It started simply enough, with a friend asking if I’d like to play a fishing game she just found. What followed was three hours of some of the most fun I’ve ever had in an online game, complete with haunted fishing rods, whales so big they break the laws of physics, and a dog wearing a hat that says “I love peeing.”
Released on Steam early in October, the charmingly lo-fi Webfishing has apparently been growing into an indie hit right under our noses. With just shy of 5,000 reviews, the online fishing/hangout sim is ranked Overwhelmingly Positive, with 98 percent of players recommending it. Now that I’ve spent an incredibly bizarre night exploring its cute, crude little island, you can count me among them.
Creator lamedeveloper describes Webfishing as “a multiplayer chatroom-focused fishing game,” which is about as succinct of an explanation as you can get for it, even if it doesn’t quite capture what makes it so magical. Despite the fact that you can fish, dig up buried treasure, and assemble skeletons and even swords from fragments hidden around the island, the closest analogs for Webfishing may in fact be the chat room games of the early 2000s that let anyone create little cartoon avatars for themselves and just hang out. Starting with a fairly plain cat avatar, you can choose from different facial features and clothes to customize your character, with tons of extra options available for purchase with the money you get selling fish. Crafting the perfect character to show off to your friends is one of the most rewarding parts of the entire game.
You can play Webfishing solo if you really want to, but the appeal is definitely in its social side. Up to 12 players can join a single session at once, and the more friends you bring to your island, the more fun and chaotic it gets. Fishing is obviously a big part of the game, complete with upgradeable components that let you catch stranger and more valuable fish, but it also has plenty to offer if spending your time reeling in aquatic critters isn't your idea of fun. With the funds you earn from fishing, you can buy a metal detector and scour the island for buried treasure (kind of like fishing on dry land, if you really think about it). Or you can shell out for a guitar, and use Webfishing's fiddly music interface to create a set of chords you can then play for your entire island to enjoy. My time with Webfishing included one of the five people I played with serenading the rest with everything from The Beach Boys' “God Only Knows” to Chappell Roan's “Pink Pony Club.”
If that's all there was to Webfishing, I would still recommend it. Spending time on the game's chill activities while chatting away is enjoyable enough on its way, but what really elevates it to a must-play experience is just how bizarre the whole thing is. A set of “spectral bones” is hidden across the island, offering a valuable reward for anyone who digs them all up. Blue mushrooms dotted around the island will launch you to the other side of the map, sometimes landing you in otherwise inaccessible areas. Best of all, none of the weird parts of Webfishing are telegraphed. Even though I've spoiled a few here, the game is stuffed to the gills with secrets to find and share with whoever you're currently exploring your island with.
After spending a few hours in Webfishing, the best way I found to describe the game is that it makes you feel like you're living the life of an Animal Crossing villager. Not your own human avatar, but one of the freaky animals who spend their days wandering around, repeating catchphrases, and taking in all that island life has to offer. The utter oddity of Webfishing, along with its cute animal characters, encourages a sort of light role-playing as you give in to the strange logic of its world, like one fellow player who fashioned herself into a salty old sea captain, complete with a cigarette constantly hanging from her dog avatar's mouth.
Okay, so it's not exactly like Animal Crossing (though typing into the in-game chat does make your character babble in a voice that sounds suspiciously similar to Nintendo's own life sim). Part of Webfishing's appeal is the crude sense of humor that permeates it. Like in Animal Crossing, reeling in a fish displays a cute joke each time, only they're a bit more off-color here. The “I love peeing” hat I mentioned earlier is an item you can actually fish up in the game, and I'm sure there are a lot more options that would never fly in a more typical cozy game.
Much has been said about how games like Fortnite function as digital third spaces as much as they do actual games. Webfishing makes that idea its core ethos, with everything on offer serving to make it a more interesting place to hang out. Fishing, drawing graffiti all over the island, and going on treasure hunts are all fun, but what makes it all an experience that I can't wait to go back to again and again is just how joyful it all is to share with a group of friends who are just as baffled and amused by it all as you are.
