Aquaria 2 Kickstarter

[oasis789]

If Double Fine and Wasteland can get $3 million each, if developer newbies Banner Saga and FTL can get 700 and 200 grand, surely Bit-Blot can raise enough capital to develop Aquaria 2. You already have a bestselling, critically acclaimed game that people love and remember. You don't need to do a whole lot of convincing. I'd back you in a heartbeat and I'm sure lots of other people would too. And best part: No commitment if you aren't able to raise enough.

[Daxar]

While this is an all well and good idea, the main thing keeping Alec and Derek from making Aquaria 2 is that they've each gone their separate ways. There have been some talks about an Aquaria 2 in the past, I'm not sure where the links are, but the problem definitely isn't funding.

[False.Genesis]

I'd add to it and call it an overdose of creativity, too many awesome projects at once, and a lack of mood to really start. So what's required here isn't a kickstarter in terms of money, but rather in motivation.

[Xiagan]

If it's enough money it may provide the motivation.

[oasis789]

They are joint owners of the IP but it only takes one of them to develop a sequel independently if the other is ok with it.

[Xiagan]

They are joint owners of the IP but it only takes one of them to develop a sequel independently if the other is ok with it.

Nah, it was the clash of geniuses and their combined talents that made Aquaria so incredible.

[Argumentable]

I would throw so much money at the prospect of an Aquaria 2

[Aristobulus]

The biggest problem with Aquaria is it simply never got a lot of publicity. I have shown it to so many people that ended up loving it, they just honestly never knew it existed.

The thing is, Aquaria could still succeed and make them a ton of money - they just have to reach out and let people know the game exists! Because the problem, even today, years after it came out, isn't that people have heard of it and don't like it - people simply haven't heard of it.

I pretty strongly believe that even now, if Alec or Derek actually reached out to one of the loud voices in the gaming community, and got them to back Aquaria and spread the word that "hey this game exists and you should play it" it would still take off and be a massive success. They could do this, too - think about it, if one of them reached out to Penny Arcade and got them to talk about it.

Minecraft existed for years, and then PA had one set of comics about it and some newsposts, and *then* it took off and became popular. Aquaria is in a similar position of that very few people that actually know about Aquaria, dislike it. There's no reason to think this wouldn't continue if more people knew about it.

And it's aged amazingly well - a lot of people I've shown the game too, are absolutely stunned when they find out how old it really is - it's the type of game that is so good, and so high quality, it could've came out this year and people would believe it.

In short - a kickstarter for Aquaria 2 would fail just as Aquaria has, because most people simply literally do not know Aquaria exists, to support a kickstarter. Before anyone tries to get support for Aquaria 2, they need to look at getting people to even know that Aquaria 1 exists and spread the word about that.

Honestly, so much could be done for the game if PA, or Yahtzee, or someone with a large viewerbase, were to talk about the game.

[False.Genesis]

I partially agree, however, I noticed that it was on the humble bundle 3 times, which, to be exact, were HiB #1, HiB #2 as bonus, and the Introversion Bundle. Their user base is quite large, and I bet many people got it this way.
HiB #1 brought many users to the forum, HiB #2 did too, but less (this was the time when I joined if i recall correctly), and the introversion bundle didn't do very much noticeable.
So some people would say "the market seems saturated", while others, like you, insist on that noone knows it. Dunno who said the former, but i've seen it somewhere.

What I have seen around my friends is that noone knows it, so you're probably right.
...
I guesss I'll keep making mods and hope one of them gets publicity. *sigh*

And, as a side note from my own view, Derek has seemingly abandoned all of it, and Alec doesn't seem to care that much either, except "wow, there's still a community there". This is understandable after such a long time without massive success, like you picture it.

PA, or Yahtzee

Who's that? Like MANvsGAME?

[Aristobulus]

Penny Arcade, and Zero Punctuation.

The thing is, I really think Alec/Derek just expected that all they had to do was make a good game and it'd take off on its own. They made a great game, but they absolutely could barely have marketed it quieter. I never saw ads anywhere, and more than that, like I said, they didn't reach out to the large voices in the indie gaming scene at all.

Where was the PA support, after all? They are really known for helping indie devs just like Alec/Derek, yet they haven't done anything for Aquaria.

The thing is, I also think they have both given up, thinking it's a failed game, and it really isn't. Aquaria didn't fail. Their marketing and such did. But that means if they ever got on the ball about that, Aquaria could still succeed. I wish they would realize this. If tomorrow PA did a comic and newspost on Aquaria, it would take off. It would be like Minecraft all over again, because that's the kind of voice PA has in the community. Aquaria, for its' part, is also in the unique position where most people who hear of it, love it, so this would work for it.

