Will MANU Video Game Maker Reinvent Indie Game Creation?
An interesting new product has been announced by software developer MANU. A video game creator of their own namesake will begin alpha testing in early 2020, and its goals are no less than a revolution in the indie game creator market….by providing an engine that requires no coding skills whatsoever. You can sign up for the testing list by visiting their website.
Every step of making a game in MANU is accomplished through drag-and-drop interfaces and menus. You can select from a pre-loaded list of environments, NPCs, music and sound effects, but users can also create their own with the creation tools in MANU.
- No coding – A script-free approach to development with triggers and timeline
- Assets management – create assets from separate elements or groups of objects to re-use them multiple times in various levels and even games
- Easy to use – Avoid the hassle of difficult development workflows with simplified solutions such as drag n’ drop levels development, property settings, and more
- Set the motion – Animate and voice characters and interactive environments, use Skeletal Animations from your favorite 3D-editor, tune sounds and plan scene dynamics.
- Outstanding graphics for Indie Developers – Various Materials, Post Processing Techniques, and Effects
- Powerful performance – Work fast while having a small file size
- Flexible UI editor – Create an adaptive game interface in no time
- Level map editor – Add levels, cutscenes, set links between them and different menu screens
- Characters and NPCs editor – Create characters and set easy customized states
It remains to be seen if MANU can really pull this off. From my experience, coding is a necessary evil. It’s frustrating, it takes forever, it’s too darn easy to break, but it’s really the only way to get a game to do EXACTLY what you want. It would be nearly impossible for a drag-and-drop interface to provide as much freedom as hammering out code does — it would be the equivalent of replacing a keyboard with a set number of words, under the assumption those were all the words you’d ever need.
My advice? Don’t wait for MANU — learn coding first. MANU could be enjoyable, though, for hobbyists or anyone who doesn’t take game making too seriously.