Mannytsu's Games

Game development blog by one Mannytsu. I made a rpg maker horror game called Imaginary Friends, and now I'm working on a project called Swan Song.

[dollcheesecake-deactivated20240]

Random imaginary friends doodle

Characters belong to @mannytsusgames :]

[project-gonetomorrow]

Gone Tomorrow... What’s it gonna be like?

Hi! I thought I’d make a short post to actually tell what the game is about!

The story: Seven friends have just graduated upper secondary school, and before all going their different ways, they decided to rent a cottage and celebrate Finnish Midsummer together. And uhh… Without spoiling too much, things happen and everyone might not make it out alive.

The gameplay: The game is a horror-adventure game, where you get to explore the island, talk with characters, collect items and solve puzzles. You get to play as multiple different characters. I’d like to have some choices and options there too, but I’m not sure how well those would work, since right now the story is quite linear. I’m also playing with the thought of multiple endings, maybe a normal ending and a true ending?

I’m making the game on RPG Maker MV. I looked into the newest engine MZ, but didn’t see a reason to change, as there is not that many new useful features for me.

I’m almost done designing the character sprites. Only one character left!

I’ve also started sketching out the maps on RPG Maker. This way I will know sizes of the areas and buildings before I draw the final map. I’m still planning what kind of style I will use for the maps. Pixel style obviously, but otherwise I still need to test things out,. Here is the sketch of the sauna by the lake:

[mannytsusgames]

Reminder that I have a separate blog for my new game “Gone Tomorrow”

[project-gonetomorrow]

[mannytsusgames]

As I do not have enough things to do in my life, I decided to start a new rpg maker horror game project. I made a separate blog for it so check it out!

The game is called Gone Tomorrow, and it is about seven teens that rent a summer cottage for themselves for midsummer, and as we all know, that always ends up well.

I started this as a comfort project and it’s in VERY early stages. I plan to give behind the scenes stuff, wips, updates etc, so follow if you’re interested. Tomorrow onwards (June 15th 21) I shall publish character introductions every day.

I hope you all are doing well <3

[mannytsusgames]

Hello, it's been awhile. How r u doing this year?

Well...

Jokes aside, I’m doing fine now! I’ve had a tough year personally, and then the whole, you know, world wide pandemic thing you might have heard about. But me and my loved ones have stayed healthy, and I’m getting my shit together! I hope you all have stayed safe!

I needed a break from creating games, and now I feel like I can finally get back to working. I’m working on a game for my master’s thesis, and then I have gazillion ideas for other projects I wanna do. Swan Song is on I hiatus, currently I can’t focus on a project that big. But I will return to it once I’ve done some other stuff first. I do wanna make it happen!

I don’t know what I’m gonna do with this blog. I do miss making dev updates and the community. But I feel like most people have left tumblr, but maybe I’m just imagining it. I dunno, we’ll see once I get some stuff underway.

But thank you for asking, and I hope you are doing ok too! Sorry, you sent this few months ago, but I didn’t know how to respond.

[mannytsusgames]

Here's a question for imaginary friends game ofc im in love with the game and my question is each place she goes to the game does it relate to haileys life in real by anyway ?

Yes actually! The places are different part of her childhood and her fears. 

The dollhouse, is her toddler phase, playing with toys and such. The forest and house are her grandparents house and the forest nearby where she used to play. These were her preschool years, and the time she first started feeling lonely. The cloud kingdom is the imaginary world she created, her safe haven. And the school is, well, school she went for the first grade.

As for the fears, I did some research on what type of things children are afraid of on different ages. For toddlers, they are usually scared of changes, strangers, large looming objects and loud noises etc. For pre schoolers it’s darkness and noises, masks, monsters and animals, more imaginative stuff. And for school years kids are afraid of more concrete stuff like storms, angry teachers, death and failure. So I used this info as an inspiration for creating the levels and for what type of scares there are in each part.

[misc-rpg-blogs]

i remember making fanart of imaginary friends via drawing oliver as gerald from finding dory but i can’t find it

[choko-flan]

@misc-rpg-blogs Is this what you were looking for?

[misc-rpg-blogs]

OH MY GOOOOOOD YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS for the life of me i can’t find the original post!

BUT THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH IT LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVES

[misc-rpg-blogs]

@choko-flan

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! QAQ <3

[mannytsusgames]

I TOTALLY FORGOT THAT THIS BEAUTY EXISTS

[mannytsusgames]

I AM ALIVE!

I’m really sorry for the radio silence. Last year was more or less rough for me. I barely got anything creative done. Still figuring things out and stuff, but everything is already so much better than it was one year ago.

What comes to Swan Song, I haven’t worked on it for over half a year. I want to continue working on it as soon as possible. I’m never giving up on this project!

Also I’ve been spending less and less time on tumblr. I can already feel like this place is dying. (Like the new blue?!?! what were they thinking!). I’m not only one thinking this, right? So yeah, I might abandon this ship sooner or later. I wanna continue making devblogs, but probably somewhere else. I’ve been keeping an eye on pillowfort.io, but it’s still in closed beta. We’ll see.

In mean while I’ve been a bit more active on twitter and instagram, so if you wanna see more of my stuff, those two are the best bet.

