Messages

1

General / Re: Aquaria ever released in stores/amazon?

« on: January 21, 2011, 07:10:59 pm »

Minecraft did about as well as Aquaria has done, up until Penny Arcade advertised it heavily by making comics/newsposts devoted to it, and THEN it took off and became wildly popular.

Aquaria has just been largely under-advertised, you might notice it never got a mention on a massively visited site like Penny Arcade, much less a comic made about it.

Good point.  Up until Penny Arcade mentioned it, I'd never heard of it (which doesn't necessarily mean much, but I wasn't even into the indie games scene at that point).  If I recall correctly, Penny Arcade didn't mention it just once, but they did a two- or three-part series on it, and even brought it up in a comic or two after that.

It's also received coverage from other channels, as people did some creative things with it.  One fellow created a basic processor within Minecraft, which received coverage from a few other sites and introduced those audiences to the game.

2

Support / Re: Aquaria OSX fullscreen graphical issue

« on: January 20, 2011, 06:13:51 pm »

10.4.11? Whew, that's old stuff.  It's hard to say whether it's something with your hardware, your software, or both, given that both are pretty old.  I'd suggest upgrading to OS X 10.5, which will have received newer graphics updates and frameworks than 10.4.11 (which has been out of support for some time now, if I remember correctly).  As you're probably aware, you can't upgrade to 10.6 because you are on a Power PC processor, while 10.6 is Intel-only, but I can vouch for the fact that 10.6 has no issues with it.

10.5 is a worthwhile upgrade over 10.4.  Trust me, I've used OS X regularly since 10.3, and dabbled in it since 10.2... it's all come a long way.

3

General / Re: Thoughts and Reflections

« on: January 20, 2011, 06:07:39 pm »

I had honestly forgotten about the hooded figure by the end of the game, and I didn’t even feel particularly intrigued by it. Hell, the mystery behind the Arnassi civilization was probably more memorable to me than the hooded figure.

Just to counter you, throughout much of the game I was trying to figure out who the hooded figure was, and where he or she would tie into the game.  During the final boss sequences I began to piece it together, but was still wondering when it would be more conclusive.  In that regard, the extended ending was satisfying to me.

But for whatever reason, Mia decides to intrude into her daughter’s life after Naija’s already started to settle with her family. “Hi Naija! I’m Mia. I’m the mom that mind-wiped you so you’d be better at committing deicide. You’ll never guess what! I just came back from stealing the ‘Queen Bitch of the Universe’ title from Kerrigan!”

The reason seemed clear to me - she wanted Naija to experience all of the hardships that she did, and to gain the powers that she did, so that she could help Mia to dominate the surface and other worlds (and what ever else Mia may be plotting).  If none of this had been set up, Naija may not have been motivated to do what she did.  Her experiences shaped her.  It's somewhat philosophical and true to life, in my opinion.

Mia is ridiculously off key as to what Naija’s personal values are by trying to appeal to the glory of world domination. Now I acknowledge that the game has hinted a bit to Naija’s wariness of being enchanted by power. But unless I am completely misreading her character, I honestly don’t see a significant danger of Naija somehow being tempted by the dark side. The melancholy she seems to express in empathizing with her encounter of other races indicates to me her nurturing character. The fact that Mia had to force paralyze her attests to me that she’s not interested in the power tripping business. Mia might be skilled at coercion and manipulation, but I don’t see mind control as being one of her abilities, otherwise the game would have made more sense with a zombie-Naija narrating to us from the start about the voice in her head that repeatedly tells her to “kill the Creator”.

Naija's reaction and response was completely in line with her character.  While I've read a few complaints about it, I also think it was pretty realistic.  The times that Naija reflected on her past and what it might have been were romantic/idealistic.  Clearly she was expecting her mother to be some wonderful person.  The complete 180 from expectations was a shocker.  People shouting "I would have killed her right away" likely aren't considering the emotions that they would realistically feel.  (That, or they have a very terrible relationship with their own parents, or they have an emotional disorder that is hopefully being treated.)

