Aquaria for Android: Call for Testers

[Alec]

Howdy!

Andrew Church is working on an Android port of Aquaria.

We're looking for folks to help us test this port on all manner of Android devices.

The game was originally designed for PC monitors, but we'd like to see if we can figure out how to make it work on devices as small as a smartphone.

So far the 7'' tablets seem to work reasonably well for UI and control. But we're pretty sure phone-sized devices will require some redesign.

We'd love to find fans of Aquaria who would be interested in playing through the game again and taking lots of notes on what works well on their device and what doesn't.

If you're interested, please PM me with your email address and device info and/or post here.

Please only sign up if you have the time to thoroughly test the game. (or if you have a rare device and want to focus on compatibility instead of depth)

Thank you!

[IcyEyeG]

Hey Alec,
Thank you so much for considering Android as well!
Is it possible to give an idea what would be the minimum specs for a testing device?

[GMMan]

Whoa hey, that's great news! I'd love to try, since I haven't played Aquaria on a touchscreen before. I'll PM you.

BTW, any chance of open sourcing this? Some of us are getting antsy about it. (I've been eyeing XNA for a while, but nothing serious yet.)

Edit: Hey, wait, does this have anything to do with the fact Ouya is coming out some time this year?

[GMMan]

Got to the Energy Temple, and combat has been... awkward. I have to hold the phone try to not make my two fingers get in each others' way. Maybe using the virtual stick would be better, but it's too sensitive. I'll play some more before I file recommendations.

[GMMan]

Just wondering, what exactly is NAGE? I know it's a (probably heavily) modified version of BBGE, but what does it stand for? New Aquaria Game Engine?

[Alec]

Just wondering, what exactly is NAGE? I know it's a (probably heavily) modified version of BBGE, but what does it stand for? New Aquaria Game Engine?

Not sure, I think Andrew may have replaced BBGE with his own engine that he's more used to working with.

[achurch]

Just wondering, what exactly is NAGE? I know it's a (probably heavily) modified version of BBGE, but what does it stand for? New Aquaria Game Engine?

NAGE = New Aquaria Game Engine, as you guessed. (I'm not very creative with names, am I?) It's a rewrite of BBGE, preserving (most of) the interface used by the higher-level Aquaria code but resting on top of a cross-platform middleware library [edit: that's SIL, as you probably guessed from the debug logs] I use for game projects.

[IcyEyeG]

NAGE = New Aquaria Game Engine, as you guessed. (I'm not very creative with names, am I?) It's a rewrite of BBGE, preserving (most of) the interface used by the higher-level Aquaria code but resting on top of a cross-platform middleware library [edit: that's SIL, as you probably guessed from the debug logs] I use for game projects.

Hey Andrew, is it possible to give an idea what would be the minimum specs for a testing device?

[GMMan]

On the testing page it says

Minimum requirements: Android 2.3.3 or later, 1.1GB free storage

[IcyEyeG]

On the testing page it says

Minimum requirements: Android 2.3.3 or later, 1.1GB free storage

Interesting, I'm asking this, because, if I recall correctly, when an Android port was firstly discussed here in the forums, one of the problems pointed by Andrew for implementing an Android port was the lack of GPU performance on these devices.

[False.Genesis]

1.1 GB? That's a lot. Did the game grow to 3x it's original size? Just curious, because the app store download was also a bit beyond 300 MB. I'm wondering what else made it in there.
I'd really like to help testing but i'm stuck with a stone-age dumbphone that actually has a color display.

Also hi Andrew, nice to see you back on the forums at some point
(And no I'm totally not asking about any code *cough*)

[achurch]

On the testing page it says

Minimum requirements: Android 2.3.3 or later, 1.1GB free storage

I'm not sure why you think it's okay to repost information from a password-protected website? Please don't do it again or I'll remove your access.

Hey Andrew, is it possible to give an idea what would be the minimum specs for a testing device?

See above, though the 1.1GB figure is a bit misleading; the actual app size is ~500MB (it's grown somewhat from the iPad version because of devices that don't support compressed textures), but you need space for 2 copies when updating. (This won't be a problem in the release version, I don't think.)

In terms of performance, it's really hard to say anything ahead of time because performance varies so wildly, though devices made within the last year or so should perform decently well.

[achurch]

Also hi Andrew, nice to see you back on the forums at some point :P

I'm generally around, I just don't have much to say. (:

[False.Genesis]

I'm not sure why you think it's okay to repost information from a password-protected website? Please don't do it again or I'll remove your access.

Oh man. No comment about this one. Now I wouldn't want to be tester anymore.  
It's not like he leaked any code/data/übersecrets or whatever. *sigh*
(No, I'm not complaining. Just trying to prevent bad mood from creeping up. I heard the internet is easily annoyed and unforgiving.)

Please, have some awesome enthusiasm instead! And hope the bug counter stays low.

Can't wait to see the news when it's out so I can spam my fellas to buy it. Ohh and how I will.
iThings are less common around here than android-based devices so things are looking pretty good I'd say. :]

Besides, what does SIL mean? Your own library or something else?
Any further comments about Ouya support? Because I'm thinking about getting one at some point and that would be a sweet starter, as long as it can run mods.
That leads to: How's mod support? There would be some that'd be really nice (Labyrinth, Sacrifice, ...) as long as their authors agree. Just a thought.

Enough questions I guess

[achurch]

I'm not sure why you think it's okay to repost information from a password-protected website? Please don't do it again or I'll remove your access.

Oh man. No comment about this one. Now I wouldn't want to be tester anymore.  :'(
It's not like he leaked any code/data/übersecrets or whatever. *sigh*
(No, I'm not complaining. Just trying to prevent bad mood from creeping up. I heard the internet is easily annoyed and unforgiving.)

Really, this ought to be simple: If a site is password-protected, then the site's owner doesn't want the information to be public. If you make it public, you should expect to be censured.

For the record, I don't hold any hard feelings against GMMan personally, especially since it was (as you say) a trivial leak, and I probably would have responded with mostly the same information myself. Nonetheless, the proper thing to do would have been to wait for Alec or me to respond. It's not as though a few hours' delay would mean the end of the world, after all. (:

Besides, what does SIL mean? Your own library or something else?

SIL is my own library, which I started writing about 6 years ago and have used in various projects since. (The added code in the Aquaria PSP port was taken from this library as well -- though I hadn't named the library yet at that time; it was just "the library I use for game projects".)

I plan to release the library source code at some point, but I'm continually changing the interface depending on the needs of the projects I'm working on, so I'll probably wait for a lull in development before I do that.

Any further comments about Ouya support? Because I'm thinking about getting one at some point and that would be a sweet starter, as long as it can run mods.
That leads to: How's mod support? There would be some that'd be really nice (Labyrinth, Sacrifice, ...) as long as their authors agree. Just a thought.

I'll leave these for Alec, though I personally think it would be cool to play Aquaria on the Ouya. (: