Author - Jerry Paxton

The Adventure Company’s, The Experiment, places the gamer in the role of an amnesiac in an abandoned research vessel’s security control room. On the monitors in front of you, there is a woman lying in a cot hooked up to an iv. Suddenly, she wakes up and starts exploring her small room. After noticing the security camera (through which you are looking) as being active, a symbiotic relationship is borne as she enlists your help in escaping the research vessel. Your interface is in the guise of a surprisingly realistic application program with login boxes, buttons, and icons. You can pull up area maps of your partner’s location as well as log into the computer mainframe to get personnel files – barring you have the right username and password. The game can be exceptionally challenging at times, so beware, you may be frustrated at several points. This is definitely a ‘real’ adventure gamer’s game.

From the area map you can select up to three security cameras to look through at one time. Cameras are able to be panned, zoomed, and even have alternate vision modes such as night vision and thermal settings. You can drag and resize the security camera windows to your liking which also adds to the ‘application’ aspect of your interface. From the area map, you can also activate and deactivate objects such as lights, computers, and more. This has multiple purposes, the first of which is to turn the object on for it to function, of course. The second reason brings us to what must have been one of the major hurdles for the developers in The Experiment: How to control the female character on the monitors?

Controlling the good doctor (she was a researcher on board) is done by making a light source or other device activate. Once activated, the doctor will walk over to that object. If it is a usable device, she will do so. She will also ask you questions from time to time which require a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response. When that is necessary, you actually have to make a security camera nod ‘yes’ or ‘no’. As ingenious as this control scheme is in making you feel like you are actually using a security system and communicating with this woman, it is not without fault. The good doctor sometimes has issue responding to object activations if she is already moving to a target. Also, I have seen her not move to an activated object at all for some reason even while doing nothing.

Voice acting in the game is not all that great and sometimes just comes off as plain bad. However, musically, the game is excellent. The composer, who’s name I do not have at the moment, did an excellent job constructing an eerie atmospheric score. Graphically, the game is fine. It wont be breaking any new ground but it is pretty enough for what it has to be. What is even more important are the camera views. These security cameras are not supposed to be state-of-the art devices anymore. Some will be out of focus, others with random artifacts (some wont even be able to move anymore). These filters really add to the game visually and trick you into not thinking about the graphics not being the ‘latest and greatest’.

Conclusion:
Overall, I found The Experiment to be a very rewarding and challenging adventure/puzzle game which manages to create a hodgepodge of voyeurism, lateral thinking, and atmosphere that will surely give you the willies if played by yourself in a dark room.

Smith Micro Graphics’ Manga Studio 3 is the latest in their award winning line of manga/comic creation programs. Manga, for those of you who don’t know, is a form of Japanese comic book, which has become especially popular here in the States.

Let me preface this by saying I am not an artist by trade. Sure, I dabble here and there with 3D Studio MAX but every artistic application has its own quirks and methods of accomplishing a task. As such, I approached this program as a total nugget.

Upon starting the application, I noticed that the general layout of the program is similar to Adobe Photoshop in that your basic control box is on the left side of the screen while your layer, tone, and history boxes are on the right side.

Creating a single page in Manga Studio from start to finish is a seven step process. The first step is to pencil out a rough sketch, so I selected the pencil tool and began to eek out a very bad rendition of a space ship. What I found to be truly incredible was that, since I was using a graphics tablet to do my drawing, that Manga Studio responded to the pressure I exerted on the pad and changed the line stroke accordingly. This gives drawing in the program a much more natural feel than using just the mouse.

The next step in the process is to ink your sketch. So, I created a new layer for inking and selected the pen tool. Inking is basically tracing over the outlines of your sketch (avoiding all the unnecessary lines) with the pen tool. Again, Manga Studio adapted to my changes in pen pressure and drew the lines with different stroke widths to compensate. The inking stage is where you really start utilizing the ability to have multiple layers on a project. By using more than one layer, you compartmentalize ink of certain areas. This way, if you don’t like a specific layer you can delete that ink without erasing other sections around it. After the inking is completed, you have the option of erasing your pencil layer entirely or, like I did, just setting it to invisible.

