Call of the Wild: The Angler is a relaxing fishing trip in a beautiful open world
3.21.2024
By Phil Hornshaw, Contributor
Of course, you're still trying to catch fish, including the biggest, rarest dwellers of the deep you can, with The Angler ranking your catches in different categories, like Silver, Gold and Diamond. But two of developer Expansive Worlds' goals were to capture a sense of place and make being in the game world its own important part of the experience, Game Director Paul "Rushy" Rustchynsky explained.
"We wanted to make the environment part of the character, part of the gameplay, so that you're actively trying to find the best fishing spots, but not just trying to find the best fishing spots on your own, but actually together with friends, exploring the environment and trying to find where those Gold, Diamond and Legendary catches are, and recreate what is like fishing in real life," Rustchynsky said in an interview. "There's nothing quite the same as actually going out into nature and exploring lots of vast open landscapes around the world, trying to find the biggest catch. …All these emotions and feelings that the real world of fishing can deliver, we try to recreate that in our game."
The Angler currently includes three different nature reserve locations: Golden Ridge, which is inspired by Yellowstone National Park in the western United States; Trollsporet Nature Reserve, set in Norway; and Aguas Claras, in Spain's Andalusia region. A new South African reserve is set to release on the Epic Games Store on March 26.
Rustchynsky said crafting these reserves starts with the most important part: the fish. The team decides what kinds of fish they want to add to the game, and that helps determine where the reserve will be located in the world, so the game can provide an experience of catching fish that can't be found anywhere else. From there, the developer fleshes out the locations to make them rewarding to spend time in, making sure that each has its own stories, lore, and secrets that you can find. Rustchynsky said it's also important to the team to make each location authentic to its setting. They contain real information and history of their regions.
"A big part is actually just doing the research into the areas, making sure that every new location we go to, we're getting all the photographic reference as well as speaking to cultural consultants," he said. "Because we recognize that, whilst we do, in the office, have lots of different nationalities who work on this product, we need to speak to experts who live in these areas who can inform us best not just about, does this look accurate, but actually, are we being sensitive to the location and the nature that's there as well, and making sure we kind of strike that right balance."
There are fun, less-realistic aspects to each reserve, too. In Golden Ridge, for example, players can find evidence of the elusive Bigfoot, among other secrets. Rustchynsky said that while the team tries to take The Angler seriously and make the fishing experience and its locations feel real, developers also like to have some fun and inject some humor into each of the reserves as well.
Adding Bigfoot to the reserve began with a conversation about how the team could add fun things for players to discover, and the realization that Narrative Designer Ben Luff could do a solid Bigfoot impression. Before the team knew it, Rustchynsky said, Luff was in a sound booth recording Bigfoot calls.
The Angler's open-world environments also capture the relaxation that's a key part of fishing. That's not an element video games are always keen on grasping, with players often struggling to advance as far as they can as fast as they can. Rustchynsky said giving players the ability to relax with The Angler was an important part of its design from the beginning, but the team also had to work to balance that with the competitive and exciting parts of fishing as well. The open world provided the freedom to make both options available.
"As with most video games, there's always the push and pull between who you want to cater for, because typically you end up compromising someone's experience," he explained. "What we're trying to do in The Angler in particular is give you the choice, as in, if all you want to do is go stand at the end of a pier and cast all day long and just catch fish after fish after fish, you can absolutely do that. All the stats, all the comparisons, everything you want is inside that and is built to make sure you tick off all the Diamonds, make sure you caught the Legendaries. But if you want to just explore the world and do things at your own pace, there's never any pressure, never any push from the game."
Expansive Worlds looked to strike a balance with its open world locations, making them work as game spaces while still feeling authentic, and it did the same thing with its fishing mechanics. The team wasn't sure if it should push for a more simulation-like feel or arcade-like mechanics, and ultimately they iterated over and over again to decide what felt the most authentic and fun.
The fish themselves were also essential to finding that correct feel. A lot of the real-world experience of fishing is waiting and potentially never getting a bite. While it might be realistic, that doesn't necessarily make for a fun video game experience.
"There were conversations we had that were like, do we want players to be able to sit there all day and catch nothing? And how do we simulate the fish beneath the water to make it feel natural, but never unfair?" Rustchynsky said. "There were even conversations about, should we allow the camera to go underwater so you can see what the fish are doing?"
Ultimately, he and the team decided against allowing players to see what was going on with the fish. Rustchynsky said he spoke with a fisherman about that possibility in the United Kingdom's Lake District national park.
"There's one thing he said that I always remember, which was, 'no, that's the magic that happens beneath the water.' You never want to see what happens, because the moment you know what's going on, it takes away that element of surprise and the reason why you go fishing. You sit there all day in the hope that you do catch something and when you do, it's that magical moment where if you're kind of analyzing all the details, and being able to see what's going on beneath the scenes just removes what makes fishing special.
"And that actually allowed us a lot of freedom to develop the systems that kind of balances things in such a way that you don't end up with no bites, that you don't end up with no catches," he went on. "But we're not seeding things so that the players are guaranteed a big catch over a period of time, because the player still needs to be in the right place at the right time with the right gear."
The South African reserve brings a host of new features to the game. It adds 16 fish, 13 of which are new to The Angler, as well as a new location for players to explore. Rustchynsky said reserves typically feature around 30 or 40 hours of content to catch every fish and find every secret. One of the unique elements of the South African reserve is its "dinopark," a prehistorically themed landmark. It'll also include new "fishing hub" locations that come with their own challenges to complete.
"I always love when we introduce new fish, because each fish typically has their own unique traits," Rustchynsky said. "So these are kind of behaviors that these fish exhibit so that you need to be aware of where they like to be, what time of day they're typically active, or the types of bait or even during the fight, what sort of characteristics still try. Like a couple of fish, for example, have this kind of 'second wind' trait, whereby you just reel them in and then they have that last-minute fight to pull away—you think you've almost got it. And it's making sure that each of our new fish always feel unique, so every fish bite feels a little bit different."
Call of the Wild: The Angler and its expansions, including all three reserves, are available now on the Epic Games Store.