At the end of 2024, I received a Facebook notification, which of course I ignored because Facebook is the most horrible online communication tool imaginable. The PR manager of the Fishing Planet studio wrote that they had released a new Ukrainian map for the Fishing Planet fishing simulator - the Dnipro River near Kherson. In addition, I was told that I had forgotten this project in the top 10 Ukrainian games by the number of simultaneous players on Steam, and it should not only be in the top ten, but also take the 6th place, right behind Warface. Yes, Ms. Victoria is absolutely right, I did forget about this game, which has been developed and supported in Kyiv since 2014, and there is an explanation for this, but more on that below.
In any case, I apologize to Fishing Planet. But this incident is a good opportunity to talk about the Fishing Planet project, its history, current status, and future. In addition, Fishing Planet has another interesting project, Train Planet, which is also worthy of attention. So, here is an interview with the developers of Fishing Planet. Victoria Shulyak, a team leader of the Community and Caliper team, answers the questions of Mezha.
Oleg Danylov: I first met the developers of Fishing Planet in August 2015, when the game was released in Steam Early Access. I even visited the studio's office in Obolon and wrote a review of Fishing Planet, in which I gave the game an Editor's Choice (another editorial). But after a rapid start with almost 7 thousand players online, interest in the game has somewhat declined. The number of players decreased to 1500-2000 people and for some reason I decided that this was not enough to develop and support a free online project and that it was going to decline. But Fishing Planet is still here and continues to grow. Tell us about the challenging period of 2015-2016 and how many users a free-to-play game with an in-game store should have to continue to grow?
Victoria Shulyak: Thank you for inviting us to answer your questions and for keeping Fishing Planet in mind. To begin with, it is not easy to create any project from scratch, especially in such a specific and narrow niche as fishing. In the early years, we focused on creating content and a database of reservoirs so that players could have a wide range of locations, gear, missions, and other activities that would allow them to spend time in the game in an interesting and high-quality way, which took a lot of time and work, and we weren't setting ourselves up for overnight success.
As for the required number of users for the development of a project, it is difficult to give exact figures because it depends on many factors. For example, a large number of players can generate little revenue, while a smaller but more loyal audience can significantly support the project. We have players who have spent hundreds or even thousands of hours in the game without any expenses, as well as those who regularly support the game financially. Both groups are important to us.
Today, Fishing Planet has about 30 million users across all platforms. This is enough to support the game and plan its further development with a relatively small team like Fishing Planet has now.
Oleg Danylov: The number of Fishing Planet players on Steam continues to grow, and 2024 seems to be the most successful year for the game. A bunch of updates, online constantly above 5 thousand users with a peak of almost 10 thousand(9,926 in June 2024). What is the reason for this?
Victoria Shulyak: In 2024, Fishing Planet saw a real revolution as we released the update that was 10 years in the making - ocean fishing at the new Kairo Nori location in Japan. This massive update, which took over two years to develop, includes a number of innovative and complex features.
This includes ocean fishing and sea water itself, which has unique properties that differ from fresh water. This is also fishing with friends on the same boat. New ocean yachts and more than 100 new items for sea fishing in the game store. New "pull and reel" weighing mechanics designed specifically for large marine fish. Navigation buoys that allow you to move faster on a huge location. And much more is fundamentally new for Fishing Planet. The Kairo-Nori location itself is significantly larger than all the previous ones: it is 400 square kilometers in size and 20 times larger than all other game locations combined!
We announced the creation of the ocean over a year ago, and our players have been eagerly awaiting this release. So it's not surprising that this update has set new activity records. It is important to note that Kairo-Nori looks completely different from anything that has been in the game before. It may not be very modest to say so, but we are confident that this is a step up to a whole new level.
Oleg Danylov: Fishing Planet was released on PC in 2015. In 2017, it was released on PlayStation 4, in 2019 on Xbox One, and in 2022 on Android and iOS. If it's not a secret, which of these platforms is the main one for the studio now, where there are more players and more money?
Victoria Shulyak: We do not single out any platform, and we currently have seven of them, as more important than others, because each has its own peculiarities that need to be taken into account. Each release, whether it's a major update or a small bug fix, requires a separate build, testing, and release for each platform, and some platforms require preliminary certification.
When new content is added to the game, players on all platforms are eagerly awaiting the update for their platform. Although we're a small team and can't currently release updates for all platforms at the same time, we always try to minimize the time difference between releases so that no player feels left out.
