Aquaria on Steam for $16, Behind the Scenes
Hey, Alec here - you guys might have noticed this already, but Aquaria is out on Steam! Its also on sale for 20% off until the new year. The Steam version features 27 achievements with new art by Derek and its a steal at $15.99 - so if you haven’t picked up the game yet, now is the perfect time.
Steam also has a really nice gift purchasing service. If you’re stuck thinking of a gift for your friends and relatives, why not give the gift of Aquaria. Odds are, they’ll love the new version. 
And last but not least, here’s a little behind the scenes info on the making of the latest HD Aquaria trailer - featuring my ugly mug!
Enjoy!
In case you’re curious why the video says “Infinite Ammo” at the beginning… that’s ’cause it’s my new team! If you guys haven’t heard of it yet, you can learn a lot more at our website. We do a regular video blog and we’re working on a couple really cool 2.5D games.
December 16th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Oh damn I just bought Aquaria a few days ago. Any chance of you guys pulling a 2d Boy and getting registration keys purchased before Steam release was announced registered on the system?
December 16th, 2008 at 6:00 am
I bought it a few days ago too (last Sunday), oh I should have wait :p
Any chance to register my key on Steam to use achievements ?
December 16th, 2008 at 7:12 am
I am really glad that you finally get to release Aquaria on Steam! :))))
December 16th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Awesome! Congratulations for getting it on Steam, guys
December 16th, 2008 at 7:35 am
btw i downloaded the HD version through steam! Its amazing! Too bad I haven’t seen such a glorious trailer before I bought the game 1 year ago (not that I have any problem).
Try to get a better pc for smoother recording though I understand you may like to play with code and stuff as a programmer
Good luck on your next project, cant wait!
I am bored with fps
PS: btw the new prince of persia game reminds so much of your art !
December 16th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Congrats on the release!
Any thoughts on adding an updated demo too? I get the impression it can really help games get recognition on steam
December 16th, 2008 at 8:50 am
I agree that previous Aquria owners should be able to transfer their keys to the Steam if that’s possible. Too lazy to mail you for the new version from that free mail service full of ads…
December 16th, 2008 at 9:40 am
SWEET! Just bought it again :). Love Steam. Now hopefully this means it will come out for consoles soon — this game needs all the play it can. And I feel like if it had been released on consoles last year, it would have gotten the praise that Braid is getting now. Hopefully next year.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:58 am
So, Bit-Blot is dissolved now? Already? After one game? Come on guys. At least put Derek onboard Infinite Ammo
December 16th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Any chance of seeing a Wii port (WiiWare)? Would make for an interesting control scheme
December 16th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Shiny, congrats on the Steam release!
December 16th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Yeah congratulations guys. Hopefully you get the recognition you deserve.
December 16th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Dear, that must be like lots of work…
December 17th, 2008 at 4:26 am
Great.
But… will I be able to migrate my bought Bit-Blot Aquaria over to Steam via the Registration key?
December 17th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Loved it! In theory I guess it’s possible to do 2 play-back runs of the pre-recorded input info. On one run (very slow) you can output video as single screens. On a second run (at normal game speed) output sound. Then mix together?
Anyhoo … your trailer looks fantastic!!
December 17th, 2008 at 7:03 am
Jamie: Yeah, that could work.
December 17th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I just bought a second copy on steam and another copy for my roommate! Freaking AMAZING game.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:16 am
“I talk to myself to keep myself from going crazy.. it’s not really working” ahaha, so great. Get some sleep
December 17th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I love me some Steam and I love me some Aquaria. Call me crazy, but I loved your game so much I bought it a second time just so I could have a copy on Steam for easy migration between computers. First bought it the moment you guys released it last spring, when the price was still $30. Never regretted it for a moment. Beautiful game, beautiful music, beautiful gameplay. Now if I could just finish it! =P
December 18th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Bah, fucking Steam. I was about to rebuy Aquaria for Steam, but then they suddenly introduced the European Currency bullshit. Meaning Aquaria is now 20€ instead of 20$.
December 18th, 2008 at 4:48 am
Don + Al3x:
Can you guys explain the situation a bit more to me? I’m not sure if I clearly understand it yet. (being an ignorant North American) I decided to go with Steam’s recommended pricing, but I didn’t look into alternatives at the time.
Feel free to respond here, or if you’d rather take it to a personal conversation, just email zaphire@gmail.com.
Thanks guys!
December 18th, 2008 at 6:23 am
Naw, they were like “we recommend this” and I was like “sure!” I didn’t stop to take the time to consider what the prices would mean for the different regions, I just assumed Valve would pick what works best for each region.
December 18th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Okay well, I hope I explained the problem simple enough. You can chose to keep the price like that on Steam and maybe update your Plimus price to reflect it, or vice versa.
If you chose your current scheme with Plimus, Valve should somehow let you pick the price in $ and have the conversion rates applied locally, instead of ask you to give a hard price for Europe, when the currency rates change so much often (in early recession the euro was as low as $1.25, now it’s gone back to normal and is $1.46 for each).
