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Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Derek has written an interesting post over at the Bit-Blot blog, talking about Aquaria's evolution as a game and some of the design decisions that drove its direction. It's part four of a seven day ramp up to the game's release on Friday.

Parts one, two, and three have been great, well worth checking out if you haven't already seen them: Part one featured some of Derek's concept art (shown above), part two featured an excellent arrangement of some of the game's music by Alec, and part three featured a lengthy and entertaining interview with Jenna Sharpe, the voice actress for Naija.

Aquaria is due to be released in three days time.
19 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/04/2007 04:11:00 PM:  
Just in case you've, like, forgotten.
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/04/2007 04:16:00 PM:  
Nice!! can't wait. So many other people are excited over this aswell :D

Think ill bump it on my place too , cheers Terry
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/04/2007 04:17:00 PM:  
Goodness but I'm sick of this damn game. It's the Halo 3 of the Indy games community.
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/04/2007 04:31:00 PM:  
I Agree with the person above me.
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/04/2007 04:37:00 PM:  
I disagree.

Christ, it's a promising indie game that's been in development for two year, that won the IGF, and is coming out in a couple of days time. Naturally enough people are talking about it. And not nearly as much as you imply.
Blogger haowan said at 12/05/2007 02:50:00 AM:  
Seems like there's always someone who's sick of hearing about something :) I've done it myself in the past! Best thing if you are sick of hearing about it is to ignore it. In my experience.
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/05/2007 03:00:00 AM:  
i don't know. it doesn't seem to capture the true indy spirit.
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/05/2007 03:00:00 AM:  
i agree with the halo 3 comment
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/05/2007 04:15:00 AM:  
"i don't know. it doesn't seem to capture the true indy spirit."

Indeed, if the indie spirit is to have unpolished and/or unfinished game that never release. Then Aquaria is definitively not very indie spirit ;)
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/05/2007 04:26:00 AM:  
"it doesn't seem to capture the true indy spirit."

I don't get this attitude. Why doesn't it capture the indie spirit? Because it's for sale? Because it's polished? Because it's being hyped?

The indie spirit is making the game you want to make, the way you want to make it, without having any of your ideals raped along the way. The scale of this game and the period over which it was made clearly shows that it encapsulates the indie spirit. It takes quite an effort to get a team to work effectively for that long on something, especially remotely. From what I've read (which is little) there's been a lot of personal investment in this title, and that is as indie as it gets.
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/05/2007 06:35:00 AM:  
I caught the true indie spirit once. But then I got help.

I'm much better now.
Blogger konjak said at 12/05/2007 08:57:00 AM:  
Some people seem to think the indie spirit has a set amount of rules. That is more like the opposite of it.
Blogger oranda said at 12/05/2007 09:45:00 AM:  
If you aren't signed to a publisher, you're an indy game designer, even if you decide to sell your game for money independently. I'm not sure what this "spirit" of indy games is you refer to. Indy isn't a spirit, it's a definition. This game fits that definition.

And I quite frankly wouldn't care even if it didn't. It's a gorgeous game that I am totally looking forward to playing :).
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/05/2007 10:12:00 AM:  
wow, even a joke is defended to death.
i think the guy was joking about the indy spirit thing, guys.
after all derek's speeches about indie games.
lighten up.
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/05/2007 11:02:00 AM:  
Well, personally nothing I've seen of the game appeals to me at all so I won't be buying it, but I hope it does well anyways.
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/05/2007 12:01:00 PM:  
It's a magnificient game...

The freedom of Ecco the Dolphin mixed with the 2D quality that was CrackDotCom's Abuse, with a little underwater Solar Jetman going on.

It will be a grand game! Hopefully it won't end up as an "unrecognized gems" or "more sought after game" like all those games were.
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/05/2007 02:33:00 PM:  
This game better be the second coming of christ. i'm also pretty damn sick of the endless hype.
just friggin release it already!!

If nothing else, the game is pretty much hand painted, which is extremely unique for a video game. and derek's paint work is beyond fantastic.

but we'll see how it plays and feels overall.
we'll see if the demo will worth 30 bucks.
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/06/2007 05:04:00 AM:  
Indeed, if the indie spirit is to have unpolished and/or unfinished game that never release.

Hahaha, but isn't it?

Shit, indie just means you're not under direction from some uppity so and so's who control all the money. These guys made a huge game the way they wanted it to be made and not with the suits telling them to "Um.. make the girl's bikini smaller so she can make our 10-15 year old male demographic jump drool and purchase it by the score... BUT at the same time, make her overly smart so that our 14-22 year old female demographic will have someone to look up to.. a.. a ROLE MODEL! Ok, now have it done by 9am Thursday. Oh, and Alec go and grab me a coffee will ya? Black with 3 Splendas."
Anonymous Anonymous said at 12/06/2007 07:43:00 AM:  
How unappealing can a game feel?

Like this.