Fact Sheet

Description

Short: Doug's Playground is a cozy top-down fishing & exploration game. Wash up on an oddly shaped island, learn its waters, and get tangled up with the Muck... a race of mercury blobs who all share one body under whatever hat makes them somebody. One of them is named Doug, banished away nearly 650 years ago.

Long: The island sits atop an ancient kingdom, reachable only through a well inside it's castle. Its people, the Muck, are one being made of “powder of infinite proportion”... no lineage, no death, just a reconstruction of what once was. Doug “The Banished” is the only Muck who ever learned to feel joy, which made him a problem for a species that moves as one mind. King Roland banished him to Fishy Island, hoping the spirit of the mainland's villagers would spark a new flame of invigoration.

As the player, you strike a deal with Roland: offer items to the well! Saltwater fish, freshwater fish, wool, plates of pickled prawns, whatever the mainland will actually notice. And, in return, he sends back the pieces of Doug's playground, one at a time. The slide, the seesaw, the monkey bars. Raise it all back up, and maybe mend what got broken along the way.

Multiple save slots + autosave. All character and creature art is original, hand-drawn work.

Trailer

A trailer download (.mp4) for embedding in articles/videos can be found linked here

Devlog

Logo & Key Art

Right-click / long-press to save full size. Same key art, cropped for whatever slot you need it in.

Features

• Fishing that fights backCast, wait for the bite, then reel against the fish's pull before the line snaps. 30+ species across freshwater and saltwater, each with its own weight, fight and rarity roll: Normal, Silver, Gold and Exotic.
• The FindexEvery fish, tool and piece of junk you've ever pulled up, logged and searchable by habitat, with descriptions to boot.
• Make somebody upCharacter creation with independently swappable bases, hair, eyes and every clothing layer, a favorite color the game remembers, and a companion who tags along for the journey.
• A village that talks backBranching dialogue, quests and a reputation system. Some villagers won't tell you their real name until they trust you.
• More than a fishing gameCooking, foraging, crab traps, pig and sheep pens, a coin economy and a general store stocked with questionable pickles.
• Your own pocket dimensionA little home you decorate — chests, shelves and more.
• A world with weather to itDay/night cycle, rainy days, as well as sunny ones! Beach music that fades in when you hit the sand, and trees that go translucent as you walk behind them.
• Quests“Doug's Dilemma,” “Onward, and Upward,” “Tailor Made,” “Stuck in a Pickle,” “I NEEEED IT!!” — with more on the way.

Screenshots

Right-click / long-press any image to save it full size. A zipped folder of hi-res screenshots is [PLACEHOLDER — coming soon].

Team

Riley Clark: solo developer, under the name Mercury Media. Design, programming, art and writing.

Since a young age, I have always been fascinated with game development. After attending college for software development, I made it my mission to create a game I believe not only I, but others would truly love as well.

Doug's Playground is more than a game. It is the story of acceptance for the past we wish we could forget, and the future that is left untold until it is written in stone. There is so much I wish to say, but so little time to write it! I hope you enjoy, and decide to take this journey alongside the rest of us.

Selected Press & Coverage

Nothing yet... you could be the first!

Contact & Links

• Press / Business: [email protected]
• Website: dougsplayground.net
• Steam: Currently awaiting approval!
• Discord: Doug's Playground Official Discord

Boilerplate

Doug's Playground is developed by Riley Clark, solo, under the name Mercury Media. It's a cozy top-down fishing and exploration game about washing up on a strange island, coaxing a banished mercury blob named Doug's friends sback home one offering at a time, and rebuilding a playground along the way. Built in Godot 4.7, currently in beta.