December 18th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Another problem with fixed prices for other regions is that, for example, the British pound is ABNORMALLY LOW these days. Normally it’s worth maybe 1.5 Euro, now it’s only worth 1.055. As a result, with the current prices in Britain, they end up paying you (and EVERY OTHER GAME PURCHASE ON STEAM) quite a bit less than all other regions, less than even Americans.
That’s why the Steam system is so flawed with its fixed prices, it should only be fixed for $, and adjust in the other currencies in real-time according to the daily exchange rates.
December 18th, 2008 at 6:44 am
Yeah, I initially figured that they’d price stuff at $19.99US everywhere, and just calculate the local price based on the exchange rates. To me that seems like the most obvious way to do it.
When they suggested their rates, I just took it on good faith that they knew what pricing made sense for each market. But I was also swamped and getting close to burning out… probably should have contemplated it more before signing off on it.
Anyways, I’ll talk to the contacts I have there and see what more I can learn about it. Thanks for filling me in with the details.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Just one day ago, Aquaria (and all other games) had to be paid in $ which sort of automatically resulted in a proper price conversion when paying (so Aquaria would’ve been 14€ for me). But their European Currency system went from optional Beta to forced Final now, and thus Aquaria (and all other games) went from 20$ to 20€, which is about 29$.
The problem at its core is that the transfer rate is currently 1$ = 0.7€
However, Steam just went ahead and made 1$ = 1€, thus making every game about 30% more expensive.
It’s not your guys fault at all here, just Steams. It even seems that countries are getting forced to pay in Euro that don’t HAVE the Euro, just because they happen to be in Europe.
But Al3xand3er pretty much covered it.
December 18th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
As far as I’ve heard Valve did “discount” several games after the beta, so some that cost $50 outside of Europe now cost 45€ here. Obviously that’s still a lot more expensive, but at least their system is flexible.
December 20th, 2008 at 6:34 am
Awesome! =)
Just bought it on Steam.
But might it be possible, that the Steamversion doesn’t recognize all achievements with old savegames?
I loaded an ols savegame where i’m already near the end of the game, but the “open water” achievement and several others, that i should have got, don’t unlock.
The boss achievements did though.
Do i have to replay everything, to get these achievements?
December 20th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Yeah, there are some achievements that require you to do things that aren’t represented by save game flags.
December 20th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Hmm, k, thanks.
Think then i’ll take the Steam release as a good reason to start all over again.
December 20th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Alec: Still no word on whether you’ll get old registration keys activated on steam?
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:50 am
Doctor Who, that’s incorrect I would say, Valve’s stance to the whole thing from what I’ve heard and seen is that they allow virtually all games to be activated on Steam. Provided the authors send a list of legit keys to Steam (the idea is that, although steam doesn’t make money of it, they gain customers and influence).
2DBoy for one isn’t big, sold it separately at first, and didn’t actually even use authentication keys. But the keys that were used for downloading World of Goo could later be used to activate World of Goo on Steam.
December 26th, 2008 at 5:40 am
It would be really nice of you Alec to adjust those prices for European costumers!
December 26th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I’ve just purchased aquaria on steam
(europe…its good value!),
thank you so much for this beautiful piece of art!
December 27th, 2008 at 4:57 am
Congratulations for getting onto steam! There are a lot of people whom won’t pay for software unless it’s on Steam, and the convenience of being able to reinstall and register from one location is important to them.
Ouch for Mac owners though, where the price is still $30!
December 27th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Yeah, unfortunately we don’t control the pricing of the Mac version.
January 6th, 2009 at 5:30 am
I have purchased also on STEAM after you guys have adjusted the euro price. I’m glad you did since I would have let it sit there and never know what a wonderful gem Aquaria is. It really reminds me of the old DOS game Loom also real nice gem back in the old days. Will the soundtrack be released, Alec?
May 19th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Think then i’ll take the Steam release as a good reason to start all over again.
July 18th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
[...] a devloper at Blit Blot (creators of Aquaria), mentioned in reply on the developer blog that Steam does suggest pricing schemes, but it is up to him in the end. [...]
February 6th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Thanks admin this is wb sites very good.
February 25th, 2010 at 8:30 am
Awesome! Thanks for the infos
March 3rd, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Useful information, many thanks to the author. It is puzzling to me now, but in general, the usefulness and importance is overwhelming. Very much thanks again and good luck!
June 9th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Hi Alec, what IDE are you using?
June 30th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
The industry insiders said that in the industrial process the valves are most used to control the flow and flux of various liquids such as water, plastic valve, oils, chemicals, etc., according to parameters of temperature, pressure and flow. The general-used control valves in factories are pressure reducing pvc fitting, pneumatic fixed hose, solenoid valve fixed temperature system, constant temperature control valve proportional system, temperature control valves and other types. Such as:
July 10th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
Hey, great advice. I always love to come across valuable sources.