Mana Games

Hello community,
a little teaser for 2014 ...


Kind regards,
Heinrich von Westphalen.

Its more teaser than trailer i think, but have to say you made it look very really Great especially that you used only "clean graphics like particles" it made it look very futuristic. Good job

wow ... dude that's brilliant ... keep it up and good luck

Wow, you've definitely got a talent for this stuff. Can't wait for 2014!

i don't know what will be the change but looks promising!!good luck and keep it up!!

looks good, wait for a gameplay to see what this is

First time someone does something like this

that's brilliant

Oh my, every day you keep bringing something new ! Manutoo should make a partnership with you !
Very curious what is this all about

Lucian86 wrote:Oh my, every day you keep bringing something new ! Manutoo should make a partnership with you !
Very curious what is this all about

It doesn't surpise me, if tomorrow he is a new helper of manutoo in release candidate's (alphas, betas & all that stuff of future releases).

This game has undoubted the best physics engine of tennis games ... just GUI, HUD etc. are a little bit 90s ... a realistic tennis game in physics (ManuToo) and graphics (Modders) will be great for this game and could be compare w/ TS 4 / VT 4 easily.

Kind regards,
Heinrich von Westphalen.

Heinrich von Westphalen wrote:This game has undoubted the best physics engine of tennis games ... just GUI, HUD etc. are a little bit 90s ... a realistic tennis game in physics (ManuToo) and graphics (Modders) will be great for this game and could be compare w/ TS 4 / VT 4 easily.

Kind regards,
Heinrich von Westphalen.

That very much sums up how I feel about Tennis Elbow 2013 at the moment. The gameplay is far and beyond anything else out there and the sheer amount of content create by the community means that the game can be kept up to date. However the limitations of the engine in terms of presentation are becoming a little apparent.

I'm not being critical of ManuToo or the fantastic efforts he has made to develop and support the game over the long term. What one man has done is simply amazing but the time is clearly approaching for Tennis Elbow to evolve once more.

If Top Spin has shown us anything it is that tennis games are one of the few sports games that can go into intricate levels of detail in terms of character models, court models and animations etc. That is clearly the future with the 2D courts which have brought us much joy over the past years becoming part of the past.

One thing we must be cautious of though is that any changes do not detract from the fantastic physics or gameplay. I've seen it happen in both FIFA and PES football games where stepping into a world of 360 degree movement and fancy animations has resulted in poorer gameplay. I'd be hopeful that was never the case with Tennis Elbow and that the next version of this game is able to offer the same excellent experience (as I'm sure it will!).

The future looks bright!

fhoneill wrote:That very much sums up how I feel about Tennis Elbow 2013 at the moment. The gameplay is far and beyond anything else out there and the sheer amount of content create by the community means that the game can be kept up to date. However the limitations of the engine in terms of presentation are becoming a little apparent.

I'm not being critical of ManuToo or the fantastic efforts he has made to develop and support the game over the long term. What one man has done is simply amazing but the time is clearly approaching for Tennis Elbow to evolve once more.

If Top Spin has shown us anything it is that tennis games are one of the few sports games that can go into intricate levels of detail in terms of character models, court models and animations etc. That is clearly the future with the 2D courts which have brought us much joy over the past years becoming part of the past.

One thing we must be cautious of though is that any changes do not detract from the fantastic physics or gameplay. I've seen it happen in both FIFA and PES football games where stepping into a world of 360 degree movement and fancy animations has resulted in poorer gameplay. I'd be hopeful that was never the case with Tennis Elbow and that the next version of this game is able to offer the same excellent experience (as I'm sure it will!).

The future looks bright!

My personal view of 3D in tennis games is very torn. In my opionion sport games need firstly a realistic physic engine, which is nearly perfect in TE. A few fellow students and me started to develop an engine for ball and human physics and I know now Manutoos good performance. But games are not only gameplay. Especially sport games need a design, an optical authenticity as well. The menu, sound, music and few other things is antiquated in TE. Especially HUDs and the GUI is easy to create. So it is clever by developer to open source in these things (but not enough I think).
On the other side my experience is that some 3D features like subject perspective or 3D stadiums are not necessary.

Kind regards,
Heinrich.

Heinrich von Westphalen wrote:My personal view of 3D in tennis games is very torn. In my opionion sport games need firstly a realistic physic engine, which is nearly perfect in TE. A few fellow students and me started to develop an engine for ball and human physics and I know now Manutoos good performance. But games are not only gameplay. Especially sport games need a design, an optical authenticity as well. The menu, sound, music and few other things is antiquated in TE. Especially HUDs and the GUI is easy to create. So it is clever by developer to open source in these things (but not enough I think).
On the other side my experience is that some 3D features like subject perspective or 3D stadiums are not necessary.

Kind regards,
Heinrich.

I agree. You can see in big budget sports titles now that the physics engine is one of the primary selling points right down to the fact that it is something that they highlight in previews as being one of the 'key features'. Very few games though have struck the right balance with the physics engine thus far which allows the game to have the realistic physics but also to feature gameplay that doesn't feel like the AI is cheating.

As for optical authenticity then it's easy to see the profound effect it has by looking at how well the EA Sports series of games sells. Never under estimate the power behind allowing the game to play something that feels 'authentic'. Opening the door to the community is a fantastic way of getting around the need for licenses etc and also allows the work of creating new content to be spread amongst many people as opposed to being on the shoulders of one developer. If I was to be critical of one aspect of Tennis Elbow I'd highlight the menus as being something that feels very dated. Absolutely nothing wrong with them but there are better ways to present the information which I'm sure we shall see in future.

Where I would disagree though is that things like 3D stadiums are not necessary. If you want authenticity and the full immersive experience then I believe you have to go to that level. They are not difficult to create but they do offer up a better feeling than the 3D player models on a 2D background experience. There is nothing wrong with the latter of course but I was merely talking about 'stepping up' in future.

One thing I have been impressed with in terms of presentation is the little cutscenes that Top Spin 4 introduced. They can be repetitive and some people may not like them but in terms of presentation they add that little touch of almost TV like quality to the game. Of course they are no requirement to create a fantastic tennis game but a nice addition to improve the atmosphere and feel of the experience.

CD