Stillwater
A contemplative isometric fishing game about stillness, solitude, and the unknowable things beneath the surface.
Screenshots
About
Stillwater is a meditative fishing game set in a quiet, surreal world. Cast your line, wait, and see what rises from the depths. The game explores themes of solitude, patience, and the strange comfort of unknowable things.
Rather than action-oriented fishing mechanics, Stillwater focuses on the ritual of it — the cast, the wait, the subtle tension of a line going taut.
The World
Five interconnected zones, each with its own character:
- Starting Lake — Calm, safe, familiar
- Forest River — Flow-based fishing, unusual sounds in the trees
- Crescent Cove — Tides that shift, reflections that don’t quite match
- Night Marsh — Fog rolls in, time feels uncertain
- Deepwater Inlet — Rare encounters, things best left undisturbed
The Echo System
Stillwater features asynchronous multiplayer through what we call the Echo System. Your behavior — how long you sit still, what you catch, what you release — contributes to a global mood that subtly influences other players’ worlds. You’ll never see another player directly, but you might notice their presence in the way the world shifts.
Fishing
The fishing system is built around a 12-state simulation:
Idle → Casting → Drift → Stillness → Micro-twitch → Bite check → Hook opportunity → Hooked → Reeling → Slack → Caught or Lost
Each fish has its own personality — some are patient, some are skittish, some only appear when the global mood reaches certain thresholds.
Technical Details
- Engine: Unity 6.2 with 2D URP
- Rendering: Pixel-perfect isometric with depth sorting
- Architecture: Event-driven, ScriptableObject-based data