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Gearbox: The Wii U Will Get The Best-Looking Version Of Aliens: Colonial Marines I’d heard lovely things about Aquaria, the beautiful underwater adventure for PC and Mac. It was an underwater 2D throwback of a game, an action-adventure with mysterious new-agey music and a good story. But I haven’t play it on the computer. I’ve played it on my iPad, for which it went on sale last night. It’s handled the transition well, with just some manageable control issues.
It’s an indie game geeksplosion as the woman behind the Plants Vs. Zombies music teams up with the programmer for Xbox Live Arcade’s Spelunky to rap about their shared love of Magic: The Gathering.
It’s always wonderful to see a worthy indie game slowly bud and blossom over time. In this case we’re talking about the underwater fantasy world of Aquaria which is, after winning awards at the Indie Game Festival and hitting Steam, now making a debut on the iPad later this year.
How much would you pay for a copy of World of Goo, Gish and three additional games that don’t prominently feature black blobs dripping with indie cred? Thanks to the Humble Indie Bundle you pay exactly “whatever”.
Initially released a little over a year ago, Bit-Blot’s fanciful aquatic adventure game Aquaria is now available for purchase via Steam, with a special price available to folks who purchase before December 31st.
Indie darling Aquaria may be best known for its serene underwater setting and gorgeous hand-painted artwork, but its genesis lies in one of the most twisted, most violent video games ever created, I’m O.K. That game, designed in part by “attorney” Jack Thompson, was part of the self-described school shooting expert’s “A Modest Proposal” an ultra-violent game concept that was supposed to elicit a $US 10,000 pay out from Thompson, should someone be bold enough to make it. Jack, as expected, welshed on the promised charitable donation when I’m O.K. hit the web, but the freeware shooter garnered the attention of Aquaria co-creator Alec Holowka.
I first got a glimpse of Bit Blot’s PC game Aquaria at last year’s Independent Games Festival Awards at GDC, where creator Derek Yu hopped on stage to accept the $US 20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize. From just the tiny clips they showed during the reading of the nominees I was completely charmed by the concept and the art style of the game. Now 9 months later their baby is coming out. For the past six days they’ve been teasing us at the Bit Blot blog with concept art, selections from the game’s soundtrack, and stories about the development of Aquaria. Yesterday they released the final teaser, seen above, and soon the game will be available for purchase and demo. This game is truly a testament to what independent developers can accomplish – a true work of art. You owe it to yourself to check it out.
Official Aquaria Web Site [Bit Blot - Thanks Kyle!]
