Poocraft.

By: ARelativelyHotGirl

On: August 25th, 2006

Cory Doctorow took a break from whacking off to Disneyland to post “Manifesto went live today, filled with amazing-looking games, the likes of which I’ve never seen. Congrats, Greg!” on BoingBoing.

An excerpt from Man! Festo Games’ motto: “The machinery of gaming has run amok. Instead of serving creative vision, it suppresses it. Instead of encouraging innovation, it represses it.”

Hyperbole/repetition/mindless chest-thumping aside, ManifestoGames DOES offer some VERY innovative titles. Take for instance, the top featured $20 game Mudcraft. It apparently stars people made of poo. I think that World of Warcraft game stole its name or something. “At least download the demo, for chrissakes.”

Also featured is Aveyond, “a game you wouldn’t be surprised to find on your SNES or Genesis.” It’s very innovative. I think Squaresoft stole the idea of Final Fantasy VI from these guys via a time machine or something.

Welcome to the future of indie gaming. “Who doesn’t like playing in the mud?”

raises hand :’(

Posted in Community | Tags: ManifestoGames

NHP

Manifesto? WTFcraft? Big fucking deal.

Thanks for the news, ARHG.
Dan MacDonald

Do the TIGSource crew even like games? Granted I wouldn’t write home about any of the “Manefesto” stuff, I’m’ just wondering who up and set the bar for a “cool game” so high that nothing seems to make it?
ARelativelyHotGirl

Well… it probably wouldn’t involve poo.
Jimbob

Well, if good games came out I’m sure they’d say so…
Faunis

Bit harsh, but have to agree with the point. I was pretty dissappointed with the offerings on Manifesto.

Although to criticize a game involving mud for looking vaguely like poop is sort of ridiculous, methinks.
Jimmy

hmm, TIG Source is often positive about games. I mean, Derek was happy about Swarm Racer, just one post below. And Max was gushing about Orsinal. And Fleafall was deemed “a great freeware game”. Hey, going back a bit further, “Guardian of Paradise is one of the best freeware Zelda tributes on Earth.”
So yes, I think they “even like games”.
http://rav.realitybytes.tk ravuya

I kind of liked Plasmaworm. How can you not? It’s free, and it’s got a music editor in it.

Looking forward to seeing what else comes out; I’d love to feature my own stuff but it’s not that great, IMHO.
http://www.mawsoft.com/blog/ Impossible

Freeware is often more interesting than shareware. Most of the indie games that I’ve really enjoyed over the past couple of years have been freeware.

Manifesto is also in a weird situation where they have to pick up kind of middle of the road games, because many of the top games are already on Steam or XBLA, much better markets for hardcore games. If Costik and Wilson really want great games they might have to fund them.
ThatGuy

Damn gaming industry, repressing clones of 8-year-old titles. Valve lacks the creative drive to make a copy of X-Com, I say!
nullerator

Not poo, mud. And anyway, I didn’t think much of it. The thunderstorms quickly became too annoying for me.

TBH, Manifesto’s portal seems similar to all the other shareware portals out there, only at Manifesto you have to actually register to download demos. What’s up with that?

However, there are some very innovative games there. You just (deliberately) picked some of the ones that aren’t.
Lorne

I see a major flaw, as someone who played in the mud alot as a child:
The mud should not be bright brown (Bright brown?…) it should be a really grey shade of brown.
Albert Lai

And trees aren’t really brown, and the sky isn’t always blue. :P
Mister Joshua

It’s nice to know somebody else hates Cory Doctorow.

The one interesting thing I saw on that site was Taskforce. Anybody know if it actually is worthy of comparison to X-Com?
Shih Tzu

Heaven forbid somebody who likes old-school JRPGs should make an old-school JRPG.
anonymous

that screenshot looks like shit. I’ve seen better screens at the Game Maker forums.
Derek

They’re not off to a great start, but here’s hoping…

The problem with fashioning yourself a revolutionary is that people really expect a revolution. And this doesn’t seem like the start of one.

I mean: RPG, Shooter, Sim/Tycoon, and Turn-based Strategy? They’re categorizing the games into genres from the get-go… maybe it makes sense from an ease-of-use standpoint, but the dichotomy between Manifesto’s motto and the games they’re offering is kind of ridiculous.
null

Well, they fashioned themselves after a _communist_ revolution, so it’s only fitting that they disappoint everyone’s high expectations. Looked at in that sense, they are a fantastic success. Well done, comrades!
Mess

why the heck is everyone pinning their hopes on these useless dicks? first it’s kq ix, then nanifesto, now penny arcade? there’s plenty of good games out there, go play it people instead of wasting your time with these communists.

just saying my piece.
failrate

> Valve lacks the creative drive to make a copy of X-Com, I say!

Um, errr, Laser Squad Nemesis is made by the same people who made X-COM. They just really love TBS games.
prio

Laser Squad Nemesis is awesome. By the way. It’s been around a year or two, and between turns people can talk about hot pressing issues like marine anatomy. http://p069.ezboard.com/fcodogamesfrm1.showMessage?topicID=7354.topic
Teeth

On the one hand, Manifesto games is a bit crappy, as Derek says they’re off to a bad start and the idea that creativity is being stifled is the same nonsense that Chris Crawford continually comes out with – it’s all publicity for emo teenagers to get into. Oh man, we’re so indie, we’re the underdogs, the only way forward is to pretend to be a socialist and strawman everyone else into being boring me-too sheep!

On the other hand, the tone of this post is a little strong and likening the creatures in the mud game to poo is desperately immature and devalues the worth of the post.
A Person

Plus the game isn’t very much a clone of WarCraft at all except the title. Also funny that you make a sarcastic jab for it ripping off WORLD of Warcraft which is wrong for a very obvious reason.
ARelativelyHotGirl

Yes, yes… but imagine how wonderous a game called World of Poocraft would be.
TIGDev367

Can we just call you ScatGirl? Great, will do.