Dev Diary #1: Making Growth Feel Good

Welcome to the first dev diary. The update posts list everything that changed each week; these diaries are about why. This week covered two very different jobs: fixing how Fish Frenzy feels, and starting a brand new game.

Fish Frenzy: the kill that didn't count

Fish Frenzy is a simple idea: eat, grow, don't get eaten. When we sat down and played it properly, the core loop had a problem we hadn't noticed. Eating another player paid 10 coins and no mass. A single food pellet did more for your size than winning a chase. The most exciting moment in the game was the least rewarding one.

So kills now give you half the eaten fish's mass, and the other half drops as meat anyone can grab. That second half matters: a big kill turns into a little feeding frenzy for whoever is nearby.

The next problem was that you couldn't see yourself grow. At 2,000 mass your fish was only about 4% bigger than when you spawned. We changed the size curve so growth shows from the start: about 1.6× at the same mass.

Telling players what's going on

The other question this week was simple: does the game explain itself? Mostly, it didn't. You couldn't tell at a glance which fish you could eat and which could eat you, and nothing celebrated you getting bigger.

That led to most of this week's visual work:

• Green and red. Fish you can eat glow green; fish that can eat you glow red.
• Numbers that pop. Food and kills show bright mass numbers, so every bite feels like progress.
• Moments. Level-ups get confetti and a fanfare, kills get a burst, and climbing the server leaderboard gets a banner.

None of it changes the rules. It just makes the rules visible.

We also gave each fish its own speed and mass stats, so unlocking the next fish means something beyond its looks, and added login rewards, playtime gifts and a Friend Boost so playing with friends pays off.

World At War: starting from nothing

World At War is our second game: a war game built around vehicle combat. This week it started on an empty baseplate.

The first build was deliberately basic: two teams, three capture points, a tank and a jeep. Once that worked, everything else stacked on top: real shells that arc under gravity, 21 vehicles, helicopters, crates you can build bunkers with, and a fully destructible city.

The part we're most excited about is the co-op modes. Zombie Survival and Alien Invasion put everyone on one team against waves of enemies. Kaiju Attack sends a giant monster through the city that flattens buildings as it walks. The challenge with the kaiju is making it feel huge: booming footsteps you hear across the map, buildings that fall as it passes, and a breath attack that sweeps across the street.

What we learned

The biggest lesson from Fish Frenzy this week: play your own game like a new player would. The kill problem had been there from the start, and we only saw it when we stopped testing features and just played.

Next week is about giving every Fish Frenzy run a goal, and making World At War's vehicles feel like real armour.