Sea Boy: The Fish-Flinging Puzzle Game Rival Dreams Couldn't Sell
Sea Boy is not a modern indie release, as you might guess from its pixel look. It is a prototype made in the early 2000s by Rival Dreams, a tiny studio formed by three developers while they were still working at Acclaim Studios Austin: Ian Dunlop, Jools Watsham and Kynan Pearson. Their plan was to build Game Boy Advance games and pitch them to publishers. Sea Boy followed their first effort, a Metroidvania called Dark Eden, and like it, it never found anyone willing to fund it.
At a glance
- Created by: Ian Dunlop (design and programming) and Jools Watsham (art and music), for Rival Dreams
- Released: never as a finished game; the prototype was made public on 24 October 2022
- Genre: physics and puzzle platformer
- What sets it apart: a fluid simulation that lets you raise and lower water, unusual on the GBA
The idea
Dunlop wanted to move away from violent games such as Walker on the Amiga after becoming a parent. The result is a small boy, based on his own son, who tries to save the ocean by carrying fish between bodies of water.
What you do
- Pick levels from a world map inspired by Super Mario World.
- Solve stages that each have multiple solutions.
- Pick up, throw or run with fish.
- Raise and lower the water level to open routes.
- Use a bomb plant devised by Watsham: it stays shut out of water and opens underwater, so its bombs can blow open walls and release floods.
- Chase optional goals such as jumps and dives; uncovering a dive point earns a secret bonus.
How it came back
Time Extension told the Rival Dreams story and worked with Forest of Illusion and Dunlop to release the Sea Boy prototype publicly in October 2022. One more link survives: Watsham's later company, Atooi, takes its name from Sea Boy.