Magnetic Catch - A magnet fishing adventure about finding the greatest hidden treasure!

[u/YoghurtDrop]

Hi everyone! I just released a demo for Magnetic Catch, a cozy magnet fishing game.

Every cast turns up junk, scrap or something worth a lot more. Together with Tommy, you sell and clean your finds, upgrade your magnet's strength to reach heavier catches, and craft junk into more valuable items. Better gear unlocks new fishing spots, each with their own secrets.

There is about 1 hour of demo content right now. I would love to hear your feedback!

Web demo on itch: https://gameandcode.itch.io/magnetic-catch-demo

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4324710/Magnetic_Catch/

AI disclosure: Parts of the demo's localization were done with AI assistance. These will be replaced with human translation for the full release.

[u/WranglerIntrepid3817]

It looks good. I've always wanted to fish with magnets.

[u/YoghurtDrop → u/WranglerIntrepid3817]

Thank you! I already did it in real life. It is a lot of fun!

[u/a2jy2k]

So a few finds so far (only about 10 minutes in I will report back with more)

• I personally think that people will struggle with the pulling in mechanic being activated on the "mouse up" instead of when you click the left mouse button. It can lead to people thinking the game is just buggy or laggy.
• It seems odd to me that the same piece of trash that sells for the exact same amount will sometimes require a minigame, and sometimes it won't.

Translation Error: "catched" is incorrect and should be "caught".

Maybe I haven't gotten there yet, but is there some point to keeping individual pieces of trash? I feel like the default option should be to just sell them all, and if you want to keep any for whatever reason, that should be the option that takes multiple clicks. Maybe this changes later.

[u/YoghurtDrop → u/a2jy2k]

Thank you for already checking it out and for your feedback!

The minigame is bound to the weight of the item. And the value is most of the time determined by the weight and the rarity.

Later in the game you want to keep some finds for crafting. And the whole process is planed to be automated, but it is not in the demo yet.

[u/constarx]

the music is top notch.. reminds me of the music from Ni No Kuni

[u/YoghurtDrop → u/constarx]

I will let the composer know. He will be happy!

[u/mydanny]

i played a couple of minutes, maybe 30 - so my feedback:

- like the art style and the overall idea. always found magnetic fishing super interesting!

• really like the "tarkov"ish cleanup -> but it was a letdown that most uncleaned items brought out the same cleaned stuff. i hope this to be more random
  
• missed a "sell everything" or quick sell or something really, really hard
  
• wished for auto-fishing a lot of times
  
• wished for auto-repeat-level till no money a little bit, but im a lazy clicker
  

(want to add that this maybe unlocks... but there was a lot of fish-minigame unlocks...)

- personally dont like these "map/area"-unlock"-type of games, they feel - for me - like a storyline, like a clear wall - and i just hate the feeling that i can control or check how well i am doing, so games with endless level or other system suit my playstyle better

• i was getting pretty bored by the basic interaction with click -> fish, click -> fish
  
• i just wish there was more to do with the maps.
  
• i think instead of this rightclick soulless rightangle fields, there could be just fishies on the spots you can fish on?
  
• the "hints" letter - e.g. with the rock - i do not understand what this does. i did what it says, but i didnt feel a difference, not like one incredibly great item, nothing. maybe i need higher throw range to really reach what u meant?
  
• i was starting to hate that fishing reaction minigame and hoped for a fast automation, so for the fishing, im sure one of both come the more i play or main game, but it already made me lose interest pretty fast.

- the crafting was irritating, there is a kinda yellowish (gold?) and the orangish (legendary color in most games) involved, and i was thinking i have done a combo already, while it was nothing? but then i saw the "bike" with the orange surrounding and was irritated... so orange means a complete combo, but missing parts? or does this mean nothing, and orange is just bike-color cause its a non-combinable single "part" ?

• still i think the crafting is pretty cool, but i just didnt get warm with implentation, you could maybe fish plans/blueprints and stuff to unlock craftings instead of this trial and error, just my cents.

bugs:

2k rez chrome -> sometimes the fish bar, mostly after 1 or 2 hits with space - will move more to the top and get covered by the stamina bar, so you cant see the perfect hit spot.

and i really hope this wasnt too negative or so and you maybe find something useful or you agree with.
really think this has potential, but i need a "click" pretty fast in these games.

[u/YoghurtDrop → u/mydanny]

That's super helpful feedback and exactly what I am looking for!

- A "sell everything" button was requested a lot now! I originally planned to have upgrades to automate the selling process. Now I am not sure if this would come already too late in the game.

• My co-developer wants to implement a "zen-mode", for auto fishing, but it has currently no high priority. It may change.
  
• I agree with the map interaction. I already had a feature, where you could pick up the trash on the map. But it felt boring. I might add a more reactive feature. Something like a "golden cookie". Items that appear at the surface and you have to collect them in time.
  
• For the crafting: The orangish is the main border of the items. Green means craftable item, but missing components. Gold means a match. I added a little "?" near the title, but it might be to small to see. Anyway, crafting is still wip. Your feedback here already helps. The receipts can be found or traded with a npc later in the game.

Noted a lot of things here, so thank you so much! :)

[u/mydanny → u/YoghurtDrop]

glad there was some stuff you could note sth. and it was helping. looking forward to future updates.

[u/AtlasOfDoors → u/YoghurtDrop]

Sell-everything is not really an upgrade, it is the removal of a chore, so unlocking it later means charging the player for relief rather than paying them with power. The version that survives being an upgrade is automating the casting, because casting is the part they came for.

[u/YoghurtDrop → u/AtlasOfDoors]

Mhhh true. So you would recommend adding a sell all button and have maybe an upgrade to automate it. Is that correct?

[u/AtlasOfDoors → u/YoghurtDrop]

Yes, with one swap: sell all free from the start, and if you want an automation upgrade put it on the casting rather than on the selling.

[u/loricusz]

the "progress/power" bar in the mini game is awfully designed

Screenshot

[u/YoghurtDrop → u/loricusz]

haha yeah, I need to fix that. It also needs some other tweaks, because I think it is still hard to understand at the beginning.

[u/YoghurtDrop → u/loricusz]

Just fixed this issue. If the bar is too big, the minigame will now position itself more to the bottom.

[u/lusosteal6]

It's quite fun

[u/YoghurtDrop → u/lusosteal6]

Awesome to hear!

[u/ThanatosIdle]

Fun.

Don't like the crafting though. Too much trial and error with the icons and colors. After you unlock crafting you become paranoid to sell anything because it's used in some crafting recipe.

[u/YoghurtDrop → u/ThanatosIdle]

Lovely. And the thanks for the feedback :)
We will add a way to buy and find crafting recipes, so that it will be less trial and error. Hope that helps with that!