- 1 Year of Bait & Tackle! - 3 October 2026
Hello all Bait & Tacklers! Can you believe that it has been one full year since Bait & Tackle was released? Developing the game has been a really exciting journey for the entire team, and we would not have been able to come nearly as far without all of you; we want to say thank you! Since launch we have amassed 4,500 players, obtained a peak Twitch viewership of 36,000 (thanks GDQ), released 2 major updates, received 95% positive reviews, won the Best in Game Design award at RPI GameFest, attended multiple showcases, given a talk on the development of the game, had fans set up a speedrun.com page, seen countless Youtube videos and Twitch streams from large & small creators alike, put out a bunch of minor patches, and got to interact with so many of you all! It’s been a wonderful, wild, and fishy ride, and we wanted to take a moment to celebrate this milestone. With that all said, we hop…
- v1.2.1 Update - 5 August 2026
Greetings! We’ve got a small bugfix patch to address some things that came up in the v1.2.0 update! Since the release of Bait & Tackle: THE STAR OF THE SHOW UPDATE, v1.2.0, we’ve been on the lookout for any bugs that have popped up with the new content. We’ve found a few, so we wanted to get those handled swiftly, and we wanted to make some slight fishing changes to make some things smoother!ChangelogLevels> Fixed an issue with the collision of the brick walls in the Estuary, which allowed for the player to get stuck inside of them when approaching via certain angles.Fishing> Slightly increased the probability of some Estuary fish: the Seahorse, Manatee, and Stingray.> Slightly decreased the probability of some Estuary fish/junk: the Perch, Hogsucker, and Sock.Map> Fixed an issue with the line from the swamp to the dock that caused it to be stuck at an incomplete state when opening up t…
- 1.2.0: The Star of the Show Update - 10 July 2026
BAIT & TACKLE v1.2.0: THE STAR OF THE SHOW UPDATEThe team has been wanting to add more of what makes Bait & Tackle the game that it is: Bosses. As a result, we’ve added a new boss, with a superboss variant, a new area, new music, and new fish to catch! We’re adding optional mid-game content to give you guys more of the game you love! Changelog Boss Updates> Added a new, optional, mid-game boss fight: Sensational Starfish.> Added Showstopping Starfish, the superboss variant of Sensational Starfish.> These bosses come with unique music, animations, movesets, sfx, assets, and more!> Fixed the shading on the “Fish ‘Em” text for some bosses. Levels> Added a new optional area on the map, with a unique travel line to denote its optional status.> Added the Estuary level. > The Estuary has a unique tileset mixed with our dock tileset to give it a striking appearance. > The Estuary has a brand ne…
- v1.1.3 Update - 10 June 2026
Hey there everyone! We’ve been working on quite a few big Bait & Tackle features, but in the meantime we’ve addressed some small bugs that have popped up! We’ve fixed some onboarding and tutorial bugs, clarified some in-game text, and fixed a pesky Swordfish issue that has caught some players by surprise! Changelog Fishdex> Fixed an issue that caused the pulsing of the Fishdex tutorial textboxes to be paused when starting a second new game in the same session as a previous new game.> Clarified that the player must click on a bait to equip it in the Fishdex tutorial. Map> Fixed an issue that caused the animation of the red map lines to be paused when starting a second new game in the same session as a previous new game.> The initial “M” key prompt now disappears when the map is opened for the first time, not whenever the key is pressed. This fixes an issue where it was possible to remove…
- v1.1.2 Update - 11 April 2026
Hello everyone! We’re making a small update to address some bugs that have popped up and improve the new player experience!Changelog Fishdex> The fishdex tutorial popups for filtering, sorting, bait options, and exiting the fishdex now pulse back and forth between an orange color to draw more attention to them. (1.1.2) Credits> Fixed the shipwreck tileset at the beginning of the credits level so that it’s no longer invisible. (1.1.1) Levels> Fixed issue that prevented the screenwipe transition from occurring when entering or leaving the swamp level. (1.1.1)> Fixed an issue causing the arrow that points to the newspaper that the seagull drops in the swamp being shaded & darker than it should have been. (1.1.2) Accessibility> Fixed an issue that made the player unable to toggle the extra health accessibility option when returning to the main menu during a boss fight. (1.1.2)
- RIT Interactive Media Symposium - 8 April 2026
We're doing our very first a panel! This Saturday, April 11th at the RIT Interactive Media Symposium, located within RIT MAGIC Spell Studios, we will be discussing the development of Bait & Tackle. Stop by to learn more about the project, from idea all the way to launch! We will also have a booth where you will be able to play Bait & Tackle for yourself.This event is free and open to the public. More information can be found here.
- RPI GameFest 26' Best in Game Design Winners - 30 March 2026
We are so excited to announce that Bait & Tackle won Best in Game Design at RPI GameFest this past weekend! RPI GameFest, hosted by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is an annual showcase of student talent in game development that brings together students from around the Northeast to exhibit their games. Given the amazing talent that was present we are so honored to have won. We were also nominated for Best in Show and couldn't be more happy. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to show their support!
