Hydrophobia Message Board

'Silver Lining' is a column from freelancer Taylor Cocke dedicated to highlighting moments of real potential in less than perfect games. This week he examines Hydrophobia from (the now defunct) developer Dark Energy.
Hydrophobia has all the makings of a great game, but where it fails is commitment. The Dark Energy Digital-developed game attempts to do too many things at once, but never succeeds at any of them. What's frustrating is the clear potential each idea had, and the huge divide between what its characters are ostensibly feeling and the gameplay itself.

Exemplifying this lack of commitment is the amount of times Hydrophobia shifts between genres in the first act alone. Opening with a dream about drowning, Hydrophobia transitions from a platforming section drawing heavily from the Uncharted series, into a physics puzzler, before finally settling into a cover-based shooter.

Hydrophobia doesn't execute any of its selected genres well enough to warrant the middling amount of time a player will spend to learn each. In some cases, the design decisions made in some sections undermine some of the game's good ideas, which only led to disappointing critical reception.

Hydrophobia developer Dark Energy Digital has been shut down, administrators confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz.

The site reports that the company's assets have been combined into a "pre-packed" deal with the recently created Dark Energy Publishing, a new company founded in January by Dark Energy Digital owners Pete and Deborah Jones, along with technical director Gary Leach. GI.biz also notes the new outfit may "take control of physical assets and IP at a bargain price."

Hydrophobia struggled to find a large audience, despite significant attempts to fix the game after it launched. We've contacted Dark Energy Digital's administration team for comment.

Hydrophobia developer Dark Energy Digital is allegedly preparing to shut down. GamesIndustry.biz reports layoffs have begun, with affected employees concerned about outstanding pay from the company, which is said to be deep in debt.

Hydrophobia struggled to find an audience after diving into the digital distribution pool with less-than-adequate form, despite attempts by the developer to right the ship soon after launch. We've contacted Dark Energy Digital for comment.

Dark Energy Digital decants Hydrophobia Prophecy onto PSN this week -- free for Plus members, $10 for everyone else. In other format-change news, the multiplatform side-scroller Max & The Magic Marker comes to PS3, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe goes downloadable, and DC Universe Online officially becomes free-to-play.

Also enjoying a change of hardware as of this week: three new PS2 classics -- Raiden III, BloodRayne, and Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland; and two more PSOne imports. Check the PlayStation Blog for a more exhaustive list of this week's PS3 and PSP downloads.

Dark Energy Digital has refused to give up on Hydrophobia, despite initial criticism.

Hydrophobia. Hydrophobia Pure. Hydrophobia Prophecy. That's three releases of the original Hydrophobia before any sequel, when Dark Energy Digital intended this to be an episodic aquatic adventure.

When about I interviewed the developers about the player feedback system Darknet, a bunch of you asked what this meant for the future of Hydrophobia and whether the studio had abandoned plans for sequels.

Because I love you, I asked.

"Darknet doesn't affect the plan for the series at all, and the iterations are simply our way of responding positivly to the great feedback we had from players," said senior creative designer Rob Hewson. "Our engine allows us to make micro updates to existing games which could be informed by Darknet data so the games can be enhanced and improved. The only way this affects future projects is positively, because Darknet provides a wealth of extra information to pour into future developments too."

Sure, that doesn't exactly lay out what the future of Hydrophobia is in any specific detail, but Hewson continues to refer to Hydrophobia as a "series." Given the response to the game seems to have gotten better with each iteration, taking another stab at a proper follow-up seems likely.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. And again. And again. Where do you draw the line?

That's the story--so far--of Dark Energy Digital's Hydrophobia, an aquatic action game that first generated headlines for its water physics. After releasing on Xbox Live Arcade, the game courted controversy as the developers accusing reviewers of not finishing the game. Reviewers were critical of Hydrophobia, and in retrospect, Dark Energy Digital wishes it'd gone differently.

"Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?" said senior creative designer Rob Hewson in an email. "Without a shadow of a doubt there are big things we would have done differently, but that’s the paradox of life. Sometimes you only learn the right things to do by royally cocking up (as bankers will no doubt tell you). The only thing to do is to look forwards, take what you’ve learned and do a better job next time. That more than anything is what Hydrophobia Prophecy is all about."

