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Patch notes

Flopping Fish! updates

Every update to Flopping Fish!, newest first. Now on v0.4.2, updated Oct 23, 2026.

Play Flopping Fish!

October 2026

v0.4.2

Curtain up, every time

  • Fixed: on some phones, and in YouTube's game tester, the show could sit on the loading screen forever. It now opens every time, even when the page starts it in the background.
v0.4.1

Intermission

  • On YouTube: out of fish with actors still standing? Watch a short ad for one more fish, once per try.
  • On YouTube: a short ad break can come between scenes, at most once every four minutes of play, never mid-scene.
  • No ads here on shiccup.com.
v0.4.0

The painted stage

  • The whole show is hand-painted now: every fish, actor, costume, prop and backdrop, across all seven productions, looks like a paper theatre lit by footlights.
  • Each production has its own painted backdrop, from the castle hills of the opening season to the rainy alley of Trout Noir and the starship of Cosmic Cod.
v0.3.8

Every brushstroke

  • Behind the scenes: every fish, actor, prop and backdrop now has a hand-painted version, across all seven productions, ready for testing. The show still looks the same as before until the painted look is switched on.
v0.3.7

Nearly every brushstroke

  • Behind the scenes: almost all of the hand-painted fish, actors, props and backdrops are now in the game for testing, across all seven productions. The show still looks the same as before; the painted look switches on once the last few pieces are finished.
v0.3.6

Paint drying backstage

  • Behind the scenes: the first hand-painted fish, actors, props and backdrops are in the game for testing. The show looks the same as before for now; the painted look switches on once every piece is finished.
v0.3.5

Know your cue

  • Every scene now opens with a little playbill card: the scene's name, what you have to do (bring down the actors), and how few fish earn three stars.
  • The slingshot tells you when it's at full power: the aim dots and a ring round the pouch turn gold. Let go and the band snaps forward with a twang.
  • Knocking out an actor pops up the points it earned, and the score jumps when they land.
  • The curtain call explains your stars (how many fish you used and how many three stars takes), and a loss says how many actors are still standing.
  • The first scene's "drag the fish back" hint steps aside the moment you grab the sling, so it never covers your aim.
  • The scene list marks the next scene to play, the loaded-fish card stays compact on wide screens, and small labels are easier to read.
v0.3.4

A new name: Flopping Fish!

  • The show has a new name: Flopping Fish! Same fish, same actors, same wobbly sets. Your stars and unlocked scenes carry over.
v0.3.3

Frame the shot

  • On a phone held upright the slingshot now sits a third of the way across the screen, so a full pull back leaves your thumb room to spare.
  • Pulling back frames the shot: the view slides toward the stage and zooms out as you pull, bringing the actors into sight while the slingshot and your fish stay on screen. Let go to fire and the camera follows the fish; ease off without firing and it settles back.
  • Wide screens that already show the whole stage keep it centred and still while you aim.
v0.3.2

A clear aim line

  • Pulling back the sling now draws a bright dotted aim line along the start of the fish's flight, easy to see on every backdrop and at any zoom.
  • The camera stays on the slingshot. Drag anywhere else to look at what you're aiming at: the view glides with your finger, coasts when you flick it, and eases back to the sling a moment after you let go.
v0.3.1

Ready for YouTube

  • Behind the scenes for the YouTube version: the game saves your progress the moment YouTube pauses it, and leaves pausing the sound to YouTube.
v0.3.0

Lights, rigging and slapstick

  • The stage is lit like a real theatre: warm spotlight beams with dust drifting through them, footlights glowing up on the actors, and chandeliers whose light sweeps the stage when you set them swinging. Each production has its own light, from moonlight to a rainy-street glow.
  • Wet fish against cheap scenery: fish shine, spray droplets and shed loose scales, while torn flats show the bare timber behind the paint and cardboard shows its tape and creases.
  • The actors overreact: they flinch at near misses, lose their wigs to reveal bald caps, puff out face powder and drop their props, and script pages flutter when they go down. The biggest breaks freeze for a beat.
  • New stage machinery: trapdoors held shut by a red latch peg (knock it out and whoever stands on the door drops through, for a bonus), and a seesaw that flings an actor skyward when you cut its sandbag loose. Find them in new scenes of The Barber of Sea-ville, Trout Noir, Something's Fishy in Denmark and Cosmic Cod.
  • Skulls line the shelves in Denmark, and Don Fishovanni's banquet table is set with goblets.
v0.2.0

The touring season

  • Six new productions and 48 new scenes: the operas The Magic Flounder, The Barber of Sea-ville and Don Fishovanni, the tragedy Something's Fishy in Denmark, the detective drama Trout Noir and the space opera Cosmic Cod.
  • Every production has its own painted backdrop, costumes, props and music, from a moonlit temple with bells to a rainy alley with trash cans and a cardboard starship bridge.
  • Clear Act I to start touring; each production opens once you clear four scenes of the one before. Every touring scene is tested: it can be cleared with fish to spare, and a near-miss aim still works.
  • LUCKY FLOP! pays a bonus when a fish you'd forgotten about flops into the last actor, and knocking an actor into the orchestra pit pays extra, with a brass honk from the band.
  • Aiming now shows dots along the start of the arc, so you can see where a shot is heading.
v0.1.0

Opening night

  • Pull back the sling and fling a fish at a stage full of pompous actors. Clear every actor to win the scene: 16 scenes across three acts.
  • Fish are limp, wriggling ragdolls that keep flopping after they land, so a miss can still knock something over.
  • Eight fish, and seven of them have a trick you tap for mid-flight: the Flying Fish rockets ahead, the Pufferfish bursts, the Anchovy School splits in three, the Swordfish lunges, the Flounder boomerangs back, the Squid squirts ink and the Electric Eel shocks iron rigging.
  • Painted flats rip, pine splinters, and only big hits break iron, sandbags and marble. Tip an actor over and the stage hook yanks them off; knock one off the front and they land in the orchestra pit.
  • A string quartet that builds as you pull back, and a crowd that laughs, claps or boos. Three stars for clearing a scene with few fish, with touch controls in portrait and landscape.