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Aquaria (video game)
Encyclopedia
Aquaria is a 2D
sidescrolling
action-adventure
computer game
designed by Alec Holowka
and Derek Yu
, who together form the independent game company
Bit Blot, which developed and originally published the game. After more than two years of development, the game was released in 2007 for Windows
. A Macintosh
port was released in 2008 by Ambrosia Software
, and an updated version of the game was released on Steam that same year. A Linux
version of the game was released as part of the Humble Indie Bundle
collection in 2010, and a version for the iPad was released on November 2, 2011. In 2009, the Aquaria soundtrack album was made available for sale. It includes all of the music in the game as well as a new nine-minute vocal track and a few remixes.
The game follows Naija, a mermaid-like woman, as she explores the underwater world of Aquaria. Along her journey, she learns about both the history of the world and her own past. The gameplay focuses on a combination of swimming, singing and combat, through which Naija can interact with the world. Naija's songs can move items, affect plants and animals, and change her physical appearance into other forms. These forms have different abilities, such as firing projectiles at hostile creatures or passing through barriers inaccessible to her in her natural shape.
Reviews of the game were generally positive. Critics focused primarily on the visuals, music and atmosphere as particularly praiseworthy. Additional positive comments were made about the controls and gameplay, while critiques centered on the map system and a limited variety of objectives. The game won the Seumas McNally grand prize from the Independent Games Festival
in March 2007.
, heavily focused on exploration and puzzle-solving, with non-linear gameplay. The player controls Naija, a lone underwater dweller; although similar to a human woman, Naija also has several fish-like qualities, such as the ability to breathe underwater and propel herself quickly with webbed feet. The game, only available for personal computer
s, was designed to be primarily controlled solely through the mouse, though it can also be controlled with a keyboard or Xbox 360
controller. The player directs Naija through an underwater world composed of several distinct regions, ranging from caves to underwater ruins to sunlit oases. These areas are filled with plant and animal life, which can be hostile, friendly, or neutral towards her. Hostile plants and animals can hurt Naija, reducing her health meter
, by touching her or firing projectiles at her.
In general, Naija cannot interact directly with objects in the world. Instead, the majority of actions are accomplished through singing short tunes. The player does this by selecting a series of notes displayed in a circle of eight choices in the correct order. Each note corresponds with a different color. Singing notes affects plants and objects of the same color as the note, while singing the tunes, once learned through the plot, can lift objects, create a shield around Naija, or change Naija into different "forms" which have different appearances and unique abilities critical to overcoming the various challenges and obstacles found in the game. The specific tones that are played when the player selects a note can subtly change in different regions, matching the background music. The default form, or "normal form", is the only one in which Naija can sing, and is the only one where her appearance is modifiable by the player by having Naija wear costumes found throughout the game.
Other forms, which can only be used once found in-game, are the "energy form", in which Naija can shoot projectiles to attack enemy creatures, "beast form", which allows Naija to swim faster through the water and eat small fish to restore health, and "nature form", in which Naija can shoot seeds that produce flowers and spiky plants that can harm other creatures. In this form, Naija is not harmed by thorns on any plants. The player can also learn the "sun form", which allows Naija to give off light in dark regions, "spirit form", which allows the player to move to specific locations marked by blue crystals without time passing, "fish form", where Naija turns into a small, fast fish, and "dual form", found at the end of the game, which allows Naija and another character named Li who is met late in the game's plot to merge together, with actions taken by one affecting the other.
While exploring the world, Naija can collect various ingredients from interaction with plants and animals, mainly by combating her foes. These ingredients can be used to cook dishes, which have varying effects on Naija. The most common effects are healing and enhancing various characteristics such as speed and defense, but there are some more exotic dishes which grant her new abilities. The player can learn new recipes by collecting new dishes directly, but can also learn them by combining ingredients without first knowing the recipe.
s. After being confronted by a shadowy figure and being shown a series of flashbacks
she does not understand, Naija awakens. Feeling loneliness as the only member of her species, Naija decides to explore the world around her. As the player explores, Naija discovers more and more about the history of the world, "Aquaria", and about her own past. The game is set in an open world
, and the player is not forced to go through the plotline in a set sequence. The only limiting factor is physical barriers such as areas that can only be accessed by using a specific form. Combinations of these physical limitations place some plot elements later in the game. The narrative for the majority of the game is centered around Naija's exploration of a series of ruined civilizations that she finds, each with a large monster in them. These civilizations make up the different regions of the game.
