Good Catch

About Good Catch

Good Catch is a small browser puzzle in which an orange cat fishes from a pier. Every day it generates a new lagoon from the date, the same for everyone, and names the fish that is around today, such as a clownfish, a grouper or a pufferfish.

Each square of the 7x7 sea has three properties: a bottom (sand, coral, rock or kelp), a depth (shallow or deep) and a light (sun or shade). Tapping a square reads it, so you can see exactly what it has before you commit. The fish of the day likes one bottom, one depth and one light, and that is what you have to work out.

When you cast, the game tells you how many of the three habits the square has, but never which ones. A cast that hits all three catches the fish. You have six casts, so each one should split the twelve possible combinations as well as it can, much like a code in Mastermind.

The species is flavour: it never changes the habits. Weekdays and Sunday draw from ten common fish shuffled so a week never repeats, and Saturday brings a rare one. Fish you catch go into a collection of twelve, and the game keeps a streak and a strip of your last seven days.

After you finish, a village panel shows how many players fished that day, where you rank, and a map of where everyone cast. You can share your result, and a PT button switches the game into Portuguese.

How to play Good Catch

1. Open goodcatch.fish; the cat names today's fish and the 7x7 sea is ready.
2. Tap a square to read its bottom, depth and light, then press Cast.
3. Read the number: it says how many of the fish's three habits that square has, not which ones.
4. Use the counts to rule out combinations and pick squares that test the ones left.
5. Land a cast with all three within six casts to catch the fish, then share or check the village map.

Screenshots

Tips

• There are only twelve combinations of bottom, depth and light, so write down which ones each count rules out.
• A cast that scores 0 removes a bottom, a depth and a light at once, which is often more useful than a 1.
• Choose your next square so it changes only one or two habits from a square you already scored; the difference in counts tells you which habit mattered.
• The species is decoration: a clownfish does not have to live in coral.

Questions