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Message: 5398
Author: darth_melkor
Date: 04/01/2006
Subject: Re: "Manic Scribbler" Daniel's review
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel"
>
Wow! Thank you very much for your generous praise, even though I do
> I played "Manic Scribbler" on the last day of 2005 and I am
> extremely impressed by it. While I am still half-way through it, I
> can already say: Congratulations, Darth Melkor, it's a great game
> IMO! It should become a classic of vicious design :-), since its
> difficulty level is paralleled (or surpassed, in some cases) only
> by Andrew Broad's games :-) .
not merit it. I am merely a conduit for the dark side of the Force.
I am very flattered that you mention Manic Scribbler in the
same 'breath' as Andrew Broad's games. I could never match Andrew's
brilliantly inspired ideas for games and rooms, his talent for
creating visually attractive and atmospheric rooms, or his
programming abilities.
> I spent practically the whole last day of the year playing "MS",
"Your arrogance blinds you, Master Yoda. Now you will experience the
> into the wee hours in the New Year. I wanted to relax after hard
> work before the release of Sendy's and mine "Mind Control", and I
> thought I'd have a go at a new MM game (I had planned to playtest
> Sendy's "Manic Person", but then I thought it was a more serious
> and responsible task, and decided on "MS").
full power of the dark side."
> And instead of relaxing, I had to struggle and curse, and then get
I was amazed at how some of the rooms turned out, given that they're
> euphoric after successfully passing each room, and then get
> frustrated again five minutes into playing the next room :-) .
>
> The game is very clever in terms of cellular construction, IMO (to
> quote an expression used by Andrew several weeks ago). It requires
> the player to think very carefully in what order to try to collect
> the items, and if you make a mistake, you cannot correct it, you
> have to start playing the room from scratch.
just random cell placements massaged into playable form with my
knowledge of quirky features. Only the items - and in some cases,
the portal - are strategically placed.
I believe the scribble approach to MM room design lends itself to
rooms where the correct route is crucial and non-obvious (the
crumbling cells also help enormously in this aspect). When I play
other authors' MM games, the route tends to be quite obvious from
the way the room is designed.
> It also requires some very tight, probably pixel-perfect jumping,
It is very kind of you to say so. I believe this is true with
> and a very good knowledge of the quirky features, which it exploits
> both mercilessly and beautifully :-) .
respect to the cells, but not the guardians since I didn't edit
their paths - although the guardians do present a challenge far
greater than in the original Manic Miner.
> The game does not introduce any new graphics, as far as I can tell,
Editing guardians, graphics and colours isn't my thing. I just
> and does not change the movement of the guardians from the original
> MM. It does introduce a novelty as far as music is concerned,
> though.
wanted to concentrate on the cell placements to produce a game with
no effort in these other aspects. I did think about scribbling some
random graphics with random colours in the spirit of Manic
Scribbler, but I thought it would just make the game look hideous
whilst contributing nothing to the technical gameplay.
> A very superficial review of the rooms I have played so far would
I'm just amazed that anyone would make the effort to comment on the
> be:
>
> - 00 "Massacre! Massacre! MASSACRE!!!!" a very nice opening.
> Although not very difficult, it already gives you a flavour of what
> lies ahead.
individual rooms! I created this room with no serious intentions of
making the transition from player to author, but once I had saved
and played it, I felt I had a duty to make a game of it!
This room is very straightforward in comparison to the other 19, as
I was just mucking around to begin with. I did go back later to
incorporate some quirky features once I got into my stride.
> - 01 ".I feel so A.D.D." it took me a very long time to figure
The thing I remember about this room is having to cut the penguins'
> out how to get the central item. It's probably quite obvious if
> you know the quirky features, but I kept looking at it from a
> wrong direction!
feet off because of the block graphics bug that affects the Water 2
cell in the path of the lower penguin.
> - 03 "Food fight" similarly to the original "MM", this room
Thank you. I do believe the item in the portal is a first.
> seemed easier than the preceding ones. It has some delightful
> quirky features though!