Towards the end of the game, Naija discovers that all of the ruined civilizations she has found throughout the game were destroyed by a god, "the Creator", who was jealous of the rising power of that civilization or of their gods. The powerful monsters she has found and defeated in each region were once the gods of that civilization. Each of these civilizations had a unique power, symbolized by the form that Naija learns after defeating their former gods. Along with Li, a human diver from the land she meets at the top of the ocean, Naija then descends to the bottom of the sea to confront the god. There she discovers that the Creator fell into the ocean as a child, and bonded with an ancient spirit to gain god-like powers. He then created Aquaria, threading a verse of a lullaby
his mother had sung to him throughout, the only part of the song he remembers. The melody
of this song, the "verse", is what allows Naija to sing songs that affect the world around her; parts of the melody can be heard in different forms in the songs within the game's soundtrack.
The Creator, after creating Aquaria, created a series of civilizations, making a new one in turn when each one was destroyed. The Creator kidnaps Li, with whom Naija has fallen in love, and she attacks the Creator to get him back. The player defeats the god as the final boss of the game, and returns home with Li. In the epilogue
, Naija is shown with Li and their child. If the player has found all of Naija's memories by discovering places she remembers, they reveal that the shadowy figure at the beginning of the game was her mother, Mia. Mia was made by the Creator and had the ability, like Naija, to use the different powers of all of the civilizations. She fled the Creator, and hid herself and Naija among several communities in succession; after the destruction of the last one she erased Naija's memory so that she would find out the history of Aquaria on her own and defeat the Creator. In the extended epilogue shown if the player has found all of the memories, Mia appears, telling Naija that the two of them can conquer the civilisations above the water. After Naija refuses, Mia kidnaps her, and vanishes; the extended epilogue ends with Lucien, Naija and Li's son, leaving to find her. If the player has not found all of the memories, the epilogue instead ends with Naija asking the player to find out about her past, and revealing that the narration of the game was intended to be heard by her son.
and Alec Holowka
over the course of two years, off of a concept that Holowka had thought of a year prior. Yu was the lead artist, and Holowka handled the programming and audio components. Both designers had previously worked in video games; Yu had made several freeware games, including I'm O.K with Holowka and others, while Holowka had worked for several video game start-ups, none of which had ever gotten a game published. The two officially formed the studio Bit Blot to back the game a week before submitting it to the 2007 Independent Games Festival
. The name of the studio is intended to represent a fusion of art and technology. Aquaria is the studio's only game as of 2011. Both members of the team continue to make video games, but are not doing so as a partnership; Holowka has formed a separate team called Infinite Ammo, and Yu is again working on freeware games.
The initial prototype of the game had styling similar to a text-based role-playing game, with a large open world and many sub-quests. After moving towards "multiple-choice text answers" and a complicated gameplay system, the team decided to simplify the game and set the 2007 Independent Games Festival as a deadline to complete everything. With this time pressure, they forced themselves to cut out a lot of what they felt was unneeded complexity, bringing the game to its core. After removing many of what they decided were extraneous elements they then added back in the cooking system, which they felt fit well with the rest of the game, as well as a map system. They then developed the game world and story in a roughly linear manner, creating basic designs of each region and then coming back to fill in details. They felt that this allowed them to create interesting ideas at the beginning of the game and then fill them out and resolve them at the end. The game also includes a level and animation editor; several mods
have been made for the game.
The game was developed to be able to be controlled by the player with only the mouse, after it was suggested by Yu's father. The developers felt that this control scheme forced them to make the gameplay fluid and easy to grasp, though they also added the option to control the game with a keyboard or Xbox 360
controller. Yu and Holowka considered the "hallmark" of exploratory games to be a sense of loneliness, which they made a part of the narrative, but also wanted the player to get a sense of Naija's character. To that end, they used voice-overs to demonstrate to the player what Naija was feeling during key points of the game. The voice of Naija was performed by Jenna Sharpe, who was chosen after auditioning several other voice actresses. She additionally sang the vocals for one song on the soundtrack, "Lost to the Waves". She also sang a nine-minute vocal piece especially for the release of the Aquaria soundtrack album, which was published by Bit Blot on November 14, 2009. The album features 50 tracks on two discs, including all of the music in the game as well as the new vocal track and a few remixes.
