Aquaria - "It's basically Ecco the Dolphin mixed with Metroid"
 

YouTube Video

Official site (down at the moment because of traffic):
http://www.bit-blot.com/aquaria/

Here's some download urls for the demo (around 65 mb)
http://zaphire.ca/aqdemo/AquariaDemo.2007.12.07.exe
http://derekyu.com/aqdemo/AquariaDemo.2007.12.07.exe
MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service
http://www.flashbangstudios.com/mirr...2007.12.07.exe
http://www.ninj4comic.com/aquaria/Aq...2007.12.07.exe
http://www.battleforthecity.com/aqua...2007.12.07.exe

-------------
I found a topic for this today at another board that I visit, and felt the need to spread the news here. I am quite amazed at how the game looks (yes, I can actually say that based on a trailer, finally) both from a gameplay standpoint and visually. The 2D is gorgeous. The "Ecco + Metroid" description seems spot on. I haven't downloaded the demo yet, but I felt word spreading would take priority over that. The fact it seems like a shooter is very good also, as I have a weakness for shoot em ups.

Oh man! 2-D Metroid-esque goodness? Nice graphics and smooth gameplay? I need to brainstorm stuff like this!

COUNT ME IN

I've heard of the game, but I had no idea they released a demo. Awesome!

There's a lot of things in this game that make me think of Odin Sphere. The cooking, the exposition, the look of the game, and even some of the music. I find the gameplay and story exposition (gameplay exposition if you're confused) a bit grating, I just attribute it to the fact that my tastes are just a bit different than what this game provides. I like the mouse control scheme, even though I'm using a laptop touch pad. Thinking of switching over to pad so it hurts my hand less, as this is far from ergonomic.

Interesting, I thought this one was coming as another "downloadable" ps3 game (Just like Everyday Shooter)

Oh well, probably misread the article... Anyways, I'll pay a visit when the page is up.

What the hell.

Can I get the soundtrack.

OMG, the music, the smooth 2d gameplay. When does it come out? when you quit the game, it says buy now for 30dollars.. but as you said, site down. I want to buy

=O what regions are getting this?

Actually, the Windows version came out yesterday!

It's an Indie game that won the grand prize at the Independent Games Festival back in March. You can get it from the official site for $30.00 US, or the equivalent in several other forms of currency.

thx nall! I just finished the game demo and it was so awesome that I'll probably buy the full game!

And wow I read that this game was made only by 2 people! that's amazing, they have done an excellent work!

the demo took me almost 2 hours to complete so i really hope that the full game is a lot longer (it would be bad if the whole game was like 4-5h when I just did 2h in the demo :\ )

I'll probably wait a little to buy it but I'll surely check it out ^^

Yea, thats another thing. If the full game is only 5hours long.. then its really not worth 30bucks, despite how awesome it is.

atleast 15ish would be ok.

That is the worst rationale I've ever heard in my entire life. Just admit you're a fucking cheapskate and wouldn't buy it, regardless. At least the people asking for torrents don't dance around the issue.

This demo is awesome though. Might have to buy this after my exams are done.

To people wanting a soundtrack, the FAQ states that the soundtrack will out in the future.

This game looks interesting, gonna try out the demo later.

well I had so much fun with the demo that I bought the game like 10min after I posted that I wanted wait XD

as for now I already have 5h hour into the game (the full version let you load your save from the demo!) and it still as fun as it was!

the game really become more action after the demo, there's enemy almost everywhere! and they really meant the non-linear thing, because I was doing a dungeon and I think it was one of the last one and she said something like: I could continue to discover the truth or explore more.

so I decided to come back and explore more. I discovered a lot of place now, with big map and still I think I didn't see half of the environment that I saw in the trailer, so I'm pretty sure the game must be around 10h or so. ( I think I saw someone with a final playtime of 15hours)

For me it's worth 30$ if not only to encourage the people who made it, because really it's the best independent game I ever played and it doesn't really feel like a "cheap" game.

Will probably buy in the new year, and probably for research purposes.

Oh dear god do I love my Comp Media major

There are torrents now out for the full game (No I won't post them) if you are so inclined to go download it. However I will be buying this at some point in the future, as others have said, I want to offer my support for Indie Game development, and play a cool game.

I did not even have to play the demo to know this was worth the 30 dollar price tag.

Purchased. Registered. Going to enjoy every hour I sink into this, and then some!

Just finished the demo, which took me about an hour or so. However, the game rocks <3

I'm probably going to pick this up tomorrow. Having a blast with the demo, I love how there's other stuff you can open with new powers. Currently employing a scorched-water theory for fighting against monsters, it's fairly effective except for sea spikes. But one day...

It's basically a game I'll never play. Only PC? Come on. WiiWare? Xbox Live? Either of the two will be a perfect fit for mass distribution.

The forums state that there's good possibilities the game will go to other platforms. At that, it's not a real hardware intensive game and the mouse controls are the real draw of innovation here. Pretentious as that is to say, it's a fun romp and I couldn't really think of a huge reason to tell anyone not to try the game.

Mouse controls?

My only means of playing PC games are on my MacBook.

:-)

It's definitely going to the Mac, Clever Dan.

That's right! Ambrosia Software is handling the Mac OS X port, and say it will available "in the near future". Still no word on how it will be distributed exactly, but I'd guess a direct download option will probably happen either way.

I haven't bought the full version yet, but the demo is really cool. The gameplay really has a lot of polish, and the animation is very fluid, no pun intended. It's a step above any indie game I've seen, with a certain level of professionalism just about everywhere.

the full version is definitely worth 30$, I'm 10h into the games and I didn't discovered half of the hidden treasure. I have a good chunk of the map discovered though. Now I,m going deeper into the water, where it's darker (kind of scary XD) I think I have good 5hours more if not more to finish the game. It's really not just a little game that feel more like a overall demo.

I'm really having a blast and with all the different form the game really become a lot more interesting ^^