Go Fishy - What I Learned From A Simple Flash Game

Played Online came out with its list of the best flash games of the past decade.As someone who wasted a great deal of time playing these games I was happy to see some of my favourites make the list. I spent countless hours learning how to best play Miniputt, Age of War and Defend Your Castle - remember when there was only one tower defence game?

The one game on this list that I spent the most time on was XGenStudio's Fishy. It was a simple, but difficult game that I would initially play to decompress. Before long, I would find myself obsessed. Seven years later, I can look back and determine that Fishy either taught me or reinforced various principles about game design, attention to detail and even life. Kinda intense.

More musings - and the game itself- after the jump...
Fishy is a game with an incredibly simple premise: eat the fish that are smaller than you to get bigger. The physics are excellent, the soundtrack is relaxing and the colours are pleasing. Things I learned from Fishy:

• 'Don't Chase' - This was my mantra when playing Fishy. If you chased the smaller fish to the boundary you would often encounter a bigger fish which meant Game Over. For a while, this became my mantra in life, 'don't chase and let things come to you.' It was all very zen. I should probably follow that advice more often.
• You'll never win just hanging out in one place - In Fishy you can't win if you spend your time as a bottom feeder. That's translates pretty directly to life in general. Again, note to self: don't be a bottom feeder.
• Be patient, but take smart risks - You can't win Fishy without letting some of the fish go by and waiting for the easier ones to come along. Of course you should take a calculated risk once in a while if you want to win the game. Bam, pretty clear life lesson there too.
• Simple is awesome - Fishy is an excellent example of KISS - keep it simple stupid. Easy colours, a short soundtrack and easy rules. When designing games or writing missions for The Go Game, it's always important to keep in mind simple principles...they're usually the most fun.

Wanna play Fishy?: