UPDATE: Their site is fixed, now. Below is my complete human translation of both pages the article:Their site appears to be broken. Here's Google's cached version of the first page of the article, although I can't figure out how to view the second page in Google's cache. Alec's original link and the automated translation above seem to be for the second page of the article; here's a human translation of the first page:AquariaBy: Tomás García @ Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Summary: Independent games tend to be seen with little confidence, because of the poor development values they tend to have, but some separate themselves from the flock to shine on their own; one of these few is Aquaria. An underwater world full of mysteries and corners to explore.
Currently the video game industry is growing like never before. Producing almost as much money as the movie industry, the place for independent developers is not easy. Even though many innovative and interesting ideas come from that sector, few times are they brought about correctly, or even complete a project. One of the positive points of this type of development is that even though the ideas are ambitious, in the absence of large budgets they seek out the simplest ways to go about their objectives, and generally result in the end in easy-to-understand and quick-to-learn controls, simple and nice graphics and well-written stories, full of intrigue.
The fascinating world of Aquaria.
The world of Aquaria is simply beautiful. With hand-painted backgrounds, dim lighting and splendid music, it's not hard to believe that that underwater world really exists and thereby immerse yourself in the game. The store puts us in the skin of Naija, a young, lonely sea creature that passes the days singing in solitude. Until one day she runs into a black figure that shows her some strange visions, and it is then that she awakens to reality, that she knows nothing about her past and family. She then begins a journey into the depths of this mysterious and magical world.
Aquaria was developed by a company called
Bit Blot, composed of two people: Alec Holowka, programmer and composer, and Derek Yu, illustrator and web developer. The development lasted a little over two years, and was released in 2007. Despite taking so long in development, the effort paid off by winning the top place in the Independent Games Festival, plus the $50,000 prize that accompanies the award.
This games uses many elements that distinguished a genre of games, Castlevania for example. If Castlevania was set underwater and was able to climb walls. The mouse is the main control, and with it the player moves (or not) to different parts of the map. A click of the left mouse button makes Naija perform a hard stroke, travelling short distances at high speed, and holding it down causes her to swim at slower but maintainable pace. Pushing against the walls causes Naija to grab them, and pushing towards a wall while gripping onto another will allow her to jump from one to the other. As can be seen, the controls are easy and swimming and exploring the world is a very pleasant experience. But it's not all swimming in Aquaria. One of the heroine's great abilities is singing, with which you can form a shield, change form, and affect your surroundings, among other things. Holding down the right mouse button presents us with a circle of eight symbols, each representing a note, and by combining them in different ways you can access the aforementioned skills.
Trailer videoThe first of these powers that we have access to is the shield, and there are other even more interesting, but none as interesting as the transformation. The first part of the game has a very tranquil pace, in which the majority of the tasks to accomplish are to swim, explore, dodge evil mollusks, continue swimming and swim a little more, but afterward, things get more complicated and we begin to meet more hostile enemies. One of the many skills the heroine learns is to change her form. Naija can change from her normal form to energy, and this allows her to shoot to defend herself from aggressors. While the button control scheme continues to work the same way, with a right-click you can shoot. This radically changes the game model and is an interesting variation in the gameplay. There are many more forms, but we'd be ruining the experience if we told you more.
As can be seen, Aquaria is very much influenced by the old arcade games that knew how to entertain us when we were young, and like them, it has a variety of enemies, bosses and mini-bosses. And also like the old games, the difficulty can become quite high in certain parts. At some times you must defend yourself from attacks in very small spaces and it tends to be frustrating. Also the bosses don't tend to go down with a good fight first, but this is not necessarily a negative point, taking into account that today's games are criticized for being too easy.
The different forms you can acquire add diversity to the game.
To make the playability even more flavorful, Naija has the ability to cook different dishes with ingredients that come from plants and animals. These dishes have different effects, such as restoring energy and improving stats (speed, defense, etc.). In the beginning of the game there's only one recipe, but you can discover more using different objects in a random manner.
We've already mentioned that the world of Aquaria looks beautiful. The colors, the style, it's all very nice. But this world can also be a very dangerous place, as is discovered as you advance in the game. Not only that, it's incredibly large, composed of different tunnels that lead you to other sections of the world. Fortunately we have a map at our disposal and it generally functions well.
The detail in the scenes is admirable.
And what would an adventure game be without puzzles to obstruct advancement? Aquaria has an abundant dose of them. Generally, when you discover a new ability, you'll need to go back and use what you've learned to pass an obstacle.
If all this interests you and you want to know more, we'd recommend that you
download the demo which is a lightweight 63 MB and has many places to explore. Then, if the demo enchants you as much as it did us and you want to
buy the game and support the independent industry, then you can do so at the official site for €19.00. The price can appear a bit high for an independent game, but we can assure you that here you will find a deep world, with interesting characters, many places to explore and a great story. And on top of that, a level editor is included.
A little trip by turtle for some fresh air.
Aquaria is the independent answer to the fat fish in the industry. Without much of a budget, two people managed to created a world that breathes life through every pore, with a protagonist that is easy to relate to and a story that captivates you to the end. This game attracts casual players for its simplicity and graphic attractiveness, and experience players for its complexity in narration and intuitiveness of playability.
Score: 88%
