#manapost

[manapotionstudios]

Weekly Manapost 00

Sorry for the lack of updates since our initial teasers, everybody! We've been focusing on finishing up the school year, so things have been *relatively* slow. However, that doesn't mean progress has stopped at all! It DOES mean that we'll have much more to share over the next couple of months, though! : ] Over the span of these "Manaposts" you'll get to see what's been made so far, and once we've caught up, you can expect to see more Manaposts every Sunday!

With that out of the way, here's the announcements for this week!

First Off - Model Magic As you likely know, our first showing of this "new" Manaport showed off a spinning off a spinning model of our main maestro, Laurie. As you likely don't know, that model's been updated since! You can see this new-new Laurie, Their robes haven't been added so that we can test out animations a bit more practically, but they'll be back soon!

Triple Trouble

Laurie's not alone in this journey! Alongside her, comes Mirabelle and Winsley. They're Manaport's deuteragonists, and will be playable as a whole trio. You'll get to hear more about these funky felines in a future Manapost. They're here to see now though!

(Pictured left to right, Laurie, Mirabelle, and Winsley)

Ani-motion à la Manapotion

SHE LIVES!!!!!! Ah, well, livelier anyhow. First animations are here! Idling, walking, and so on. Have a look!

Squad Swapping

Here comes the party system! At any time, you can switch which character in the team you directly control with the press of a button. Check out the swapping in action below!

Lastly...

Happy Anniversary! Three Years of Manapotion!!!

Today marks the third year since we've started Manapotion, and game-making as a whole (this also Manaport's birthday!) We've officially started our first "real" year, but that doesnt discredit all the work and learning that was needed to get Manaport (and our second project) to where it is now. We (C/R and Y) have had a great time working on these silly games for you all. While we haven't released anything yet, We promise to deliver on these major projects! No matter how long we take, we hope the wait will have been more than worth it. Here's to another year of silliness! -C/R and Y

[28rainbowsnakes]

[doodlebless]

Mana’s so good, y’all

One day I’m gonna actually prove it

[snorting-ramen-dust]

man if i were a wizard id be hittin that “im out of mana, boy!” and “hand me the elixir, boy!” haha yeah. send post

[harlequindaydream]

We do a spot of manaposting

[dangerousbrick]

more manaposting incoming

[electrosquash]

I love how, without fail, everyone who's mutuals with me for long enough starts sakuraiposting and/or manaposting as well :3

[x-strikes]

Section 01: About The Mun

Pen name/online name: Mana

Age: In their 20’s

Gender: Ambiguous

Pronouns: They/Them

Face claim: Lina Inaverse from the 90’s anime, Slayers

Follows from: @manaposting (you are in no way obligated to follow me, I post jrpg/rpg posts over there)

Preferred writing style: I’ve always been a paragraph roleplayer, but I can branch out to fit most writing lengths and styles.

Reason for blogs name: It’s an attack used by Glenn and the games protagonist, Serge.

Do I have other pages?: Yes, but it’s under construction and I prefer to stay on this page for now. However, you can still follow if you’d like: @thequestersrest

Do I have a Discord?: Yes I do, and I’ll gladly give it to you if you just ask. I like to keep my friends pretty close.

Section 02: Rules & Pet Peeves

You can find everything you need to know over here on my carrd, be sure to read the rules rather than skim them. If you do skim them, at the least, please make sure you understand them.

[headinabox]

the thing i like about twitter is that it is very easy to make a stupid little post that is a couple of words, but here on tumblr i have a whole tagging system and love looking at my old posts. i cannot simply manapost. maybe i should make a manaposting tag

[intothemanaverse]

Starter call? Specify what muse you would like and multis specify muse as well :) 

[itslordnow]

The questions on that final villain act 😂😂😂😂

My muse was like just @ me lolol.

[manapotionstudios]

Manapost 01 [BONUS!]

Hey, everybody! Hope you all are having a wonderful day! :]

Originally, updates were going to start next Sunday, but due to a boost in motivation after our first ManaPost, there’s already things to share today! This ManaPost covers equipment, and how that whole system works (so far) (Note: “real” ManaPosts have an intended release of Sundays @10:00 EST, this one was just a bonus :])

With that out of the way... Acquirable Equippings

Here’s the usual GIF showoff of Laurie, robes and all! Snazzy, right? Each piece of her outfit lines up with a piece of equipment, too! Armour is a character’s, well, armour, it’ll almost always be the clothing piece on their body. In this case, the robes that Laurie’s got on! Weapons are self-explanatory, you can’t see it here at the moment unfortunately, but it’ll get covered in a future ManaPost! Finally, a character’s equipment set is topped off by a Vanity; this one’s a total wildcard depending on the character/item. Here, Laurie’s sweet hat fits the Vanity bill!

