How many of you spent your youth playing video games? Depending on your age, you probably have fond memories of the Duck Hunt dog laughing, hustling to select Oddjob in Goldeneye, or inducing mayhem in Twisted Metal. For most of us, video games hold a special place in our hearts.
With the endless cycle of Call of Duty games and pay-to-play mobile games, River Legends occupies a unique position in modern gaming. Mixed in with it’s retro-bit glory is a game that deftly blends modern gameplay associated with today’s technology and an aesthetic that is pleasing to those of us who didn’t grow up with 8- and 16-bit graphics.
It’s hard not to become immersed in the world of River Legends. Gamers are free to roam, being able to explore the game at their own pace. With multiple venues and locations and varying weather conditions, the game gives you the sense that you may not experience the same thing twice.
We over here at ALT Fly Fishing were fortunate enough to be able to test this game first hand, and truth be told, it’s been a comforting addiction, especially during stressful production weeks.
The drifting and casting dynamics far surpassed our expectations, along with the ability to spook fish. Well, we don’t like to spook fish, but the fact that we could in River Legends was one that was much appreciated and far exceeded expectations.
From the very second we opened the game, we were hooked, no pun intended. Everything flowed so seamlessly, from the opening soundtrack to the last location, every element came together beautifully.
We know how hard it is to properly capture the essence of fly fishing in words, but the ability to do so in a video game absolutely captivated us.
Given the outstanding experience of playing River Legends, we were eager to get to know the full story behind the game, as well as the man who created it, Brian Chau.
So Brian, before we start talking about River Legends, tell us about your background in fly fishing!
Like many anglers, I started with conventional gear, although I did receive a starter fly combo early on. Bluelining pushed me to switch to fly gear for trout.
What would you say is your most defining moment while out on the water?
The thrill of discovering a new stream with fish, especially after extensive research and preparation, is definitely the winning moment for me. I live in a densely-populated area (Southern California) and most of the fishing trips I take are to tiny blueline streams. Many of these do not hold fish, making finding one all the more memorable.
The sense of wonder and urge to explore while venturing into any of these remote waters, topped off with finding fish, really makes for a solid trip.
Do you have a favorite stretch of water to fish or species to target?
At this time, it’s definitely wild trout, be it rainbows, browns, or otherwise. I grew up fishing conventional gear for bass and other warmwater species, but switched to bluelining after a fellow angler introduced me several years ago.
I don’t have a favorite stretch of water, but I do love the creeks in California’s Eastern Sierra region. There are so many streams with so many wild fish to catch, amidst stunning rugged beauty, and it’s simply addicting to explore.
Outside of fly fishing, what do you enjoy immersing yourself in?
I have many hobbies and interests, probably too many! Youtubing/blogging, drone racing, video gaming, board games, even virtual reality. On top of all that, being with wife and watching my energetic toddler conquer new milestones, just to name a few!
When it comes to video games, what current or classic titles stand out most to you or made the biggest impact?
Whew, that is a tough one. The first game I ever played with Duck Hunt, I can still remember being amazed at how lifelike it looked as a kid. I cut my gaming teeth on classic strategy games such as Starcraft and Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far.
However, my favorite title has to be Operation Flashpoint by Bohemia Interactive. It’s a ridiculously punishing military simulation with both strategy and FPS aspect, really amazing for its time. I have many great memories of the countless hours my brother and I spent playing it on an old PC.
I do have to mention the many fishing games I grew up with. Trophy Bass by Sierra was simply my favorite fishing game for years. During elementary school we were allowed to play it on school computers if we finished our classwork early. I was very motivated to finish such work, to say the least. It’s sequel, Trophy Rivers, was definitely also inspirational when it came to making a fishing game.
How did all this come together to inspire the creation of River Legends?
For years, I was kicking around the idea of a fishing game where you could explore a wild trout stream at your own pace. I did dabble in game development and 2d artwork (pixel art) back in high school, but nothing with fishing. I followed the latest releases of fishing games, playing Fishing Planet and Ultimate Fishing Simulator, both great games but not exactly what I was looking for.
Perhaps the most enjoyable one I found was Fly Fishing Simulator HD from a post on Rock Paper Shotgun, a gaming website. I even explored virtual reality (VR) fishing games, blogging about my interest in finding one that captured the feeling of fly fishing. This was around the time Far Cry 5 was released and heralded in some fly fishing circles as the best fly fishing game so far. Around late 2017, I tinkered with a bit of absolutely awful fishing pixel art for a few months, rapidly losing interest.
Fast forward to late 2018, when I happened to have a conversation with someone who was making their own 2D game, a passion project of theirs.
Something about that made me think back to my early roots in pixel art and the possibility of a minimalist, retro fishing game. I reopened my old files, spent a lot of time drawing inspiration from modern pixel art games, purchased a dedicated pixel art program (Aseprite, amazing!), and got to work.
I didn’t (and still don’t) know much about programming. Instead, I designed several levels and character animations, then started pitching the idea to others. There was a lot of initial work and learning experiences to be had during this time, but eventually I connected with a very talented programmer who understood fishing.
