Waiting for a Bite

Little mouse, you've fallen down the well. Fortunately a kind stranger has bandaged you up and placed you in bed. Grab your trusty fishing pole and gather all the power ups you need to escape.

Waiting for a bite is a smash up of a Stardew valley style fishing game and a Metroidvania. Collect powerups through fishing to escape the well.

This game was written for the 2023 Fall Lisp Game Jam. The source for the game can be found at https://git.sr.ht/~alexjgriffith/bite

The art and music is licensed under the CC-BY Attribution licence and the game code is available under the GPLv3+ licence.

Controls

• Movement [AD] and [Left/Right]
• Jumping [W] and [Up]
• Dashing [V] and [M]
• Interactions [SPACE]
• Reel in [C]
• Menu [TAB]
• Mute [CTRL]-[M]
• Toggle Full screen [ESCAPE]
• Toggle Editor [CTRL]-[TAB]
• Inventory [1][2][3][4][5] (your rod is always [1])

Interacting With the world

You can interact with many objects and characters down the well. All interactions are initiated with [SPACE]. Your proximity to an object dictates what action you will perform.

By default, if you see no action indicator above your head, you will use your active item (either what you've just picked up or the inventory slot you've selected). For example, if you have your fishing rod out you will cast.

If you see an indicator above your head, pressing space will initiate that action. If you want to cast your rod move away from nearby objects and characters.

Casting your Line

The casting mini game starts once you cast your line. The further the pointer is to the left when you press [SPACE] the further you will cast. Note that sometimes you want to cast a very short distance. You can always wait for the pointer to start going to the left.

Reeling in your Catch

So you want to catch a fish? Once you cast your rod you're off to the races. Wait a few seconds for a bite and you can start reeling in your catch. The fishing game is split into three columns. On the left your have your rod position (dark brown), in the centre is the position of the fish and on the left is the score (green).

Your rod is always slowly falling. To jostle it upwards press [C] repeatedly. When the rod is in line with the fish your score will start rising. If the rod is out of line with the fish the score will fall. When your score hits 100% you've caught the fish, congratulations! If it falls to 0% you've lost the catch. Frustrating, especially for rare fish.

More difficult fish will move around more.

Inventory Management

The inventory can be seen at the top left of your screen. There are 5 available slots.

To switch between slots press the corresponding number on your keyboard. The item in black is your currently active item. It should be visible on your character.

When you get a new item you will have to decide which slot to put it in. If you are out of slots you can ether replace an item in your inventory for it or delete it with [DELETE] or [BACKSPACE].

Your rod will always be item number one. To prevent you from accidentally deleting it (bricking the game) you can only put items in slots 2-5.

If you want to give an item to a character make it active by clicking the appropriate number key. You should see the item above your head. When you stand in front of the character you should now see the action to "give".

Hints and Tricks

• Read signs. They will let you know the type of fish you can expect to catch nearby
• If you want to make a very short cast wait until the pointer is heading to the left to press [SPACE]
• Once you get the boots of dashing you can break through blockers by dashing at them.

Attribution

• Game Code - Alexander Griffith (GPL3+)
• Game Art - Alexander Griffith (CCBY 4)
• Music - Alexander Griffith (CCBY 4)
• Font (Not Jam UI)
• Sounds Effects - NeadSimic, Nicole Marie, InspectorJ, Blender Foundation, MentalSanityOff (CCBY 3/4)
• Library (lume, flux, json) - RXI (MIT/X11)
• Library (anim8,bump) - Enrique Cota (MIT)
• Engine (LÖVE) - LÖVE Dev Team (Zlib)
• Language (Fennel) - Calvin Rose (MIT/X11)
• Web Support (Love.js) - Davidobot

Built for the web using https://github.com/Davidobot/love.js