Earl’s Day off is a fishing horror game where you search around the lake for your wife’s ring. You don’t remember what happened last night, but it seems you lost the ring in the lake. His wife said don’t come back until you find it! It’s his day off and now he has to spend it getting the ring back. At least it gives him a reason to go fishing.
You move around in your boat and can explore the lake. The fishing is a bit tricky at first, but you can get used to it pretty quick. It’s best to move up closer to the fish, you won’t scare them away. You don’t find the ring in any of the fish near your home. You have to go out deeper.
There’s a few different sections locked by gates you have to open. After catching a few fish, you hear something splash into the water. You find a few chunks of flesh and keep adding them to your lure so it can go deeper. For whatever reason, Earl doesn’t find this suspicious at all. The lures can sink deeper after, and you’ll be able to get the keys to unlock the gates. It gets trickier and can take quite a few attempts to get each one.
Earl’s Day Off – Fishing Gone Wrong
Eventually the fish start acting strange, and Earl says he feels like he’s being watched. Some of the fish you catch look really weird, one looks like its crying. One even has teeth and bites you! You can look around for a while, but I was never to find anything suspicious on the shore watching you. I think it would’ve been a neat addition if there was a shadow that quickly ran away when you looked at it.
It takes about 20 minutes to play, but can be done quicker if you get used to the fishing sooner. Earl’s Day Off is a creative fishing game with an authentic retro atmosphere. I liked the slow reveal of the horrors in the lake. From the fish acting strange, to the monster floating beneath you at the end.
This demo was a collaboration between Airdorf, the creator of Faith, and Torple Dook. It’s an N64 style fishing horror game inspired by arcade bass fishing games from the 90’s. It was created for the Fishing Horror Jam by Horror You Haven’t Played. The itch.io page says it has more planned, but since it’s release there haven’t been any new updates. I would definitely like to see more of this.