Work together really kicked off in April of 2019, and after several rounds of initial testing we successfully launched River Legends: A Fly Fishing Adventure on August 27th.
While most of us are very familiar with video games, we don’t quite know what goes on behind the scenes when it comes to creating them. Could you share with us the realities behind developing a new game?
Definitely! It was an eye-opening experience, even for someone who has participated in game design before. It’s probably easier than ever before to design and release your own game, completely on your own or with a team. However, this makes releasing a successful game that much harder- there are more indie games being released now than ever before, and it is difficult to get noticed.
For starters, you need a game concept and a game engine. We used Unity, a powerful game engine that supports both 2D and 3D applications.
After that, it’s a matter of creating artwork, mixing it with audio assets, and bringing it to life through programming, while constantly testing it to eliminate errors. It’s a wild, exciting, stressful, and invigorating experience to see an idea go from words to an actual game environment.
You also need to handle the legal side of protecting your creation, in addition to constantly marketing your game, and choosing platforms to release your game on. You can release an amazing game, but without successful marketing nothing will come of it. Marketing on top of game development can be incredibly time consuming as well. In our case, we pitched (and still are) River Legends to both fly fishing and gaming
We must say, the gameplay is superb, seamlessly combining the essence of 8-bit video games many of us grew up with and the sport we love. We especially enjoyed the drifting dynamics, the accuracy of spooking fish when casting over them or when presenting our fly too close, and their positioning near cover. Can you tell us more about the care that went into making it?
Originally, the game started with a very simple concept: swipe-control fly casting. From there, we built upon it to include additional details such as the water current and fish AI.
The drift feature is one of my favorites. You will find that different bodies of water in the game have different currents, from calm ponds with gentle outward “waves,” to rushing rivers with fast moving water.
We had to play around with getting the current just right many times. We tried to add in a variety of different “spots” where you might find an eddy or slow zone, just like in a real stream.
Fish spooking was an early feature, and one that adds a nice dose of realism to the game.
At first, we had it so sensitive that it was nearly impossible to cast to any fish without instantly scaring them. We had to dial it back quite a bit to get it to where we were comfortable.
These were all essentially built in stages, with the fly casting done first, then fine tuning the other elements as we developed the game.
Being able to do motion-controlled casting, instead of artificial “click once to cast” (commonly found in many fishing games) really adds to the experience.
I don’t believe there are any other fly fishing games available that offer this feature. A few con- ventional games do (Wii Fishing Resort) but it’s relatively uncommon in that genre as well.
Tuning the gameplay in River Legends was challenging to conceptually take from start to finish but I’m pleased with how it turned out.
We love the open-world setting, allowing us to move freely within each location. Exploration seems to be a major theme in River Legends, why do you feel this is an important aspect of the game?
Great point! My fishing buddies will tell you I am constantly on the move while fishing!
Hiking through a canyon, casting my line in likely spots, exploring it further and further. This is my favorite style of fishing and something I tried to pass through to River Legends.
It’s difficult to truly capture the wanderlust I enjoy with fly fishing in a video game experience. A variety of constraints are at play, including file size, phone processing capability, load times, and my attention span with creating pixel art. There is quite a bit that must be taken into account, if you try to do too much, or you’re not mindful of the medium you’re working in and its limitations, then your end product will suffer.
Still, I think River Legends does have offer a taste of that, “What’s around the bend” feeling. You could spent the entire time fishing at the starting location, Forest Pond. No one forces you to leave it while playing. But to catch other species, you have to step out and explore the other locations. I think most anglers will readily do so.
With so many games focused on “pay to play,” loot boxes, and spending money on added features, we applaud River Legends for bucking this recent trend. What made you decide against adding this controversial feature to your game?
It’s extremely difficult for a mobile app to succeed in today’s market as a premium, one-time-purchase, app. People are very used to seeing “free” as the default option, then being bombarded with ads.
I’m a very traditional gamer- I grew up with old school games, well before Twitch, eSports, and, of course, microtransactions. I wanted players to get a taste of that.
River Legends wasn’t developed to be anxiety-provoking. That’s totally the antithesis of fishing. I wanted to capture the chill nature of fly fishing and the sense of exploration that brings me back to the sport, not get some uncomfortable so they would keep checking the app daily for whatever loot box opportunity or daily deal appeared.
It will likely hurt the sales in the long run, but this is a passion project of a game.
Now that River Legends is available for people to download on iOS, Android, and Steam, what’s next for you? Any other projects for 2019 and beyond?
We are still working on releasing the iOS version. Hopefully within the next month it will be landing on iTunes. I’m planning to take a long break from game development. It’s purely a side project, and I need to catch up on my other interests. I enjoyed making the artwork and editing the audio, and absolutely am proud of the final product, but I definitely am not about to make another game immediately. That being said, I’ve already started thinking of future iterations of River Legends and associated outdoor games. Eventually, those ideas will likely end up in game form, so keep an eye on Twitter and the River Legend’s website for more.