The game was released for Windows computers on December 7, 2007. A patch was later released which added new functionality to the in-game map, added widescreen support, and tweaked several game settings. A Macintosh port was released November 12, 2008, courtesy of Ambrosia Software
. The game was released on Steam on December 15, 2008; it included the addition of 27 Steam Achievements. A Linux version of the game was developed by Ryan C. Gordon
in 2009; an open beta ran until February 6, 2010, and the Linux version of the game was released as part of the Humble Indie Bundle
. The source code for the game's engine was released under the GNU General Public License
on June 3, 2010. A modified version was released on the iPad
on November 2, 2011. This version, which includes touchscreen support and changes to the way the map works, was created by Andrew Church, who was approached to the do the port by Holowka after he did an unofficial PlayStation Portable
port.
called it "a stunning effort from such a small team", Richard Naik of GameCritics called it "an extremely high-quality product" and a fine example of the side-scroller
genre, while Chris Dahlen of The A.V. Club
termed it "not so much a retro adventure as a fresh take on everything that made the old 2D adventures great". Praise for the game was centered primarily on its visuals and atmosphere. Hyper
s Tim Henderson commended the game for "a rare and genuine sense of exploration, wonder and discovery", and a review by Scott Colbourne from The Globe and Mail
termed it "drop-dead beautiful" with a "deep and affecting story". Colbourne summarized Aquaria as "a game you can get comfortably lost in".
Other reviewers, such as Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer
and Chris Holt of Macworld
echoed the praises for the graphics and atmosphere, while Craig Pearson of PC Gamer UK added praises for the music and voiceovers and Suzie Ochs of MacLife praised the music and story. Other praises for the game came for its control scheme and for the gameplay mechanics, with Holt calling out the cooking system as worthy of praise. Though noting that the visuals and presentation of the game would be the first thing that players noticed, Nathan Cocks of PC PowerPlay
claimed that "from a design standpoint, Aquaria is a triumph," with the right amount of complexity and level design that is "spot on".
Several reviewers, such as Bramwell and Holt, criticized the map system present in the initial version of the game as being confusing and difficult. Other reviewers had different concerns, such as Henderson, who critiqued the initial release version for "lack of widescreen support and being occasionally fiddly", or Naik, who felt that the control scheme was not as intuitive when using an Xbox 360 controller. Shea and Pearson felt that the game could have used more puzzles or a wider variety of quests and objectives to balance out the exploration and combat. They did not feel, though, that these downsides compared to the game's positives, with Pearson stating that "the good far outweighs what are, essentially, niggles."
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
sidescrolling
Side-scrolling video game
A side-scrolling game or side-scroller is a video game in which the gameplay action is viewed from a side-view camera angle, and the onscreen characters generally move from the left side of the screen to the right. These games make use of scrolling computer display technology...
action-adventure
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
computer game
Personal computer game
A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...
designed by Alec Holowka
Alec Holowka
Alec Holowka is a Canadian independent game developer, co-founder of an independent game company Bit Blot, and Infinite Ammo where he works as lead programmer, musician and game designer...
and Derek Yu
Derek Yu
Derek Yu is an independent game developer, game artist, and blogger.While he may be best known for his early work on freeware titles such as Eternal Daughter, Yu continues to make games...
, who together form the independent game company
Independent video game development
Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large firms can create independent games, they are usually designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the...
Bit Blot, which developed and originally published the game. After more than two years of development, the game was released in 2007 for Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. A Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
port was released in 2008 by Ambrosia Software
Ambrosia Software
Ambrosia Software is a predominantly Macintosh software company located in Rochester, New York. Ambrosia produces utilities and games. Its products are distributed as shareware; demo versions can be downloaded and used for up to 30 days....
, and an updated version of the game was released on Steam that same year. A Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
version of the game was released as part of the Humble Indie Bundle
Humble Indie Bundle
The Humble Indie Bundles or Humble Bundles are a series of game bundles, that are sold and distributed online at a price determined by the purchaser. The games are multi-platform, DRM-free, and independently developed, and buyers can set the revenue split between the developers, charities and...
collection in 2010, and a version for the iPad was released on November 2, 2011. In 2009, the Aquaria soundtrack album was made available for sale. It includes all of the music in the game as well as a new nine-minute vocal track and a few remixes.
The game follows Naija, a mermaid-like woman, as she explores the underwater world of Aquaria. Along her journey, she learns about both the history of the world and her own past. The gameplay focuses on a combination of swimming, singing and combat, through which Naija can interact with the world. Naija's songs can move items, affect plants and animals, and change her physical appearance into other forms. These forms have different abilities, such as firing projectiles at hostile creatures or passing through barriers inaccessible to her in her natural shape.
