About Fintopia
Fintopia is an aquarium shop simulation that you play in a web browser. You take over a shop on the edge of a harbour, starting with a single reef tank, a key and one egg. From there you hatch fish, keep them fed, sell them to neighbours who leave orders at the counter, and open more aquariums as the shop earns coins and gains levels. Fish in Fintopia never die: a fish that goes without food for too long becomes sick, and one meal brings it back to health.
The game is free to play on Smaz Games. It runs in the browser on computers, phones and tablets, with no download and no in-app purchases. Coins are the only currency, and they are earned in the game.
How to play
- Name your shop and choose a shopkeeper. A short opening scene introduces the harbour, and you can watch it again later from Settings.
- Follow the opening lesson. It walks you through placing an egg, hatching it, feeding the new fish, collecting coins, cleaning algae and making your first sale. A second part covers caring for a fish, selling to your neighbour Mia, a fishing trip, and raising and breeding pairs of sardines and clownfish.
- Buy eggs from the Store, under the Fish tab. A bought egg hatches after a few seconds, and tapping it gives it a nudge.
- Feed your fish when they get hungry. Newly hatched fish arrive hungry, so feed them straight away.
- Let fish grow through four stages: Baby, Junior, Adult and Prime. Each species grows at its own pace, and a fish only grows while it is healthy.
- Sell fish or keep them. Open a fish's card to choose Sell or Keep, or fill a customer order at the Orders counter for extra coins.
- Spend coins on more eggs, decorations, tank space and new aquariums, and pay the daily power and water bills for each open tank.
Controls
Fintopia uses the same actions with a mouse or a finger.
- Tap or click open water to drop a pinch of food. After pressing the Feed button, every tap drops food for a short time.
- Hold still in open water to hand-feed. Nearby fish swim up and nibble, which counts as a meal. Hand feeding is always free.
- Tap a fish to greet it and see its name. Tap it again, or hold on it, to open its card.
- Tap or swipe coin bubbles to collect them, and tap green algae patches to clean them.
- Drag to scrub glass in Clean mode or to move a decoration in Edit mode. Pinch, use the mouse wheel, or press the minus and plus buttons to resize a decoration.
- F drops food while you are in feed mode and no panel is open.
- Escape closes a panel, cancels placing or moving a decoration, leaves Clean, Edit or Net mode, skips the opening scene and returns home from a neighbour visit.
- [ and ] return you to the shop floor.
- On a fishing trip, the arrow keys steer the net. Hold Space or Enter to aim and release to cast.
Feeding, hunger and sickness
Each fish shows how well fed it is. A fed fish becomes Hungry after a while, then Starving, and finally Sick if it is left without food. The time between meals depends on the species and grows longer as the fish matures; a Prime fish can go a full day. Sickness pauses growth but never kills a fish, and a single meal cures it. Caring for a hungry, starving or sick fish also earns a small amount of experience.
Food is free for the first ten minutes of play. After that, each scoop costs one coin, or you can buy a food sack, which works out cheaper per scoop. Hand-fed nibbles cost nothing. Once you reach level 5, a Feed all button feeds every fish in the tank at once.
Customers and coins
Neighbours leave notes at the Orders counter asking for a particular species, usually at Junior stage or older. Up to three orders can be open at a time, and each has a due day. Serving an order pays the normal sale price plus a bonus that grows with your shop rating, and you can skip a note you do not want to fill. Some regular customers have short stories that continue across several orders.
Coins also come from ordinary sales, coin bubbles made by happy Adult and Prime fish while you watch, cleaning algae, goals, achievements, level-ups and a free daily spin whose odds are shown. Sale value rises with each growth stage, so a Prime fish is worth far more than a Baby. A rare colour sells for more than the classic one.
Tanks and decorations
The shop has twelve aquariums. Before you open one, it is listed by its habitat, such as the reef, glow cave, freshwater pond, mangrove, kelp forest, shipwreck, polar and deep trench tanks, with later tanks including Kelp Tower, Jelly Lagoon, Koi Garden and Giant Ocean. Each needs a certain shop level and a number of coins. The freshwater pond is always the second tank, and it opens on Day 3 or at level 4. Opening a tank gives you an egg of a fish that lives there. Every tank starts with room for 25 fish, and you can expand it to 40 and then 60; eggs count towards that space.
The Store's Decor tab sells twenty decorations, including seasonal pieces and items that suit a single tank, such as water lilies or a ship's wheel. Drag a decoration along the sand and choose Place here. In Edit mode you can move, flip, store or sell it, and resize it between 60% and 150%. The plants in each tank are part of the background and cannot be moved.
Progression, goals and the fish book
- Levels: experience comes from selling, care, cleaning, goals and opening tanks. The level cap is 200. New features unlock along the way: goals and visitors at level 3, a second tank at level 4, Care tools and Feed all at level 5, and the Town and neighbour visits at level 6.
- Daily goals: three goals are set each day.
- Fish book: 64 species to find, each in five colours. Unmet species show a hint, and a fish you raise to Prime earns a star in the book. Some species are seasonal and some only arrive as wild visitors or from fishing.
- Achievements: a set of medals for caring, collecting, cleaning and decorating, plus an achievements book with ten chapters from Collector and Caretaker to Long haul, each with Bronze to Legend tiers.
- Other systems: breeding pairs, fishing trips, market prices, seasons and festivals, water types and Care equipment such as filters, heaters, lights and an auto-feeder.
Tips for new and experienced keepers
- Feed newly hatched fish right away, since they start hungry.
- Use hand feeding when food stops being free. It costs nothing and still counts as a meal.
- Keep fish fed so they keep growing. A sick fish stops growing until it eats.
- Hold on to a few fish until Adult or Prime. They sell for more and produce coin bubbles while the game is open.
- Check the Orders counter often. Orders pay more than a plain sale, and the bonus rises with your shop rating.
- Open new tanks only when you can cover their daily bills. Each open tank charges power and water at the start of every shop day.
- Wipe algae for coins and experience, or keep plecos, which eat it.
- Read the in-game Guide. New pages appear as features unlock.
Saving your shop
Fintopia saves on its own every few seconds, after important actions and when you close or hide the tab. On Smaz Games the save is kept in your browser on that device, so it does not move to another device and is removed if you clear your browser data. This game does not use Smaz Games account saves. When you come back, the shop works out how long you were away and shows a summary.
Devices and screen orientation
The game works with a mouse or by touch, and has layouts for both portrait and landscape.
Frequently asked questions
Is Fintopia free?
Yes. It is free to play in the browser on Smaz Games, with no download. The Smaz Games version has no in-app purchases.
Can my fish die?
No. Hungry fish become sick, and one meal makes them well again.
Does Fintopia work on phones?
Yes. It plays by touch on phones and tablets in portrait or landscape.
How many fish are there to discover?
The fish book has 64 species, and each comes in five colours.
How many tanks can I open?
Twelve, each unlocked with a shop level and coins.
How do I hand-feed my fish?
Hold your finger or mouse still in open water until fish come to nibble. It counts as a meal and is free.
Will my progress carry over to another device?
No. The shop is saved in the browser you play in.
Who made Fintopia
Fintopia was made by Saratoga Games, an independent studio in Cape Town, South Africa, run by solo developer Sean Wyngaard.
If you like Fintopia, try
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