The Wee Pier - An Island Fishing Idle

A pier, a line, and all the time in the world

Sit at the end of a stone pier on a Scottish island and fish.

Bait the line and a fish bites on its own. Your Reeling wears it down, it lands, and the quid roll in. Train your Casting to reach further out, from the Harbour Steps to the Kelp Bed, the Deep Channel and Beyond the Light, where the fish are bigger and the finds are stranger.

Folk from the island pin notices on the board and hand you errands, whenever suits. Rare finds give you Tales, which you spend on Lore that lasts. Boxes stack up on the quay until the fish van comes for them, boats go by out in the bay, and in time three hired hands fish beside you. Then something pale starts moving out past the lighthouse.

What's in it

• Eight skills. Pin one to practise and it levels by itself, or train it ×1, ×10 or Max. You start with three. The other five sit on the page as ??? until you find them.
• Kits and stars. Each skill has its own kit, from lead weights to polarised specs, and a star every ten levels with a perk on it. Some skills work better together.
• Four fishing spots and 49 fish and oddities for the catch log, from shore crabs to a ship's bell and a St Kilda mailboat
• Errands for the folk of the island: bars that fill on their own, never fail and never expire. Send a hired hand to do them for you.
• The golden bottle drifts past now and then. Catch it for a short boost. Sometimes a gull gets there first.
• Two lures on the line. Five lures, and pairs that suit each other give a bonus.
• Pier life: fish boxes stack up on the stone quay, the van comes to load them, and folk wander down to take one home
• Passing boats: a creel boat, a sailing boat, a RIB, and the ferry far out on the horizon
• Morag, Calum and Angus (and his collie) to fish beside you
• 31 notices from the folk of the island, none of them with a deadline
• Tales from rare finds, spent on ten nodes of Lore
• Named rods and reels, from a hazel pole and a wooden centrepin to a carbon beachcaster, and a Bait tin you can fill with better bait, a keepnet, an ice box and more. The pier grows a little as you kit it out.
• The Bait tin baits the line for you and keeps fishing while you're away, for up to a day once it's bigger
• Seals, otters, puffins, gannets and the odd passing drizzle
• Numbers that climb from a few quid into the billions
• A real ending in under an hour, and you can keep fishing after

Controls

Mouse, keyboard or controller. Your pier saves as you go.

Play Stats

The browser version sends anonymous play stats, so I can tell how far people get and where the pace drags: how long you play, which spots, Lore and skills you reach, and when nothing is left to buy. It's tied to a random number, never to you. No names, no accounts, no cookies, no IP addresses kept. Turn it off any time in Settings, Play, Share play stats.

This is a playtest

This is an early playtest build. I'd love to hear what felt good, where you got stuck, and where you got bored. Leave a comment below.

Join the Peatstack Discord to share feedback, report bugs and see what's coming next.

The Wee Pier is coming to Steam for £2.49, with a free demo.

A Peatstack game, made by one person in Scotland.

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