Reviews of the game were generally positive. Critics focused primarily on the visuals, music and atmosphere as particularly praiseworthy. Additional positive comments were made about the controls and gameplay, while critiques centered on the map system and a limited variety of objectives. The game won the Seumas McNally grand prize from the Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
in March 2007.
Gameplay
Aquaria is a 2D sidescrolling action-adventure gameAction-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
, heavily focused on exploration and puzzle-solving, with non-linear gameplay. The player controls Naija, a lone underwater dweller; although similar to a human woman, Naija also has several fish-like qualities, such as the ability to breathe underwater and propel herself quickly with webbed feet. The game, only available for personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s, was designed to be primarily controlled solely through the mouse, though it can also be controlled with a keyboard or Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
controller. The player directs Naija through an underwater world composed of several distinct regions, ranging from caves to underwater ruins to sunlit oases. These areas are filled with plant and animal life, which can be hostile, friendly, or neutral towards her. Hostile plants and animals can hurt Naija, reducing her health meter
Health (gaming)
Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....
, by touching her or firing projectiles at her.
In general, Naija cannot interact directly with objects in the world. Instead, the majority of actions are accomplished through singing short tunes. The player does this by selecting a series of notes displayed in a circle of eight choices in the correct order. Each note corresponds with a different color. Singing notes affects plants and objects of the same color as the note, while singing the tunes, once learned through the plot, can lift objects, create a shield around Naija, or change Naija into different "forms" which have different appearances and unique abilities critical to overcoming the various challenges and obstacles found in the game. The specific tones that are played when the player selects a note can subtly change in different regions, matching the background music. The default form, or "normal form", is the only one in which Naija can sing, and is the only one where her appearance is modifiable by the player by having Naija wear costumes found throughout the game.
Other forms, which can only be used once found in-game, are the "energy form", in which Naija can shoot projectiles to attack enemy creatures, "beast form", which allows Naija to swim faster through the water and eat small fish to restore health, and "nature form", in which Naija can shoot seeds that produce flowers and spiky plants that can harm other creatures. In this form, Naija is not harmed by thorns on any plants. The player can also learn the "sun form", which allows Naija to give off light in dark regions, "spirit form", which allows the player to move to specific locations marked by blue crystals without time passing, "fish form", where Naija turns into a small, fast fish, and "dual form", found at the end of the game, which allows Naija and another character named Li who is met late in the game's plot to merge together, with actions taken by one affecting the other.
While exploring the world, Naija can collect various ingredients from interaction with plants and animals, mainly by combating her foes. These ingredients can be used to cook dishes, which have varying effects on Naija. The most common effects are healing and enhancing various characteristics such as speed and defense, but there are some more exotic dishes which grant her new abilities. The player can learn new recipes by collecting new dishes directly, but can also learn them by combining ingredients without first knowing the recipe.
Plot
As the game opens, Naija has lost almost all of her memories, and is unaware of the world outside of her home as she "lives as a simple creature". The player is told this in voice-over narrations in the form of a story told by a future Naija. These narrations serve as the primary source of information about Naija throughout the game, though there are occasional cutsceneCutscene
A cutscene is a sequence in a video game over which the player has no or only limited control, breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot, strengthen the main character's development, introduces enemy characters, and provide background information, atmosphere, dialogue, and clues...
s. After being confronted by a shadowy figure and being shown a series of flashbacks
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
she does not understand, Naija awakens. Feeling loneliness as the only member of her species, Naija decides to explore the world around her. As the player explores, Naija discovers more and more about the history of the world, "Aquaria", and about her own past. The game is set in an open world
Open world
An open world is a type of video game level design where a player can roam freely through a virtual world and is given considerable freedom in choosing how to approach objectives...
, and the player is not forced to go through the plotline in a set sequence. The only limiting factor is physical barriers such as areas that can only be accessed by using a specific form. Combinations of these physical limitations place some plot elements later in the game. The narrative for the majority of the game is centered around Naija's exploration of a series of ruined civilizations that she finds, each with a large monster in them. These civilizations make up the different regions of the game.
