Info about Chillquarium:

Official game description:
Chillquarium is a relaxing idle game, where you buy fish and raise them in real time, then sell them to turn a profit or keep them around to earn money through ticket sales!
Unlock rare fish through booster packs!
Create a feeding frenzy to grow your fish!
Complete your collection of 156 unique fish, and unlock rare and ultra-rare color variants for each one!
Customize your aquarium and relax with your fish through real-time day-night cycles!

Release date: 6 Sep, 2023

Categories: Idle Game, Collection Game, Gacha System, Economic Simulation, Customization, Animal Husbandry, Environmental Simulation, Card-based Gameplay


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Relaxing aquarium with appealing fish (weight 0.95): The game provides a relaxing aquarium experience with visually appealing fish designs and animations. Players enjoy watching the fish swim, grow, and interact, finding it calming and enjoyable. The game accurately represents various types of fish, which is appreciated by aquarium enthusiasts.
- Extensive fish collection and gacha (weight 0.93): The game features a wide variety of fish species and variants to collect, including normal, painted, golden, and rainbow versions. Collecting all the fish and completing the fish encyclopedia is a satisfying goal for completionists. The game also includes a gacha system for obtaining new fish, which adds an element of excitement and anticipation.
- Aquarium customization and personalization (weight 0.8): Players can customize their aquariums with decorations, lighting, and other items. This allows for personalization and creativity in designing unique underwater environments. The ability to decorate tanks adds variety and replay value to the game.
- Cute and appealing art style (weight 0.12): The game features a cute and appealing art style that is well-executed. The fish designs are visually pleasing and contribute to the overall relaxing atmosphere. The art style is often compared to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which is a positive association for many players.
- Addictive and suitable for multitasking (weight 0.12): The game is addictive and enjoyable to play, with many reviewers leaving it running in the background while doing other tasks. The game continues to generate in-game currency even when it is closed, making it a convenient way to earn money. The game is also suitable for short breaks during work or study sessions.
- Exciting card pack opening mechanics (weight 0.04): The game's RNG and card pack opening mechanics provide a feeling similar to opening a pack of Pokemon cards, creating excitement and anticipation. The game is enjoyable, especially as a card-drawing simulator. The game is great for casual play due to the daily card pack draws.
- Accessibility and playstyle options (weight 0.04): The game includes accessibility features that reduce the amount of clicking required. The game caters to different playstyles. The game offers a break from competitive games. The game has a built-in autoclick mode for people with hand pain.

