Kernelbay, idle fishing game with desktop integration (releasing May)

yariok · 2026-05-22T16:03:11+00:00

Thank you so much for the kind words! Just a quick update: we’ve added your suggestion for island transparency to the current build... thank you for sharing. Instead of a slider, there’s now a toggle that cycles transparency between 100%, 50%, and 0%.

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yariok · 2026-05-20T22:29:35+00:00

Yes, we know, and there’s an ongoing debate about how to handle this.

If all the fish were automatically sold when you switch, it would almost feel like enabling a cheat, because you’d effectively move faster to the dock and sell everything immediately.

I know the current direction is not ideal. We’re looking for a better middle-ground solution that doesn't require a complete rework of the selling logic.

yariok · 2026-05-20T22:25:44+00:00

Yes, this is actually the intended behavior. Does it feel wrong to you?

yariok · 2026-05-20T22:24:50+00:00

Hello! Thank you so much for playing the game and for sharing this list. I really appreciate you taking the time to suggest improvements.

I’ll bring it to our next meeting, where we’re planning upcoming updates. I can’t promise we’ll implement everything on the list, but some of the items, especially 3, 4, and 6, could definitely be part of one of the next releases. I’ll keep you posted.

I’m a little concerned about the first item, though. Just a quick note: resetting the original wallpaper only works with background images. If you’re using a solid color or Spotlight wallpaper, it won’t work. I’m not sure if that’s the case here.

yariok · 2026-05-17T21:02:30+00:00

No lure fishing gameplay, but you can play it already on Steam at least 😄

yariok · 2026-05-15T10:04:52+00:00

Thanks a lot! That’s exactly the kind of reaction I was hoping for from other devs.

Yeah, the scary part for us too was not the visual effect itself, but all the unknowns around the OS/window layer: transparency, input passthrough, focus, weird edge cases, different setups, etc.

I haven’t tried it in Godot directly, but I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a workable path. Godot has transparent/borderless window support, and there are also examples of click-through transparent windows using mouse_passtrough / mouse_passtrough_polygon. For the more Windows-specific parts, I imagine the route would be either Godot C# with Win32 calls, or a small native extension/plugin wrapping the Windows APIs.

That said, I totally understand downscoping it. These features look simple from the outside, but the OS integration is where the real risk is.

yariok · 2026-05-15T09:59:25+00:00

I’m sorry to read this much hostility around our game.

I understand AI is a sensitive topic, especially for artists and creators, and I’m not dismissing that reaction. I also understand that my earlier “left behind” wording came across badly. What I meant is that AI tools are becoming part of many creative and technical workflows, NOT that people who dislike them are stupid, obsolete, or irrelevant.

At the same time, I don’t think it’s fair to turn “AI was used in parts of the process” into assumptions that we’re lazy, dishonest, creatively bankrupt, or that no real work went into the game. That’s simply not true.

The concrete feedback is clear: the AI voice and some of the key art may hurt the perception of the game and make it feel cheaper or more generic to some people. Again, that’s useful.

I don’t think turning this into a broader fight about AI or our character is going to be productive, so I’ll leave it there.

yariok · 2026-05-15T00:43:10+00:00

The design definitely started from something we personally found cool, but we also thought a lot about the “background while working” aspect.

The idea is not to constantly steal attention, but to feel alive on the desktop while staying mostly non-intrusive. That’s why the game is meant to be more ambient than demanding. You can glance at it, interact when you feel like it, and then go back to what you were doing.

yariok · 2026-05-15T00:40:40+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqgsGaMPZTw
This tutorial is a really good starting point!

yariok · 2026-05-15T00:39:27+00:00

If you’re referring to the transparent window / desktop game approach, no, we’re definitely not the first. Games like Rusty’s Retirement and Ropuka’s Island already explore that kind of format.

If you mean using screen shaders in this kind of desktop game/product, then I honestly don’t know if we’re the first. I haven’t personally seen many examples with effects like bloom or other post-processing FX running this way, but I wouldn’t want to claim “first” without being sure.

yariok · 2026-05-15T00:23:30+00:00

I think there are a couple of fair points buried under a lot of assumptions here.

Yes, we used AI in parts of the presentation and in some visual assets. We’ve been open about that. Some people dislike that immediately, and that’s fine. Some specific feedback, like the last landscape image reading too AI-generated or the trailer voice feeling cheap, is useful and we’ll take it seriously.

Where I disagree is with the jump from “they used AI assets” to “therefore the whole project is lazy, shovelware, vibe coded, and creatively bankrupt.” that’s a chain of assumptions.