> - 04 "Cellular diarrhoea" I didn't get diarrhoea, but I was close
Thanks again. This is one of the rooms I'm particularly proud of,
> to it :-) . Extremely well-designed challenge, IMO.
and the title seemed to sum up the scribble approach very
poetically! ;-)
> - 06 "Scatological screen" this room seemed a little easier, but
There are two different ways of doing this room IIRC. I was amazed
> had its puzzles as well.
to discover that I could jump back up to the bottom of the screen
despite the Air cells you'd think would prevent this. I believe this
is another first.
> - 07 "Isaiah 36:12" without a Bible at hand to consult, I am not
Not having seen Pulp Fiction, this reference is lost on me.
> sure what the name wants to say, but I have a vague suspicion it
> may be a reference to "Pulp Fiction" rather than the Bible :-) .
> A very cleverly-designed room, in which I first learned how to
Well done!
> negotiate various parts of the route, until I got the whole route
> right. And I managed to topple the Kong Beast too! :-)
> - 08 "Mopping up my stools & vomit" yeah, nearly... This was a
It's actually one of the easiest rooms in the game IMO.
> very similar story to "I predict a riot" in the sense that it
> looked /relatively/ easy, and then I got stuck hopelessly. I
> practically gave up, and only when I came back an hour later and
> had a fresh look, I discovered where I had made the mistake.
> As a tip to those who will follow in my footsteps and torture
I think that's one of the advantages of the scribble approach -
> themselves with "MS", I can say: it IS possible to pass below the
> lower horizontal guardian (the slow-moving one), but it is useless.
> I wasted three quarters of an hour to learn this painful lesson :-
> ) .
there's a lot of forbidden holy ground and places which are possible
but unnecessary to visit, and the random cell placements often
obscure the true path.
> - 09 "1 Samuel 28:7" even without a Bible to consult, I knew this
Thank you for your generous praise. This would have to be the second
> was a reference to the witch of Endor (and a bow to the
> original "MM"), because I remembered Darth Melkor's very
> professional-sounding recent explanation of the meaning of
> "Endorian Forest" :-) . Again, a very cleverly-designed room,
> requiring good thinking and some tight jumps.
hardest room in the game - and the tightest in terms of guardians,
given the unusual jumps needed to get past the yellow Ewok.
> That's as far I have got up till now. I look forward to playing the
Manic Scribbler is flattered to be worthy of your time.
> second half of the game, even though I know it will be many, many
> hours before I get to the end.
> As a piece of general advice to those of you who will play "MS", I
I myself prefer to just dive in and learn from my mistakes. For me
> would say:
>
> - analyse each room very carefully before you start playing it, to
> figure out what route to take;
at least, it's too mentally taxing to attempt to analyse such
complicated rooms in my head.
> - if you get stuck and think there's no way to go ahead, look back
Yes - save a snapshot, then lose a life to see where all the
> at your route in the room and analyse it carefully; it is likely
> that the problem is not where you are now, but /before/;
crumbling cells were.
> - if you think it's impossible to complete a room (at least of the
I would say frequent breaks from Manic Scribbler are essential if
> first ten ones, I couldn't guarantee for the rest), take some rest
> from it, and then go back and look at it with fresh eyes, and have
> faith;
you wish to preserve your sanity! ;-)
> - if you get too frustrated with "MS", go and play "MM: Neighbours
I am a much better player now than when I played Ma jolie, so I'd
> - Allana Truman" or "Ma jolie" :-) .
>
> Actually, my personal sensation is that "MS" is somewhat easier
> than "MM: N AT" (hard version), more difficult than "MM: The
> Hobbit" (hard version) and /much/ more difficult than "MM: The
> Buddha of Suburbia". I cannot compare it to "Ma jolie", since I
> have only got to the third room so far BTW, thanks for the tip
> Andrew, I have read it and I'll try to apply it soon.
have to play it again before I could compare its difficulty against
Manic Scribbler. I'd be pretty amazed if Manic Scribbler were indeed
tougher than Andrew's consciously designed challenges in Ma jolie.
> So, congratulations once again, Darth Melkor, and I hope you will
I have no plans to make any more games... but Manic Scribbler wasn't
> design more vicious games!
planned in any way either! ;-) I do believe it was valuable to
introduce the MM community to the scribble approach to room design,
but there would be little added value in me churning out a Manic
Scribbler 2, etc. I'd be happy to sit back and watch the real MM
authors make judicious use of this approach, allied to their
creative talents which I myself don't possess.
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