UK Official App - UK Game Studio Behind Tidal Tales: The Bearded Angler
London game studio · fishing adventures

We build fishing adventures worth getting up early for

UK Official App is a City of London game studio making an original fishing adventure with a bearded fisherman at its heart. Join the crew to follow each cast, catch and discovery as Tidal Tales takes shape.

Good things take patience.

Become a Member Explore the Game
Bearded fisherman in a wide hat casting a rod from a wooden boat on a misty British lake at sunrise
A seat in the boat

Three ways to follow the build

Membership gives you a clear view of what the team is making and a practical way to join the conversation.

No fishing licence needed.

  1. Choose your berth

    Pick a monthly or annual membership tier. Each one supports the same game, with different ways to see work in progress and take part.

  2. Get the studio diary

    Read monthly notes on new locations, fishing systems, art decisions and the small fixes that make a cast feel right.

  3. Have your say

    Join the round-table at the appropriate tier or vote on smaller design choices. We share what changed and why.

Current project

Tidal Tales: The Bearded Angler

A cosy open-water adventure across twelve British fishing spots.

Mind the reeds.

Tidal Tales key art showing a bearded fisherman rowing a wooden boat across a wide lake
A quiet stretch of water rewards a slower hand and a good eye.

Cast from a canal bank, row a wooden boat across a Highland loch or look for the legendary Golden Tench in autumn mist. Tidal Tales brings gentle exploration together with skill-based fishing and a warm story, guided by our bearded angler from the first cast.

Gameplay view of a fishing float landing on a calm river beside green reeds

Skill-based casting

Read the current, choose a swim and place your float where fish are feeding. A neat cast beats a wild one.

Wooden fishing boat moored on a British river at dusk beneath warm evening light

Find your own route

Row across five connected waterways and look beyond the main channel for sheltered corners and hidden inlets.

Hand-illustrated angler's field journal showing sketched fish and handwritten catch notes

Seasons with a point of view

Spring spawning runs, summer dawn rises and winter pike change the water and the way you plan a session.

A field journal worth filling

Sketch, log and keep track of every catch in a hand-illustrated angler's notebook. Each entry records where and when the fish took your bait.

Close view of a Tidal Tales journal page with a brown trout sketch and water notes
Field notes keep each catch tied to its water.
Quiet riverbank in Tidal Tales with reeds, a wooden peg and pale dawn light
Early light makes a familiar swim feel new.
Character design

Meet the angler behind the studio

He's fished the same stretch of river for thirty years and still gets excited by a ripple. Weathered, cheerful and stubbornly optimistic, he is your companion, tutor and occasional source of truly terrible fishing advice.

He packed extra hooks.

Portrait of the bearded fisherman character wearing a tweed hat and olive waxed jacket
Salt-and-pepper whiskers. A hat with stories.
  • Patient to a fault
  • Dry British humour
  • Reads water like a map
  • Never lost, often late

  • Face and beard

    Expressive brows and carefully shaped salt-and-pepper beard clumps keep his face readable at a glance.

  • The hat

    His battered, wide-brim tweed hat has a replacement band stitched on by hand.

  • Clothes for the bank

    An olive waxed jacket, knitted fisherman's jumper, rolled sleeves and a well-worn creel suit long days beside the water.

  • Fishing kit

    A split-cane rod, brass reel and dented tin of hooks, with its own animation set.

Expression sheet showing the bearded fisherman looking neutral, puzzled, delighted, soaked and triumphant
Five expressions for five very different bites.
Close detail of the fisherman's olive jacket, knitted jumper and brass fishing reel
Worn-in kit, down to the brasswork.
Silhouette study of the fisherman holding a rod beneath his broad-brimmed hat
His outline reads from the far bank.
Gameplay

Six systems that make every cast matter

Good fishing starts before the float hits the water. Each system gives you something clear to notice, try or improve.

Patience has its uses.

Tidal Tales gameplay interface showing line tension and drag controls during a fish fight
01

Read the swim

Study weed, current and insect activity before opening the tackle box. The right spot can matter more than the right rod.