Also, yes. It was on the humble indie bundle. But here's the catch - it was on the first two. This is too early. The humble bundles since then have had much more people buying them and the games in the later bundles got much more exposure - because Steam itself has just gotten more popular over time. Those helped, but not as much as if it was included in a humble bundle today. I promise you that if it were, you'd see another explosion of new players that didn't know it existed before.

This is the problem, and I really believe they just aren't aware that that's really all the issue is.

[False.Genesis]

Aquaria, for its' part, is also in the unique position where most people who hear of it, love it, so this would work for it.

I'm not so sure. Take a step back and think about it. I totally agree, but the steam achievements don't seem to do so. 17% open waters => 83% of the people haven't even started the real thing.
The steam forum also mirrors this to some extent.
Yet, considering the average steam comment is roughly equal to the average youtube comment because of many 13yr olds who need to be taken by the hand all the time, I personally wouldn't care much about that. You know, spoiled Call of Duty kids and etc.

Also, yes. It was on the humble indie bundle. But here's the catch - it was on the first two. This is too early. The humble bundles since then have had much more people buying them and the games in the later bundles got much more exposure - because Steam itself has just gotten more popular over time. Those helped, but not as much as if it was included in a humble bundle today. I promise you that if it were, you'd see another explosion of new players that didn't know it existed before.

Very good point.

[Aristobulus]

Aquaria, for its' part, is also in the unique position where most people who hear of it, love it, so this would work for it.

I'm not so sure. Take a step back and think about it. I totally agree, but the steam achievements don't seem to do so. 17% open waters => 83% of the people haven't even started the real thing.
The steam forum also mirrors this to some extent.
Yet, considering the average steam comment is roughly equal to the average youtube comment because of many 13yr olds who need to be taken by the hand all the time, I personally wouldn't care much about that. You know, spoiled Call of Duty kids and etc.

There's a few possible explanation for this beyond "people just aren't interested in Aquaria", because I absolutely do not believe that is the case. First of all, there's what you mention, where there are people just not patient enough for a game like Aquaria, and who really just game for the instant gratification of games like CoD and such. But here's another possible point -

What does it take to be part of that % counted for the achievements? If I own the game, but I never play it - then I never get the open waters achievement. Am I counted as part of that 100%, just because I own it?

Basically, what I'm saying is this is a way the early humble bundles could've worked against it, as far as those stats are concerned - people who buy the bundle but never play Aquaria would thus be part of that 100% - but they've never played the game. It's not that they played it and lost interest, they simply never played it. Because while they owned the game, they didn't know anything about it, still, so they never bothered to start it up and see what it was about.

I can tell you personally I own quite a few games that I always forget even exist and have never loaded up or installed even once, but I own them because of a bundle and such. The bundle got me to own the games, but it didn't actually do anything to raise my interest in the games included. This same thing likely happened to Aquaria, and again it's a marketing issue. You have to inform people about the game.

[Daxar]

Very good points in this here discussion.

One thing I don't understand is why a lot of people never join a community or forum for a game they really like. World of Goo, for example, did incredibly insanely well. The initial PC version was fantastic, and did really well. Then it was ported to Wii, and it did pretty awesome there. Then it was ported to iOS, and hit the top of the App Store because it was so great. Then it was ported to Android, and did well there. It reached millions of people, and even non-gamer friends I have shown the game absolutely love it.

From all this, I'd expect some kind of huge fanbase. But nothing materialized. goofans.com is the only World of Goo forum there is, and throughout all the new ports, it barely grew at all. A few people have trickled in, a few have trickled out. We have about 10 or so active forum members on average. Which is absolutely nothing, since this game is just as popular as (If not more popular than) Minecraft, in terms of sales. Where is everybody?

It's weird, but it seems like WoG and Aquaria are almost like cult classics. A lot of people have heard on them, and they have copies of the game, sitting gathering digital dust on their hard drives. Everyone who's played the game loves it, and the games are so awesome that there's a potential fanbase out there that's huge. But the fans never materialize. It's weird more than anything.

[oasis789]

Kickstarter fatigue is setting in. It's getting harder to succeed big, but some indies like Barkley 2 and limit theory are doing it right, planning it in advance, getting the community momentum behind it before day 1.

[Alec]

One of the things I'd be worried about with doing an Aquaria 2 - if there'd be a way to make something that Derek and I liked that was also something that fans would like.

Not sure if Derek and I will ever work together again, but I'd like to at some point. It'd be interesting to see what we'd come up with nowadays.