Reeling in players with the design of Call of the Wild: The Angler

gamedeveloper.com:

Expansive Worlds' The Hunter: Call of the Wild is massively popular on Steam—but you probably haven't heard much about it. It's a simulation game that trades away the ease and convenience of most video game hunting mechanics for an experience that more closely resembles the real deal.

The studio's follow-up Call of the Wild: The Angler (the brand name got swapped around from game to game) zeroes in on the experience of recreational fishing. Players navigate an open-world environment (modeled after a nature preserve) to track down and catch dozens of real-world fish. Just like in real-life catch and release, players are also encouraged to be mindful of the stock of fish in the region, so that they don't risk upsetting the delicate balance of nature.

There's also an online component to the game—players can fish with friends or encounter other players as they wander the preserve.

Fishing mechanics appear in many types of adventure games, but Expansive Worlds has a different target audience than that of Animal Crossing or Red Dead Redemption Online. The Angler game director Paul "Rushy" Rustchynsky took some time to chat with us about the appeal of hunting simulators, and share insight on what separates The Angler's fishing system from the ones you're probably familiar with.

Call of the Wild: The Angler is the first title in the series that Rustchynsky has worked on. In his previous roles, he was creating racing games like OnRush at companies like Codemasters. But Rustchynsky told us that even though the fanbases for racing games and hunting games come from different communities, they have quite a lot in common.

"There's a surprising amount of overlap," he observed. "The racing audience—the attention to detail is crazy. [They