Greg Costikyan was sick of sequels and clones and lame movie
tie-ins. And the 47-year-old industry veteran was really sick of seeing armies
of his peers logging 80-hour weeks to crank out yet another iteration of Madden
NFL. In 1999, he helped pen the Scratchware Manifesto, calling for innovative
titles made by teams of no more than three people and sold for less than $25.
Last fall, he put his revolutionary polemic into action with
Manifesto Games, a site where you can buy and download computer games that,
like Gibbage (shown at left), are too lo-res, too niche, or just too damn
weird for retail shelves. If Manifesto’s business model is successful,
Costikyan promises to fund indie development as well. We asked him to describe
some of the more peculiar offerings in his catalog.
MAVERICK RELEASES FROM MANIFESTO GAMES
Strange Adventures in Infinite Space
Costikyan’s take: “Explore the universe, meet aliens,
and fight battles, all in just 30 minutes.”
Gameplay: A turn-based strategy game without the micromanaging
Target audience: ADD-afflicted gamers who are sick of Tetris
Price: $15 (a quarter of the cost of Madden NFL for
Xbox 360)
The Shivah
Costikyan’s take: “The basic theme is the nature
of morality. It’s about a rabbi on the Lower East Side who must solve
a murder and regain his faith in God.”
Gameplay: Point-and-click sleuthing, Talmudic debates
Target audience: Adventure gamers of every stripe – Reform,
Orthodox, and Conservative
Price: $5. Are they meshuga?!
Gibbage
Costikyan’s take: “A shooter with graphics straight
outta the ’80s.”
Gameplay: Fast and gory, like a cartoon Quake. Costikyan
adds: “It can be played by two at once, both on the same keyboard, chortling
at each other’s ineptitude.”
Target audience: Budding school shooters, joystick haters
Price: $10 (less than 1 cent per corpse!)
Lugaru
Costikyan’s take: “Its entirely original kung fu
system allows believable combat without all the clichéd combo moves.”
Gameplay: The keyboard-and-mouse precision of first–person
shooters mixed with martial arts and cute lagomorphic characters
Target audience: Jaded fighting game fans, Furries
Price: $20 and no messy cages
– Jared Newman
credit:
PLAY
>
Rogue Leader
