Idea for an offshoot of aquaria

[Lyx]

Some people seem to dislike aquaria because of its focus on exploration, free movement and atmosphere. I however like the game especially because of that. I like this so much, that i actually dislike there being an overall story and stuff.

In this post, i'd like to describe a different perspective of what aquaria could be like. It is not meant as a request - not even as a recommendation - towards the developers of aquaria. It just would like to provide some inspiration - maybe some devs will like it, maybe not. Also, the following clearly targets a very specific kind of playstyle - it is not for everyone.

Okay, now back to the idea. Imagine aquaria would be even more open-ended, extensible and about exploration, questing and traveling. You would have the aquarian equivalent of a "hometown" which is surrounded with a rather large area of home environments. Somewhere, there would be a turtle which can be used to go on a quest.

There would be no "continious" travel to such quests - instead, the turtle will directly take you to the selected quest area. The goals of those quests can be varied - mostly gathering ancient treasures which are mostly just decorative (but may have interesting "playful" gimmicks). Except of a handful of hardcoded quests, they would at best only increase your power temporarily to keep the game openended and not suffer from power-inflation.

Now the most important feature: Modders would be able to create more quests, so that the size of the main game is only limited by the number of available mods.

Various other ideas for such a setting:

- have some elder in the "home town" which gives a few hints about the choosen quest. Basically, have spoilers in the game, which dont actually spoil the game. Thus, this NPC would not explicitely tell you what to do, but instead just point you in the right direction.

- Have Naija not take an unlimited amount of features to a quest. For example, one could make it so that she can choose no more than 2 additional forms to use in the next quest. The NPC in the town would tell you, if a given quest requires a certain form to be completable.

- The purpose of the environments around the home, would - besides of various playful gimmicks - be focussed on gathering ingredients. Perhaps also have a few NPCs, of whom you can ask a limited number of them to help you with the next quest.

- The "reward" of some quests may be temporary in that they will only last for the next N quests. This can be an ability, equipment or help from an NPC.

- Some quests may be NPC centered in that they offer you no treasure or temporary power, but are instead just about completing it.

- Some quests may not be serious but just reaching a wonderful place.

- Some quests may just be story-based - so, not about "getting" something but just interaction.

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So in short - a setting which truely is just about open-ended exploration, questing, treasure-hunting, traveling to interesting places and interacting with the environment. Probably the most boring style of game for some - but for some others, something they always wanted

[mugodz]

So basically, Knytt Stories?

I don't think Aquaria in it's current form would ever suffer from power inflation. All forms have their strengths and drawbacks. The only items that really changes your overall power level I think is the Jelly Costume (for granting free health), the Dual form (for it's immense firepower compared to other offensive forms), and maybe the Pets (Li included) for lending a few shots in battle.

[Lyx]

So basically, Knytt Stories?

Hehe, yes and no. Yes in that Knytt "Experiment" used the same concept of an expandable gameworld via modders. Also yes in that Knytt is an exploration-game. No in that Aquaria offers much more - more atmosphere, more details, more little gimmicks - and it is not purely exploratory alone in that you can also do various stuff.

The thought which brought me to the idea which i described above, was that i was playing Aquaria not to "win" or to "complete" it - i was not playing it because of some kind of goal, but because of the act of playing and experiencing itself. I'm not that interested in the overall story but in living and being immersed in this world. So i thought "what if the games purpose were just that? It already has almost all of the ingredients i would wish for - all the aspects are already in the game. Its just that the overall game workflow went the "conventional" route of how a typicall computer game is like.

For example, the mentioned quests are already in there. It is just that they are "connected" in a way, which suits a usual game, where you follow a mostly linear story with a fixed end (yes, i know that aquaria gives the player a lot of freedom - but the overall shell of a fixed-end linear game is still there).

P.S.: Not sure if i should mention this, but for whatever reason, i feel a connection between my above idea, and that old C64 game "Realm of Impossibility". It wasn't moddable and expandable, but also offered the player a list of various quests he would like to go on - all connected in the shell of a "main game". Maybe i notice this connection, because this is the main difference to plain "Aquaria Mods" - having an overall "container" (main game) which connects those quests.

I don't think Aquaria in it's current form would ever suffer from power inflation. All forms have their strengths and drawbacks. The only items that really changes your overall power level I think is the Jelly Costume (for granting free health), the Dual form (for it's immense firepower compared to other offensive forms), and maybe the Pets (Li included) for lending a few shots in battle.

It would be no problem if those were the only abilities which the player can gather (which is currently the case). However, notice that each "quest" in the game, gives the player a reward - new forms, new pets, etc. - this works in a fixed-end game. But in the scenario of an open-ended game, which is only limited by the amount of available mods, you cannot continue that route, because it would either lead to feature-creep or power-inflation. When a game becomes open-ended, then the "reward-system" needs to reflect that (see online RPGs for a by-the-book example of how to messup in this aspect). Fortunatelly, since the appeal of aquaria does already not only rely on power-gains, but instead on experiencing, exploring and "playing around with stuff", it wouldn't be that difficult to adapt to open-ended gameplay.

[IceD]

Yeah. Nice idea. But remember, that you can do "almost" everything with modding tools. Even now, although there are some gliches and not every thing is possible to mod. But you can program loads of different stuff and scripts. I like the overall concept of experiencing the game as "itself", but don't you think you're going a little overboard? don't be sucked too much by the games, even if Aquaria is worth of that 

BTW - you can check a game, or rather a project called "Endless forest". Intersting one, imo. It's an 3d mmo game, where you just take a role of a deer in a forest. That's all  There isn't even any chat and you have to communicate with other players through body language. It has nice graphics, and weights only 50mb and it's also free to play, so just give it a try 

[inkblob]

BTW - you can check a game, or rather a project called "Endless forest". Intersting one, imo. It's an 3d mmo game, where you just take a role of a deer in a forest. That's all  There isn't even any chat and you have to communicate with other players through body language. It has nice graphics, and weights only 50mb and it's also free to play, so just give it a try 

I've 'played' endless forest, it's very interesting. the interface and graphics are excellent, and the no rulebook approach to discovery is always good. it's funny, I had made a mental connection to endless forest and aquaria when I first started playing it, mostly due to the intuitive controls