In terms of the number of players, Steam and PlayStation have the largest number of players, while Xbox/UWP (Universal Windows Platform), Android/iOS, and Epic Games have a slightly smaller number. However, releases have a certain sequence - PC updates are always released first, followed by consoles and then mobile platforms. This is primarily due to technical issues and peculiarities of certification procedures on different platforms.
Oleg Danylov: Speaking of markets, I don't think I'd be wrong to say that the most important market for Fishing Planet is the US. What other countries are interested in virtual fishing?
Victoria Shulyak: Fishing Planet actually has a fairly wide geography of players, and we can rightly be called the "Fishing Planet". We do have a lot of players from the US and Canada, but also from Europe: UK, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Germany, and Asia. The game has become quite popular over the past year in Indonesia and Malaysia, with many players from Japan and China, as well as a developed community in Brazil.
We don't forget about Ukraine, as we have a lot of players at home as well. Now the game offers fishing on the native Dnipro river, and the prices for Ukrainians have always been much lower than for other countries - we are always happy when our countrymen choose our game.
Due to the fact that our subject matter is quite specific, we can safely say that our game is popular in countries where fishing in general is popular.
Oleg Danylov: Fishing Planet's main income comes from the sale of in-game items and fishing licenses. If it's not a secret, what percentage of those 30 million people who have tried the game buy something from it? And does the merchandise store, which even has real fishing rods for a fantastic 10,000 UAH for a non-fisherman, bring in any money?
Victoria Shulyak: We can't share the exact numbers, but as mentioned, there are many players who choose the completely free-to-play version of the game. All locations and content are available for free, but it takes more time to reach the required level. Some players want to get access to certain items and locations faster, so they are willing to buy DLC packs for real money.
There are also players who have reached the maximum level and have access to all the content, but regularly support the developers with payments, realizing that it is their support that allows the game to continue to exist. Overall, we have a fairly loyal and conscious community. Since the game is niche and you have to look for similar simulations, many players stay with us for a long time. This is especially true for real fishermen, for whom Fishing Planet is an opportunity to relax after a hard day and do what they love without leaving home. Virtual fishing is still much cheaper than trips to real-life water bodies.
As for the merchandise store, it was more of an experiment and an opportunity to create beautiful, high-quality merchandise with the game's symbols so that those who love it could buy such souvenirs for themselves or for friends as gifts. We also give these items to our players from time to time in social media drawings, and there were also gaming tournaments where you could win real Fishing Planet rods and reels. The number of items is limited and we have no plans to order more.
As for the price of 10,000 UAH, it's really not much for quality fishing equipment. The rods in our store are currently €99.95 and reels €89.95, and the rod+reel combo is €179.95 at a discount, which is about 8,000 UAH at today's exchange rate. This store is not and has never been commercial for us, it was more of a "soul" thing, because we wanted to create things that could be touched in the real world.
Oleg Danylov: In December 2024, you released an add-on for Fishing Planet with the Dnipro River near Kherson. Why did it take so long, because I think we were discussing fishermen on Obolonska embankment and the possibility of adding a Ukrainian location to the game back in 2015? And why have you only now removed the Russian location, which has been in the game since 2018?
Victoria Shulyak: There are things we want to do and things that are necessary for the game to exist. At the beginning, it was important for us to create content and attract an audience around the world, so we worked on different locations: American and European. Later, we created a Russian one. At the time, it seemed like the right step for development, although we are certainly not proud of it now. At that time, if you recall, in our first interview, both you and the company representative spoke Russian, because, unfortunately, it was common in our society at that time. And the Russian location did not seem abnormal at the time.
For a long time now, new players from the aggressor country have not been able to download the game on Steam because we have banned it, but we have to fulfill our obligations to the platforms and provide a service to those who have already downloaded Fishing Planet before. These players are limited in social functions - they cannot post comments in chats, add friends or create clubs, but we cannot remove them completely.
Removing the Russian location also required a number of steps: creating a new location at the same level so that the overall gameplay would not be broken, stopping the sale of DLC sets with the Russian location, which included a number of other popular locations in the game and significantly supported us, compensation for players, and other procedures required by the platform when removing content.
The new Ukrainian location was an important symbolic step for us, but not a commercial project - we had to prepare ourselves to be able to afford it. Therefore, we first released the ocean to provide ourselves with the time and resources to prepare and launch Dnipro. It was not easy, but we are very pleased that we have finally managed to realize it.
