What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

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What kind of game you'd like the most to buy ?

a Sci-Fi Tactical game : a bit like X-Com (control a Squad to defend Earth against UFO invasion)
18
5%
a RPG like Ultima Underworld or Arx Fatalis : 1 character in FPV and exploring a dungeon
11
3%
a RPG (Role Playing Game) like Dungeon Masters : 4 characters in a First Person View & exploring a dungeon
11
3%
a Puzzle Game : like Zuma, but with Balloon Rain 3D Engine
6
2%
a Racing Manager : manage a pilot & his team
66
17%
a "crazy" tennis game : have supershots, maybe bonus, funny characters and being very unrealistic
29
7%
I care only about tennis games and only want Mana Games to improve TE & TEM
219
56%
I cannot buy games (no money, no credit card in my country, etc...)
32
8%
 
Total votes : 392

What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby manutoo » 18 Nov 2008, 07:09

Hello,

I spent most of my time working on Tennis Games in theses past 4 years (TE2005, TE2006, TEM & TE2009), so believe it or not, but I'm getting a bit bored of tennis... ;)

I'll do an update for TEM soon, I'll try to port TE2009 to Mac OSX, I'll add some animations to TE2009, but after that, I'd like to do a new game...

And I very wonder what kind of game I should do, so maybe you could help me to figure this out..! :)

Actually, in the proposed list, there are only 2 games that I really want to do : the Ultima Underworld clone, and the Tactical game. But feel free to let me know what you like the most. You can also change your vote if you change ur mind later on... ;)

You can choose up to 2 games, but you should choose only the "no money" option if you cannot buy games...

EDIT:
a few pics to show how the games look like :

UFO, a successor of X-Com :
Image

Arx Fatalis :
Image

Ultima Underworld:
Image

Dungeon Master (very popular genre back in the 80's) :
Image
Might and Magic 5th, a Dungeon Master clone :
Image
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby Santiago92 » 18 Nov 2008, 18:01

I can't buy games, but I would like a game like Onlinetennis (onlinetennis.de), Pmanager (pmanager.org) or Footstar (footstar.org), where you don't play with your hands, you set tactics and training...
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby Curtis » 18 Nov 2008, 20:33

Thank you for starting a poll on this subject. I voted for a racing game, but what I mean is a horse racing game: Managing a stable, acting as a buyer, trainer, bettor and/or jockey. There are many possible styles of races. Steeplechasing, turf, flat track, and racing to a cart (Standardbred, pacing, trotting, etc.). There are different track surfaces and a variety of facilities, much like your tennis games.

There was a game on this topic ("Horse Racing Manager" by Cyanide and VPGames), but it was full of bugs and had little to no designer support. It would be good if you could choose the style of game to play (owner, trainer, jockey, bettor, or a combination), and it should absolutely be Mac-compatible.

I very much enjoy the four to six character RPG games, but that is already a well served market. I would advise you to choose a game where you have little to no competition.

If I had checked a second box (which I did not), my second choice would have been to stick with the tennis games, maybe adding more of a roleplaying element, or making your existing games optionally interoperable with each other, so players who were interested could both manage and play out the matches.

I am in the 'no money' category half of the year, so I am very appreciative of the extensive demo you made available for TEM. I hope you will continue this policy for any future games you produce.
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby oohzuzana » 19 Nov 2008, 01:50

Hockey is phenomenal. That should be it.

But really, you've cornered a great tennis audience. Even if it's getitng boring (:p), it's where you're gonna make the most money in the short run. :mrgreen:
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby btaylor » 19 Nov 2008, 08:48

Hey Manu.... so sorry to hear you're getting bored with the tennis game. :( I think you've spoiled us and I think we all enjoy the hell out of the game. I realize you don't have the budget of some of the big box tennis games but you do such a wonderful job of keeping us excited with all your tweaking and updates and such. :D Also, if it's cost effective (and you're still interested) there may still be some more subtle tweaking to do with such things as stroke production, outfits such as collared and sleeveless shirts, and copying one or two more recognizeable pro player styles (Sampras serve/Roddick serve, Fed's backhand come to mind) :) Hopefully even after you've moved on to other ventures you may still revisit the game from time-to-time when ideas/cost-effective technologies pop into your head (kinda like a labor of love) 8-)
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby Tom Paulman » 19 Nov 2008, 10:58

I don't play games except TE (and occassionally Tiger Woods 05), so I wish you would only do tennis games and keep improving them :)
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby Guest » 19 Nov 2008, 23:20

I would love a trakc and field game.

Sort of like TEM

where you can join the IAAF tour. Track is just like tennis not all people can get into certain events. I could help with you alot in the making of that game.

So could yopu please make a game like that?
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby TTennisfan » 20 Nov 2008, 00:19

as Zuzana said an ice hockey game will be awesome but in ur options i think that a Racing Game & Managament :D




Why don't u just sign a contrat with Microsoft(XBOX) or Ubisoft, Nintendo to get more good ratings and of course more money 8-)
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby TTennisfan » 20 Nov 2008, 00:20

And I don't think that ; I care only about tennis games and only want Mana Games to improve TE & TEM is a nice option as manutoo said he is tired of tennis lol
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby btaylor » 20 Nov 2008, 04:52

Manutoo listed the options, evidently he wants to know :roll:
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby manutoo » 20 Nov 2008, 08:14

@Curtis :
No horse racing, coz I don't know anything about that... And it's not popular enough... ;)

>> four to six character RPG games, but that is already a well served market
Could u tell me the games u have in mind ?