You'd be right to wonder why I'm talking to Dark Energy Digital about Hydrophobia, but the studio's dedication, which has sometimes involved them stepping over the line in the eyes of some, is rather remarkable. Hydrophobia Prophecy marks the original game's third release, after Hydrophobia in September and a free update dubbed Hydrophobia Pure again in December. Hydrophobia Prophecy was released earlier this month on PC through Steam, and came bundled with a crazy new feature called Darknet, which allows players to provide real-time feedback.

Before we continue, watch this video explaining what Darknet is.

Yet another Hydrophobia re-release is on the horizon. Earlier this morning, creator Dark Energy Digital announced Hydrophobia Prophecy, a Steam and PSN-bound “comprehensive reinvention” of the original Xbox Live Arcade release. As such, Prophecy features new levels, new puzzles, a re-tooled narrative, and even several technical enhancements like better lighting, textures, and animations. 

The title is slated to hit both networks this coming May 9, and you can spend your idle time waiting for it by reading the freaky list of tweaks, fixes, and additions to Prophecy on the game's official Web site.




Dark Energy Digital has devoted what feels like an unreasonable amount of time to tweaking and fixing Hydrophobia. Months after the game’s initial release earlier in the fall, the studio dropped a title update called “Pure,” which also had a laundry list of promising fixes: from the physics, to the visuals, to the camera, and even to the action, Dark Energy attempted to fix a game that wasn’t well received by players and games critics alike. Also, it dropped the price on the game.

Prior to the update, Dark Energy went on the offensive against some select outlets for its mixed takes on the title. Famously, Dark Energy accused Edge of not playing through the introductory portions of the game for the purposes of its negative review and lobbed the criticism that a Destructoid reviewer was ‘playing the game wrong' after a negative tweet.

User feedback played huge in what was addressed in Pure and, for what its worth, Dark Energy will be taking feedback to the extreme in Prophecy. At any point in the game, in fact, you’ll be able to bring up a feedback tool and comment directly to Dark Energy about your experience. 

Prophecy was first believed to be a sequel when it's name was spotted on the sleuth-tastic Australian Ratings Board Web site a mere week ago. The Hydrophobia is slated to be a trilogy.

You can pre-purchase Prophecy on Steam right now for $10.19, a 15 percent savings on the regular price. No word on the PSN price as of yet, but I assume it'll be equal in price.

Last we heard from Hydrophobia and the game's developer, Dark Energy Digital, the studio was doing its best to respond to fans' criticisms of the first, not-so-warmly received installment. The plan all along, however, has been a Hydrophobia trilogy, which likely explains why a listing for something called "Hydrophobia Prophecy" has popped up on the Australian Government's classification website.

Outside of noting Dark Energy Digital as the "author" and Microsoft Game Studios as the publisher, the listing provides little other information. Though it does confirm some important basics, like acknowledging that Prophecy is a video game and not, say, a line of Hydrophobia-branded sunglasses. We've reached out to Dark Energy Digital, but we're not exactly holding our breath for confirmation.

GamerBytes did a little number-crunching on the Xbox Live Arcade leaderboards for last month, and while we don't have exact numbers on Xbox Live titles (other than Major Nelson's usual list of most-played and purchased games), these are usually a rough indication of what business was like on Microsoft's network last month.

Bionic Commando: Re-armed 2 was the biggest disappointment, picking up fewer than 10,000 players on the leaderboards, compared to over 130K first-week sales for the first title. Hard Corps: Uprising, the first game to come out under Microsoft's "House Party" banner, brought in a few more players, at around 27K, and Bejeweled Blitz Live did pretty well (for a game that's on nearly every platform known to man in its basic form) with over 14K new players in the single week of February it was out.

Sales were big drivers -- Hydrophobia picked up over 10,000 new players thanks to a sale, and Geometry Wars 2 saw a huge bump as well. Outside of the new titles, Pinball FX 2 and Trials HD continue to grow their leaderboards.

We'll give this to developer Dark Energy Digital: it refuses to let Hydrophobia sink into the abyss without a fight. Late last year, the studio released the "Pure" update, which was one of the most substantial post-launch overhauls ever performed on a game. Now, the company is activating the "Hydrophobia Listening Post," asking the community what it wants from the game universe (and, likely, its planned sequels).

The Listening Post is presented as a series of questions on the Hydrophobia game site that seeks to incorporate player feedback into development. Creative director Pete Jones says the company was "absolutely blown away" by the response to Pure and believes "there should be a two-way relationship between developer and players."