Step three and four are to shade and texture, or, tone your scene. Selecting an area to shade or texture can be done in several ways. These methods should be familiar to anyone who has used an Adobe product. There is a magic wand tool as well as free-form lasso tools to select an area. Once I selected my desired area, I opened up the Tones window and double-clicked the tone I wanted to shade in the area with. Tones are basically the way a comic is given a sense of depth, usually with some sort of close-knit pattern to give texture as well as shading. I found this to be the most difficult process as trying to use the magic wand tool proved to be difficult if I did not make sure all of my ink lines are closed off. Otherwise it would select outside the area I wanted to shade. This being the case, I mostly stuck with the lasso tools to manually mark off my areas. Manga Studio comes with a huge number of preset tones for you to use. You can even create new ones and save them for later if you like.

Adding speed & concentration lines is the next order of the day and Manga Studio provides very useful tools for making this relatively easy. One thing I noticed was that it was very easy to get lost in your list of layers. An important tip would be to label layers very carefully as to keep them organized.

After adding your line effects, it is time to add thought/speech bubbles and text. Manga Studio allows you to create ‘organic-style’ bubbles and writing text is extremely simple. Adding text in Manga Studio is much like adding it to an image in Photoshop.

Finally, it is time to publish the page and export it into whatever file you like. Manga Studio will allow you to export your pages to .bmp, .jpg, and .psd image types. As I expected, my drawing was awful and, as such, I will not show them to you out of total embarassment. Instead, I will regale you in the image gallery with screenshots of other people’s Manga Studio work.

Final Thoughts: When read, this page creation process might not seem that daunting, and to tell the truth it isn’t after you have used the software for a while. As a newbie, though, you are bound to be a bit overwhelmed at first. Just keep learning how to use it and you should find it quite rewarding. If you are an aspiring comic artist or even an established artist looking to move into your own publications: Manga Studio 3 is for you!

You can find the Manga Studio homepage here.

Vienna-based developer Vertex4’s ‘SunAge’ is a real-time strategy game set in a world where the aftermath of a nuclear war has forced humans into protective domes while those outside either died or mutated into the ‘Raak-Zun’, the game’s ‘evil’ mutant faction. Those that stayed in the domes are known as the ‘Federals’. Much like the winning number of people in a ‘boy band’ is five, the winning number of factions in an RTS seems to be three. In keeping with this tradition, a third alien robot faction is thrown into the mix as well.

Graphics: SunAge is played in a 2D world from an isometric viewpoint, similar to the RTS games of the mid 1990s. In fact, the whole visual style of the game echoes back to that generation of RTS games. The background seems straight out of Fallout 2 (and that is a compliment), albeit much higher resolution. The units are very well detailed 2D sprites and they animate smoothly to boot. The game is not entirely two-dimensional however, as some of the game’s effects are done in 3D and, as they are the only three-dimensional elements in the game, really stand out over the background art.

Gameplay: The game’s campaign starts with a couple of missions which teach the player the ropes of command while setting up the story to follow. Cut scenes are featured at the beginning of every mission and sometimes are dispersed during a mission as well. They are done in a 2D comic-book panel style which, while maligned by some critics, I actually thought we a nice change from full-motion video. While I appreciated this change, I felt the artwork was often a bit dull.

Controlling your units is generally a smooth experience. Once you click on a controllable group of units, a blue circle encompasses your mouse cursor. This denotes the currently selected group’s weapons range (a very handy feature). In addition, by right-clicking and dragging on a location you can change your group’s formation and facing direction. Unit AI seems relatively intelligent as far as target selection is concerned. Infantry will try to attack other infantry and soft targets before turning to heavy units while heavy units tend to attack other comparable units before turning to soft targets. By right-clicking an enemy, you tell your group to make that type of target their highest priority. They will still attack other targets as needed, however, to survive. This really gives you the feeling of giving orders to your troops. You tell them to go to a location, form up, and they will handle the rest. A ‘feature’ of the game doesn’t always work as planned is that right-clicking and dragging will not select multiple unit types. They do this to help the player avoid selecting unwanted units. However, in a scramble situation when you need to throw alot of units somewhere fast, it is a bit of a pain. In addition, most units have a secondary mode which can be toggled on and off. For infantry, they become snipers. These dual-functions expand a unit’s flexibility and a nice addition.

