Lake Ontario: Credit River
An Atlantic salmon’s autumn run up the Credit, and home again.
What it is
An Atlantic salmon’s autumn run up the Credit River, seen side-on: from the lake at Port Credit, up the lower river, through the shale ravine at Erindale, over three weirs and up the fishway’s five steps at the dam in Streetsville, to the clean gravel above it. There she cuts her nest and you guard it; winter comes; and in spring the high water carries you home, out past the piers into the lake.
Read the water. The current is slower near the bed, and behind every stone there is a pocket of still water where you rest and get your strength back. Run out of strength and the river carries you back to the next still water.
The weirs and the rain
At a weir’s foot you wait low in the plunge pool. The water pouring over the lip eases for a moment on its own rhythm, and that is when a leap clears; a ring around your fish glows to show it. Let go fully gathered near the middle of the glow for a clean leap, higher and with a bigger splash. First-time clears in a row make a streak.
A run starts with a week’s forecast, and it is exact: the rain on the card is the rain you get. Rain raises the river, so the riffles run faster but each weir becomes a smaller step. At any still water you can wait for tomorrow and wake to the day the card promised. On dry days the shallows over the gravel bars slow you.
A harder river higher up
Herons at the riffles strike the top of the water, after a second’s warning: stay deep, or wait for the strike. Fallen trees fill the top or the bottom of a pool, anglers bounce lures along the bottom, and above the ravine an osprey’s shadow finds you before it dives. Each one warns you, and none ends the run: it costs strength or knocks you back. The gentle river, chosen on the forecast card, has no osprey and no lines, and its herons strike half as often with a longer warning. Every river offered has been finished by a careful test fish at low, normal and high water, without being hit.
Around you: other salmon making the run, Chinook spawning on the riffles, a kingfisher diving, geese going over, leaves sinking, a stone arch bridge over the ravine, and the last stretch at dusk with the old mill’s windows lit. Twenty field notes wait to be found, short true notes about the run, kept in a journal on the title. Just the fishway plays the five steps alone, in about two minutes.
How to play
- SwimHold anywhere
- Swim deeper or nearer the topSlide your finger up or down while you hold
- Hold where you areLet go
- Leap a weirHold to gather, and let go while the ring glows
Wait for tomorrow appears at the bottom when you are at still water. Pause is at the top right: keep swimming, the sound, and back to the title (two taps).
On a desktop, use the mouse as you would touch. Or use the keys: Space, Right or D swims (and gathers and leaps at a weir); Up and Down (or W and S) change depth; Enter waits for tomorrow when it is offered, and starts from the title and the forecast; Escape or P pauses.
What isn’t settled yet
It is for one player. Your run, your bests and your field notes live in the browser they’re made in, so clearing the site’s data loses them. An older phone may struggle in the ravine, the busiest scene: it hasn’t yet been timed on a real phone. There is no gamepad support, the keys can’t be remapped, and it isn’t playable with a screen reader.
Build Log
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Build 10
An Atlantic salmon’s autumn run up the Credit, and home again. Read the current, rest behind stones, wait for rain, and leap each weir when the water eases, past herons, fallen trees and an osprey on the way up.
Credits and licences
No third-party engine: it draws to a plain canvas. The typefaces it does use are embedded under the SIL Open Font Licence, with the copyright notice retained in the shipped file. Cover drawn from the game’s own river, ravine and salmon code.
Lake Ontario: Credit River is original work by Launchway Games.