Posts with ‘ManifestoGames’ Tag

Manifesto Games Closes Shop

By: Derek Yu

On: June 24th, 2009

Manifesto Games

After almost four years since its announcement, Greg Costikyan’s Manifesto Games is no more. The online independent games store, which was conceptualized by Costikyan following a particularly heated rant of his at GDC, aimed to provide a distribution channel for indies that was free of the typical publisher/developer bullcrap. (See: The Manifesto Manifesto)

We’ve been generally very critical of Manifesto Games on TIGSource since it went live. Greg’s heart was totally in the right place (and his words most definitely appreciated), but the implementation of his vision was subpar, in my opinion. Ultimately, the site’s selection of games did not reflect its manifesto, and it did not provide what news sites and developers themselves couldn’t do better.

These days there are a variety of distribution channels that take independent games seriously and treat them professionally – Steam, Greenhouse, GamersGate, Direct2Drive, etc. Indie games also receive a lot of promotion from The Independent Games Festival and Summits, which are now mainstays of the Game Developer’s Conference. Some of the developers are making big money from console publishers like Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony, too. (Castle Crashers just reached 1,000,000 players on XBLA!)

And for free games, artsy games, and general indie game news and criticism, you can’t beat TIGS, IndieGames.com, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Destructoid, and Bytejacker. We’re even hitting the gallery scene thanks to guys like messhof and ArtXGame. Not to mention all the popular forums that are indie-curious. And hell, even Kotaku gets a few INDIE EXCLUSIVES every now and then!

Some of this is touched upon in Costik’s farewell post, although I feel like his outlook is, perhaps unsurprisingly, more gloomy and cautionary than it should be. Things are good right now. They can always be better, but… generally, I think the concept that Costik laid out in 2005 (that we ALL laid out in 2005), has been realized, if not by Manifesto specifically, then by the entire community.

Manifesto Accepts Maverick Award

By: Shapermc

On: March 15th, 2007

Hello there TIGSource readers. After meeting up with Derek Yu at GDC (and falling head over heels for him) I got on my knees and begged him to let me write for TIGSource. Begrudgingly he agreed, but said I would have to do my damnedest to impress him. For now I’m on a trial basis until he kicks me to the curb, but I have attitude for gains!

Some of you may know me as the editor of The Gamer’s Quarter, or even my shabby (and recently belated) GameSetWatch column Parallax Memories. With that said, I’m hoping that I can add to the already fantastic lineup of TIGSource news and articles here, so if I bore you just let me know (and Derek, so that he can fire me).

For my first entry I wanted to share with the community Greg Costik’s GDC Maverick Award acceptance speech. It is touching and heartfelt as well as inspirational.

“[I’m] delighted also that the development community so clearly sees that we we’re trying to accomplish is important. … [O]utside the industry’s mainstream, the signs are hopeful—in the increasing attention paid to independent games as a means of sustaining our heritage of creativity; in the serious games and “games for change” movements; in the growing acceptance and study of games by the academy.

I want you to imagine with me a game industry that would make us proud to belong to.. I want you to imagine a 21st century in which games are the predominant artform of the age, as film was of the 20th, and the novel of the 19th; in which the best games are correctly lauded as sublime products of the human soul. I want you to imagine an educational system in which games are integrated into every aspect of the curriculum, in which everyone understands that games can illuminate things in ways that are complementary to but different from text."

Very potent words there, and one can only hope that they ring true outside of the choir he was preaching to in the audience last Wednesday night. I recommend heading over to Manifesto’s blog to read the entire speech.

Photo taken by Vincent Diamante

Interview: Greg Costikyan

By: Derek Yu

On: February 22nd, 2007

Costik

The Mercury News has an interview with Manifesto Games‘s Greg Costikyan. I’ve been curious how they’ve been doing, so I found this to be interesting:

Q: What result have you had?

A: We’ve achieved a modest level of sales, and the curve is on an upward path, but we’re very aware that we have a long way to go. To succeed, we’re going to need to continue plugging away to get the word out, and we’re going to need to raise some capital to both build the technical infrastructure and the consumer awareness we need to achieve our goals."

Greg says and has generally said all the right things, but my ardor for him cooled significantly once Manifesto actually went live. To me, it seems like nothing more than Game Tunnel with a store front and a red paint job. Let me just be frank and say, without picking on titles specifically, that when I look at the front page of the site I am not seeing what I want independent gaming to be represented by. I’m seeing (with a few exceptions, of course) a lot of games that are essentially one or two steps above match 3 casual.

And they need to get someone new to write their game descriptions. I don’t know how else to put it – it sounds like they were written by someone lying down and eating potato chips. But it probably be easier to write exciting copy if the games themselves were more exciting.

Poocraft.

By: ARelativelyHotGirl

On: August 25th, 2006

Poocraft

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 :’(