Mia is also shown to be different from Naija.  She was created directly from the Creator, so it's quite believable that she has some god-like powers, herself.  Maybe Naija has them (or is capable of them), maybe not - but hey, it's fiction, right?  Just go with it.

I also found the idea of having memory wiped and all to be somewhat beautiful.  We start off the game with the idea that we're reliving Naija's adventure through her eyes, along with her.  The extended ending seems to take a step back even farther, and it seems as if the save crystals that we used so routinely were actually Naija's way of storing memories, and that Naija's son traces those memories in order to try and understand what happened so that he can find her (presumably that is his goal).  It all seemed to link together so nicely, and I wasn't expecting it.

Having gone through this once, and imagining the continuation of the story, I don’t see myself developing any sort of sympathy for Mia when we bring her to heel.

So quick to judge!   I could certainly envision scenarios where I'd feel sympathy for Mia.

4

General / Re: Aquaria 2 open source?

« on: January 20, 2011, 05:39:32 pm »

I didn't get the impression that Alec burned out from criticism, as tounces mentioned.  He's still making games, after all.  I wouldn't be surprised if he and Derek wanted a break from Aquaria, given all of the work that it required.  Based on what Alec has written, it seems that he is open to making a second Aquaria, but that Derek may be hesitant to embark on another project with him.

Regardless, I don't get the impression that making a sequel would be as simple as making new art, designing new levels, and furthering the storyline.  Naija could still be the main character, but it seemed as if her son would be the protagonist in the sequel.  Even if Naija were the main character, the ending seems to indicate that much of the story might take place above water.  That could potentially require a different control scheme - it wouldn't be much fun if we were forced to hop around on land for much of the game, would it?

I may be underestimating what the modders are capable of, but I'd imagine that it would take a lot more work than people seem to indicate here.

5

Gameplay / Re: Aquaria second part

« on: January 13, 2011, 06:00:23 pm »

Since when was there a "to-be-continued"? Maybe I don't know because I haven't got to the ending, but I consider the game pretty much self-contained. This is probably Bit-Blot's first and last game, just like a lot of other two-people partnerships.

Complete the game after finding all three of Naija's lost memories.  I won't discuss it here and spoil it, but I will say that there is a very clear opportunity for a sequel (in fact, it basically sets itself up for one).  It does include a "to be continued."

6

Gameplay / Re: Praise and Gripes + Leaf = Hand Roll...?

« on: January 10, 2011, 08:10:18 pm »

Balancing it out, I felt it was fine as it was.  The little tips at the bottom of the screen often informed you of your new abilities, and then it was up to you to play with them and see their effects on other creatures or on the map.  That's part of the fun of games like these - if they gave you everything straight-out, it would completely remove the challenge.  A lot of the experience was about being observant and following your curiosity.

If I ever became stuck, I figured that I had either missed something or wasn't doing something correctly, and would back-track or try virtually everything that I could in every form.  Not everything was obvious, but I appreciated that.

7

General / Re: Consider updating the pricing

« on: January 10, 2011, 06:12:43 pm »

The problem is, you don't realize it's worth $20 until you've already played it, so many people see the pricetag and then don't play it in the first place.

Totally true.  I found Aquaria through the Humble Indie Bundle 2 (and I discovered the bundle on its last day - lucky!).  I'd never played an indie game before, and had extremely low expectations for all of the games listed.  I probably wouldn't have bought the bundle at all, but I researched the games and Aquaria looked really nice.

Despite that, I figured that it would be relatively unpolished, particularly compared to games produced by big-name companies.  I didn't expect to get more than three or four hours out of it, either.  The game was largely a two-person effort - how in-depth could it get?

It was within the first two or three hours of playing that I realized my misconceptions.  There's more here than there is in a lot of big-name company's games.  I also felt badly - this game was completely worth its full price, yet the developers would probably get less than $1 when accounting for all the ways that the money was split.  I tried to make up for it by buying the OST and paying more than the minimum.

I think that the price is completely fair.  Indie developers are overcoming handicaps by needing to get the word out and in having to break misconceptions such as what I held, but sporadic sales and bundles help to accomplish that.  I am now tuned in to the indie game scene, and look forward to what's coming out.