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ManaGen
ManaGen held the #5
Most Downloaded Action Puzzle Game, on Download.com for several
weeks after release.
Download ManaGen Now
(Freeware!), at Download.com:
Click Here
(Latest version 1.1.1)
Overview
Title: ManaGen
Platform: PC
(Windows)
Genre:
Casual/Puzzle Game (2D)
Players: 1 - 2
(Co-Op)
Release Date:
March 9, 2009
Description
ManaGen is a casual game
where you play as Boomie, trying to toss the proper Nibs into the
bins.
"The story is of a
young ship Captain (Boomie), working for "Buildet Construction".
Buildet is a company that makes it money by terraforming land into
whatever its owner wants. Do you want a tropical island in the
middle of an ocean, you've got it! Do you want a Barron waste land
filled with a little sun, they are on it! But Boomie runs into a
little mishap while heading out on his very first day, and his ship
starts to malfunction. After a firm verbal beating from his superior
Boomie is forced to make do with a malfunctioning ship and make the
people of Calfor 6 happy, as long as his ship doesn't get him fired!"
Post Mortem
~Stephen Scott
What worked?
- Levels: I wanted to have a system in place that would let me
develop a lot of levels at a relatively quick pace. The system I
developed worked out great, allowing me to just paint a new
environment per level. It gives the player 50 levels to play, while
never having a repeating world.
- Co-Op: Funny thing is I almost didn't have co-op! But that is what
I'm all about, so there was no way I could leave out co-op play.
- Music: The sound track was great, Aidin did an amazing job. Also
it doubled as giving me background music for the cinematic. I would
love to bring Aidin back to do music for WK.
- Fun: It's fun! This was a big deal for me, when you make a puzzle
game its hard to know its going to be fun, so the fact that its as
fun as I hoped it would be is a perfect.
- Difficulty: Listening to my Beta testers I understood that it was
very hard to get 100%, and in some levels near impossible. So i
implemented Co-Op mode to take care of this. The game is still
difficult, but you can jump in with a friend if the going gets
tough.
What didn't work or could you have
done better?
- Co-Op controls (in the 1.1.0 version): I didn't properly test
co-op play before releasing the first build. The throw button was
broken, and that was an unacceptable problem. Next time, even if a
feature goes in late, I will make sure it goes through the proper
testing.
- Cinematic: I wish I had more time to make the Boss animate more. I
changed my idea to hide the lack of time I was able to devote to his
animation. I went with more humor in the intro, to hide the lack of
actual animation in the animation.
- Menus: I wish I had put more time into my menu's being a cohesive
system. They are all controlled differently, and the way i made the
select screen stopped my from letting you play the game entirely
without the mouse. I should have tested earlier, so i could have
changed this and not had a problem.
- Controls: I wish i could have made pick up and throw the same
button! I should have focused on making an inventory system to help
make this possible.
- Physics: Ugh, the
Physics were a mess. The Nibs don't bounce like standard
physics, and explode at times. It all really came from my
in-experience in doing true physics with the engine. It really
stopped the game from being as predictable as it should have been.
- No Hardware
Acceleration: I learned that the game can run slow on some
machines because I didn't implement the Hardware Acceleration
option, that would have helped speed up the slowdown that can happen
on less powerful machines.
Did you meet your expectations?
Yes, I was hoping to make a Action Puzzle game that was a quick pick
up and play game, and fun, with a little humor in the Cinematics. I
think I succeeded in that.
In closing
My biggest goal was to take a game from design to finish by myself.
This was to show me that I could handle completing a project. I've
watched too many games and mods get started and show so much promise
and never get completed. I needed to be sure that wasn't going to
happen here, now I know, and anyone interested in my company can see
that at Algitt, if nothing else, we are Finishers.
Algitt's Rating of ManaGen: 2
out of 5 =(
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Released Games
- ManaGen (PC)
Unreleased Games
-
Munkie Wrench (PC, MAC)
-
Warlord Kingdoms (PC)
-
Unnamed Platformer (XBLIG) |
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