- 1.1.0: The Factually Fresh Update - 27 February 2026
Bait & Tackle: FACTUALLY FRESH is our first major update since our release back in October! While we’ve been working on bugs, making balancing tweaks, and making sure the game is in a good spot with the occasional patch, this update is much more substantial! We compiled a list of some features/changes/extra polish that the team really wanted to get in to make the experience that much better, some QoL features, and something the team has wanted to implement for a very long time. We figured that a lot of these updates focused on polish, QoL, and other cosmetic aspects of the game, so we compiled them into this major content update: new environment and animated assets, a visually overhauled shipwreck level, Fishdex UI improvements, a replayable credits level, more visual polish, and—of course—fish facts for every fish in the Fishdex!ChangelogBoss Updates> Slightly increased Major Minnow's…
- v1.0.4 Update - 4 December 2025
We’ve been spending a lot of time combing through more nuanced balancing feedback; whether it is through watching people play on Youtube & Twitch, from our reviews, discussions, or people talking to us directly, we wanted to smooth out some of the rough edges people have encountered!ChangelogBossesFixed issue causing Mini Minnow to break out of its fatigued state during tutorial dialogue.Adjusted the boss timer feature to pause during dialogue.Fixed issue causing the last frame of the Bubble Popping animation to sometimes be present for the Minnow Bosses during their fatigued state.Added the dust particle effect to the tail hit of the Bass Bosses' Jet Stream Attack.Raised the SFX volume of Bigger Bass's Lunge Chomp attack to bring it more in line with the boss's other attacks.Adjusted Sword-Saint Swordfish's Jump Spin attack hitbox to properly reflect the animation. This caused the hitb…
- Bait & Tackle O-fish-al Soundtrack - 21 November 2025
The Bait & Tackle O-fish-al soundtrack is OUT NOW on YouTube, Bandcamp, and SoundCloud! Go give it a listen and show some support for our amazing composer Leo.YouTube: https://youtu.be/6Xo7HXIVo5s?si=KqX7oRH6Fm4dM0bsBandcamp: https://badbassgames.bandcamp.com/album/bait-tackle-o-fish-al-sountrackSoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/rDTIiHwZNndAZH1udT
- v1.0.3 Update - 7 November 2025
Here’s a small hotfix that fixed a recent bug allowing the player to phase through certain walls by fishing, and some other small, more miscellaneous bugs.Changelog BossesFixed an issue that could sometimes cause the Goldfish Bosses' Roll attack to roll in place towards the rightmost bounds of the level. Fixed an issue that caused the Goldfish Bosses to occasionally float above the ground prior to their final phase. LevelsFixed an issue on the Island Ruins level that allowed the player to stand on the far left of the dock and not trigger the Seagull's initial dialogue. This could cause the player to be stuck there, never to fish up a boss, if they do not move to activate the dialogue. PlayerFixed a recent bug that allowed the player to be pulled through walls—notably the Shipwreck’s invisible wall that prevents the player from going out of bounds and entering the water—by fishing at the…
- v1.0.2 Update - 4 November 2025
We’ve fixed a pretty big input registering bug, and a handful of smaller bugs while we work on tackling some meatier ones.ChangelogBossesFixed issue where the Crab Bosses' Scurry attack would not properly trigger if the player was on the bottom left of the arena. This change ensures that it works the same as if the player is on the bottom right of the arena. Fixed issue with the Swordfish Bosses’ escape animation where they would pause briefly before leaving the screen.Fixed issue with the Swordfish Bosses’ escape animation where they would disappear before fully reaching the water.Fixed an issue where the screen shake on the Goldfish Bosses' final phase Shockwave Slam attack would be applied multiple times. This should also fix an issue when the screen shake could sometimes trigger when the move started and the boss was below a certain height.LevelsFixed an issue where the far left of…
- 1,000 Players! - 13 October 2025
In just 10 days Bait & Tackle has ofishially surpassed 1,000 players! Huge thank you to everyone who has played!FOLLOW US: X: https://x.com/BadBassGamesBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/badbassgames.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/badbassgames/Tiktok:https://www.tiktok.com/@badbassgamesYoutube:
- v1.0.1 Update - 8 October 2025
We’ve tried to gather every bug that has been reported since launch, and hopefully your experience should be much smoother going forward! Thank you for reporting bugs, and please let us know if you spot any more.ChangelogAchievementsThe level-specific Fishdex achievements now specify “non-boss fish”. This should clear up confusion on whether or not bosses counted towards those achievements. This change also makes it so bosses *do not* count for those achievements, reducing redundancy.Full Fishdex completion, the “Baited” achievement incorrectly states “Register every non-boss fish in the Fishdex.” This has been fixed, and now the achievement should be given based on that description. It previously required bosses to be caught.If you previously didn’t meet the conditions for a level-specific Fishdex achievement but now do, you will earn that achievement automatically when entering that l…
- Bait & Tackle Official Release! - 3 October 2025
Today is a reel exciting day… BAIT & TACKLE IS OFFICIALLY OUT NOW ON STEAM AND ITCH! It has been a long journey up until this point—our first commit was pushed on September 20, 2023, over two years ago now—and it is finally time to release this catch into the wild. Bait & Tackle started as a small class project, and has blossomed into something we are publishing on Steam, and are all very, very proud of. Now it is time for all of you… the very people we made this game for… to finally experience all of our hard work! We hope you all enjoy and stay just as enthusiastic as you all have been, as we really could not have done it without all of you. Thank you for being along for this ride. :) Oh, and if you want to be extra nice, leave us a review and follow us on our socials!https://x.com/BadBassGameshttps://www.instagram.com/badbassgames/https://bsky.app/profile/badbassgames.bsky.socialhttp…
- ROC Game Fest 2025 - 22 September 2025
Visit Rochester Game Festival THIS SATURDAY to play Bait & Tackle before release!ROC Game Fest is Western New York's largest game festival, this year over 50+ video game and tabletop developers will be showing off their works. Ours included!Where: Rochester Institute of Technology, THE SHEDWhen: Saturday, September 27th, 11AM - 5PMThere will be lots to see and do this year! Click here for more information.Admission if FREE and open to the public. Hope to see you there!
