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Mourning Tide capsule

Mourning Tide

A guilt-ridden fisherman sails into forbidden waters. With every catch, the echoes of his life rise to the surface. Unravel the past, seek redemption’s light, or be consumed by the Mourning Tide. A fishing horror game.

FishingHorrorSingleplayer
Liquid SquidComing soon

Mourning Tide scores 60/100 — better than 0% of Fishing capsules (n=271).

Released Coming soon · By Liquid Squid

Explore:Fishing capsulesHorror capsulesSingleplayer capsulesSteam page optimisationCapsule design best practices

Quick text summary

Mourning Tide scored 60/100 on Steam Analyzer — Solid for a Fishing capsule. Top priority fix: [title_readability] Replace or rework the script font with a heavier weighted letterform or add a thicker dark outline and text shadow to ensure 'Mourning Tide' remains legible at 120x45 thumbnail size

Capsule scores by dimension

  • Genre Clarity: 7/10 — Horror fishing mood established. The distorted, ghoulish face emerging from a fleshy organic texture on the right combined with the fiery/volcanic explosion on the left communicates horror clearly. At small and tiny sizes the horror element still reads due to the unsettling face silhouette, though the fishing angle is entirely absent and adventure subgenre nuance is lost. The dual imagery creates a slightly mixed read between supernatural horror and disaster survival rather than fishing horror specifically.
  • Title Readability: 6/10 — Script font struggles at tiny size. The cursive script logo for 'Mourning Tide' is placed over a relatively controlled dark-to-mid area on the left third, which helps separation at full size. At small size the letterforms are still parseable but the thin strokes of the script font begin to blur together. At tiny thumbnail size (120x45) the title becomes largely illegible as the cursive connectors collapse and only a vague white text blob is visible, which is a meaningful readability failure for discoverability.
  • Contrast & Color: 6/10 — Warm palette with muddy mid-range. The warm orange-red of the fiery left side does pop against Steam's dark background (#1b2838) giving decent edge contrast on that side. However the right side featuring the pale fleshy face against a brownish-tan organic background has very limited value separation, and in a mental grayscale test both the face and its background read as similar mid-tones making the key horror element harder to parse at small sizes. The overall palette is cohesive in warmth but the right focal element lacks the light-dark punch needed for quick-scroll clarity.
  • Uniqueness & Polish: 6/10 — Evocative concept but rough execution. The concept of a ghostly face emerging from organic flesh-like texture is genuinely unsettling and distinctive for a fishing horror game, offering a unique selling hook. However the overall composition feels somewhat unpolished with a visual split between two loosely connected imagery regions that don't fully cohere into a single premium art statement. Compared to benchmark titles like DREDGE or Slay the Princess which achieve strong singular visual identity, this feels closer to a competent but unrefined indie asset assembly.
  • Brand Consistency: 6/10 — Dark horror tone internally consistent. Internally the capsule maintains a consistent warm horror palette with the brownish-red-orange tones unifying left and right elements. The cursive script logo has a somewhat vintage nautical feel that aligns with the fisherman premise, creating a recognizable identity seed. However there is no single iconic motif or character design that would serve as a strong brand anchor recognizable across multiple store page touchpoints, keeping this at a functional but not memorable level.
  • Composition: 5/10 — Split composition lacks clear hierarchy. The image is divided into two distinct regions: fiery explosion on the left where the title sits, and the large unsettling face on the right, creating a roughly equal bilateral split with no single dominant focal point. At small and tiny sizes this split composition means the eye has no clear anchor and the two elements compete rather than guide attention toward one read. The title placement on the left and the horror face on the right feel like two separate design decisions forced together, and Steam cropping at tiny sizes risks losing one half entirely.

What works

  • Horror mood is immediate. The distorted ghoulish face on the right side communicates horror genre unmistakably even at small viewing sizes.
  • Warm palette separates from Steam dark background. The orange-red fiery tones on the left edge create decent contrast against Steam's #1b2838 background, aiding visibility during quick scroll.
  • Unique fishing horror concept. The organic fleshy texture combined with a spectral face is a distinctive visual hook that differentiates from generic horror capsules.

What hurts the capsule

  • Script font collapses at tiny size. The cursive letterforms of 'Mourning Tide' lose legibility entirely at 120x45 thumbnail size due to thin strokes and connected cursive styling.
  • Split bilateral composition competes with itself. Two roughly equal visual regions with no clear hierarchy means there is no single dominant focal point for the eye to land on during a quick scroll.
  • Fleshy face lacks value contrast against background. In grayscale the pale face and brownish tan background read as similar mid-tones, reducing silhouette clarity of the primary horror element at small sizes.
  • No fishing genre signal present. The fishing horror subgenre has zero visual representation leaving genre clarity relying entirely on horror cues and losing the unique fishing angle entirely.

Priority fixes

  1. [title_readability] Replace or rework the script font with a heavier weighted letterform or add a thicker dark outline and text shadow to ensure 'Mourning Tide' remains legible at 120x45 thumbnail size
  2. [composition] Establish a single dominant focal point by merging or overlapping the two visual regions, ideally centering or anchoring the horror face as the primary subject with the fiery backdrop wrapping around it rather than sitting separately
  3. [contrast_color] Increase the value contrast of the ghostly face against its organic background by darkening the surrounding flesh texture or adding a rim light on the face silhouette so it reads clearly in grayscale at small size
  4. [genre_clarity] Introduce a subtle fishing visual cue such as a hook, fishing line, or water surface element to communicate the fishing horror subgenre and differentiate from generic supernatural horror capsules

Store copy priority fixes

  1. [feature_communication] Rewrite the 'Unique Fishing Experience' section with one concrete example: 'e.g., a anglerfish requires timing and precision; pull too early and it escapes; pull too late and something worse rises from the depths.' This transforms vague claims into mental model.
  2. [feature_communication] Add one sentence explaining the narrative loop: 'Each creature pulled from the sea triggers a memory—uncover the fisherman's past through your catches, or let guilt drag you under.' This bridges fishing mechanic and story.
  3. [audience_targeting] Insert a tone-setting sentence about difficulty/pacing: 'Ideal for players seeking meditative psychological horror where tension builds slowly, not action-horror.' This clarifies who should buy.
  4. [uniqueness] Add a comparative differentiator: 'Mourning Tide merges the meditative loop of fishing sims with the dread of Lovecraftian horror—a genre first.' This positions the game explicitly in market space.

Related guides

Steam app ID: 2799050 · Tags: Fishing, Horror, Singleplayer, Lovecraftian, Adventure