u/Aware_Bell1295

I know this sounds cursed, but hear me out.

I've been solo-developing a realistic fishing MMO in Unreal Engine 5 for over a year. During that time I built a massive database — 600+ real fish species, 20+ real-world locations, weather patterns, fishing methods, bait/gear interactions — all sourced from actual fishing data.

At some point I looked at this database and thought: this is basically a card game waiting to happen. But I really didn't want to learn Unity or Godot just for a 2D card game when I already think in React.

So I built it with what I know: React, TypeScript, and Tauri v2 as the native wrapper. No Electron. No game engine. Just web tech compiled into a native desktop app.

The game is called Reel & Deal — a roguelite deckbuilder where you match fishing methods, baits, and gear to real-world conditions. Weather changes mid-run and shifts which fish are available, so your strategy has to adapt on the fly.

Here's what surprised me about using web tech for a game:

• React's component model actually works great for card games. Each card is a component, hands are arrays, the board is just state. Drag-and-drop, animations, transitions — all stuff the web ecosystem already solved.

• CSS animations carried hard. I expected to need canvas or WebGL for visual polish. Nope. CSS transitions + a few keyframe animations got me 90% of the way there. The remaining 10% was canvas for particle effects.

• State management was the real game engine. The "game loop" is basically a useReducer with a giant action dispatcher. Turns, phases, weather ticks, catch resolution — all just state transitions. If you've built a complex SPA, you've basically built a turn-based game engine without knowing it.

• Tauri v2 made it actually shippable. Sub-10MB bundle, native performance, Rust backend for heavy data operations. Steam integration through Tauri's IPC was the hardest part but it works.

• The dev experience was unbeatable. Hot reload, browser DevTools for debugging game state, React DevTools for inspecting the component tree mid-game. I could iterate on a card mechanic in seconds. Try doing that in Unity.

The game launches on Steam May 19 as Early Access. It includes controller support, colorblind mode, and 11 languages.

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4601230/Reel__Deal/

I used Claude Code as a coding assistant throughout development. Design, mechanics, and creative direction are mine.

Genuinely curious — has anyone else here shipped something "non-web" with web tech? Games, desktop tools, kiosks? Would love to hear what stack you used and what broke.

I've been working solo on a realistic fishing MMO on UE5 for over a year now. I knew realistic graphics, dynamic weather systems, ultra realistic wake and wave systems, fish migration patterns, etc. were a tough bite to chew but I'm slowly getting there.

After I spent nearly 3 months just on a ship's wake system I was getting so frustrated.

Then I realized I had actually gathered so much data for fishing that I could make a simpler but very detailed strategy game based on my already collected data.

And Reel & Deal is just that!

I took the database from my main project and built a smaller indie roguelite card game around it, entirely solo, built from scratch with React and Tauri rather than a traditional game engine.

You have to match the right fishing methods, baits and gear based on your location and the dynamic weather conditions to catch the most profitable fish in the area. It also features an Endless mode if you want to keep pushing your build as far as it can go.

Here's what's in the game:

• 600+ fish and sea creatures to catch
• 20+ real world locations, each with their own unique species
• Dynamic weather conditions that shift the fish pool mid run
• 20+ bosses each with unique abilities and phases
• A huge variety of gear, baits and consumables to combine in endless ways

Reel & Deal launches on Steam on May 19 as Early Access. The game includes colorblindness support, controller support, and is available in 11 languages. If it sounds like your kind of game, wishlisting it would mean a lot!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4601230/Reel__Deal/

P.S. I used Claude Code as a coding assistant during development. The game design, mechanics, creative direction, and artwork were made by me and my talented friends.