Thank you Nexent Games for providing us with a review code!

I have reviewed several idle genre games that allow you to generate in-game currency while not actively being played. Kernelbay is an idle fishing game that runs alongside of your Windows desktop and can be unobtrusive and take up a small footprint while you do your day to day work. I was able to do web browsing and email while the fisherman/woman caught and sold fish on their tiny little island.

In total, there are six islands to unlock and they each have their own varieties of fish, bugs, and other creatures to catch and sell for a profit. At first, you can only catch one type of fish. In order to catch the others, you’ll need to buy licenses to do so. Each of the islands have twelve licenses to purchase and they range from five to thousands of coins each.

Your fisherman/woman will automatically catch fish and eventually sell the haul once the storage container is full. The fish depreciate in value the longer they sit so it’s a good idea to level up your logistics to increase the efficiency of your drone that converts your catches to currency. The other stats to level up are your fishing skills and boat. There are fifty levels in each category, and you pay to level them up. Like everything else, each new level costs more than the previous one.

While gold coins buy you upgrades and licenses, you’ll need to acquire or purchase black pearls in order to advance on the map to unlock new islands. Each map spot costs two pearls, which increase their conversion rate after every transaction. Every other space on the map opens up a treasure chest which typically includes coins, a pearl, or equipment upgrade (bait, boat, oars, fishing rod, barrel/cooler, drone). Each upgrade item will boost one of the stats for your boat, fishing or logistics.

Kernelbay has twenty-three Steam achievements and I was able to get thirty percent of them unlocked during my hour-long stream. I was able to unlock the rest of the achievements while running the game on my computer at work the following day. You can expect to 100% this game in roughly eight hours.

I like how each of the islands has a unique look with different wildlife to catch. The background music changes for each island too. It ranges from folksy to smooth jazz. There are options to run the game in a windowed mode, and you can specify which monitor you want it to appear on if you have multiple monitors. There’s also an option which allows the game to temporarily change your desktop background if desired.

The asking price is $3.99 and it’s worth considering if you enjoy fishing or cozy games. It’s something fun to fidget with if you have a desk job. Be warned that Kernelbay only runs on Windows. I don’t see much reason to go back to it after unlocking all of the achievements, but I had fun earning them.