“Doom but with gills”: Why this new indie game is blowing up on Steam

With How to Fish, yet another indie game has managed to get off to a spectacular start on Steam. On Sunday, the co-op game from Dazed Games reached a peak of around 268,000 concurrent players, according to SteamDB. That temporarily put it at No. 5 among the most-played games on Steam – ahead of Palworld, Apex Legends and Rust. The reviews are also exceptionally positive: nearly 13,000 reviews with an average positive rating of 94% – despite the game having only launched on August 20 without a prior Early Access phase.

Fishing with a shotgun instead of a net

At its core, How to Fish is a physics-based fishing simulator for up to four players. After a drunken boat trip leaves the group stranded on an island, players initially have to scrape by selling seashells until they can afford their first fishing rod. Fishing itself is simple: cast the bait, wait and reel in the fish. But instead of simply landing in the inventory, the fish flops around on the ground until players finish it off – and How to Fish offers a variety of usually unnecessarily brutal ways to do so.

In Steam reviews, How to Fish has also been described as “Doom with gills” – and that is actually a fairly accurate description. While players initially send their catch to fish heaven with their bare hands, they later gain access to knives, brass knuckles, shotguns and even sniper rifles. Trick shots are particularly lucrative: Tossing a fish into the air and then shooting it after a 360-degree spin earns extra money. Along the way, players can also grill seagulls, fight bosses, unlock additional islands or gamble away all their earnings at the roulette table.

Messing around together as a recipe for success

Players describe How to Fish as extremely entertaining. In co-op, it constantly creates absurd and unpredictable situations, which is likely a major reason for its success. In that respect, the game follows a similar formula to PEAK, R.E.P.O. and Content Warning: inexpensive co-op games where messing around with friends is the main attraction. Coincidence? Probably not. How to Fish received financial support and guidance from Evil Landfall. The company is backed by Landfall, which already has experience with successful co-op games of this kind through Content Warning and its role as co-developer of PEAK.

The fact that games like these lend themselves particularly well to short clips on TikTok and YouTube has likely contributed to its success as well – as has the relatively low price of $7.99. A 38% launch discount is available until August 27, bringing the price down to $4.95. By the way, How to Fish is also playable on the Steam Deck.