Reel Time started small. It was a cozy fishing game that lived beside your Claude chat, something to do with the few minutes while your prompt runs. The versions you can play today, the playable HTML version and the beta, are one map: Five Lakes Valley.
Behind the scenes, it has grown into a lot more than that. Reel Time is moving on from being a Claude game and turning into something more. So here’s the plan. Reel Time is becoming a full, paid game, coming to Steam first and then to mobile. It has three big maps, a live world that changes from week to week, optional cosmetics, and future DLCs on the way.
Where Claude fits now
Claude is where Reel Time began, and it isn’t going away. It becomes a completely optional tie-in. It stays off unless you turn it on in settings and set up an external hookup. If you’d rather just fish, you never have to think about it.
Three maps
Five Lakes Valley is still home. Every angler starts there: five lakes, the creeks and rivers between them, your own cabin, campfires and friends on the dock.
From there, two new maps open up: an open ocean you sail out to as you level, and a frozen north you fly to once you get a plane back in the air.
Frostmere, the frozen north
Hearthwick’s shanty town under the northern lights.
Getting north starts at home. At the Five Lakes hangar there’s a plane that needs fixing, and finishing the repair quest unlocks travel to Frostmere. From then on, the bush pilot Skye Halloran flies you north in the Snow Goose, a red plane on floats. The flight is a little game of its own: steer through rings above the clouds, ride the updrafts, and throw in a barrel roll for style. Then you touch down on the ice at Hearthwick.
- Ice fishing. Drill a hole with your auger, watch the flasher, and jig when the fish rise to your lure. Set tip-ups in other holes and run for it when a flag pops up. Rent a warm shanty on the bay, and watch out for thin ice. Stand on it too long and you go through.
- Hearthwick. A snowy village with the Hearth Lodge and its big stone fireplace, a trading post, a smokehouse, a sauna with a polar plunge, the kennels, a skating rink and a shanty town out on the lake. The cold is real up here, so fires, cocoa, the sauna and good warm clothes all matter.
- Getting around. Skate across the lake, drive a dog sled along the trails, ride a snowmobile over the drifts, or hop on the Ring Line, a chairlift that runs all the way around the map.
- Races. The Sled Derby, the Long Glide skate race down a frozen river, the Skyline ski hill, and the Cloudbreak Descent from the top of the tallest mountain in the north. Skye also runs the Air Races, which open up with the same repair quest as Frostmere travel: twelve circuits against rival pilots, with medals to win and planes to earn.
- Places to explore. The Blue Caves inside the glacier, with a mammoth frozen in the wall. The wreck of the Valiant, held fast in the sea ice. Galena, an abandoned silver town with a secret. The hot pools of Ember Hollow, and Aurora Hill.
- Wildlife and legends. Photograph polar bears and their cubs, foxes, caribou, seals, walrus and narwhals for your Field Guide. Then go looking for the three legends of the north, like Old Whitepaw, the giant silver bear who only shows up on aurora nights.
- 17 fish that only live up north, including the Glacier King, which only bites in a snowstorm, and the Aurora Char, which only comes up under the northern lights. Five quest lines from the people of Hearthwick tie it all together.
Open Waters, the big blue sea
Marlowe’s charter boat off Palm Key at sunset.
From level 20, Captain Marlowe takes you and up to three friends out past the lighthouse on a charter. Out at sea, your crew gets its own boat and its own little corner of the world.
- Big-game fishing. Twelve Trophy fish, from mahi-mahi and sailfish up to blue marlin, bluefin tuna, swordfish, the giant squid and the great white. Hook one and you’re in the fighting chair while your friends take the wheel, work the gaff and call the jumps. Fishing alone? Marlowe covers every job.
- A real sea. Gentle swells on a clear day and four-metre waves in a storm. The weather changes what bites, how hard the fight is and what turns up around the boat, from bait balls to waterspouts. Whales and dolphins come by too.
- Islands. Palm Key with Kai’s Tiki Bar, Turtle Atoll and its lagoon full of sea turtles, Smuggler’s Rock with a hidden grotto and treasure maps, and Emberkey, a young volcano.
- Diving. Swim, dive and spearfish over the reefs and wrecks, and visit Coralhaven, a little town of glowing domes on the sea floor.
- Beach Games. Volleyball, crab races, a coconut toss, a sandcastle contest and a cannonball contest off the pier, for up to four players.
- Your own boat. Every trip earns Marlowe’s trust, from Deckhand all the way up to Old Salt. Earn enough and he’ll take you out to the Abyss, and sell you a sportfisher of your own to name and paint.
- 29 sea fish to fill your Open Waters Fishpedia.
A live world
Reel Time is one shared world, and a lot of it happens for everyone at the same time.
- One sky. Everyone sees the same weather, the same nights and the same northern lights.
- Seasons. They turn every real week, and each one brings its own fish.
- Derbies. Quick derbies on the lake every hour, a weekly Billfish Derby at sea and a weekly Ice Derby up north, all with shared leaderboards.
- Events. Meteor showers, fog nights, migration mornings and Great Auroras turn up now and then, and change what’s biting.
- Lake goals. Every catch fills a shared meter for the week. Fill it together and the Lantern Festival lights up the cove.
- Friends. Party up with up to four, take on daily and weekly requests, and visit each other’s cottages.
Cosmetics
Optional MTX cosmetics will be available in the full game. We’ll share more closer to launch.
DLC on the way
Future DLCs are planned. We’ll share more when they’re ready.
How much is in there?
Across all three maps, we think there’s more than 100 hours of fishing, exploring and racing in Reel Time. There are more than 120 species to catch, 50 levels, 77 achievements, and stories and quests on every map. Just reaching the top level is about 80 hours of regular play, and finishing every Fishpedia, quest line and race takes longer than that.
Steam first, then mobile
Reel Time is coming to Steam first, and then to mobile. We’ll share dates and pricing as we get closer.
Until then, the beta is still open, and Five Lakes Valley is waiting. Sign up at playreeltime.com. See you at the lake.
3D models by Polyfork, used with permission.