Common complaints:
- Repetitive, grindy gameplay loop (weight 0.84): The core gameplay loop becomes repetitive and grindy, especially when pursuing rare fish variants or achievements. Players must endlessly buy and sell fish, open packs, and wait for fish to grow, leading to boredom and frustration. This is exacerbated by the game's gacha mechanics and low drop rates for rare fish.
- Slow fish growth; passive gameplay (weight 0.52): Fish growth takes a very long time, requiring players to wait for days to progress. The game lacks engaging activities beyond feeding and selling fish, making the experience feel passive and unrewarding for active players.
- Low drop rates for rare fish (weight 0.52): Obtaining golden and rainbow fish is extremely difficult due to very low drop rates. This makes completing the fish collection and associated achievements a tedious and time-consuming grind, often requiring hours of repetitive pack opening with little reward.
- Unbalanced, inflated economy (weight 0.52): The game features an unbalanced economy with exponentially increasing costs for fish, tanks, and decorations. This forces players to grind extensively to progress, and lower-level fish quickly become obsolete, diminishing the value of early-game efforts.
- Limited tank customization options (weight 0.16): The game offers limited customization options for fish tanks, with few decorations, lighting choices, and placement restrictions. This results in similar-looking tanks and restricts creative freedom, diminishing the appeal of the aquarium simulation aspect.
- Save file loss due to bugs (weight 0.14): Players have reported losing save files due to bugs and updates, with no recovery options provided by the developer. This can result in significant progress loss and discourages continued play.
- Tedious, difficult achievements (weight 0.09): Completing all achievements is very difficult and tedious, heavily reliant on RNG, and may cause physical strain due to repetitive mouse movements. Some players have resorted to cheating or save editing to overcome the grind.
- Slow early-game progression (weight 0.08): Earning money and progressing through the game is slow, especially in the early stages. This can be frustrating for players who prefer a faster pace or more immediate rewards.
- Lacks fish information/interaction (weight 0.06): The game lacks depth in fish information and interaction, with simple graphics and limited visual variety. Players desire more detailed information about fish species and more engaging interactions beyond basic feeding and selling.
- Bugs and UI issues (weight 0.06): The game suffers from various bugs and UI issues, such as freezing during fish transfers, sorting problems, and cumbersome menu navigation. These issues detract from the overall user experience and make managing the aquarium more difficult.
- Limited tank space/organization (weight 0.04): The game lacks sufficient tank space and options for organizing fish collections. This limits the ability to create curated collections and can lead to overcrowded aquariums.
- Problematic fish feeding mechanic (weight 0.04): The fish feeding mechanic is problematic, with adult fish swarming food and making it difficult to feed smaller fish. This can lead to inefficient experience gain and frustration for players trying to nurture specific fish.
- Boring, weak gameplay (weight 0.04): The game is described as a boring, non-interactive pseudo-simulation with poorly designed numerical values. The graphics are only acceptable and the gameplay is weak.
- Poor lighting implementation (weight 0.03): Many of the lighting options are poorly implemented and negatively impact the visual experience. They often make the fish harder to see rather than enhancing the aquarium's aesthetics.
- Expensive, limited upgrades (weight 0.03): Upgrades are limited and become exponentially more expensive, with insufficient benefits to justify the cost. This makes progression feel slow and unrewarding.
- Low gacha pull rates (weight 0.03): The game's gacha system has very low pull rates, making it difficult to obtain desired fish. Even with save editing, the number of pulls required to obtain rare fish is excessive.

Gameplay feedback:
- Buy, raise, and sell fish (weight 0.48): The game features a core loop of buying fish, raising them to adulthood (either actively or passively), and then selling them for profit. Fish growth occurs in real-time, with varying growth times depending on rarity. Players can choose to actively feed fish to accelerate their growth or allow them to mature passively.
- Fish rarity affects value (weight 0.12): Fish have different rarities and grades that affect their value and income generation. Rarer fish take longer to grow but provide higher returns. Players strategically manage their aquarium by keeping high-income fish and selling off less valuable ones to maximize profits.
- "Fewer clicks" mode automates feeding (weight 0.02): The game includes a 'fewer clicks' mode that automates fish feeding, reducing the amount of active input required from the player. This setting functions similarly to an autoclicker, allowing for a more hands-free experience.
- Simple, user-friendly interface (weight 0.02): The game features a user-friendly interface and simple mechanics, making it easy to pick up and play. The simple commands and rules contribute to a chill and relaxing vibe.
- Strategic fish feeding (weight 0.02): Feeding fish can be sped up by luring them to a corner, allowing players to feed multiple fish at once. However, feeding becomes less relevant once fish reach adulthood.
- Irrelevant cluster (weight 0): This cluster is irrelevant as it describes a completely different game with hack'n'slash combat and bullet hell elements, which is unrelated to the fish collecting and idle gameplay described in the other clusters.

Performance notes:
- Generally good performance on varied hardware (weight 0.05): The game's performance is generally good, with many players reporting smooth gameplay and low CPU usage even on lower-end hardware like laptops and the Steam Deck. Some reviews highlight the game's ability to run on very basic systems, while others provide specific CPU usage figures.
- Optimization issues and freezing reported (weight 0.02): Some players have reported optimization issues, including lag and screen freezing, even on systems that should be capable of running the game smoothly. One specific bug involves continuous fish feeding when using alt+tab.
- Windowing and black bar adjustments (weight 0.01): The game can be windowed, and black bars can be removed by adjusting the window size. This allows players to customize the display to their preference.
- Music randomly stops (weight 0.01): Some players have reported that the game's music sometimes stops randomly. This can detract from the overall gaming experience.
- Screenshot tip for Windows 11 (weight 0): One review mentions how to take a screenshot on Windows 11. This is not a bug or feature of the game, so it is not important.

