Aquamarine

Survive an alien ocean as you search for your crashed ship

While Sable has dominated the ‘inspired by the French artist Moebius’ game chat since E3, Aquamarine has been gently pottering about, sporting its own take on the cartoonist’s aesthetic. You, an unnamed space traveller, have crash-landed on an ocean planet, and must survive strange creatures and a significant lack of food while you try to recover your ship. In this tiny pre-alpha demo of the roguelike food is scarce—frustratingly so—but the crystals which you use to fuel your escape pod’s shields and movement seem abundant. As a result I tend to starve to death, but with a full tank of fuel. My second most common demise is via the electrified tentacles of a sort of waterdwelling duck-billed… caterpillar? They like to fight me over crystals, so I try to use the turn-based move system to stay out of their way.

I know that developer Moebial intends the full game to be a tactical experience, geared around collecting and managing scarce resources, and discovering the planet’s secrets. In this super early build I haven’t been able to explore far (partly because of all the dying), so I’m not sure how much of the ecosystem and planet is in place. But what I have seen so far is eye-catching, and I keep finding myself returning to see if I can find a way to deeper waters.