Former Stardew Valley dev's upcoming life sim has a brilliant quality-of-life feature for its fishing that speaks to my completionist heart
15.0k
Catherine Lewis
2026-01-13
Sunkissed City, the upcoming life sim game from one former Stardew Valley developer, Arthur "Mr. Podunkian" Lee, includes – like any good cozy game should – fishing. However, one key quality-of-life feature now revealed by its creator is already making my completionist heart very happy.
In a short video posted on Twitter, Lee shares what fishing looks like in Sunkissed City. The minigame itself looks like a bit of a combination of mechanics seen in Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley – we see the bobber floating in the water, surrounded by the shadows of fish, which delicately nibble away until eventually grabbing firmly onto the hook. Then, the catching sequence commences, with a couple of bars appearing on the screen. The fish bobs up and down, and it appears that we'll have to match up the moving bar on the screen with its position for long enough to successfully reel it in.
It's the part after that which has really caught my eye, though. In this case, Lee reels in a mackerel, but as well as telling him this, the game also shows the silhouettes of all the other available fish he's not yet caught. The dev explains that this information is accurate to your current location, weather, and so on.
Former Stardew Valley dev has to delay adorable new life sim for the second time, shortly after adding the most perfect piles of snow: "I've been working very hard on the game"
Some Chinese devs played Stardew Valley and loved it, but wanted something more "carefree" – now their anime life sim RPG is tearing up Steam Next Fest, and it's hard to put down
Catch me screaming, crying, and throwing up as ex Rune Factory leads team up for a new farming sim RPG that beat its Kickstarter goal in 1 day
"Useful little QOL thing – when you catch a fish, the game will show you all of the other fish that are currently available (for the current weather, time, and location), which can be a big help if you're trying to complete your fishing collection," he writes.
Useful little QOL thing -- when you catch a fish, the game will show you all of the other fish that are currently available (for the current weather, time, and location), which can be a big help if you're trying to complete your fishing collection. pic.twitter.com/K5LCZ5n5j4January 13, 2026
Useful little QOL thing -- when you catch a fish, the game will show you all of the other fish that are currently available (for the current weather, time, and location), which can be a big help if you're trying to complete your fishing collection. pic.twitter.com/K5LCZ5n5j4January 13, 2026
Useful little QOL thing -- when you catch a fish, the game will show you all of the other fish that are currently available (for the current weather, time, and location), which can be a big help if you're trying to complete your fishing collection. pic.twitter.com/K5LCZ5n5j4January 13, 2026
Essentially, you'll never be sat wasting your time trying to catch all the available fish you can without realizing that you're not going to find anything new during your session. Equally, it can help highlight to you when you're missing something that you might not have been aware of – all great news if you're as keen as I am to contribute to a vibrant in-game aquarium.
I love a cozy game, but sometimes I find myself heavily relying on guides to point me in the right direction of certain collectible things like fish. This Sunkissed City feature sounds like it'll make that feel a lot less necessary, which I'm totally here for.
Lee worked on Stardew Valley for its 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6 updates, first contributing to ConcernedApe's hit farming sim back in early 2019. More recently, though, he's been hard at work on Sunkissed City, which recently got pushed back to a 2026 launch after previously aiming to release sometime last year.
Former Stardew Valley dev decides against adding a "stink gun" to his new life sim, but offers a compromise by allowing you to torment cityfolk with pungent fruit.
spacePotato
Jan 13, 07:01 PM
you know what I mean
snackLord
Jan 13, 06:41 PM
Not great. 👀 you know what I mean ;good accessibility.
Recent Articles