In the game, players use motion and touch controls to catch fish and subsequently shoot them out of the sky for cash.

Artist Greg Wohlwend moved in with iOS developer Zach Gage to work 14-hour days on the game.

A 3D remaster of the game developed by KO_OP, titled Ridiculous Fishing EX, was released on Apple Arcade in July 2023, 3 years after Vlambeer went defunct.

[6] There are four stages, each with its own visual and audio theme and rare fish,[4] and an endless mode where players can work towards the highest score.

[7] Earnings can be spent in a store towards persistent upgrades such as longer fishing line length, invulnerable drills, frivolous hats, bigger guns,[4] chainsaw lures, a hair dryer and toaster (to zap inadvertent catches),[7] fuel for the chainsaw, and a necktie for greater income.

[8] There is also a Fish-o-pedia in Billy's smartphone that gives gameplay hints and tracks stats such as fish caught, which is the progress for unlocking new levels.

[9] Vlambeer designer Jan Willem ("JW") Nijman developed the idea based on a television show about tuna fishermen that led him to consider an intersection between catching big fish, slow-motion photography, and Duck Hunt's game mechanics.

[1] By now the team had four members: designer Jan Willem Nijman, marketer Rami Ismail, iOS developer Zach Gage, and artist Greg Wohlwend.

[1] Upon return to the Netherlands from GDC, Nijman and Ismail, the co-founders of Vlambeer, began to plan a "really large game", but ultimately decided that the idea was a diversion from the realities of finishing Ridiculous Fishing.

[1] In August 2012, after a road trip home across the United States from Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle to New York City, the team set a deadline to finish the game.

[9] They scrapped the store, interface, and endgame along with "90 percent" of their work, which revealed a specific direction for the rest of the game's development.

[6] Oli Welsh of Eurogamer called the balance beautiful and clever, an elaboration on their previous version's "idiot-savant design" without going too far.

[5] TouchArcade's Eli Hodapp commended the upgrade structure that combined obtainable incentives alongside gameplay as engaging as Doodle Jump's.

[4] He added that the game could have been "even more ridiculous" and its levels more differentiated in theme and art style, though he found the "almost cubist design... absolutely gorgeous".

[4] Welsh of Eurogamer agreed that Wohlwend's art was "achingly cool" and reflected a "retro and minimalist" indie gaming trend without overpowering the gameplay.

[8] TouchArcade's Eli Hodapp called Ridiculous Fishing so well packaged as to make his recommendation "effortless" for both short few-minute play sessions as well as longer ones.