Messages

1

General / Re: Launch game straight to main menu.

« on: March 07, 2009, 10:19:42 pm »

I don't particularly care for opening logos either.  They're fine the first time you start the game, but after that they should be skippable.  I know who created the game, I don't need to be bashed over the head with it every time I play.  However Aquaria is hardly unique in this respect, every game has them these days and some are painfully longer and unskippable.

For what it's worth, once you get to the menu you don't have to wait for the text on the menu options to translate before you can use them.  You can click them right away provided you remember the position of what you want to select, which shouldn't be too hard because 99.9% of the time you'll be going for the same option: Load Game.

2

Gameplay / Re: beast form?

« on: February 02, 2009, 08:50:09 am »

When you shot an eye it starts shooting a laser.  You have to circle round him shooting each eye until all 6 are activated at once.  After that a weak spot will be exposed and you just have to keep shooting that to kill them.

Beast form is unnecessary for that miniboss, in fact you acquire beast form at the end of Mithalas so there's no way you  can have it at that point as killing those minibosses is necessary to progress further.

3

Gameplay / Re: Big Spoilers: Final Boss 3rd Form

« on: February 02, 2009, 08:45:33 am »

You definitely need the sun form for the 5th stage of the final boss, but I'm pretty sure you don't need it for the 3rd stage guys.  I've blindly hit him a couple times as he charges with pincers open just spamming energy shots.

Anyway it's moot because, as said, you definitely need it for the 5th (final) stage of the boss.

4

Gameplay / Re: The Guys head with the missing eye.

« on: January 28, 2009, 06:15:46 am »

Ugh, I spent ages trying to figure out what to do with that and you're telling me it's a red herring!?  I hate that 

5

General / Re: Aquaria on STEAM!!

« on: December 17, 2008, 09:34:57 pm »

Kotaku is running the announcement: http://kotaku.com/5112402/aquaria-appears-sets-sale-on-steam

----

Also, as of the time of this writing, Aquaria is #9 on the Steam top sellers list (though I do not know the basis [daily, weekly, etc]  is for their top seller list).

6

General / Re: Aquaria on STEAM?

« on: December 16, 2008, 03:31:00 am »

BTW Alec, I'm sure the Valve guys tell this to you, but anyone who logs into Steam today is greeted by this nice big banner when Steam loads.  I really like the update banners, they key me into games I never knew existed, hopefully it does the same for people unfamiliar with Aquaria.

7

General / Re: Aquaria on STEAM?

« on: December 16, 2008, 03:23:08 am »

YAY! 

I bought two copies and gifted one to a friend who is probably too much of a frat boy Halo/Gears of War type gamer to ever appreciate it, just because I wanted to support the game and he's the only one of my friends who probably would never buy it for himself 

8

General / Re: Aquaria on STEAM?

« on: December 14, 2008, 07:08:28 am »

...it's up to Bit-Blot to gain privileges (being able to choose how the game is sold on Steam) by selling lots of games (and at the low, low price of $20) and up to Valve for getting it into their thick skull that Bit-Blot deserves the freedom and that Aquaria is one of the most desirable 2D games.

I'm not sure I understand.  Why/how would it be sold any differently than any other game on Steam?

I thought it was a done deal based on Alec's posts, just a matter of when the new build would be ready

9

General / Re: Aquaria on STEAM?

« on: December 14, 2008, 12:16:17 am »

So, now that version 1.1 is out...

10

General / Re: Aquaria on STEAM?

« on: December 08, 2008, 08:01:14 am »

We shall see..... 

i know secrets

^^^ Alec's post without the size command, hmm....

11

General / Re: Aquaria on STEAM?

« on: December 04, 2008, 09:37:57 pm »

Any chance of a release before the new year?

My interest is fickle and currently waning.

12

General / Re: Aquaria on STEAM?

« on: November 23, 2008, 10:51:52 am »

I'd like to add that if you do get Aquaria on steam try to allow previous owners that purchased Aquaria through you to register their games, in the same way that people that pre-ordered World of Goo were able to register their copies with Steam using their pre-order serial codes.

It would be a huge service to those of us that have already supported you.

There's likely a cost (to the developer) associated with doing that.  Just think about it for a moment.  Steam made/makes no money from sales of the game outside of Steam, so why would they allow those people to suck up bandwidth on their service,  downloading hundreds of megs?

I suspect for the very few non-Valve games where you can activate external CD keys/serial codes on Steam, the developers/publishers had to make specific compensation to Steam for that privaledge.

13

General / Re: Time and time again!

« on: October 20, 2008, 10:43:42 pm »

I would think the Steam release would be more lucrative and thus more important than the Mac version.  Darwinia's sales exploded when it hit Steam, despite being available from the creator's themselves (much as Aquaria is) for a while before that.

Obviously, I'm not in any way qualified to make such an assessment; it's just my thoughts. Of course, I am also biased in my opinion as I want the game to come to Steam (along with the patch so that I can play it in widescreen).

14

General / Re: Aquaria on STEAM?

« on: October 14, 2008, 07:15:38 am »

I didn't initially want to contribute to the off-topic direction this thread has taken, but I felt compelled.  An OS that's been officially released for two years and already in use by millions can't really be "scrapped."  You can only scrap things during the production phase.  Once a product is out, all that can happen is it being succeeded by a newer version - you can't call that scrapping.  In the context in which you guys are using it, every OS in history has been "scrapped", so perhaps you should choose different diction.

I've been using Vista x64 for about 6 months now, it's fine.  I'm not particularly a fan of the OS, it doesn't really do anything for me that Windows XP didn't, but neither is it any worse than any OS I've ever used.  I was, like some of you, a rather outspoken opponent of the OS until I actually used it, at which point my opinion turned largely to "meh, it works".  Since then, reading enthused damnations of the OS come off as a bit...desperate, for lack of a better word, and smacking of typical internet hyperbole.

Regarding peripherals that are not compatible - the onus is on the hardware manufacturers to provide compatible drivers for new OSes.  I've not had a single issue finding Vista drivers for any of my devices, which is saying something because not only am I on Vista, but it's 64bit.  Then again, I use predominantly newer hardware from well known companies.  Some people expect hardware that is decade older or more to be supported, this is perhaps not the most reasonable expectation given the rate at which PC technology moves.  Lest we forget, Windows XP rendered vast numbers of older hardware incompatible as well; people were upset then same as now, but eventually we all bought newer, better hardware that was supported, forgot about how we hated this new OS, and moved on.

15

General / Re: Aquaria on STEAM?

« on: October 07, 2008, 07:39:55 am »

Hi everyone,

Sorry to bug, but any new news to report on this?  An ETA perhaps?

I've been following Aquaria since it's release - enjoyed the demo quite a bit, but two things were keeping my from buying the game: lack of widescreen support, and I strongly prefer to get my games through Steam - if for no other reason than it's very convenient to have everything in one place, with one login, and no hassle to re-download.

It looks like both these things are going to be resolved; it's taken quite a bit longer than I thought it would, but I understand things work differently when you have a staff of 2 or 3 people   I am eagerly awaiting the Steam release and having a rough date to look forward to would make it so much more bearable - even if it's just "before 2009".

I'm thinking and hoping the game will do wonderfully on Steam.  It really gives you exposure to a big audience; rumors are that it did wonders for Introversion and Darwinia - I'm not sure how other indie games on the service have fared since then, but I will certainly be buying it.