Desktop Fishes news & patch notes

Hey friends!

Desktop Fishes is taking part in this year’s Steam Awards, and there’s one thing that helps a ton: player reviews.

If you’ve already been hanging out with your little fish buddies and enjoying the game, leaving a review is one of the best ways to support it right now. It doesn’t have to be long or fancy—just honest. Reviews from people who actually played mean a lot both to Steam and to me as a solo dev.

Thank you so much to everyone who’s already left feedback, reported bugs, or sent kind words. You’ve helped the game grow a lot in a short time. 🥹💕

🗺️ What’s next: Desktop Fishes Roadmap

I’m still actively working on the game and wanted to share what’s coming in the next few months:

V1.1 – Early December · Quality of Life update

• 20+ new hats and collectibles

• Better settings menu & more customization options

• Your settings will finally stick (no more redoing everything each time)

• Control the playable area so fish only swim in part of your screen

• Option to swap the pixel font for a regular font

• Toggle to skip the initial setup screen

• Button to delete your save file (for a fresh start)

• Shortcut to quickly toggle between overlay / wallpaper mode

V1.2 – Early 2026 - Tanks & Name tags!

• Fish tanks: sort your fish into multiple tanks instead of having everyone on the same screen

• Name tags: finally give your favorite fish a proper name

• Probably more hats...

V1.3 – Endgame & Shiny Fishes!

• Prestige system: reset your progress by releasing fish to the sea and start stronger

• Shiny fishes: every prestige unlocks new special fish to discover (think shiny Pokémon) ✨ \\

• New abilities in the skill tree only available through prestige

• And… probably more hats again, because I can’t stop

If you’ve played Desktop Fishes and you’d like to support the game:

• Leave a Steam review (or update your old one if things have changed!)

• Tell me what you’d love to see in future updates! I'm always around on Discord

• Share screenshots of your tanks, shiny finds, or cursed fish combos 🐠

Thank you so much for helping this weird little aquarium grow. I’ll keep updating the game and making it cozier, shinier, and sillier over time. 🌊💙

— Dan

Hey guys! Based on your feedback, I changed and fixed a few things that will give you more freedom to customize your experience!

New Features:

• Performance mode: useful for low-end PC's or for when your tank is SUPER FULL. Previously, once you had more than 100 fish, the game would start to lag; this feature should give you 10x performance!

• Changes to the "hide fishes" functionality: Based on feedback, the mechanic wasn't clear enough, so it was completely replaced with the new fishbowl tool. You can find it in the settings menu. It lets you take fishes in and out of it to your liking

• Support for ultrawide monitors :D

Changes:

• UI now renders on top of the Fish.

• General performance improvements.

• Added both Performance and Fishbowl functions to the main menu.

Bug fixes:

• Cheaper Swap was not working as expected. Now it should be all g

• The seaweed had visual glitches when opening the phone, this is now solved.

• Fixed "weeding cake" typo :P

Thanks for playing and giving your feedback guys! it really helps shaping this game! If you have any more feedback, you can join the Discord and let me know!

https://discord.gg/cXUXPWk8

🎉 It’s launch day! Come meet your new desktop pets 🐟

Hey friends! Desktop Fishes is officially out on Steam, and the tank doors are wide open. Turn your screen into a cozy aquarium and make it yours. Here’s what’s in at launch:

🧬 Thousands of fish to discover! Over 1,000 variants across colors and patterns. Collect the weird ones, brag about the cute ones.

🎨 50+ customization options Skins, accessories, and little flourishes to give your fish some drip. Mix, match, and make the tank feel like home.

🌳 Huge skill tree with upgrades Unlock faster growth, smarter critters, and quality-of-life boosts as you play. Pick a path and build your perfect chill loop.

🖥️ Play your way Go full wallpaper for a living desktop, or switch to overlay so fish swim over your work, games or other apps.

🧘 Chill Mode Wanna just chill? Toggle Chill Mode, and the UI hides to give you the cleanest experience. Just you and your fish!

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Grab the game today, show us your first species discovery! You can join us in our Discord here to give any feedback: https://discord.gg/nt4WF9UqH2 Also, a review goes a long way for a solo indie dev like me :)

Have fun! 🐠✨

Hey folks! Desktop Fishes is swimming into Next Fest and the tank just got a big glow-up! The new demo is live! Poke around, and tell us what weird fish behavior you discover. Here’s what’s new:

🌀 Say hi to the snails

Slow, stylish, extremely unbothered. They'll help with all the excess seaweed.

🧘 Zen Mode

Want pure vibes? Toggle Zen Mode and the UI fades away! It’s just you, your desktop, and a cozy little aquarium doing its thing while you work or chill.

🎨 New skins to unlock

Dress your splashy buddies in fresh looks. Collect ’em, mix ’em, flex ’em.

🛠 Rebalanced gameplay

We tuned pacing so the early game feels smoother, progression pops more, and the whole loop just… clicks.

🐞 Bug fixes

The fish behave better, the tank runs cleaner, and a bunch of pesky issues are now sleeping with the starfish.

Jump into the Next Fest demo today and let us know what you think. If you’re into the vibe, wishlist and share with a friend who needs a tiny aquarium on their screen 💙