Under the blue horizon - Aquarium

⠀

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it felt like Under the Blue Horizon did not understand the appeal of bottom-of-screen idle games and therefore did not capture my attention as someone who was sincerely hoping for an idle aquarium game to accompany me on my daily tasks. In different idle games, there's a sense of 'progression' - adding new items and changing the look of the environment, to best customize the game to the player's needs but also making the game feel 'alive'. In Blue Horizon, the only options are to capture fish and to release them. There is no rarity factor, no customizing your aquarium - making the game nothing more than a very fancy wallpaper. Maybe if the game adds more functionality in the future I'd consider revisiting it, but as of now I cannot see myself using this game over other idle games. (Not to mention that the menu GUI is directly copied from Rusty's Retirement - it's one thing to get inspired by a game, but copying something without giving your own touch feels criminal.)

Under the blue horizon - Aquarium is not a game. Games contain meaningful gamelike interaction and game loops, which are absent in this software. Instead of being a game, Under the blue horizon - Aquarium is a software application that shows a small overlay at the bottom of your screen with pixelcrap "fish" on it. That's all this garbage does. What a waste of everyone's time. For those unfamiliar with what actually makes something a game, a "game loop" describes the interaction and feedback a gamer has when playing a game. Tetris, for example, has a game loop where a random block appears, the gamer interacts with the block to position it, and then the game decides if that finishes a row or not, increases the players score if any rows were completed, then gives the gamer another block to position. Counter-Strike has a game loop where a player seeks another player, tests their skill against that player by shooting them or being shot, the computer rewards the player if they win, and then if the player survives, they repeat that loop. There's no loop here, no true interactive feedback. It simply is not a game, it cannot be "played". This has misleadingly been launched in the …

yeah ok this is seriously adorable and the cutest overlay for putting at the bottom of my notes during college lectures ^^

As far as desk pets go, this one isn’t the best one out there. It takes up a large portion of the bottom half of the screen. There isn’t really a sense of progression or collecting when it comes to the fish. It’s more of something that just sits at the bottom of the screen and looks pretty. En français: En matière d’animaux de bureau virtuels, celui-ci n’est pas des plus réussis. Il occupe une grande partie de la moitié inférieure de l’écran. On n’a pas vraiment l’impression de progresser ou de collectionner les poissons. Il sert surtout à décorer le bas de l’écran.

NEGATIVE🟥 🟧 🟨 🟩 🟦 🟪POSITIVE [h1]#tinygamereview[/h1] [code] somehow surprisingly-relaxing [/code] 🟨 [b]CHILL[/b] 🟨 [hr][/hr] 🎮 🟨[b]Gameplay:[/b] really isn't any 🔊 🟨[b]Audio:[/b] not a lot to go by; the tracks are all fine - catchy and relaxing but they're also short enough to get old fast 🖼️ 🟩[b]Visuals:[/b] cute; small, but you can also double the size. [hr][/hr] [hr}{/hr] [h1]#readme[/h1] would be better if it cooperated with other games running so I could leave it on a second monitor [hr][/hr] [h1][b]Curator: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/46000099/]Brickroad Amusements[/url][/b][/h1]