Aquaria ever released in stores/amazon?

[tounces]

I admit I don't really know "Indie" culture to know whether this is forbidden or not, but was Aquaria ever released in stores?  It seems like it would sell really well, and it'd be a great way for more people to find and experience it.  It's better than many big-box company games I've played, and to be frank until I saw the Indie Bundle advertised on one of my favorite webcomics I'd never even heard of Indie games.

I admit my input is somewhat selfish - maybe if Alec made a lot more money off Aquaria he might finally be able to hire a team to help make Aquaria 2. 

[Alphasoldier]

Erm, it's not "forbidden" as far as I know... Super Meat Boy's doing it. But it would cost a lot of money to even get that far. And then I'm not even talking about the commercializing.
Then the fact that Aquaria 1 was made by just 2 people. It wouldn't have the same quality if Aquaria 2 was made by an entire team.

It would've been a good step to do so probably, but then he didn't have the money and now he's working on another project.

[tounces]

Considering that the cost of developing the game is already out of the way, how would it cost more to publish the game commercially than you would make off selling it?  I mean technically he could burn CD's and sell em on Amazon directly.  Who really needs an instruction book anyway when there's a tutorial in the game itself.  And honestly you can print CD labels from home computers these days super easy....

I don't know if I agree about Aquaria 2 being worse if made by a team.  After all, it's not like all games that ever came out of a team of people have been bad.  Just depends on the quality of the team.   

[GMMan]

I was thinking that a boxed version would be something like the limited edition OST: small jewel case, 2 discs, and a booklet with bonus content. Since Alec is not likely to start one, it could be a community effort.

[Sindhi]

I know, I'm a broken record, but I'm going to keep putting this out there.....The easiest thing to do would be for Alec to port the game to PS3 or other (Nintendo, X-Box, one of the big guys) so people with those systems could buy it;  it would appear on their list of titles for sale. However, I have no idea how much it would cost Alec to do this. If the fans wanted to chip in, we could possibly raise the money for this. As far as distributing it to stores, that would be a big expense, but I guess they would need to package it anyway regardless. Alec did a great job of packaging the music CD; I suppose that could be done for Aquaria. The Humble Indie Bundle raised a lot of money, although after splitting it all out, it probably wasn't a lot for each person... but I would think if we, the fans, wanted to put our money where our desire is, we could move mountains! Alec, what would it cost to make the game a PS3 title? What would it cost for the packaging, similar to what you did for the music CD? Is it possible to include the mods somehow or at least instructions on how to download and install them, and information on how people could make their own mods? That should be a real plus, the ability to make your own game with the Aquaria editing tools, even if you didn't know how to play with the source code.

[Xiagan]

Oh wow, a first game for the PS3? That would be an unexpected move which would surely shake the gaming community. 

[Alphasoldier]

Alec has been long past this game and is working on a new game, even if he wasn't... He's most likely not going to fiddle on the game anymore, while it's even completely bug-free. That's one of the reasons to not suddenly bring it out.
He'd have to spend a lot of money on a game that's already been offered virtually for free, is... 3 years old now? It would most likely be a waste of money, of time... and he'd get another shit load of commentary that he didn't like in the first place.

Though again, I'm talking for Alec here while I shouldn't be. All I can do is speculate.

Also, I'd love to see some community effort, but there's not much of a community left, or ever has been.

Sorry, I wish things would've gone differently as well. :c

As to PS3? Same as above really.

[tounces]

The reason there is not much of a community is because of the very small distribution of the game.  There's a TON of online games and it's hard to sort out the good ones from the trash, and it's not like Aquaria was ever advertised. Marketing the game almost anywhere else at all would gain a much greater following.

[Alphasoldier]

A fair point, but Minecraft also got around just by the word of mouth.

[Echolocating]

I think I mentioned this a while back, but as great as this game is... we may be unknowingly a niche market. After I finished playing this game, my head was swimming (heh!) with why this game wasn't a bigger success. How could this masterpiece go unnoticed by the mainstream public? But, I'm just thankful that I stumbled across this gem.

I know this may be a little early to say, but I think this game is timeless. It wasn't built on the coattails of a gaming fad or a committee designed gimmick; it is art on so many levels. And art is not easily appreciated by the mainstream, unfortunately.

That said, I think it would be a huge risk to setup a big distribution independently. However, if I were Alec or Derek (and I wasn't burnt out on this game), I'd at least talk to a publisher and see what the options are. Heck, if the question of whether this game could sell or not really needed answering, I'd probably design my own package and get some company to make a hundred copies and approach smaller stores about consignment sales. Kind of like Richard Garriott and his plastic baggy Akalabeth days. The worst thing that could happen is that the packaged games could be used for physical copy sales made online. But that's just me.

[Sindhi]

I feel Aquaria is timeless also; who cares that it is almost four years old!  So many games are alike, however graphically amazing; I think even thought it is 2D and most games are 3D now, it holds up well; it is unique. I like the suggestion someone made on my Magic thread in modding about making a Facebook page.

[tounces]

I checked, there is a facebook page, I "Liked" it a couple days ago or so.  Only has like 400 followers or so though, and whoever is running it doesn't update it.

[Sindhi]

Yes, I did a search and found the Aquaria Facebook page; it would be nice to know who started it. I tried to make one for Magic of Aquaria because they tell you that you have to be the official person with the rights to all the photos to start a page; it is kinda constricting and I don't know what I am doing... but it's there, partly finished. I suppose we could start a new thread about promoting Aquaria on Facebook so people would check it out (the Aquaria page) and add to it. There is info there on where to buy Aquaria.

[tounces]

There is info there on where to buy aquaria because I recently added it

[Sindhi]

Thank you! All you guys could add cool screenshots also!