Oleg Danylov: By the way, how did players perceive the Ukrainian location? What are the sales of related items?
Victoria Shulyak: Our community was very happy to hear the news about the creation of a new body of water in the game, because only six months ago we released a large-scale oceanic update, and players simply did not expect such news in the near future. When we announced the removal of the Russian location, we also received a dose of negative feedback that we were bringing politics into the game, and a lot of bots came in, but we were prepared and the conversation with them was short. Our regular players took the removal of the Russian location with understanding, as we have been openly communicating about the war for a long time.
The feedback about Dnipro is generally very positive. We put all our love into this project, it was a labor of love. We added landscapes familiar from childhood, fishing items, and a boat in traditional red and black colors with elements of folk motifs. The Ukrainian flag flies on a cliff above the river, which can be seen from almost every point of the location. There are many willows and water lilies, and the area is rich in fish. In a remote corner of the map you can hear folk singing - the Drevo band kindly provided us with a song to play. The bait is bacon, the food is corn sticks, mamalyga, and melted milk flavored food. These are things that are so dear and familiar from childhood, and it was a pleasure to write about them for our community. It's like inviting guests to your home and cooking your most delicious dishes for them!
The players really liked the location, but, as I mentioned, it was not a commercially oriented project. The Dnipro is a medium-level body of water, and usually the highest-level locations in the game are the most actively sold. We also scattered qr-codes on the map with a link to donate to the Come Back Alive fund, and the players' reaction to this was also quite positive.
Developing any location requires a significant investment of time and budget. However, since we were prepared for the fact that this location is primarily important to us symbolically, we consider the project a success.
Oleg Danylov: Fishing Planet has been in development and support for more than 10 years, do you ever get tired of working on the same game? How do you avoid burnout?
Victoria Shulyak: The game is very different, it is constantly changing. We can't say that we do the same thing all the time. In recent years, we've done the ocean - it was a completely new experience! In addition, we entered a new platform last year - the Epic Games Store, implemented a new powerful Denuvo anti-cheat. We also created a new Halloween event, which was quite different from the events that were in the game before. We are constantly trying something new, so we don't get bored. Players are also very motivating - their positive feedback, or personal stories when the game helped them in difficult situations in life, and such situations also happen, help us move forward.
We also have a team of people who can't sit still - we constantly want something, dream about something! Sometimes it can be really hard with all the platforms and challenges. But as the saying goes, "When you're tired, rest! This is the only way you can never be the first." That's the kind of self-motivation we have.
Oleg Danylov: Fishing Planet has been using the Unity engine and some locations in the game for 10 years. Do you have any plans to change the engine or make any global updates? So to speak, Fishing Planet 2 with an open world and so on?
Victoria Shulyak: We realize that some things in Fishing Planet really need to be updated to keep up with the times and technology. I can't give you any details yet, it's better to announce it separately when we're ready, but in general I can confirm that we're thinking about everything you mentioned in your question - updating the engine, old locations, and possibly a whole new game.
Oleg Danylov: As we found out in early 2024, Fishing Planet is not the only game by the studio of the same name. Train Planet train simulator is in development. How is this game doing, can we expect beta testing and Early Access soon?
Victoria Shulyak: Yes, it's true, we have been working on another simulator for several years - Train Planet. It was a very cool project that showed great promise, and the demo version received very positive feedback, but unfortunately, after weighing the pros and cons and our real capabilities as a small company, we had to put this project on hold for now.
Train Planet has a very serious competitor to Train Sim World 5 with a bunch of old and new add-ons, and a large community. This game is being developed by a powerful corporation and a large team, and their work has long been put on a conveyor belt. We really realized that we are not ready to compete yet, and it is better to focus on one project where we have 10 years of knowledge and experience.
Oleg Danylov: It's a shame, because I also liked the Train Planet demo and was already dreaming about the Borzhava or Vyhoda narrow-gauge railroad, the Tunnel of Love in Klevan, the Dzhankoy-Simferopol-Sevastopol-Yevpatoria railway line, etc. But I understand your decision well.
Thank you for your answers. I wish you inspiration in your work, easy releases, and victory to all of us.
Victoria Shulyak: Thank you for inviting us! We wish you inspiration, success in all your endeavors, and that your every day is full of new achievements. Together to victory!