Towards the end of the game, Naija discovers that all of the ruined civilizations she has found throughout the game were destroyed by a god, "the Creator", who was jealous of the rising power of that civilization or of their gods. The powerful monsters she has found and defeated in each region were once the gods of that civilization. Each of these civilizations had a unique power, symbolized by the form that Naija learns after defeating their former gods. Along with Li, a human diver from the land she meets at the top of the ocean, Naija then descends to the bottom of the sea to confront the god. There she discovers that the Creator fell into the ocean as a child, and bonded with an ancient spirit to gain god-like powers. He then created Aquaria, threading a verse of a lullaby
Lullaby
A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....
his mother had sung to him throughout, the only part of the song he remembers. The melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
of this song, the "verse", is what allows Naija to sing songs that affect the world around her; parts of the melody can be heard in different forms in the songs within the game's soundtrack.
The Creator, after creating Aquaria, created a series of civilizations, making a new one in turn when each one was destroyed. The Creator kidnaps Li, with whom Naija has fallen in love, and she attacks the Creator to get him back. The player defeats the god as the final boss of the game, and returns home with Li. In the epilogue
Epilogue
An epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...
, Naija is shown with Li and their child. If the player has found all of Naija's memories by discovering places she remembers, they reveal that the shadowy figure at the beginning of the game was her mother, Mia. Mia was made by the Creator and had the ability, like Naija, to use the different powers of all of the civilizations. She fled the Creator, and hid herself and Naija among several communities in succession; after the destruction of the last one she erased Naija's memory so that she would find out the history of Aquaria on her own and defeat the Creator. In the extended epilogue shown if the player has found all of the memories, Mia appears, telling Naija that the two of them can conquer the civilisations above the water. After Naija refuses, Mia kidnaps her, and vanishes; the extended epilogue ends with Lucien, Naija and Li's son, leaving to find her. If the player has not found all of the memories, the epilogue instead ends with Naija asking the player to find out about her past, and revealing that the narration of the game was intended to be heard by her son.
Development
Aquaria was developed by Derek YuDerek Yu
Derek Yu is an independent game developer, game artist, and blogger.While he may be best known for his early work on freeware titles such as Eternal Daughter, Yu continues to make games...
and Alec Holowka
Alec Holowka
Alec Holowka is a Canadian independent game developer, co-founder of an independent game company Bit Blot, and Infinite Ammo where he works as lead programmer, musician and game designer...
over the course of two years, off of a concept that Holowka had thought of a year prior. Yu was the lead artist, and Holowka handled the programming and audio components. Both designers had previously worked in video games; Yu had made several freeware games, including I'm O.K with Holowka and others, while Holowka had worked for several video game start-ups, none of which had ever gotten a game published. The two officially formed the studio Bit Blot to back the game a week before submitting it to the 2007 Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
. The name of the studio is intended to represent a fusion of art and technology. Aquaria is the studio's only game as of 2011. Both members of the team continue to make video games, but are not doing so as a partnership; Holowka has formed a separate team called Infinite Ammo, and Yu is again working on freeware games.
The initial prototype of the game had styling similar to a text-based role-playing game, with a large open world and many sub-quests. After moving towards "multiple-choice text answers" and a complicated gameplay system, the team decided to simplify the game and set the 2007 Independent Games Festival as a deadline to complete everything. With this time pressure, they forced themselves to cut out a lot of what they felt was unneeded complexity, bringing the game to its core. After removing many of what they decided were extraneous elements they then added back in the cooking system, which they felt fit well with the rest of the game, as well as a map system. They then developed the game world and story in a roughly linear manner, creating basic designs of each region and then coming back to fill in details. They felt that this allowed them to create interesting ideas at the beginning of the game and then fill them out and resolve them at the end. The game also includes a level and animation editor; several mods
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
have been made for the game.
The game was developed to be able to be controlled by the player with only the mouse, after it was suggested by Yu's father. The developers felt that this control scheme forced them to make the gameplay fluid and easy to grasp, though they also added the option to control the game with a keyboard or Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
controller. Yu and Holowka considered the "hallmark" of exploratory games to be a sense of loneliness, which they made a part of the narrative, but also wanted the player to get a sense of Naija's character. To that end, they used voice-overs to demonstrate to the player what Naija was feeling during key points of the game. The voice of Naija was performed by Jenna Sharpe, who was chosen after auditioning several other voice actresses. She additionally sang the vocals for one song on the soundtrack, "Lost to the Waves". She also sang a nine-minute vocal piece especially for the release of the Aquaria soundtrack album, which was published by Bit Blot on November 14, 2009. The album features 50 tracks on two discs, including all of the music in the game as well as the new vocal track and a few remixes.
