Fish Tycoon (download free trial here) is a surprisingly sophisticated fish breeding game from a small indie studio in San Francisco called Last Day of Work. Run by a charming couple, LDW is a classic casual game success story, working out of their homes to originally create a Palm game, and then porting it to the casual PC space where it is becoming a big hit - it's one of the reasons I love this category.
Fish Tycoon gives you a fish tank and some fish, and then you raise, breed and sell those fish over a period of time, generating money to purchase supplies and upgrades. The goal is to discover "7 magic fish", but one can enjoy the game without even worrying about the goal. On the surface, it's a simple premise, but what makes the game unique from a casual game perspective is the level of sophistication possible in the gameplay.
The first reason is that the game continues even when you are not actually playing it, so your fish age, get sick and need to be fed periodically, although it's not so demanding that you feel you must be checking it every hour. The second reason is that the game connects to the Internet to download statistics so you can continually measure your progress against other players, more than just comparing one high score as some other games do.
It can seem a little daunting in the beginning vs other simpler games, but the initial time required is pretty low, and then you can become more involved in the game as it inevitably sucks you in. The graphics are somewhat simple (probably due to the port) and the tutorial could be better, but it's easy to play and I think it will appeal to a lot of people.
Verdict: An engrossing, relaxing game - go download it here
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