Fish Hunters takes the peaceful art of fishing and adds automatic weapons, because apparently that’s what the genre needed all along. Developed by five-person indie team Dos Ivanes and published by Polden Publishing, this ridiculous cooperative shooter has you catching fish with traditional rods, watching them fly into the air, then unloading clips into schools of airborne aquatic life. A free demo hit Steam in May 2025, with the full release targeting Q4 2025 or early 2026.
The premise is straightforward absurdity. You and up to three friends travel to fishing spots, cast your lines, reel in catches, and watch as physics launches them skyward. Then you switch to firearms and shoot everything that moves. Completing your fish atlas requires both angling skill and marksmanship, creating a bizarre hybrid of relaxing outdoor simulator and chaotic multiplayer shooter that somehow works.
From Mobile Games to Ridiculous PC Adventures
Dos Ivanes consists of five developers who previously worked on mobile games but always dreamed of creating something bigger for PC. Fish Hunters represents their first proper desktop game, combining everything they love into one package: cooperative gameplay, casual fishing mechanics, over-the-top action, Gravity Falls-style humor, and shooting fish with increasingly ridiculous weapons. It’s described as their wild experiment made with heart and plenty of fun.
The game features over 140 unique fish species ranging from small minnows to gigantic sea monsters. Traditional fishing techniques take a backseat to firepower as you progress from basic rods and lures to choosing formidable weapons for your aquatic challenges. The variety ensures you’re constantly discovering new catches while upgrading your arsenal to handle bigger, tougher specimens that require serious firepower to secure.
Boss fish add challenge to the experience. These special encounters spawn giant specimens that require coordinated teamwork and sustained fire to bring down. You’ll empty magazine after magazine into massive creatures while they soar through the air, creating memorable moments of pure chaos that define what makes Fish Hunters special. The disco hour mechanic adds visual flair to these battles, turning already absurd encounters into even more spectacular lightshows.
More Than Just Shooting Fish
While the core loop involves catching and shooting, Fish Hunters includes systems that prevent the experience from becoming repetitive. The game incorporates strategic elements through weapon and equipment upgrades. You’ll progress from basic firearms to automated turrets, mortars, and even heavy machine guns. The upgrade path creates meaningful choices about how you want to approach fishing, whether focusing on rate of fire, damage per shot, or area coverage.
Mini-games provide breaks from the main activity while offering rewards. Winning these challenges unlocks additional upgrades for weapons and gear, creating an incentive to engage with side content beyond pure fishing and shooting. You can also adopt pets, buy camping tents, and customize your loadout to match your preferred playstyle whether aggressive, tactical, or somewhere in between.
The social experience extends beyond combat. Players can drive around the game world together, compete for trophies, and relax by the campfire with cold drinks between fishing expeditions. This downtime provides pacing that prevents burnout from constant action. You’ll find yourself chatting with friends, comparing catches, planning the next location, or just enjoying the absurd premise of what you’re all doing together.
Exploration and Environment Variety
Fish Hunters includes diverse locations to explore, each featuring different fish populations and environmental challenges. You’ll travel to various bodies of water ranging from peaceful lakes to dangerous seas populated with mythical creatures. The game encourages exploration by hiding rare species in specific locations, rewarding players who venture beyond starting areas to discover what lurks in deeper waters.
Driving between locations adds a layer of adventure beyond teleporting to fishing spots. You and your team pile into vehicles, cruise through environments, scout potential fishing grounds, and decide where to set up camp next. This travel system creates natural transitions between fishing sessions while building anticipation for what you might encounter at the next destination.
Technical Issues Cloud the Launch
Despite the fun concept, Fish Hunters faces serious technical problems that overshadow the gameplay. Multiple Reddit users and Steam community members report the game crashing immediately on launch, preventing them from playing at all. The crash reports persist across different hardware configurations, suggesting fundamental stability issues rather than isolated cases.
What’s more concerning is the apparent lack of developer response to these widespread complaints. Players who received playtest invitations found themselves unable to launch the game and received no acknowledgment or fixes from Dos Ivanes. This communication gap raises questions about the team’s ability to support the game post-launch, especially troubling for a title targeting full release soon.
The Ridiculous Fishing Comparison
Several players immediately drew comparisons to Ridiculous Fishing, the popular mobile game with a similar hook: catch fish then blast them for rewards. That game became a cult classic through its tight gameplay loop and addictive progression. Fish Hunters takes the core concept but transforms it into a first-person cooperative shooter with realistic graphics instead of stylized 2D art.
Whether this transition works depends on execution. Ridiculous Fishing succeeded partly because its mobile-friendly design created perfect bite-sized sessions. Fish Hunters aims for longer play sessions with friends, which changes the appeal entirely. The social cooperative element could make it more engaging than a solo mobile experience, or it could make the repetitive loop more obvious without the pick-up-and-play convenience.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does Fish Hunters release?
Fish Hunters targets Q4 2025 for its full release, which means late December 2025 or potentially early 2026. A free demo has been available on Steam since May 2025.
Who developed Fish Hunters?
Dos Ivanes, a five-person indie team from mobile game development backgrounds, created Fish Hunters. Polden Publishing is handling publishing duties for this PC debut.
How many players can play together?
Fish Hunters supports up to four players in cooperative multiplayer. You can play solo, but the game is designed around the cooperative experience of fishing and shooting with friends.
Is there a demo available?
Yes, a free demo launched on Steam in May 2025. However, multiple users report serious launch crashes that prevent the game from starting, with limited developer response addressing these issues.
How many fish are in the game?
The game features over 140 unique fish species ranging from common small fish to rare giant sea monsters. Each species can be cataloged in your fish atlas as you progress.
What weapons can you use?
Players start with basic guns and progress to automatic rifles, shotguns, turrets, mortars, heavy machine guns, and other weaponry. You unlock and upgrade equipment through gameplay progression and mini-game challenges.
Is it like Ridiculous Fishing?
Fish Hunters shares the core concept of catching fish then shooting them, similar to the mobile game Ridiculous Fishing. However, Fish Hunters is a first-person cooperative shooter with realistic graphics rather than a stylized mobile arcade game.
What are the technical issues?
Multiple players report the game crashes immediately on launch across different hardware configurations. The developers have not publicly addressed these widespread crash reports on Steam or Reddit, raising concerns about post-launch support.
Conclusion
Fish Hunters delivers exactly what it promises: the absurd combination of peaceful fishing and chaotic shooting wrapped in a cooperative multiplayer package. For a five-person team making their first PC game, the ambition is admirable. Over 140 fish species, weapon progression, mini-games, boss encounters, and social features create a full experience beyond the basic hook. The Gravity Falls-inspired humor and willingness to embrace ridiculous premises shows personality that many indie games lack. However, the technical issues cannot be ignored. Widespread launch crashes with minimal developer response suggest the team might be overwhelmed by the transition from mobile development to supporting a PC game. For a project described as their dream come true, the lack of communication about fundamental problems is disappointing. If Dos Ivanes can resolve the stability issues and demonstrate ongoing support, Fish Hunters could find an audience among players seeking lighthearted cooperative experiences with friends. The concept is fun enough to work if the execution improves. But right now, the game’s biggest challenge isn’t designing better weapons or adding more fish. It’s making sure players can actually launch the game and experience the ridiculous fishing adventure waiting inside.