Manos and the Legendary

Three brothers all choose different paths and become: MAGE! PALADIN! and ROGUE!

For some reason they wear ID badges that have words like "Chaotic" and "Neutral" on them. Also, they carry around dice with non-standard numbers of sides, like 4, 12 and Pi. Its all very complicated, but can be explained in terms of cheeseburgers...

PALADIN! (lawful and good) distributes cheeseburgers to needy children. ROGUE! (lawful and neutral) says "I see you have a cheeseburger. Perhaps we can make a deal." and MAGE! (chaotic and evil, and sadly crippled with poor grammar) says "I takes your cheesburgers!".

Summary

Manos is an action RPG game for the iPhone built around a simple yet powerful gameplay mechanic: using intuitive touch finger gestures to control your character in a much more organic way than has been seen thus far in RPG games.  This game is only possible on the iPhone with the touch capabilities of the platform.  In Manos, you control either a Mage, a Paladin, or a Rogue on an epic quest for glory, gaining new capabilities and items along the way to aid you in your quest.

Story/Theme

The feel of the game will be built around a humorous caricature of well-known RPG classes and quests.  The over-the-top characters and locations will be built with a nod to our well-loved RPG game experiences of the 80s and 90s, bringing in not only old fans of the genre, but new users as well with the easily accessible storyline and characterization. 

Game Controls

At the core, the gameplay is exceedingly simple, and it is by the intelligent management of experience points and items that the player progresses through the levels of the game.   Even in the last boss level, the player will be doing the some of the same gameplay input that he or she did on the very first level.   The results will be much more spectacular, but the core gameplay builds on the very basic moves learned at the very beginning.

Basic Movement

The player moves across the isometric view gameplay map by steering a "analog stick" in the lower left hand corner with his left thumb.  As he progresses along this path, he encounters enemies and bosses that he must confront.    With his right thumb, he draws certain gestures to deal with the onslaught.  As he progresses, his character spews an ongoing monologue of clichéd class-specific quips that both help the player in his quest and provide tons of opportunities for humor.

Attacks/Defense

Attacks/defense moves will progress through the game with additional levels of effectiveness.  A stamina meter shows the amount of stamina that a character has and what level of attacks/defense he can perform.  Stamina is recouped at a constant (rather quick) rate depending on the level of the character and different level attacks/defense take varying levels of stamina.   All types of attacks start out with the same basic movement and progress from there, so even if the player messes up when attempting a more advanced attack, it will perform the baseline attack.  For example, Melee always starts with a quick slash between the character and the intended target.  This can be following up with X-ing the target or dotting on numerous targets, or even circling a large number of enemies.

Melee attack

A quick slash anywhere between the character and the intended target initiates a Melee attack.  Melee attacks have unlimited "ammo" and perform varying degrees of damage based on the level of the character and the items he carries.  This basic attack is advanced as the character levels.  For example, slashing between the character and the enemy, followed by X-ing in the enemy will perform a higher level attack than just slashing, but will take more stamina.  Slashing, then dotting on top of a number of enemies in close proximity performs an even higher level attack on numerous enemies, but will take even more stamina. 

Missile attack

The player draws a line from his character to the intended target.  A simple ammo meter counts down as he uses his Melee attack, and a Hit Points counter floats up from the victim of the attack indicating his success.  Missiles can be picked up along the way or purchased at the store between levels.  Higher level Missile attacks will require the player to draw to the enemy, then circle the target, or draw to the target, then dot on numerous targets for a multiple attack.  These higher level attacks inflict more damage, but of course take more stamina.

Defense move

During boss battles, or when confronted with a horde of enemies, the player may want to initiate a temporary invincibility period.  By drawing a circle around the character, the player initiates a shielded period.  The duration and strength of this shield depends on the level and items the character has at that point.  Higher level shield initiations may require two circles to be drawn, or a figure 8. 

Classes

The classes will have limited effect on how the game is actually played.  Primarily it will just be in the expression of what the character does. 

Mage

The mysterious Mage is steeped in the black arts, and has all of the clichéd creepiness that we all love.  He is Chaotic Evil.

• Melee attacks will be with a staff, and will be somewhat less effective than a Paladin's attack to start out.   His staff is eventually upgraded with pure evil awesomeness and the skeletons of baby kittens until merely by showing it to his enemies they crap themselves.
• Missile attacks will start out as a magic missile, will progress to spectacular spells that consume nearly the whole screen with explosions and bolts of electricity, all the while sucking the very souls from his enemies and funneling them down to hell, which incidentally is required by his contract with Satan.
• Defense movement will generate a force field that surrounds the player, and as they progress will be nearly impenetrable to black spells.

Paladin

The Paladin is the God-fearing Lawful Good character that wields his sword in righteousness.  Lightness and justice follow him wherever he goes.

• Melee attacks are with, duh, his sword.  He upgrades the sword throughout and eventually ends up with the +25 sword of repentance and atonement which lays down evil doers simply by reminding them of their grave sins. 
• Missile attacks start out as a simple trusty crossbow, and eventually end up with the saintly blessed and holy water filled darts of the Sacred Cross Bow of Martyrdom and General Guilt. 
• The Paladin's defenses all revolve around his sacredness and calling upon God (the Gods?) to protect him.  He is faithful and remembers: "ask and ye shall receive", and he does receive.  Awesome protection that is…

Rogue

The wiley Rogue has not yet to declare allegiance to evil or good.  He is Neutral and will basically sign a contract with whichever spiritual side will give him the most money.  In fact, it is all about the Benjamins (or the King Georges??) with the Rogue, and he is outfitted appropriately.    Think of your favorite CEO:  that guy is a Rogue in hiding.

• Melee attacks start out with his lightning fast dagger.  Eventually, he gets the Diamond-Shard-of-Pick-Pocketedness which not only kills his prey, but sucks out their bank account numbers and PINs from their melting brains, thus enabling him to maximize his return on investment.
• Missile attacks start as simple throwing knives, but eventually get to a Thief’s-Boomerang-of-Theifiness-and-Corporate-Strategy that kills and brings back loot all in one fell swoop.
• The Rogue's defenses are in true CEO fashion, becoming invisible when things go south.  The strength and duration of his stealth mode rise over time.

Items/Inventory

The item and inventory system of Manos is very simplified.  You can only have one Melee item, one Missile item, and one Defense item at any time.  The tech tree for the items is rather linear, with very few branches.  Items can be found in maps, but usually they are upgraded AFTER each level on the very simple store screen (shows prices to upgrade your weapons to the next level, you click on what you want to update).  You can only do this between levels.

Experience and Leveling Up

Every time you level up, you receive 5 points.  In a very simple screen, you can allocate those points to 5 areas:

• HP
• Attack
• Defense
• Speed
• Stamina

Final Thoughts

Who doesn’t remember fondly their RPG playing back in the day?  This game will play to that memory with all of the fun gameplay and none of the work-like inventory and item management.  That coupled with its tongue in cheek style and characterization, and its simple and fun gameplay mechanic with surprising depth make this the ideal RPG for the iPhone.