If you still haven't dipped your toes into Hydrophobia (whose price was permanently dropped to 800 points [$10] on Xbox Live Arcade last month alongside the update), the game will be ripe for more feedback when it goes on sale next week for $5.

The next couple weeks of Xbox Live marketplace updates include deals for Harmonix's Dance Central and a "Get Wet" theme, which does not actually include the game Wet. For the week of January 24, Dance Central DLC will be 160 MSP apiece ($2, a buck off). The "Get Wet" promotion for the week of January 31 includes Hydro Thunder Hurricane for 800 MSP ($10, 33 percent off), Aqua at 400 MSP ($5, half off) and the upgraded Hydrophobia for 400 MSP ($5, also half off)

The list also reconfirms the launch dates of the Call of Duty: Black Ops "First Strike" map pack, Breach and Bionic Commando Rearmed 2. Check out the full schedule for the next couple weeks after the break.

Listening to the concerns of the Hydrophobia community, Dark Energy Digital has made fixes and improvements to their XBLA video game and retitled it Hydrophobia Pure.

#xboxlivearcade Xbox Live Arcade game Hydrophobia released this summer to mixed, sometimes harsh reviews. The developer, Dark Energy Digital, has taken those criticisms to heart and will release a massive update to the game that will dramatically change how it plays. More »

During a huge party on the Queen of the World -- a luxury liner filled with the world's rich and privileged -- terrorists attack. And not just any terrorists, but terrorists with a little too much respect for economist Thomas Malthus. Hydrophobia would be impossible to discuss without bringing up Malthus, whose seminal work "An Essay on the Principle of Population" posits that population growth will eventually outstrip human resources, whether they be food or energy or jobs or some combination of those. In Hydrophobia, this future has come to pass.

The "Neo-Malthusians" are hell bent on murdering as many of the ship's denizens as possible to do their part in controlling overpopulation. Protaganist Kate Wilson is the only one in a position to stop them but ... wait for it ... she's just an engineer. (Yes, it's all very "Seagal in Under Siege.") Room after room is filled with at least some amount of water, which is a real issue for the game's unwitting hero who is, as the game's name hints, afraid of water.

Sure, it's unconventional, but I actually really like the premise for Hydrophobia. The game? Not as much.

The latest dev diary for Dark Energy Digital's downloadable action title, Hydrophobia, shows the developer's 20 favorite ways to dispatch the game's foes, the Malthusians. Most of these means are either bullet, fire or electricity-centric, while almost none involve killing them with kindness.

#pax Dark Energy's new game, Hydrophobia, has evolved from tech demo to flagship title of Microsoft's fall push of Xbox Live Arcade games. It's not just because of the water. It's because of what you can do with it. More »

Save the world and kill yourself.

Our preview of Hydrophobia from E3 2010 covered what we saw in the first installment of the planned trilogy; however, if you want an idea of what to expect in the next installment, we got a better idea by checking out the game's "Challenge Rooms," which unlock only after the player finishes the main campaign. What's tucked after the break may be considered spoiler-ish, so click on through if you're willing to take the plunge.

I played Hydrophobia for the first time this past March at PAX East and, at the time, I was fairly impressed. My feelings on the downloadable title haven't changed dramatically after trying out the game's combat in the E3 2010 build, but I did notice a handful of rough edges this time around. The new parts of the demo essentially picked up exactly where I left off at PAX -- a handful of gun-toting Neo-Malthusians stood in my way and, lucky me, I had just stumbled upon a pistol.

As it turns out, the pistol isn't equipped with live rounds -- at least initially, though the Dark Energy Digital rep talked to us about a handful of other types -- but rather "Sonic" rounds that require a charge up for full blast. The idea here is to encourage environmental attacks rather than traditional, cover-based, third-person shooting; flaming barrels, glass panes and electrical boxes littered throughout the environment certainly helped to encourage me as well.

In theory this works -- and presumably would work better had I gotten more acclimated to the concept -- but I found myself accidentally igniting exploding barrels and trying to drown foes to no avail far more often that I would've liked.

Before getting our hands on the flooded world of Hydrophobia for the second time at this year's E3, we pushed Dark Energy Digital's Pete Jones to clarify the exclusivity deal his studio has with Microsoft. "We're launching exclusively on 360, just to get that one out of the way -- but there will be a PS3 and a PC version in the fullness of time," Jones told us, confirming a PC release of the game along the way. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell us exactly how long Microsoft's period of exclusivity will last.

