An independent video game developed by Bit-Blot, consisting of Alec Holowka (Night in the Woods) and Derek Yu (Spelunky). Aquaria follows the story of Naija, an amnesiac aquatic Fish Girl who has been living in a cave and eating fish for as long as she can remember. Eventually, wanderlust forces her to leave and explore the ocean around her. Not five minutes after she leaves her cave, she encounters a mysterious robed entity, whose touch gives Naija a vision that brings back some of her memories. The entity disappears and Naija follows, leading her on a grand adventure in which Naija discovers more about her homeland than she could have ever imagined.
Following the success of the "Humble Indie Bundle" charity drive, Bit-Blot, the developers of the game, have released its source code. (Info here.) Keep in mind that the game's content will remain closed, so you will still have to buy the game in order to play anything more than the demo version.
Aquaria Game
Aquaria is a 2D side-scrolling underwater action-adventure game developed and released by Bit Blot for the PC in December 7, 2007 and Mac (published by Ambrosia) in November 13, 2008. Players control Naija, a lone underwater adventurer, as she travels the underwater land of Aquaria in search of her past and the history of the land.
The game combines underwater swimming (in similar vein to Ecco the Dolphin) with the explorative concept of Metroidvania (in which players must explore a large 2D world in order to progress). The player can interact with the world through singing (in which certain combinations of notes give her special abilities) and combat (via special forms).
The game was later released on Steam (PC only) on December 15, 2008, adding 27 Steam achievements. The game was later included in the first Humble Indie Bundle on May 4, 2010 (co-inciding with the release of the Linux version and the release of the game's source code).
Naija is the game's main protagonist. She is a young mermaid who finds herself at the game's beginning living in a small cave with no memory of any other life. However, she soon encounters a vision of a shadowy figure who seems to beckon to her to leave the cave. When she does so she finds the world a desolate place full of abandoned civilizations. Most of the game focuses on her search for other living beings and her lost memories. She eventually learns that she is the daughter of the 13th god, Mia, and that she was created to destroy the overarching creator god who gave all other gods life before destroying each in turn. After completing this task Naija's mother kidnaps her and locks her away in a crystal, presumably setting up a sequel.
Li is a human explorer who met Naija once when she was younger, before she lost her memories. After that chance encounter Li, presumably, devoted himself to finding her again. Naija eventually finds Li scuba diving in the veil and, after kissing him, gives him the ability to breath under water. Li remains Naija's companion throughout the rest of the game until he is kidnapped by the creator god. After rescuing him Naija learns the ability to fuse with Li, making her a viable rival to the power of the creator god. After defeating the creator god, Li and Naija live together and have a son before she is kidnapped. The final scene of the ending shows their son setting out in search of Naija
The Waters of Aquaria were once populated by thirteen gods, each created by a single, overarching creator being. While many of them were primitive, a few went on to create races of their own giving rise to the civilizations that Naija encounters in the game. Each of the gods were meant to embody a different aspect of the creator god's mother with the final god, Mia, being his closest approximation. Most are driven mad by the creator god when he finds them lacking and imperfect, leading to the destruction of their respective races.
This is the first major location Naija finds after leaving her cave. As well as containing Naija's home, this area also contain entry ways to two of the game's civilization; the Erulians and Krotites. Both civilizations must be explored before Naija can advance from this early section of the game.
The Open Waters serve as the game map's central hub. From here naija can reach most of the other major locations of the game in almost any order she wants. To the West are the Home Waters, to the Northwest is the Kelp Forest, to the Northeast is The Veil, to the East is Mithalas, to the Southeast are the Arnasi, and to the South is the Abyss. While the region has little of story significance occur it does contain a number of significant secrets. naija can reach this area after exploring the Krotite ruins.
The Abyss is the pitch dark bottom of the sea floor. While Naija can reach it at any time after entering the Open Waters it is almost certainly fatal to explore without first exploring the Lumarians' Sun Temple. The Abyss contains entrances to the Ice Veil (a frigid version of the Veil), the Sunken City, and The Body (the game's end point).
Energy Form is the first alternate form Naija gains in the game. When in Energy Form Naija's skin takes on the appearance of searing magma and she gains the ability to fire powerful bolts of energy at her enemies. This is the most aggressive of Naija's forms and arguably the most useful in many fights.
Parents need to know that Aquaria is an adventure/role-playing game set in an underwater world. The game is more of a quest for discovery than it is an action title, though there are some mild combat scenes. Through music, Naija (the lead character) can transform and defend herself. The action sequences in the game are tame, but the opening cut scene is a bit more direct, with people screaming and a character seemingly drowning. Users can share high scores via the Game Center social network, but participation is optional.
AQUARIA has appeared on other gaming platforms, but it feels at home on the iPad, offering an experience that is both intriguing and serene. As Naija, you'll explore a stunning underwater world trying to fill holes in your memory. While there's some combat, this is a game about character development. The most interesting element to the game is the use of music. Learning new abilities (such as transformation or shields) is essentially a game of Simon (i.e. parroting back notes), but the songs of Naija, blended with the background music, make this an incredibly soothing game that makes time fade away. The app suggests playing with headphones -- and it really does improve the experience.
Aquaria is an action-adventure puzzle game released by Alec Halowka and Derek Yu (creator of other indie games such as Eternal Daughter and the satirical Jack Thompson-inspired I'm OK.) The game is about Naija, a lost underwater merwoman tired of being alone and in search of what happened to the beings who used to populate the underwater kingdom of Aquaria. Aquaria won the IGF Award for best game 2007.
The game was released on December 7, 2007. It was originally planned to be released sometime in the spring of 2007, but was pushed back until winter to iron out bugs and polish the gameplay. The game also comes with a mod editor, allowing gamers to create their own Aquaria adventures.
Aquaria has gone open source under the GPL! Now all four of the games that pledged to open in the Humble Indie Bundle are officially open source -- the others are Lugaru, Gish, and Penumbra Overture. I am especially excited about the modding possibilities for Aquaria because of its excellent level editing tools. Here's a video showing an early version of the editor:
This kind of freeform layer-based manipulation is the basis for most modern 2D games, so it's important to have good tools. Having access to a user-friendly editor like this could be a big head start both for Aquaria modifications and for separate total conversion projects.
I would like to thank the developers of Aquaria, Gish, and Penumbra for releasing the source code to their awesome games, as well as Ryan Gordon for handling all of the logistics and details to make it actually happen. There have already been a lot of work done on the games, and we are going to be highlighting some of the coolest patches from the early contributors over the next few weeks -- and hopefully more as they come!
Aquaria's gameplay is simple and elegant, much like its 2D ilk. Naija must swim her way through dangerous waters, picking up various new abilities and treasures along the way. Starting in a small cave at the beginning of the game, progress yielded way to what became a truly massive universe, with the discovery and exploration of each new area bringing a real sense of accomplishment. Progression is ability-based, as the new forms Naija acquires will give her additional powers which will allow her to access more areas. There aren't very many puzzles in the traditional sense of the word, but there are several musical puzzles that make use of Naija's singing ability, which is also used to change forms and activate various devices throughout the game. I found the game to be challenging, but not so much that it ever became frustrating, achieving that hard-to-reach middle ground between boredom and frustration. The later levels in particular gave me some trouble, and ultimately it was satisfying to see such a pretty game not be afraid to show some fangs.
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Disclosures: This game was obtained via Steam download and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 16 hours of play was devoted to single-player modes. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: This game has not been rated by the ESRB at the time of this writing. There was nothing major that I would be uncomfortable exposing a child to, although some of the monsters might be a little spooky. 2ff7e9595c
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