So, how does “that whole system” work?

Great question! (WARNING: Technical jargon ahead!!)

For starters, there are objects known as ItemDefinitions. These hold the item metadata, and essentially tells object what item it is and how it should behave. Things like its name, description, stackabilty, and so on get covered by this little guy, it’s real neat! Gushing aside, these sweet ItemDefinitions can also have additional objected tacked on, called EquipmentDefinitions. It gives the original item the ability to be equipped! Once you equip equipment, the correct group of 3D meshes (defined on the Character) are found to make it visible, and promptly go invisible, and stop affecting the character once unequipped. If you’d rather just see it for yourself, here’s a video of it in action! (and a sneakpeek at item descriptions if you’re particularly keen!)

To close everything off, That's all we have time for today unfortunately. We've been hard at work, firing on all cylinders, typing a mile a minute to get this bonus post out! Even though its slightly late, we hope you've enjoyed it! See you all next sunday! -C/R and Y

[manapotionstudios]

ManaPost 17 [BONUS] - About That...

Hi. It's Y. I don't want to drag this intro for too long, considering personal things will be conversed in today's bonus ManaPost. If you don't want to see that, here's your warning.

WHERE'S PPP!?

As you should know, PPP! was originally created for Ludum Dare 54 back at the tail end of September. I was incredibly sick over the weekend of the event, but I tried my best, and came up with some (albeit subpar) prototype. The team decided we'd just make it a Halloween title, and I took a break until October 20th.

From the start, PPP! was NOT a game we had wanted to make.

I thought I'd be able to adjust and we'd make an amazing game for you to play! Unfortunately, I really don't even want to see PPP! anymore 😭😭

PPP! was a neat game in the context it was originally intended for: Ludum Dare. It would've been nice to release it yesterday, but right now, development is canceled. Apologies from everyone here on the Manapotion team. We didn't want to let you down.

Now, on to the personal bit.

WHAT HAPPENED???

I (still Y) had a "situation" the afternoon of the 27th. I'm not going to get into it here, considering I'd like to keep a (somewhat) professional appearance on our platforms if that's okay.

Usually, I can push through events like what happened the 27th (will herein be referred to as "The 27th" for simplicity). When we wrote and posted ManaPost 16, I thought I'd be able to "lock in" and just get PPP! out of the way. I was starting to feel disappointed in my work though, and that was one of the contributing factors as to why PPP! isn't releasing.

Two days later, on Sunday, the emotions from The 27th just hit me like a train and I honestly didn't want to work on anything. Luckily, I did get to visit most of our team, including a few friends, and it brought my mood up. We had an awesome time 💙

But it didn't improve my motivation!!! I felt like a failure. I don't like to let people down, and in writing this ManaPost for you, I feel like I have. I have my own personal flaws, but I still want to keep up appearances and deliver good stuff! I've been the amateur programmer for our team for three and a half years! I'm only a senior. Sometimes I get caught up in comparison. I hope you can forgive me.

For now, I don't even want to TOUCH Godot!!! PPP! has genuinely drained the life out of me and I want to just take a break.

Thanks for listening to me ramble.

WHAT NOW???

Since this ManaPost covers this week, just know there may not be a proper ManaPost this Saturday. We need a break. PPP! has truly caused a Pumpkin Patch Panic here in the green elixir.

Again, we're sorry for the empty promise. Please forgive our blunder.

We'll have something better for you in the coming months.

See you soon. 💚

The Manapotion Team (C, R, L and Y)

[manapotionstudios]

ManaPost 16 - Spooktune

Boo! Come closer, read this ManaPost if you dare, darling viewer! Y here today, putting the Y in "Spooky" for this weekend's ManaPost! This week has been huge for PPP, and as a result, it will be the main (and only!) focus of this update. So, sit back, grab your favourite candy, and get comfortably fearful as I spin this tale for you.

Pumpkin Patch Panic! (PPP)

As aforementioned, We've been working diligently on finishing PPP on All Hallows Eve, and we're doing really well at that! we're scaring away all the bugs and finishing the game loop.