"For contractual reasons, I can't exactly say what that time period is," Jones added, also noting that, "Ultimately, there will be disc versions as well. Maybe as a compilation." Hydrophobia has yet to receive a solid release date, but the folks from DED are pushing hard for a release by the end of this summer. That said, if the disc-based release will compile all three games of the planned trilogy, it'll be quite some time before we see it flooding onto store shelves.

Dark Energy Digital fired off a new trailer for its exceptionally moist episodic action title Hydrophobia earlier today. As always, the water which protagonist Kate is forced to traverse looks wonderful (in a deadly kind of way). We're perplexed, however, by all the fire featured in said video. We're no scientists, but shouldn't that turn the aforementioned water into, well, steam?

Don't be afraid to wet yourself after seeing these images.

Podcast GameHounds spoke with Rob Hewson, Pete Jones and Deborah Jones of Dark Energy Digital in its latest episode to discuss the upcoming downloadable "episodic" shooter, Hydrophobia. Announced as an XBLA exclusive, it appears that Hydrophobia will one day make its way to PS3 as well. Around the 59 minute mark, one of the podcast's hosts asks, "Will there be a version for PS3?," to which the developers respond, "Yes, there will be." No further details were probed, nor offered.

A number of high-profile XBLA games have made a delayed appearance on PSN, including Braid and the upcoming Castle Crashers. Based on anecdotal evidence, it appears Microsoft's exclusivity typically lasts for over a year -- meaning PS3 owners will likely have to wait quite some time before seeing Hydrophobia on their system of choice.

It's been nearly five years since Dark Energy Digital began work on the water physics-based action-adventure game Hydrophobia. In that time, the developer has shown approximately nobody the game -- heck, before I heard about the game heading to Xbox Live Arcade last summer, there hadn't been a lick of info on it in nearly nine months. But with this week's announcement of the game's XBLA exclusivity (and subsequent playability at PAX East), Joystiq was offered its first chance to play the title this morning. I'm happy to report that ... it's pretty good!

Alright, so, while Hydrophobia probably isn't going to be taking top spots on my 2010 GOTY list, I could certainly see it making an appearance on my "best of XBLA" list this year. The demo immediately made me think of playing Shadow Complex at last year's E3 -- it doesn't quite look like what you'd expect from XBLA, and the developers made sure to repeatedly affirm the game's "AAA quality" throughout my hands-on earlier this morning. Whether guiding the game's main character, Kate, through platforming areas or underwater, the gameplay itself felt like a solid base for what could be a very interesting (six-hour-ish) experience.

It's been nearly five years since Dark Energy Digital began work on the water physics-based action-adventure game Hydrophobia. In that time, the developer has shown approximately nobody the game -- heck, before I heard about the game heading to Xbox Live Arcade last summer, there hadn't been a lick of info on it in nearly nine months. But with this week's announcement of the game's XBLA exclusivity (and subsequent playability at PAX East), Joystiq was offered its first chance to play the title this morning. I'm happy to report that ... it's pretty good!

Alright, so, while Hydrophobia probably isn't going to be taking top spots on my 2010 GOTY list, I could certainly see it making an appearance on my "best of XBLA" list this year. The demo immediately made me think of playing Shadow Complex at last year's E3 -- it doesn't quite look like what you'd expect from XBLA, and the developers made sure to repeatedly affirm the game's "AAA quality" throughout my hands-on earlier this morning. Whether guiding the game's main character, Kate, through platforming areas or underwater, the gameplay itself felt like a solid base for what could be a very interesting (six-hour-ish) experience.

#paxeast Kotaku previewed new Xbox Live Arcade exclusive Hydrophobia this weekend. The game has some rough spots, but to help you understand this game's potential check out its water effects in this official trailer. More »

#paxeast The best parts of Hydrophobia are, not surprisingly, wet. More »

As if the thought of getting early hands-ons with Skate 3, Mafia 2, Red Dead Redemption, co-op Splinter Cell: Conviction and ... uh, well, tons of other games at PAX East wasn't enticing enough, we've just received word from Hydrophobia developer Dark Energy Digital that the game will also be available on the show floor. Moreover, the game has been announced as exclusive to Xbox Live Arcade (no word on whether the planned three-episode release will still get a retail counterpart). We'll be diving into Hydrophobia's flooded corridors this weekend and speaking with the developers, so feel free to dump a torrent of questions for us in the comment section below if you're so inclined.

Kinda' like the film Abyss, but with more fire and destruction.