@oohzuzana :
>> it's where you're gonna make the most money in the short run
possibly, but except doing a TEM2 or a Crazy Tennis, there's no much way to get money from tennis games right now... and I really need to change my mind, I like more to work for fun than for money, else I'd be in a big company now (although, having some money is nice too, so thanks to everybody who bought my games & will buy them... :P )


@btaylor :
Don't worry, I won't let down support of my games..! :)
And I'll add some little things now & then... Even probably do a big update for TE2009 to TE2010 before finishing the new game, if it takes too long to create it.


@Guess :
No track and field, coz I don't know anything about that... And it's not popular enough... (bis ;) )


@TTennisfan & btaylor:
yup, sure I want to know how many people prefer to see improvements on the tennis games instead of a new game. It can give me an idea of the proportion of my current customers I could hope to sale a new game to, and thus, I can ponder the risks for the development and the efforts needed for marketing... (I don't like marketing... :roll: )
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby Blacky » 20 Nov 2008, 14:09

I would like to see something that can be played online...because I very rarely play games alone in single player...and I think that future lies in online multi player games

AI is easy to defeat once when you find out how, but real people can outsmart you...and that is something that I want for challenge...
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby Blacky » 20 Nov 2008, 14:16

oohzuzana wrote:Hockey is phenomenal. That should be it.

But really, you've cornered a great tennis audience. Even if it's getitng boring (:p), it's where you're gonna make the most money in the short run. :mrgreen:


Hockey is popular in N. America and little bit in N. Europe...but I doubt that Hockey is smart option...it won't attract that much people...probably less then Tennis Elbow

Tweaking Match engine will be even harder because it's hard to start from the beginning, specially if don't know that much about Hockey, and there are already good Hockey games with nice ME(NHL)
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby paranoid » 20 Nov 2008, 19:52

well..I consider myself as a hardcore RPG fan.
but there are already tons of different kinds of rpg in the market.many of them are just some shameless copycat of another one.it's really hard to do something different to be honest.
but TEM or TE is probably the only realistic tennis simulation game I can think of..so have to choose the "only care about tennis game" option :cry:
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Re: What should be the next game of Mana Games ?

Postby Curtis » 21 Nov 2008, 03:15

manutoo wrote:@Curtis :
>> four to six character RPG games, but that is already a well served market
Could u tell me the games u have in mind ?



As paranoid said (I wasn't able to figure out how to multi-quote :roll: ), "…there are already tons of different kinds of rpg in the market. Many of them are just some shameless copycat of another one. It's really hard to do something different…".

A company that does a good job with RPGs is Spiderweb Software. They have at least three series of games (Nethergate, Geneforge and Avernum) with more than ten titles spread between them. I've never tried Geneforge, but the other two use very similar systems. Like Mana Games, they have an extremely liberal demo policy, and their games are available for both PC and Mac. I would advise you to download the demos for the most recent entries in each series and try them.

They really are excellant, but hardly perfect. The graphics are not up to the industry standard. The game logic for wandering outdoor encounters certainly isn't what I would have chosen (see bottom). The dungeons (which Spiderweb calls 'towns') aren't really living.

What I mean by 'not living' is that if you invade the dungeon, kill all the creatures in the first few rooms and then leave, the remaining residents will not react to this. They should take note of what's happened, set some alarms or traps in case you come back, and if enough time goes by they should recruit some replacements. In the Spiderweb games occaisional wandering monsters will sometimes appear in previously cleared out sections, but the defenses are not conducted intelligently. Another thing that doesn't make sense to me is that if you leave loot lying around (ran out of carrying capacity, got distracted, decided it wasn't worth the effort, didn't find it), it will still be there when you return. Why haven't the residents found the stuff, moved it someplace safer, or started using it themselves? It really annoys me when you kill a wizard and recover his Staff of Lightning Bolts. Why wasn't he using it against you? When he got hurt, why didn't he drink that healing potion you found on his corpse? If there's a fight going on in the barracks, why doesn't the Captain come out of his room, fully equiped and ready to fight?

Then there's the matter of dungeon ecology. In a cavern complex with no fairly solid barriers between sections, why are there fire lizards living side-by-side with giant rats? Wouldn't the lizards find the rats tasty and eat them? And why would the goblins allow the lizards to live in that side chamber? There might be a logical explanation (the lizard is chained to the wall, and the goblins feed it their trash), but there really needs to BE an explanation.

Real towns should be 'living', too. The first time you go there you search through an abandoned storefront; a month later that could now be a tavern. One of the real 'cheats' in the Spiderweb games is stealing from the townspeople. As long as no one sees you do it, it's free loot. Meanwhile, the townies are absolutely unconcerned as you pick the lock to their bedroom door right in front of them, walk in and close the door, then rob them blind with no consequences because no one was in the room with you while went through their closet.

(bottom) One of the things I don't like about their outdoor random encounter system is how the opposing forces set up against each other. There are three normal cases: 1) You see the enemy and it doesn't see you (you have the option to avoid it); 2) You see each other at some distance on the map; 3) You are ambushed. The way their current system works, both sides have mostly random formations, though the enemy spellcasters and missile troops are usually to their rear — yours are not — and the distances you start apart are also random with a limited range.

The way I would do it would be: 1) If you choose not to avoid the encounter, you ambush them. They set up in a random 'traveling' order, and you get to set up in whatever formation you prefer at whatever distance you prefer, within the limited range. 2) Both sides set up in their optimum formation at the maximum range. 3) Your force is set up randomly, and the enemy sets up in an intelligent formation at its best range. I would add a fourth situation: 4) Both sides are surprised. Both sides use their traveling formation, and the encounter begins at the minimum distance.

Well, these are some things to keep in mind if you want to have a game that is not just a clone. I'm sure it's more than you wanted in response to your question. :oops:
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