You'll be in for a (not so frightful) fright this October 31st! By that, we mean, we can't show you anything until that fateful day. It'll be a wonderful scare! We're sure of it >:D

We'll have the Itch.io page up very soon, and we may even make a reply to this ManaPost (or even a standalone bonus ManaPost!) to announce it's launch. Watch your back, it may just creep up on you!

We should also mention the scariest, most terrifying jump scare ever conceived:

PPP Will be free :)

You should be able to just download and play Pumpkin Patch Panic! On any modern Windows computer, and hopefully we can get a Linux and MacOS build working sometime.

Tread Lightly...

That marks the end of our antics this week. Apologies again for the lack of visual aid to represent our progress, but we can't ruin a surprise! Make sure to keep an eye out for the next couple of days for PPP's launch!

Or else...

The Manapotion Team (C, R, L (Previously M) and Y)

[manapotionstudios]

ManaPost 14 - WHAT'S HAPPENING?!

Er... Hello, everybody! It's been a while. Just about two months. Y is here to break the silence! The time we spent quiet was definitely a Time. Of all time, even. I don't even remember how to write these things...

Weird writing styles aside, today we're here to break the silence on just what has been happening this whole time. We made a lot of promises, some we're still working on delivering, a few we had to reevaluate. Let's just get to the point:

WHAT'S HAPPENING?!

The major hit to our development cycle was actually school. We weren't lying! Most of us have extra-curricular activities and it just doesn't leave much time after (or even before) school to work on Manapotioneering. School for us started on August 28th, and we haven't posted since August 12th. Massive gap. We're announcing that we are still alive, but our availability to develop is limited all the same.

However... On the personal side of things (for Y :D), I will be graduating in 2024 (Instead of 2025)! I will be taking a gap year, meaning I'll be spending a year getting my bearings in the adult world. That also means more dedicated Manapotioneering time for yours truly! The team here have done so much artistically (and I have as well!) but my programming skills are not quite tip-top. I plan to improve more than I ever have this upcoming year.

Personal events aside...

Unity - Or not?

Both of our games were developed with Unity. As of the events of their pricing model change, even after they made (a) revision(s), we decide to drop them entirely. Manapotion Studios is a small indie studio without a game yet and we simply do not trust Unity after their antics. We're working with Godot now, a free, open source game engine that's just plain cool. That does mean rewriting everything. All of our assets, specifically scripts, were written with Unity. Of course, since we have some scaffolding to build off of, it shouldn't take too long to get back to where we were (in fact, we're about a third of the way there).

It's truly unfortunate that Unity's error made our absence last longer than expected. We actually planned to make a comeback ManaPost several times through September, and we even had something going on this month of October.

-

Ludum Dare 54! We tried!

We actually "participated" in Ludum Dare 54! "Participated" in quotes because we didn't end up finishing the game on time. It was terrible timing for all of us here in the green elixir. One of us was terribly sick, the others were busy with school and life. However, our game is still planned to be released on or before Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch Panic!

Pumpkin Patch Panic! Is a game about growing as many pumpkins as you can before the Intergalactic Pumpkin Festival on October 31st! One small quirk; your pumpkin patch resides on a shrinking planet! Every so often, the planet will shrink, shrinking your growing space in turn! It may seem easy to grow pumpkins, but space-pumpkins are a little pumpkin-spice-ier than you'd think! Some grow, some shrink! We're very excited to release PPP and we're even more excited to see what everyone thinks! Even though it wasn't released on October 2nd as planned.

Pumpkin Patch Panic! will be our FIRST EVER GAME!!! All made with the magic and love of our team, C, R, Y, and L (Previously M). We plan to participate in more game jams in the future (and hopefully finish them on time :P), so that we can become Manapotion Masters of our craft.

-

During our extended absence, we thought and thought, with our thinking hats. We're all high schoolers, soon to be young adults, and we've learned a thing or two about making games even if it is very surface level. So, let's set the records straight.

Life Will Change

Making games is hard! We've made a lot of very ambitious promises and we can proudly say they were quite silly. Very silly, in fact. Ambition without action is but a fantasy. So, we're going for a soft-reset this time 'round.

Going Forward...