Your construction projects are fueled by natural resources which have to be mined from around the map. The resources in SunAge come in four flavors: Nitrium Ore, Plutonium, Zirkonium, and Iberium Rods. Each are used in different applications. For instance, building light vehicles requires not only Nitrium Ore, the most common resource, but also a quantity of Plutonium. Capturing and controlling the ‘mines’ where these resources are gathered is of vital importance, as is defending them. The concept of resource gathering may not be very mainstream anymore, when looking at titles such as World in Conflict, but in this case the natural resources add an additional layer of planning to the battlefield.

Base planning and construction will be a big part of your game in SunAge. You will need to instruct your builder units to construct power distribution networks to feed energy to your future buildings. An improperly planned base layout can cost valuable resources and time later on in the game. Base defenses are also extremely important in SunAge, as the constructible defenses in this title are actually viable in combat, unlike many other RTS games where they limit the number of turrets you can create.

It seems to us that in SunAge, the developers wanted to create something where strategy was of the utmost important. Where ‘Zerging’ was disapproved of and players were meant to gather resources, fortify their bases, and then send their armies to duke it out. We feel they succeeded in their efforts.

Sound: The sound design in SunAge is adequately executed. While nothing extraordinary it serves the title well. The voice acting in the cut scenes leaves something to be desired. It is often a bit over-the-top and unbelievable which, unfortunately, only serves to bring down their quality.

Score: SunAge features an orchestral score that appropriately sets the mood depending on which side you are playing as.

Conclusion: While SunAge features nicely detailed 2D art assets, it looks somewhat dated when compared to modern RTS games. However, upon closer inspection you will find a very fun game that holds strategic thinking in the highest regard and offers a large amount of flexibility in its base building and unit usage. It is the kind of small release that the ‘big’ companies out there ought to take note of and learn from.

I cannot emphasize enough how addictive this game is. The developer, Positech, states that D2 ‘looks daunting at first’ and they’re not kidding. There appears to be so many variables to contend with it’s a wonder you got elected in the first place! Once you’ve played a few ‘test’ regimes, however, you quickly settle in and learn what’s effective and what’s not. I made the mistake of showing D2 to my girlfriend and subsequently had to sit patiently watching her for two hours before I got another chance to play.

D2 opens with a series of 9 nations to choose from. Each has its own perks and drawbacks. If you want a lot of money to play with early on, choose the capitalist haven, Koana. Your budget surplus will easily hit $90billion within the first couple turns, giving you plenty of cash to fund various policies.

Once you choose a nation, you are given the option of configuring the populace. For a balanced game, Positech recommends not adjusting the default settings. Each nation comes pre-set with a pretty mixed society. Obviously, in a heavily capitalist society you’re going to have a lot of business owners concerned about taxes and property rights. This is important! You need to know your people to propose initiatives which will be viewed favorably.

Choose your political affiliation carefully. It doesn’t make sense to be a socialist president in a capitalist country. Do that, and you’re setting yourself up for a single term regime! It took me forever to figure out why I was so unpopular! I had glossed over that option the first couple times I played. The game doesn’t default you to the most beneficial, so make sure you know what’s popular and what isn’t.

Once you’ve chosen your country, political affiliation, and term limits, you are presented with the main screen. As can be seen from the screenshots below, the issues (represented by the icons) seem very overwhelming. If you hold your cursor over any segment of the population, or any issue, the red and green lines appear showing you how the issues related to each other and to your people. In the screenshot below, ‘Crime’ is directly related to poverty, police spending, etc… Increase police funding, maybe do some racial profiling (for non-liberals), and crime goes down. Getting rid of problems makes everyone happy, but your methods might have negative influences on certain members of your population (i.e., the aforementioned liberals).

With each turn you have a certain amount of political clout (represented by a fist and a number). Each policy, or adjustment to spending requires different amounts of clout to implement, and most policies take several turns before their effects are felt. Pay attention to your reports and your society! The people will let you know what needs to be done! Ignore them and you risk terrorism, or even a coup! At the end of each term, there is an election. If you’ve done your job well enough and get re-elected, the people will hold you to your campaign promises!

CONCLUSION: That being said, you cannot please all the people all the time. So go ahead! Be controversial! You may, over time, liberalize your society (or make it more conservative). Have fun and experiment! D2’s creators spent what appears to be an ungodly amount of time coding the interworkings between …well, everything!

I have to go, my girlfriend is feeling dictatorial…