I haven't finished Aquaria yet, so please forgive me for not reading the previous posts in fear of spoilers. It is an incredible game; beautiful, smooth... truly amazing. Though I'm not far through it yet, I know it's one of my favourite games (not that I've played an awful lot). I will be reading replies to this post, assuming there are any, so if the posters would be so good as to refrain from posting anything akin to a spoiler, that'd be grand. I would tell you what I've played through so far, but that'd be a spoiler in itself, wouldn't it?
So: I've been thinking the last few days about how an Aquaria MMORPG would be if there was one, and I've become so attached to the idea that I want to make it. Unfortunately, I don't know anything whatever about programming. I know that Aquaria is soon to be released as open-source, so I'm thinking it might be possible to use the existing engine and graphics as a base.
Here are some of my ideas, in case anyone feels like reading them:
1) No levels. I don't feel they're right for Aquaria. Rather than having the game's focus on levelling, I think it should be based around socialising (I don't know much about Aquaria's races (yet?), but whales and especially dolphins are social creatures, aren't they? And a glance at Naija's chest can tell you she's a mammal), but since players always like something to work on, what about different outfits, pets, and extremely customisable houses? Of course levels may be the best option - it'd be hard to find something to fully replace them - but if possible I think it'd be better to steer away from them. An idea that quickly occurs is songs - rather than raising levels, players work on collecting a multitude of songs, including forms.
2) Exploration. I don't know what content would need to be free and open-source, but if maps and maybe monsters could be kept secret, a huge world to explore and discover new areas and monsters would be perfect. The red save points could be converted into respawn points, where you reappear on death; in my opinion there should be no death penalty, though perhaps you could have only a few hitpoints on respawn.
3) Trading and items. Some kind of seashell could be used as currency, and players could sell and buy items. However, unlike other MMORPGS where all items appear in the Inventory, there would be different kinds of items in different windows, as with the single-player (and more importantly, existing) Aquaria. Off the top of my head, 'Food', 'Pets', 'Outfits', 'Treasures'.
3.1) Food. As with Aquaria single-player (which from now on I shall refer to as 'AQSP'), players should be able to collect different items from monsters and plants, and combine these in various ways to make various foods. So far in AQSP I've encountered foods which increase current hitpoints, and defense, speed and energy (?) temporarily. The uses of food could be extended to purely aesthetic effects, or de-aggravating monsters and such. The Food inventory should contain 5 pages of 10 slots.
3.2) Pets. Lots of different pets for lots of different things, some killing monsters for you, some giving light, others boosting your attack or slowly healing you. Others just looking fancy to show off to other players. Hard to obtain, pets would make good things to sell. The Pet inventory should contain 3 pages of 4 slots.
3.3) Outfits. Plenty of outfits, possible body and head as separate items, to customise your Aquarian avatar. What'd be really nice is the ability to make new outfits in much the same way as cooking - combining a cloth and adornments and dye. The Outfits inventory should contain 5 pages of 8 slots.
3.4) Treasures. Several possible uses for a treasure, the main one being an item to add to your home. Rather than the stationary treasures in AQSP, these should be carry-able with the Bind song (or most of them, anyway).
4) Home customisation. At best, a map editor for almost unlimited possibilities. Each tile would have a price, usually money but sometimes an item; the prices would vary between areas (eg stony floor tiles would be cheapest in a Home Waters-type area, whereas leafy floor tiles would be cheapest in a Kelp Forest-style map). Backgrounds would be different in each area, but unchangeable. Some tiles could also be free up until a certain amount have been used - 100 free floor tiles, for example.
5) Song combat. One thing I was disappointed with in AQSP was the combat; I was hoping for a lot more singing and a lot less shooting. For "Aquaria Online" I would rather see many songs to be sung in combat, the player responding to the monster's actions to defeat it as quickly as possible with a minimum loss of hitpoints.
6) Less lasers.
I'm well aware that this project is doomed to fail unless a number of experienced programmers step up for the job, but I decided to share some of my thoughts on the matter. There's probably more I could go on about, but it's late and I'm tired. At any rate, we can have fun discussing how great it'd be if it was made, yeah?