Just to get the easy part out of the way, weekly ManaPosts will be making their return, as per the schedule outlined in ManaPost 05, only with a the removal of the "occasional" Sunday postage. You can expect a ManaPost centered around anything Manapotion every Saturday at 12:00 EST. The weekly schedule frankly offered much more discipline in our development cycle than the 2 months of NOTHING!!!

Now, Manaport was a fleeting dream. Unfortunately overblown and very desperately needs some rethinking. There's a LOT of unhandled story and lore and purpose behind the game that just needs a restart now that we're not just a handful of tweenagers. We almost kind of know what we're doing, and we want to still make Manaport into a hit. For the next few months, we will be essentially reworking the game's story and maybe even the characters from the ground up. More about that in a separate ManaPost, though.

We plan to be more public with Manaport's new development and what things will be changing or removed outright. Hopefully this doesn't add another 2 years to our 5 year development cycle. :)

As for Delaney... Delaney is fine. Switching to Godot has been a breeze for Delaney and we plan to get back to posting about our Anarchic Adventurer very soon.

With Pumpkin Patch Panic!, we have the gameplay loop complete, and should be released no later than Halloween 2023. If not, we'll let you know why that happened.

-

With a Heavy Heart,

It's time to wrap this behemoth of a Manapost up for this weekend. Things have been rocky, but we're ready to get on the right track! Fingers crossed we show you all something really amazing.

Within our abilities, of course.

Thanks for stopping by. We'll see you next week!

The Manapotion Team (C, R, L (Previously M) and Y)

[manapotionstudios]

DelaneyPost 05 (ManaPost 12) - The Title Matches The Date

Bonjour tous les gens! Welcome BACK to your #1 ManaPotion Information Station! This week was full of some great developments! From Movement to Monsters! Stay tuned for today's debrief.

Schmoovin!

You May have felt a sort of stiffness in the videos that we share with you all. Controlling The Laney was a little stiff and not super rewarding to control. Well, to remedy this, we've added two brand new moves!

The Swing Recovery

Introducing the Swing Recovery! Simply push the spacebar while Delaney is in her attacking animation to get a burst of speed in the direction of her swing and get 2x movement speed for 1 second. Useful for quickly getting around The Manor, or tossing some lighter enemies all over the grid!

The Launch Recovery

Also introducing the Launch Recovery! If you're skilled enough to keep up with Delaney's ludicrous speed during her launch time, you can hold your control keys in the same direction she is traveling as she ends her launch to get a boost of MORE 2x movement speed for 3 seconds! Really helpful in a pinch!

More General Improvements

We've also added a few "Inertial" mechanics to Delaney's controller. For one, we've added Autotargeting functionality to some hammers. These hammers will make Delaney face your cursor as she swings. Hammers that don't have this functionality will instead use Delaney's current facing angle to give her a push in the right direction!

We've also given Delaney a small bit of velocity towards the cursor while she's spinning her hammer! All of this was thanks to a Major refactor of Delaney's Character Controller script! brought down a third of the size of the last one, and runs way faster! Yeahoo!!!

With the minor improvements out of the way, lets talk about the heavy hitters of this week's post:

Monsters! (Eek!)

Delaney isn't quite right without some monsters to interact with, and this week we finally started on those little critters! We decided to focus on the gimmick monsters first to give you all a taste of the fun movement mechanics you'll be able to play around with!

Pause Ghosts

You've seen these silly spectres before! Although they were in a prototype-y state, they're now complete and looking better than ever! Simply fling Delaney into one of the three variants: Slow, Normal, and Fast! See for yourself what they can do.

Launch Dolls

You haven't seen these stuffed bunnies before! These are Launch Dolls. Swing your hammer and they go flying! As simple as that. They come in two variants; Soft and Hardy. Soft dolls explode to a pile of fluff once they're done launching. Hardy dolls do not explode! You can just keep swinging at them for as long as you please!

These wont be the only monsters, rest assured. We have one more in store that didn't quite finish development on time. You'll see more of him in the next DelaneyPost!

We spent a lot of time prepping for AI during the latter half of this week, so the other half of our work today is quite technical, and we'll leave it up to you to look into A* Pathfinding, the tried and true algorithm we'll be using to base our AI off of.

Thanks for tuning in this weekend! We have some big stuff planned to close out this summer break development period! Keep your eyes peeled, your T's crossed, your I's dotted, and stay on your P's and Q's for next week's DelaneyPost!

Thanks for reading!

C and Y