02

Place the cast

A timing and power loop rewards accuracy. A tidy drop beneath the far bank beats brute force.

03

Manage the fight

Balance tension, drag and line condition when a fish runs. Rush the reeling and it may get away.

04

Set up your tackle

Upgrade rods, reels, floats and bait, then tune each rig for the species you're after.

05

Explore the banks

Follow footpaths, push through reeds and discover new stretches of water by finding your way there.

06

Watch the calendar

Mayfly hatches, weekend river matches and frosty pike mornings appear at the right time of year.

Achievements reward patience rather than repetition. The studio favourite is called One More Cast.

Environment art

Twelve stretches of water, rooted in real Britain

Our artists visit, sketch and photograph each place before building it in 3D. Then they relight it for dawn and dusk and tuck away details you may miss on the first visit.

Look behind the boathouse.

Still Cumbrian mere at dawn with mist over the fells and a weathered wooden jetty Lake District

Cumbrian Meres

Glass-still water, slate jetties and low morning mist rolling off the fells.

Norfolk Broads reed beds and a distant wind pump beside a quiet waterway East Anglia

Norfolk Broads

Reed beds, wind pumps and slow waterways best explored from a rowing boat.

Highland loch at dusk framed by pine trees and purple heather Scotland

Highland Lochs

Deep, dark water beneath pine and heather, where the biggest fish are still a rumour.

Cornish harbour wall and granite boulders under a warm golden dusk sky South West

Cornish Harbour Walls

Salt spray, mackerel lines and evening light over granite breakwaters.

Hampshire

Chalk Streams

Clear watercress beds and bright runs where trout spot a careless shadow.

Midlands

Canal Network

Brick bridges, narrowboats and quiet urban pegs with surprisingly large fish.

The art uses natural greens, deep blues, lake-water turquoise, earthy browns and warm sunset tones. The light does the talking.

Field journal

Forty-eight species to sketch, log and obsess over

Every fish has its own habits, feeding window and preferred water. Fill the journal and the angler adds an enthusiastic note in the margin.

The margins get crowded.

Illustrated sheet of British freshwater and sea fish in the Tidal Tales field journal style

Journal completion is at 62% across the current vertical slice. More entries are being tested as locations come together.

Development stages

Where the game stands today

We share progress while we work, including the parts that need another pass. Members can see the thinking behind each milestone.

The grey boxes are behind us.

Grey-box vertical slice of a fishing location during game development, with a riverbank and test paths
  1. Complete

    Concept and paper prototypes

    We tested the casting feel on paper, then in a grey-box build, through 40 iterations.

  2. Complete

    Art direction lock

    The palette, fisherman silhouette and environment lighting rules are agreed and documented.

  3. In progress

    Vertical slice

    One complete location is playable from the first cast through to the journal entry.

  4. Next

    Content build

    The next stage expands the world with twelve locations, seasonal events and full tackle progression.

Members meet the team at monthly design round-tables and help shape the next milestone list.

Creative experiments

Things we build to find out whether they work

Small tests can settle a big art or gameplay question before it reaches the full game.

Some tests get muddy.

Watercolour river sketches and 3D block-out models arranged on a game artist's desk

Water shader work

Layered flow, foam and light scattering designed to run smoothly on modest hardware.

Wind in the reeds

A light vertex-animation method gives each reed bed its own movement.

Fish behaviour

Small agents respond to bait, light and temperature instead of following a fixed path.

Painted normal maps

Illustration brushwork meets 3D lighting without losing the hand-painted feel.

Quiet navigation

Landmarks guide players through a location without filling the view with markers.

Weather and mood

A short shower can change the light, surface and feel of an entire session.

  1. SketchPencil, watercolour and plenty of rubbing out.
  2. Block outRough 3D geometry tests scale and sightlines.
  3. PaintHand-made textures are layered and relit.
  4. PlaytestMates, members and one very honest spreadsheet.
Membership

Join the crew and help steer the boat

Membership funds development directly and gives you a seat at the table. Choose a tier and cancel whenever you like. Your journal entries stay in your account.

