We Added an Arcade

The arcade started as a proof of concept. I wanted to see if I could build an 8-bit fishing game. The original goal was to place it on the 404 page as a nice easter egg. It ended up being quite fun to play, and I realized directing people to enter a broken URL to get to the 404 page just didn't seem right. So the arcade was born. The 404 page is still boring — but now we have an arcade.

Leaderboards?!

The leaderboard came from the idea that if it's fun to play, it'd also be fun to have something to work at. At the moment, most of the fish on the leaderboard are quite impossible to beat. I think over 18,000 fish have been caught so far. I added the ability to save your initials — that came after quite a few fish had already been caught, so there might be a few records without initials from before that update.

Parker's World

My 7-year-old son got real excited about the idea, so I had him draw up some fish and create a world. That is Parker's World. We will probably add more fish there down the road if we need something to do.

What's next

It's kind of fun to work on. That being said, I'm busy with work, family, and getting on the water. I've had a few ideas about where to take the arcade in the future — more vessels, maybe tying fish to certain geographical areas, maybe even a fresh reset of the leaderboard. Reach out if you enjoy playing it or have any ideas.