Aquaria

Aquaria is a singleplayer side view metroidvania game.

General information

Official Forum

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Modding Wiki

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Developer website		Humble Widget. Demo available for Windows.
GOG.com
Steam		To disable Steam, use Open Source Edition.

Essential improvements

Open Source Edition

Has many enhancements compared to the official version (gameplay and stability fixes, better controller and resolution support, positional audio support, online mod downloader, etc.).

An unofficial update packs are available either from GitHub (stable builds) or False.Genesis' website (stable and unstable builds).
Works with every sold version of the game, however with the Steam version, Steamworks is completely disabled.

Game data

Configuration file location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\usersettings.xml^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Defaults are stored in default-1.xml and if config file is removed, user is prompted with configuration utility when starting the game.

This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\save\^{[Note 1]}
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/Aquaria/

You may need to create the folder yourself before the game will save your progress. "Path to Game" indicates where the game is installed.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

$External options menu. Launched if configuration file is missing or corrupted or directly opened from <path-to-game>\AQConfig.exe.$

External options menu. Launched if configuration file is missing or corrupted or directly opened from <path-to-game>\AQConfig.exe.

In-game options menu.

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		May require AquariaOSE for resolutions higher than 1920x1080.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD		May require AquariaOSE.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)	Can be toggled on/off in the configuration utility.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)	See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Color blind mode	See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

In-game key map settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Keyboard and mouse controls get partially disabled if controller is enabled from configuration.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse acceleration
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		DirectInput only.
Full controller support		Controller has to be enabled from configuration before being used. Configuration requires mouse or keyboard.
Controller remapping		Actions cannot be bound to D-pad nor axis. With XInput controllers, this also means triggers becoming unuseable.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger support

DirectInput-compatible controllers
Directinput button prompts

PlayStation controllers
PlayStation button prompts
Motion sensors support
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes

Nintendo controllers
Nintendo button prompts
Face button layout support
Motion sensors support
Connection modes

Other controller(s)
Peripheral devices support
Additional button prompts

Additional information
Button Prompts		Only in rebinding window. Game only shows keyboard and mouse prompts and tutorials.
Controller hotplugging
Input prompt override
Haptic feedback		Added with AquariaOSE.
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		SFX, music and voice.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Issues fixed

Game makes FAN spin like crazy

edit usersettings.xml
Go to the Installation Folder of the game. Open `usersettings.xml`. Under `<Video>` Search for `<NumParticles v="4096"/>` and divide it by 2 and change it, example `2048` until your pc fan stabilizes. An additional thing you cand do is change `darkbuffersize="512"` from `512` to `256`. Launch Game.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation by Tribo Gamer; download.
Russian				Retail «1С/Snowball Studios». Patch for digital version here.
Russian				Fan translation download
Spanish				Fan translation download 1 or 2.

Tweaks

Shorten the company logos

This will shorten the company logo screens that appear when opening the game.

Modify settings file
Go into the `<path-to-game>`. Open `usersettings.xml` with a text editor. Look for `<ShortLogos on="0" />` and change the `0` to `1`. Save the modified file.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	7
OpenGL

Executable	PPC	32-bit	64-bit	ARM	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux					64-bit, ARM and PowerPC support requires Open Source Edition.^[1]

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	FMOD
Input	SDL2	Officially Linux only. Also Open source edition.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	2000, XP, Vista
Processor (CPU)	1.8 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	225 MB
Video card (GPU)	OpenGL compatible

System requirements do have slight differences: Official FAQ (Windows, OS X), Steam (Windows), GOG.com (Windows, OS X, Linux).

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.3.9
Processor (CPU)	1.42 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	225 MB
Video card (GPU)	G4

System requirements do have slight differences: Official FAQ (Windows, OS X), Steam (Windows), GOG.com (Windows, OS X, Linux).

Linux
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 14.04, Mint 17
Processor (CPU)	1.8 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	225 MB
Video card (GPU)	OpenGL compatible
Other	libc6:i386, libasound2:i386, libasound2-data:i386, libasound2-plugins:i386 and dependencies.

System requirements do have slight differences: Official FAQ (Windows, OS X), Steam (Windows), GOG.com (Windows, OS X, Linux).

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

↑ freshports -- games/aquaria - last accessed on 2020-12-12

[gamedir-1] 1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[2] reshports -- games/aquaria - last accessed on 2020-12-12

[Note 1]

[1]

Developers

	Bit Blot
macOS (OS X)	Ryan C. Gordon
macOS (OS X)	Ambrosia Software
Linux	Ryan C. Gordon
Publishers
	Bit Blot
OS X	Ambrosia Software
Release dates
Windows	December 7, 2007
macOS (OS X)	November 13, 2008
Linux	May 4, 2010
Reception
Metacritic	82
IGDB	75
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Side view
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Metroidvania
Art styles	Stylized