Tiny Aquarium: Social Fishkeeping

cute

I wasn't expecting to love this game so much but it scratches a certain itch I have for wanting to fish in a video game. I LOVE marine life and this game is so perfect and I hope they continue updating it for a very long time. <3

Fih in abundance

Very fun

This game is very fun, relaxing and highly addictive but isn't without my small little nitpicks which I'll get into later in the review. First the graphics in this game while simple they are very stylized making them very visually appealing while still giving a lot of character and life to the tanks you create and the fish you will hatch, breed and sell. The animations of the fish and tank decorations really gel well together and you can easily create some beautiful tankscapes. The Gameplay loop is very simple but highly addictive as even when you obtain a fish for your fishdex the game encourages you to constantly keep breeding fish for rare variants of fish known as "unique" which is this games version of shinies from Pokemon. Every fish also has 3 stats each one individual to the fish you catch/hatch ranging from 0-100 those been: Size - the bigger the fishes size stat the more it sells for Fortune - Higher stat equals more money produced per hour Fertility - higher chance of breeding 2 fish and shorter cooldowns for breeding These stats while not at all important you can play this game while completely ignoring them if you wanted to add another layer of addiction that keeps you coming back as every fish you breed with another will pass down it's stats to the offspring meaning you can selectively breed fish with other fish to pass down good stats and work your way up to getting a perfect 100/100/100 stat fish which again you can breed and produce many more perfect 100/100/100 fish which yes you can get a perfect stat unique and that has been my addiction trying to get 1 of every unique perfect stat fish. All of that been said there is no right or wrong way to play this game which I like. Whether you just want to build beautiful fish tanks with all your favorite fish, min max every fish to perfection through breeding, hunt down every variation of fish to complete your dex or just chat with friends and do some simple fishing it's all a valid way to play and enjoy the game and you won't feel like your falling behind be it you don't engage with the deeper stats and mechanics of the game and just play how you want. If you are someone who is a aquarium hobbyist like me you will know that irl fish keeping has a very strong social community be it online or irl. Many hobbyist are always sharing tips, advice, trading fish, shrimp, snails, plants, equipment etc with each other. It's not uncommon if you have a good brood of Neocaridina shrimp or maybe your guppies have been going at it like rabbits or you just have more java moss than you know what to do with to give new and established hobbyist some of your spoils this is one thing I have always loved about keeping tanks and I feel like this game really encapsulates that sense of community perfectly in the digital form. Needless to say for the full asking price of this game it's a steal you will not regret picking it up especially if anything I've said sounds appealing to you in anyway. Now for my nitpicks. First the elephant in the room which many people I've seen in the discussions bring up there is not enough storage or tanks. As of writing this I am level 26 so only have 5 tanks but in total there is only 11 in game. Despite all my tanks been fully leveled up and having max storage to my current level I find myself having to get rid of fish I really don't want to get rid of due to a lack of tanks and space. As someone who is very much into breeding perfect fish and trying to get 2 of every unique with perfect stats and keeping them all organized in their own tank (numbers 1-15 in the unique dex then 16-31 etc) this restriction is extremely frustrating. As of right now my tanks are all disorganized due to a lack of tanks I'm having to constantly hot swap fish in and out for storage for breeding and as of right now I have no space to keep my fish I want to sell on the market place. PLEASE DEVS GIVE US MORE TANKS AND AT EARLIER LEVELS I BEG YOU! The other nitpick I have is the online market place, while great in theory I feel like it needs work. In order to buy fish from other players you need a separate currency shells you can earn shells via leaving reactions on other players tanks, up to 5 reactions per day and selling fish to other players via the online market. The issue is trying to sell anything on the market feels impossible. First reason is you need to have the fish you want to sell in a tank which as I was saying is hard when you are already limited for space as is. Then trying to find a buyer is also hard because the only good way of earning shells is through selling fish and therefore established dedicated players with abundances of perfect stat fish and uniques who just idle in fishing lobbies 24/7 (and I mean yes they literally just AFK for days at a time) are the only ones people buy from. It feels impossible to be seen by other players due to established players having more tanks therefore more fish available to buy, more experience therefore tanks full of perfects and uniques and if you aren't actively using discussions and spamming the chat (which is very annoying btw don't do that) you're basically invisible everyone will just go to the established AFK traders who leave the game running for days on end. This creates a cycle of: >Try sell my fish to another player for shells >Nobody buys my fish >I don't have many shells and therefore don't want to spend what little shells I do have It doesn't help as well that there's cosmetics you can only buy with shells further encouraging you to horde your shells and not spend shells on other players fish as you're saving your little daily amount you get up for the cosmetics. The whole market place needs a rework in how players get seen in the market place and how shells are rewarded to actually encourage more trading among players imo. Maybe like receiving reactions rewards shells and not coins and having a searchable market place that allows players to see listed fish for sale by other players. The only other nitpick I have is why when fishing can't I have my caught fish directly sent to my storage so I can view them later to decide if I want to keep them or not? Every time I go fishing I have to put an entire tank of fish into storage just so I can differentiate between the fish I just caught and ones I had in my tank. It's very frustrating. As well why can't we just see the stats of the caught fish before we sell it/put it into our tank? Again just a really annoying little thing. It would be lovely if we could fish and have the option to put the fish straight into storage and then be able to open up the storage menu without leaving the lobby to see the stats of each fish and decide from there if to sell it or not. Apart from those few things, I really do truly love this game and I recommend it to anyone who is even vaguely interested in the aquarium keeping world. Encase anyone wants to visit my aquarium here is my ID: 76561198293616927

I feed me fish. I decorate me tanks. I am happy

This game is an absolute delight, I didn't expect myself to like it as much as I do, hell- I never touch the discussion tab in any game for any reason and for this game? I'm willing to do that! This game overall gives me a sense of joy and peace, its exciting to get new fish and decorations, but calming to just make the aquarium tiny and have it be there while you're busy doing whatever (in my case, making art or programming! TLDR: Good game, buy it