The source code that I wrote for a little game I made with Derek Yu back in 2005-2007 has been released! 
Releasing code is hard for me. It’s always imperfect (or in my case, mostly a mess) and it feels extremely personal. Especially with Aquaria – a game that involved a lot of stress and heartbreak over the course of its development. (a significant portion of the code was written while under the influence of Canadian Club Whisky)
Although programming is foremost a technical pursuit, it feels organic to me. Maybe switching between code, music and design frequently enough makes you appreciate how similar these areas of game design are – rather than thinking about how different they could be. That might be why my code is more like a weird tangled evolution of the game, rather than a clean, factory-built design. (there’s even stuff in there from back when the game was an RPG, for example)
In any case, hopefully some people will find the code useful, and hopefully some will manage to improve it.
You can find the details of the code over at Wolfire.com. And much thanks to the amazing Ryan C. Gordon for porting the game to Linux (and Mac again) and organizing the open source release. What a guy.
Also, see this talk for more on the Humble Indie Bundle:
Alec Holowka Talks at Pecha Kucha from IndieGame: The Movie on Vimeo.
sinoth wrote a Comment on June 3, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Did you clean the code up at all before releasing to the masses? That urge is really hard to ignore. Better yet, adding apologies in the comments for whichever poor soul loses his way
Harold wrote a Comment on June 3, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Thanks a lot for sharing. I can understand how much code is personal, sort of like a sequencer session vs the final .wav
Anyway, congratulations for this epic Indie story. Amazing.
RazZziel wrote a Comment on June 3, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Dude: <3
Dorian Patterson wrote a Comment on June 3, 2010 at 6:01 pm
I’ve been waiting for this to happen for a while. I’m hoping to improve the the animation editor (it was really crashy which kept me from modding).
Gabriel Rotar wrote a Comment on June 4, 2010 at 3:44 am
I’m sure to take a look at it and congratulations for getting above and beyond the 1 mil threshold. It’s things like these that make me want to just quit my day job and start doing what I love full time. I think that there is no bigger satisfaction that getting to do what you like and to be able to make a living from it. Here’s to you and to all your fellow indie devs, you guys keep the true spirit of games alive.
Samantha wrote a Comment on June 4, 2010 at 3:48 pm
You have and continue to make your mark. I am so glad that you continue to share the journey with people online.
allaze-eroler wrote a Comment on June 6, 2010 at 8:41 am
i wonder where i should dowload the code source ? because i don’t see where is the link to it ^^,
Aquaria, Penumbra, Lugaru and Gish Now Open-Source | Gamr Src wrote a Pingback on June 8, 2010 at 4:25 am
[...] Holowka, part of the Bit Blot team behind Aquaria, has given his thoughts on the release over on the Infinite Ammo site: “Releasing code is hard for me. It’s always imperfect (or in my case, mostly a mess) and [...]
Greg wrote a Comment on June 14, 2010 at 6:40 pm
wow. thanks man. I was just thinking about this, particularly: “hmm, I wonder how Alec solved that problem in Aquaria..”, so I typed in infiniteammo and bam! Here it is. I’m speechless really. Thanks.
Aquaria Goes Open Source | Machinima.com Inside Gaming News wrote a Pingback on July 8, 2010 at 1:57 pm
[...] Infinite Ammo Blog] Share and [...]
skarm wrote a Comment on July 9, 2010 at 3:15 pm
a haiku os port please!!!
Aquaria Source Code Released | DIYgamer wrote a Pingback on July 14, 2010 at 10:32 am
[...] Alec Holowka describes in a blog post how difficult it was to release it mentally, describing the code as “more like a weird [...]