The game was released for Windows computers on December 7, 2007. A patch was later released which added new functionality to the in-game map, added widescreen support, and tweaked several game settings. A Macintosh port was released November 12, 2008, courtesy of Ambrosia Software
Ambrosia Software
Ambrosia Software is a predominantly Macintosh software company located in Rochester, New York. Ambrosia produces utilities and games. Its products are distributed as shareware; demo versions can be downloaded and used for up to 30 days....
. The game was released on Steam on December 15, 2008; it included the addition of 27 Steam Achievements. A Linux version of the game was developed by Ryan C. Gordon
Ryan C. Gordon
Ryan C. Gordon is a former Loki Software employee who is now responsible for icculus.org, which hosts many Loki Software projects as well as several new projects created by himself and others...
in 2009; an open beta ran until February 6, 2010, and the Linux version of the game was released as part of the Humble Indie Bundle
Humble Indie Bundle
The Humble Indie Bundles or Humble Bundles are a series of game bundles, that are sold and distributed online at a price determined by the purchaser. The games are multi-platform, DRM-free, and independently developed, and buyers can set the revenue split between the developers, charities and...
. The source code for the game's engine was released under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
on June 3, 2010. A modified version was released on the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
on November 2, 2011. This version, which includes touchscreen support and changes to the way the map works, was created by Andrew Church, who was approached to the do the port by Holowka after he did an unofficial PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
port.
Reception
Aquaria was the Seumas McNally winner of the 2007 Independent Games Festival, and was also a finalist in the categories of Design Innovation, Excellence in Visual Art, and Excellence in Audio. The festival praised the game's "fluid controls, unique, non-linear gameplay, and vibrant hand-drawn storybook-style graphics". The game received praise from many different reviewers; Cam Shea of IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
called it "a stunning effort from such a small team", Richard Naik of GameCritics called it "an extremely high-quality product" and a fine example of the side-scroller
Side-scrolling video game
A side-scrolling game or side-scroller is a video game in which the gameplay action is viewed from a side-view camera angle, and the onscreen characters generally move from the left side of the screen to the right. These games make use of scrolling computer display technology...
genre, while Chris Dahlen of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
termed it "not so much a retro adventure as a fresh take on everything that made the old 2D adventures great". Praise for the game was centered primarily on its visuals and atmosphere. Hyper
Hyper (magazine)
Hyper is a multi-platform Australian video game magazine. Australia's longest running gaming magazine, it has been in publication since 1993, and was released the same month as the better known UK magazine Edge...
s Tim Henderson commended the game for "a rare and genuine sense of exploration, wonder and discovery", and a review by Scott Colbourne from The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
termed it "drop-dead beautiful" with a "deep and affecting story". Colbourne summarized Aquaria as "a game you can get comfortably lost in".
Other reviewers, such as Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
and Chris Holt of Macworld
Macworld
Macworld is a web site and monthly computer magazine dedicated to Apple Macintosh products. It is published by Mac Publishing, which is headquartered in San Francisco, California...
echoed the praises for the graphics and atmosphere, while Craig Pearson of PC Gamer UK added praises for the music and voiceovers and Suzie Ochs of MacLife praised the music and story. Other praises for the game came for its control scheme and for the gameplay mechanics, with Holt calling out the cooking system as worthy of praise. Though noting that the visuals and presentation of the game would be the first thing that players noticed, Nathan Cocks of PC PowerPlay
PC PowerPlay
PC PowerPlay is Australia's only dedicated PC games magazine. Also available in New Zealand, PC PowerPlay focuses on news and reviews for upcoming and newly released games on the Microsoft Windows platform. The magazine also reviews computer hardware for use on gaming computers...
claimed that "from a design standpoint, Aquaria is a triumph," with the right amount of complexity and level design that is "spot on".
Several reviewers, such as Bramwell and Holt, criticized the map system present in the initial version of the game as being confusing and difficult. Other reviewers had different concerns, such as Henderson, who critiqued the initial release version for "lack of widescreen support and being occasionally fiddly", or Naik, who felt that the control scheme was not as intuitive when using an Xbox 360 controller. Shea and Pearson felt that the game could have used more puzzles or a wider variety of quests and objectives to balance out the exploration and combat. They did not feel, though, that these downsides compared to the game's positives, with Pearson stating that "the good far outweighs what are, essentially, niggles."