I have found a word describing Aquaria's ending

[Xiagan]

I second glamador.

The problem is as always that the people who don't like something are louder than the others. I don't know how much copies you sold, but I can't believe that the sold copies : people who complain about something - ratio is bigger than 5:1 or even 10:1.

[Alphasoldier]

It's human nature, people want to find flaws in things that nears perfection.

1,2,3: No no no
4: Maybe, but it's fine as it is now, or the game would get too easy, Naija never even TALKS about having a actual map.
5 & 6: wtf? Once seen those things I'd totally ignore it.
7: Mia is fine as she is now, maybe more encounters would have been nice, but she's supposed to be mysterious.
8: This game is about exploration, to explore, to keep swimming by one wall and end up somewhere.
9: Like Glamador said, what's the need of wide screen all of a sudden?
10: Understandable when you don't have a normal comp. :p
11: Get wine.
12: Maybe drag and drop ingredient to other spots to place them in between?
13 & 14: Very unprofessional.

The expanded story of Mia would be nice, but again, not needed. I'd say, spare the effort for the next game.

The game is fine, and I get you want to improve the game Alec, but once you improve it again people will nag about the next things, there is criticism that actually helps and there is criticism that is just like nagging.

[yupsi]

The themes that I find interesting in the game are as follows:

<...>
Right Hemisphere of the Brain vs. the Left Hemisphere
<...>

 

[Alec]

The themes that I find interesting in the game are as follows:

<...>
Right Hemisphere of the Brain vs. the Left Hemisphere
<...>

 

This was something I realized recently while watching this. Found it really interesting.

[Zam]

Seesh. If you try and make your piece of art 'perfect' for every little nickpicker, it's not going to your's anymore. Also, owning a mac doesn't mean you can't buy the game. It just means you have to go over to a friend's house to play it 

[Zixinus]

Everyday, someone complains about the "one thing" they don't like about the game. Everyone has their own pet peeve.

The reason why perfection doesn't exist, is because someone will always find something to complain about.

A good judgement is whether you can tell whether its good complaint or not.

When added up, pretty much everything in the game has been complained about. To improve the game for everyone's enjoyment, every aspect would have to be changed.

A large section of gamers are a rather whiny bunch. Just look over several gamer forums.

Rather then trying to please everybody, I say try to find the most valid criticisms and ignore the rest. It's impossible to please everybody.

I've been trying to work on that, but its pretty depressing when you can't trust your own instincts and you have nobody to bounce your ideas off of.

Have you thought of getting beta testers and playtests? Valve uses them allot and it works for them, they can really improve the game, just by watching how they play.

That's one of the reasons the Mac version is taking a long time to finish. Its pretty hard to try to make something perfect on your own.

So you are remaking the game for the Mac version? Will the PC version be patched, or modded or something?

HOW THE HELL DID THIS TOPIC GET SO BIG IN ONE DAY!?

I once saw an 8-page wall of enormous text emerge. The shocking thing isn't that was just random responses but a somewhat rational discussion with a anarcho-liberal.

Of course there was some poo-flinging going about as the mentioned anarcho-liberal has certain problems with grasping the idea of logic. However, the mentioned anarcho-libertarianism is very discussed. Eventually, the anarcho-liberall (volounterist or something, the members nicknamed him Volleyball), gone into a one-on-one discussion. You can view that here, if you want:

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?t=119956

This was something I realized recently while watching this. Found it really interesting.

I agree, its rather interesting. She must have a very stressing job when she's actually happy having a brain hemoreage. Either that, or there was a release of endorfins with it.

It was definitely an experience for her. What I wonder just how much of what she says is metaphorical and how much is religous. I am getting more and more of the impression that there was brain damage.

So the plan was to make it, as you described, shocking (and perhaps even uncomfortable)... not so much tragic, I think.

So it was deliberately handled like that? In that case, okay, I can take it. I do not just so much as point this out, but discuss it with the people here. Was it on purpose to make it shocking? Should it be changed?

