubist design is absolutely gorgeous, but it contributes to the feeling that you're seeing the same sights repeatedly. Lure and gun upgrades spice up the gameplay somewhat, but they don't really change the fact that this is a simple arcade experience with beautiful audiovisual design." Eurogamer (80/100): "And the moral of the story? A great game design can always be ripped off, sadly, but talent will out in the end. You can't cut-and-paste the artistry and attitude that Vlambeer has brought to this extravagant bit of disposable nonsense. You can't copy a true original - even before it's out."
Daily iPhone App: Ridiculous Fishing is ridiculously good
Vlambeer's Ridiculous Fishing is finally out on the App Store today, after a long and rough development cycle that included a well-publicized battle against a clone. But in my humble opinion, the guys at Vlambeer should never have worried. No clone could ever match up to the design talent, brilliant wit and just plain love that's been put into this game. Ridiculous Fishing lives up to its foolish title and then some. You play as a fisherman. To begin, tap to toss a hook into the water. The game then runs in three phases. First, as your hook descends, tilt the iPhone back and forth to guide it past as many fish as you can, as deep under the surface as possible. As you reel it back in, you switch tactics. Tilt to grab as many fish as possible, trying to avoid the jellyfish if you can. Finally, the game gets really silly when your hook reaches the surface. The fish fly up into the air, and you've got to take them out of the sky with whatever firearms you have lying around. Each fish you kill earns money for line and equipment upgrades and finding new species can unlock new areas with new fish to hook and deeper waters to plumb. It's a very addictive gameplay cycle, and it's all backed up with some brilliant art, great sound effects and very catchy music. I've been playing the game for about a week now, and have found it hard to put down. Ridiculous Fishing has seen a little drama even before release, but the team never needed to worry, in my opinion. This is a great game that is among the best we've seen on the iPhone, ever. It's well worth the purchase at US$2.99, though I'll bet we'll see Ridiculous Fishing (and with any luck, more of Vlambeer) around the App Store for a long time to come.
Ridiculous Fishing review: Acute angler
Vlambeer wouldn't want me to start my Ridiculous Fishing review by bringing up Ninja Fishing – and I kind of don't want to either – but Gamenauts' well-publicized clone actually works as an example of why Vlambeer's iOS update of its own browser game (which "inspired" Ninja Fishing) is so excellent, and so necessary.Playing Ninja Fishing and Ridiculous Fishing in quick succession illustrates what a difference it makes to care about your audience. The concept may be similar, but Ridiculous Fishing outclasses its would-be competitor in every way.It's just better.
Catch Vlambeer's 'Ridiculous Fishing' March 14
Ridiculous Fishing, on iOS, March 14th. Check out the announcement trailer at vine.co/v/bHvb721Mu3j ridiculousfishing.com - Vlambeer (@Vlambeer) March 5, 2013Ridiculous Fishing, the long-awaited iOS fishin'/shootin' action game by Super Crate Box developer Vlambeer, working with Greg Wohlwend (Solipskier, Hundreds) and Zach Gage (Spelltower) will arrive on the App Store March 14.Vlambeer, no doubt eager to prove its abilities as innovators after an infamous cloning crisis, revealed the date with the world's first game announcement Vine.
