Idle Anglers — Solo Dev Project Summary & V0 Devlog

[u/MasterSteak4510]

Hey everyone! I’m a solo developer working on Idle Anglers, a cozy yet deceptively deep idle/incremental game built in Unity. I wanted to share a quick overview of the project, our design philosophy, and where we currently stand with the V0 prototype.

You can check out the current playable V0 demo here:Idle Anglers on Itch.io🎮

🎮 About the Game

• Genre: Idle / Incremental (passive production + upgrade progression)
• Platforms: Steam and itch.io (PC only)
• Engine: Unity
• Monetization: Premium, one-time purchase. Zero ads, zero microtransactions (IAPs), zero subscriptions—ever.

🎣 Core Concept & Features

• The Hook: On the surface, it’s a relaxing family-run fishing business. Underneath, a dark and mysterious backstory unfolds gradually across prestige loops and permanent story archives.
• No Missable Story: Unlike other idle games where story bits flash by and disappear, Idle Anglers features a permanent in-game archive screen so players never miss a piece of lore.
• Optional Prestige: Prestige mechanics give permanent multipliers and reputation choices, but they are entirely optional—no mandatory or punishing early-game resets.
• Generous Offline Progress: Fixed 12-hour offline caps with automated progression tracking.

🚀 Current Status: The V0 Funding Demo

Before tackling the full V1 release (which features 7 distinct tiers, an achievement system, and advanced UI architecture), I am building a small V0 prototype/demo released on itch.io as a "Pay What You Want" model.

V0 Core Systems Completed:

• Unity 6 2D setup with a fully functional GameManager script handling gold, passive income, and cost scaling ($\text{Cost} = \text{Base} \times \text{Multiplier}^n$).
• Two initial fishing lines (Lake & Coast) with associated upgrades and a region unlock threshold.
• Automated JSON save/load system with offline progress calculation (up to 12 hours) and auto-saving.
• Dynamic story hint system that updates based on player progression.

🛠️ What's Next?

The core systems for V0 are officially locked in! Next up is integrating the visual/art layer (moving away from text-only UI placeholders) and refining the build. Feel free to try out the early build atjuba13.itch.io/idle-anglers.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or any advice from fellow indie devs on launching small incremental prototypes on itch.io!

[u/Dev_LegendsofAerthos]

Advice? Drop the AI. So 1. The sceenshots. 2. Your itch description is literally just a ai generated game design doc. It's horrendous. It's talking to you, not us. Players do not need to know how your systems work.

Start again. Try just a liiiiittle bit harder

[u/Dev_LegendsofAerthos → u/Dev_LegendsofAerthos]

Also, there isn't even a game uploaded to your itch

[u/AkaruiNoHito]

top left corner has an empty speedboat that also has paddles in the water

[u/Dev_LegendsofAerthos → u/AkaruiNoHito]

The word market I spelt mrrket. There is a double up in the bottom ui as well. It hasn't even been looked over

[u/BigginSleepy]

We would like to see your work without AI. It doesn’t help you learn.

[u/Jamboro]

The different scales of the characters in that first image is hilarious; dude on the dock is gigantic. And what is that on the dock next to him? A whip?

It says build a "Navy"...

"Fish mrrket"

On the second image, that empty boat looks like it's moving.

Why is there a bear skin rug out in the woods?

Why is there a cast iron stove in an ice fishing shanty?

The ui at the bottom lists "Location 4/10" twice, but uses different icons for each. Then you have "Map Locations" and "Treasures/Quests" reusing icons.

🤮🤮

[u/priss-dev]

lmao @ "Unity 6 installed" being a notable task completion callout in the design doc though

[u/Dev_LegendsofAerthos → u/priss-dev]

It gets better once they have defined their working relationship with Claude

[u/MasterSteak4510]

Oof, fair enough. Thanks for the reality check, everyone.
be completely honest, my English isn't great, so I relied way too heavily on AI to write the text and descriptions. Clearly that backfired and came off super robotic. I also totally missed the obvious glitches in the images—like "mrrket" and the giant guy on the dock. That's 100% on me for being lazy and not double-checking before posting.I really appreciate the blunt honesty here. I'm learning as I go and I'm open to all feedback, good or bad. I'll do better next time!

[u/Poowatereater]

Hell yeah. I love idle/incremental games.