:

Loneliness
Man vs. Woman
Creation vs. Nature
Right Hemisphere of the Brain vs. the Left Hemisphere
Faith (powerful, often misplaced)
Love (powerful, often misplaced)

where Man and Creation are linked
and Women and Nature are linked (natural birth being part of nature)

The meeting of conflicts. A very romanticist element. I think.

[Alec]

I agree, its rather interesting. She must have a very stressing job when she's actually happy having a brain hemoreage. Either that, or there was a release of endorfins with it.

It was definitely an experience for her. What I wonder just how much of what she says is metaphorical and how much is religous. I am getting more and more of the impression that there was brain damage.

I actually found it moving and it felt as though it pointed towards truth.

The idea that one side of the brain is thinking in the past and planning for the future, while the other is just living in the moment is interesting. I think it could explain why a lot of people do the strange things that they do.

[Alec]

Have you thought of getting beta testers and playtests? Valve uses them allot and it works for them, they can really improve the game, just by watching how they play.

We did beta and play testing for the PC version, and we're doing it again for the Mac version.

I'm going to take the advice here and ignore complaints that I don't agree with. Then maybe I can actually finish it.

[Lenick]

So From what Alec said in the first page + the Creators final speech,  I take it that the last few of the 13 were all attempts at creating a perfect being, with each "atemmpt" being a bit similar to the previous one.  Thats why Naija and Mia who's the 13th look like the Mithalan people which appear to derive from the 12th.

[Glamador]

Think of it as steady improvement.  The Mithalans were the penultimate creation, and Mia was the perfection.

[Xiagan]

Think of it as steady improvement.  The Mithalans were the penultimate creation, and Mia was the perfection.

But perfection sometimes has even bigger flaws than imperfection.
So, Alec+Derek, don't try to make the game a Mia. It is perfect enough as it is now.

[Alphasoldier]

Perfection is a opinion.

[KingAl]

Aquaria would be much so better if it were one of those stainless steel knife sets you see for 50% off if you use your credit card and call in the next 10 minutes. [size=0]You know, and the jagged one can cut through frozen sardine cans and you're like "Wow, if I ever need to cut through frozen sardine cans I'll be set".[/size]  What were you guys thinking?

[Gotcha!]

Hi Alec,

It seems the topic starter kind of gets to you, and I don't really understand it.
Whatever someone does, whatever someone creates, there will always be people around with criticism. One can either decide to learn from this criticism or decide that the criticiser (sp?) is talking bullocks.
You can never ever ever please everyone. Never. Ever.

I think you and Derek made an awesome game. This game has entertained me like no other game could in the past years, titles with huge companies behind them.
There were some small things that I'd liked to have seen changed, but, really, every other game in the universe has something that I like to see changed. But changing something would, like you said, make others less happy, so my advice is, leave the game as it is.

- The story and ending leaves room to think about and that's really a good thing. (The Witcher had this too.) People need to learn to think about stuff themselves instead of having others spell everything out for them.
- Your music is brilliant. So one site claims something else, who cares. The tracks are perfect and go hand in hand with the game-setting.
- The cooking thing is nice. I can't understand how people dislike this and want to have it simpler.
- The exploring bit; people do not know where to go. I didn't either and I loved it. It adds to the overal time it takes to play the game and it adds more magic to the whole. People who dislike exploring and want to have everything spelled out for them should really play some EA games or whatever.

Anyway, I can go on about this forever but am already losing the moral of my rant.
What I am trying to say is that you and Derek made an awesome game and you should ignore criticism if you think it's unfair, since people will always criticise others anyway (Human nature?), no matter how good a game is.

[Zixinus]

I actually found it moving and it felt as though it pointed towards truth.

The only truth I saw is how disorder and damage of the brain's functions are so easily indistinguishable for spiritual experiences.

The idea that one side of the brain is thinking in the past and planning for the future, while the other is just living in the moment is interesting.

Be warned that in reality, the brain is a whole lot more complicated. She simplified allot, oversimplified even.