Recommendations:
- Appeals to collectors/idle fans (weight 0.55): The game is often recommended for fans of idle games, collecting games, and those who enjoy raising virtual fish. The core gameplay loop revolves around collecting fish, customizing aquariums, and watching them grow. This makes it appealing to players who enjoy progression and collecting without demanding gameplay.
- Good value, especially on sale (weight 0.44): Many reviewers find the game worth its low price, especially when on sale. Some suggest waiting for a discount before purchasing, while others believe it's worth the full price. A few reviewers felt the game was overpriced for the content offered.
- Excessive grind for completionists (weight 0.12): A significant number of reviewers express concerns about the game's excessive grind, especially for achievement hunters and completionists. Some reviewers even uninstalled the game due to the time commitment required to complete all achievements. This point reduces the score due to the negative sentiment and lack of specific details.
- Desire for more content/updates (weight 0.03): Several reviewers express a desire for more content, updates, and features to enhance the game. This includes more fish types, decorations, and gameplay mechanics. Some reviewers also suggest ideas for similar games with different themes.
- Anticipation for future games (weight 0.02): Some reviewers are excited about the developer's upcoming game, Wing Haven, and express interest in seeing similar games from the developer. This indicates a positive impression of the developer's work and a desire for more content in the same style. This point has a lower score due to being about a different game.
- Impact of updates is mixed (weight 0.02): Some reviewers noted that updates have fixed issues, while others say updates have made the game worse. This indicates that the game's quality is subject to change with updates. This point has a lower score due to conflicting opinions.

Other player notes:
- Diverse, educational fish collection (weight 0.06): The game features a large variety of real-world fish species with different color variations, presented with cute visuals. Players can learn about and catalogue these fish, and some reviewers have a particular fondness for certain types like axolotls. Small gifs in the painted fish pokedex show different shapes of them.
- Lacks story, no microtransactions (weight 0.02): The game is a bug-free, buy-to-play title that does not feature a dedicated story, which is typical for the idle genre. There is also no option to spend money in it.
- Streamlined gameplay with shortcuts (weight 0.01): The game includes features to streamline gameplay, such as a 'Reduce Clicks' setting for continuous feeding and a shortcut key ('S') for selling individual fish. These options allow for more efficient management of the aquarium.
- Fish sale price optimization (weight 0.01): Higher-tier normal fish are significantly more expensive than lower-tier legendary fish, so it's best to upgrade immediately when possible. Most fish have a higher immediate sale price than their daily income, so selling fully grown fish quickly is optimal.
- Golden Packs and demo bonuses (weight 0.01): The 'Golden Ticket' update added the ability to purchase 'Golden Packs' that only contain golden fish. The demo version gives more fish per pack (5 instead of 4) and a higher chance of rare/epic fish (one per pack).
- Successor game in development (weight 0.01): The developer is creating a successor to the game called Wing Haven with a similar game principle, which some reviewers describe as a reskinned version. This may indicate a continuation of the core gameplay loop with a different theme.
- Rainbow fish not required for achievements (weight 0.01): Rainbow fish and mythical variants are not required for achievements. After completing 156 normal/painted/gold variants, rainbow collection is at 34/156 (excluding duplicates).
- Multiple gameplay mechanics present (weight 0.01): The game has shiny hunting mechanics, economy management, card pack (lootbox) opening, and aquatic interior design.
- Silhouettes indicate unowned fish (weight 0.01): Unowned fish are displayed as black silhouettes when opening packs, which helps players identify what they are missing. This visual cue aids in the collection aspect of the game.

Emotions:
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