[mannytsusgames]

So I watched a playthrough of Imaginary Friends (because I'm a total scaredy cat and I don't have the guts to play it myself), and had to spend like ten minutes calming down after seeing the Groke and hearing the Groke's voice in the game. You successfully awakened my childhood trauma. How very dare you. (Seriously good job on the game though!)

Haha I’m sorry XD Good to hear “the Groke was effective” Actually all the monster in the TV are based on characters I was afraid myself as a kid:

- Groke from Moomins, like you. I bet everyone was afraid of her :D But she’s nice. No need to be afraid of her.

- Santa Claus. Yes. I was afraid of Santa.

- Clowns. God dammit I was afraid of them and still am, all thanks to this tv show

- The long bear is from the show called “Pikku Kakkonen” and I was afraid of the ending of this little short  that warns kids not to walk on thin ice. The way he says “Beware thin ice” still makes chills go through my spine

- And of course Morso. Infamous Finnish puppet show. No one knows what the hell that thing is supposed to be, but it sure is distrubing.

[mannytsusgames]

I really love ur artwork especially ur colouring! How long have u been an artist?

Thank you very much! :D I’ve always felt that my coloring is the weakest part, so I’m happy that you like it! 

I’ve been an artist ever since I was a kid :’D I went to “art high school” and studied 3D animation afterwards, so I’ve been studying art related stuff for years now, and I aim to be a game artist (well I am already, kinda).

[mannytsusgames]

Swan Song Update #8

I’m alive! The game is alive! You are alive. Let’s update. How are you?

I’ve been taking a long break, but getting back to work. I’ve realized I work better if I don’t keep posting updates all the time. You know, once you post something wip, it feels like you’ve already completed it yada yada.

I’ve been mainly working on graphics. Found a good pipeline that works for me, and I’ve almost finished all the maps (All bases are done, just need to a dd details) And character graphics too. After I’ve finished the graphics, I can focus on everything else!

I’d like to get the demo out by the end of this year, but I don’t wanna promise anything. I’ll keep working hard.

Oh, and we hit 1000 followers. I’m speechless. Seriously. Thank you so much for your support, and I’m really sorry I haven’t been able to deliver anything new sooner. ;___; But I can’t wait to get this prologue chapter out!

[mannytsusgames]

Mannytsu, have you ever play Fran's Bow, Sally Face, Satsuriku no Tenshi, Ib, Yume Nikki, Paranormal Sydrome, Umieko: When They Cry, Corpse Party: Blood Drive and Coffin of Ashes? Do you ever watch BNHA, Happy Sugar Life, and Satsuriku no Tenshi?

I’ve played Ib, Corpse Party, Paranormal Syndrome and a little bit of Yume Nikki. For Fran Bow I’ve seen let’s play. Haven’t watched any of the animes, but Satsuriko no Tenshi seems interesting. Also everyone is bugging me about BNHA, so maybe one day :’D

[mannytsusgames]

Does Hailey, Anni, Anni's sister and Oliver have any love interest?

None of them has (at least canon) love interest. Majority of them are still kids too ^^’

I might play around with Aino and her romantic interest in Swan Song though. At least I’m giving shipping material for you guys,

[mannytsusgames]

Is there going to be a sequel for Imaginary Friends? Do u like Undertale and Homestuck?

I think Hailey and Oliver’s story is told, so I don’t have any plans for a sequel. I’m trying to focus on other projects. :)

And heck yeah I love Undertale. My favourite character is Mettaton’s leg

As for Homestuck, I did try to read it years ago, but couldn’t get into it. ^^’

[mannytsusgames]

Have you ever read PrincessCallyie's Generation: Rising Stars or 10 Years Later, a Ben 10 and Danny Phantom crossover fan comic? What about Almost Magical, a Winx Club NG Fancomic? Or Vinson NGO, Grim Tales: From Down Below and Power Puff Girls Doujinshi?

Sorry, haven’t read any of them or I don’tt even know most of them :’D I did watch Winx Club and Power Puff Girls on TV though!

[mannytsusgames]

Did the TV show, Foster Home for Imaginary Friends inspired you to create the RPG, Imaginary Friends? It would by nice to see Hailey and Oliver meeting Mac and his imaginary friend, Bloop.

The didn’t show the show in Finland (Or they did, but it was on some premium tv channel we didn’t pay for.) So no, it didn’t inspire. I did learn about the show while I was working on the game, but didn’t check it out.

[mannytsusgames]

Question, how do you make an rpg game? I wanna make one but I don't know where to start. I have the characters and kind of story in mind but I don't know about anything else and I don't know many people who can help.. Any advice is good! Thank you!

Just do it!

It’s already great that you have a story and characters in mind. Now start refining them. Plan what you wanna do.  What engine do you want to use. If you have no idea, just pick one and start practicing making something! It doesn’t have to be anything great, just get the hang of making games. If you don’t know how to do something specific, find tutorial or ask some people. Most people are happy to help!

And most important is to know this: Even veterans don’t know how to do everything. They also need to use different resources to solve problems. The also need trial and error to get things working.

So the most important thing you can do, is to just start making. Something, Anything. Best ideas come while your trying something out.

Good luck <3

[mannytsusgames]

Hey mannytsu, I'm really liking Imaginary Friends, however there isn't anything noted in your walkthrough on how to complete the Pink Book Puzzle, how does one go about completing the book for Endings 3 and 4? ^^

The pink book is opened automatically if you follow the guide for the 4th ending :)