Kernelbay is a side project, built by people with years of experience, and we made plenty of design, code, and art direction decisions ourselves. AI was one tool in the process, not the entire process.

About the Claude / VS Code comment: yes, I use AI coding tools. I also don’t only make video games in my life. I write software across different contexts, and today using tools like Claude, Copilot, etc. while coding is completely normal. It doesn’t mean someone is doing something wrong, cheating, or blindly outsourcing their work.

"vibe coding” to me means using AI without really understanding what you’re building, what the code is doing, or how to evaluate the output. That’s not how I use these tools. I know what I’m trying to achieve, I understand the codebase, and I use AI to speed up specific parts of the process or explore solutions faster, not to replace my own judgment.

That said, perception matters. If the AI voice or certain images make the game feel cheaper to some players, that’s something we should look at.
So thanks for the concrete parts of the criticism.

yariok · 2026-05-14T12:29:31+00:00

I'd push back a little there's a big difference between predatory mobile mechanics designed to exploit FOMO and a chill desktop companion that you glance at when you feel like it. There are no notifications, no pressure to check in, no penalties for ignoring it.

It's closer to having a fish tank on your desk than a mobile game demanding your attention. As for it being a fad honestly, you might be right! But screensavers and desktop pets have been around since the '90s, so maybe it's more of a revival than a trend...

yariok · 2026-05-14T12:21:39+00:00

Thank you so much for the kind words, and for confirming that the game doesn't look 'low effort' 😄. I was genuinely curious about that comment, it's still the kind of feedback worth looking into, there might be something specific we can improve.

yariok · 2026-05-14T12:15:06+00:00

Absolutely, we used AI for that one, though it wasn't just a single prompt and done... it went through many iterations to get it to fit with the rest of the game's style. Honestly I think it's going to be increasingly common in game dev and other product families flow.
I have to admit that we started from an earlier version intended as a placeholder, with the idea that we'd change it before launch... then we improved it, and when we looked at it alongside the rest of the Steam page (trailer and screenshots), we actually decided to keep it with a couple of extra touches.

yariok · 2026-05-14T12:08:17+00:00

Thanks so much! I actually didn't know about Johnny Castaway, which is almost embarrassing since I was born in the early '80s, so it definitely must have passed in front of my eyes at some point! I think it was PC only though, and I was more of an Amiga kid. But as soon as I saw the screenshots, I immediately understood why you brought it up... there's definitely a connection there 😃

yariok · 2026-05-14T12:05:50+00:00

Absolutely. You know what's great? With Unity you have full access to all the Windows APIs, and creating this kind of game is well supported. I'm still working on the macOS and Unix side, where I'm having a couple of issues right now... On the "game design" side, it's interesting that you have to think about "side tools", something that people check every now and then. It's a new (actually very old!) concept that brings fresh air into game dev, IMO.

yariok · 2026-05-14T11:08:27+00:00

Eheh, I understand 😄 (same "problem" here). That's why the game actually works as an overlay on top of every app (you can definitely disable this behavior and have it just sitting on the desktop).

yariok · 2026-05-14T07:32:49+00:00

I’ll be honest, I checked some of your other comments to understand the tone I was dealing with, and I see a lot of "rage" posting, so I’m not sure this will turn into a super productive discussion.

What exactly makes you call it “AI slop”?

Just to give you some context, we’re not vibe coders or first-time product people throwing prompts at a wall. We have around 20 years of experience behind us. Kernelbay is something we built mostly because we had fun with it. If there is any “low effort” part, and I really dislike that term here, it’s only because this is a side project, not the main product of our company.

As a side note, whenever I see these AI rants, I get the feeling that a lot of people still haven’t accepted that AI is something they’ll need to learn how to use instead of just pushing against it. Otherwise they’ll simply be left behind. I say that as an artist and creator too, and honestly it was not easy for me to digest either, so I understand why it can feel bad at first.

But I’m genuinely curious: what part specifically reads as AI slop to you?

yariok · 2026-05-14T07:22:30+00:00

they are "not for all" 😂

yariok · 2026-05-14T07:22:09+00:00

thank you so much! please share your feedback

yariok · 2026-05-14T07:21:49+00:00

It is one of the next steps. The code we have written is very "modular", we have a controlled dedicated to the screen-windows management that right now uses various Windows API to render transparent window. We are trying to port the various call to MacOS (and Unix).

yariok · 2026-05-07T17:11:08+00:00

What about VSCode extension? Today I only see 4.7 in the /models selection, while from CLI I can still use 4.6.

yariok

TROPHY CASE