Lunker FISH: Something that isn't quite a designer's note

Introduction

First, before we get into the main topic...
For those who purchased sleeves at Game Market 2025 Spring, there have been many reports of defective products, so please check them as soon as possible, and if there are any issues, please

enter the information here. I apologize for the inconvenience!

I am Yamako from Dosukoi Kissa Yama Kobo.
Now, first of all, why a designer's note at this late stage? Well, thankfully, more people have been picking up Lunker FISH recently. However, this game was built on the idea of "reproducing fishing as accurately as possible," so technical terms appear frequently, and it can be unclear what the in-game actions represent...
In addition to serving as a memo, I thought I would write this down in the hope that it might be a place where such people can understand the game better. Of course, it would have been best if everything could be understood in the process of playing the game, but that was impossible for me.
I'm sorry.
And for those who haven't played it yet, you will definitely be left behind, so it's okay not to read this.

I've been writing this bit by bit and it's become ridiculously long, so I hope those who are interested will read it slowly while having a cup of tea...

Inception

I will omit the details of how it came to be made, as I wrote about that in a previous note.

It was decided from the beginning that it would be a deck-building game where fishing spots = deck, but initially the design was "fishing spots belong to everyone" -> all players would draw from a single deck. However, because the element of luck became too large, we settled on one deck per person.
This led to the decision to theme it around bass fishing, which has a high affinity with the flavor of searching for fishing spots to target on your own.
Also, the initial deck has 9 cards, but until the very end of development, it was actually 10. Every deck-building game had 10 cards, so I didn't have any doubts, but it should be changed depending on the system, right? There were turns in playtesting where nothing happened, and I was racking my brain about what to do, when I suddenly thought, "Why not just reduce it?" It might seem obvious from the outside, but I think the biggest flash of inspiration during development was "making the initial deck 9 cards" lol

Why that behavior? ①

There is an action in the game called "putting a fish in the livewell."
A livewell is a tank for keeping fish alive, and that is the so-called "scoring action" in the game. At that time, you remove one structure card and add a new structure and fish to the deck.
Some of you might be thinking, "What are you doing? That's hard to understand."

Before explaining that, let's talk about the setting itself.

First of all, what is happening in the fishing phase is that it represents what situations the lure encountered from the moment you throw it (cast) until you reel it back (retrieve) to your hand.
Using the initial deck cards above, it means nothing happened, you bumped into a large rock, or a turtle suddenly appeared in front of you.
At the start of the game, the situation is, "There seems to be a fish around the big rock (rubble stone), so let's target that."

Lunker FISH is basically a game where you want to catch big black bass, and generally, black bass are fish that prefer and inhabit environments around obstacles. So, anglers go around looking for obstacles, or "structures," where fish might be, and cast their lures there.

To return to the point, "I was targeting rubble stones and caught a turtle. There doesn't seem to be a fish there anymore, so let's look for a new spot (structure). I peeked and there was a fish, so let's target that fish this time."
That is the meaning of the behavior when "putting it in the livewell."

Why that behavior? ②

Some structures have effects such as "When revealed, Search +〇 during this turn."
This is related to the aforementioned fact that black bass like obstacles. If you can pass the targeted structure without getting snagged, the chance to approach the fish increases, which is represented by increasing the number of cards you can flip.
Also, fish have a habit called a "reaction bite," where even if they are wary of a lure passing in front of them, if it moves in an unexpected way, they will reflexively bite it.

When this lure hits an obstacle, it momentarily loses its balance and performs a movement called a 'flat strike.' Since this is likely to trigger a reaction bite, it resulted in the effect described in the text.

Why?

Why do you place one 'Nothing' and one 'Loose Rock' on top of the deck during game setup? What happens if you catch a turtle on your first draw? If you put it in the livewell, you have no structure to discard, so your deck increases by one card. If you release it, you get 3 Exp, but even if you want to buy 'Information Gathering,' you have no 'Nothing' to discard, so your deck increases by one card. Since this kind of accident can happen with a certain probability, we fix the top two cards of the deck to ensure this accident doesn't occur on the first turn.

What is a cast?

It means throwing a lure using a rod equipped with a reel. However, lures naturally have different weights and uses. In the game, lures that are easy to cast long distances have higher Search values because the distance you reel them in increases accordingly. Also, baitcasting tackle is more powerful than spinning tackle, but it is harder to handle light lures and more difficult to cast long distances, which is why it is set up this way.

Non-sinker worms and the like are extremely light and difficult to handle with baitcasting tackle, which is why they have this text.

Also, the starting minnow lure isn't necessarily for beginners; I set it that way because it has a 'classic lure' look and a very approachable form. In reality, it's actually quite a technical lure.

Fish points

Each fish has victory points, but the general trend is: Victory Points: High, Power: Large for topwater; Victory Points: Low, Power: Small for middle; Victory Points: Moderate, Power: Moderate for bottom.

This isn't because there's a bias in size depending on the habitat, but rather a matter of game design. Since the starting lure is for the middle range, this was decided after considering the benefits of choosing other ranges. I set the victory points and power high for topwater because I have the image that fish are more wary there, making it higher difficulty.

An angler's nature

When someone exceeds 20 points, there is one final round. Why? When you go fishing with friends, they will keep casting forever unless someone stops them. Even if you say 'Let's call it a day,' they will 1,000,000% say, 'Just one more cast!' You have to be firm and say, 'Just one more.' It's fun to have everyone cast together in the final round and flip their cards at the same time while counting 'One, two...'

Finally

Well, I've written down everything I could think of, so what did you think? Looking at it now, there really are a lot of behaviors that are confusing, especially at first glance... I'm truly sorry about that. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me on X. I'm a nerd who talks fast about things I love, so I'd be happy to chat. Also, if you want to go fishing, want to be taken fishing, or are interested in fishing, please contact me. This fast-talking guy would be happy to help. Thank you for sticking with such a long text! I'd be happy if you played it a lot and shared your thoughts!