Aquaria Game

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 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