Pick the pace that suits you.

Choose a billing period

Deckhand

A steady view of the studio's monthly progress.

  • Monthly development diary
  • Members-only concept art gallery
  • Early previews of new locations
  • Votes on smaller design choices
£4 per month
Most chosen by members

First Mate

More ways to try the work and join the discussion.

  • Everything in Deckhand
  • Playable build updates each quarter
  • Monthly design round-table invitation
  • Credit in the angler's journal
£9 per month

Skipper

A closer look at the studio and its working process.

  • Everything in First Mate
  • A named character in a harbour scene
  • Printed field journal posted annually
  • One studio visit day in London each year
£19 per month

Create your membership

Selected tier: First Mate. We will open an email draft with your details so the studio can help complete your membership.

  • Membership details are handled by our UK payment processor.
  • Membership fees go towards development.
  • Questions? Email [email protected].
Members' concept art showing fisherman poses and riverside location sketches
From the crew

What members say about the build

These notes come from members following the project as its locations and fishing systems take shape.

The crew notices details.

The monthly diary is the part of my inbox I actually look forward to. Watching the reed beds come together has been genuinely lovely.

Priya Raghavan, First Mate member, Leeds

They took my note about loch wind and changed it in the next build. That kind of response makes membership feel worthwhile.

Callum Fraser, Skipper member, Inverness

It feels like being in the boat with them. The character work is the warmest I've seen from a small studio.

Bethan Lloyd, Deckhand member, Cardiff
Questions

Everything you might reasonably ask

Clear answers about the game, membership and visiting the studio.

Ask us if yours is missing.

Membership covers a meaningful share of monthly development costs. That helps us keep creative control and give the fishing systems the time they need.

Get in touch

Come and find us on Old Broad Street

We're two minutes from Liverpool Street Station. Please book a visit before coming by.

The kettle is usually on.

City of London street outside the game studio on Old Broad Street near Liverpool Street
UK Official App 25 Old Broad Street London, EC2N 1HN United Kingdom

Send a message

The water is calm. The rod is ready.

Join UK Official App as a member and follow Tidal Tales from the first sketch to the final cast.

Become a Member Read the Studio Story Silhouette of the bearded fisherman beside a still lake at dusk
About the studio

A small London studio with a very large lake

We start with the place.

Founded at 25 Old Broad Street, UK Official App is a compact team of designers, artists and engineers. We would rather sketch riverbanks than polish another screen. Our first conversations about Tidal Tales began with a simple question: what makes a quiet morning by the water worth remembering? The answer became a fisherman, a boat and a notebook.

We test ideas in pencil before we build them in 3D. Artists paint textures by hand and engineers tune the water until a float feels as though it belongs there. Every reed bed, wooden jetty and rain-flecked pier starts with a real place someone on the team has stood. We keep the silhouettes clear so the scene still reads in grey dawn light.

Our values are practical. We respect the player's time, give every feature a reason to exist and say plainly when a test has missed the mark. Fishing is the centre of this game, not a pretext for a long menu. Slow play should still have thoughtful decisions in it. Quiet does not mean empty.

We share unfinished work because useful feedback arrives before a system is set in stone. Members can join monthly design round-tables and weigh in on smaller choices. The team listens, tests suggestions in context and explains what changed. Creative control stays with the people making the game.

Our mission is to make a welcoming British fishing adventure with enough detail to reward curious players. We draw on canals, chalk streams, harbours and lochs rather than inventing a countryside that feels nowhere in particular. We keep the studio small enough to talk through a decision over one table. The fisherman would probably approve.

Game artists and developers working at shared desks in a London studio near Liverpool Street
Sketches, test builds and river references share the same desks.

Craft first

Hand-painted textures and clear silhouettes. Every piece of art has a job in the scene.

Fishing is the point

The tension, patience and placement of a cast matter more than another screen of menus.

Players in the boat

Monthly member round-tables bring player feedback into real design discussions.

+44 20 7946 0832 [email protected] 25 Old Broad Street, London, EC2N 1HN