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[Virtanen]

The Manipulator
Who's manipulating the manipulator?

There are people among us who call themselves Manipulators. These Manipulators
can take control of your mind and use you. They are a threat to us;
we must get rid of them at once! Be alert! Do not trust anybody!

This game contains some flashy imagery so epileptics should be warned.

Screenshots:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/erkkavir/ManipulatorPic1.png


Trailer(bad quality):
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aXnCsrJ04sM

Play at YoyoGames:
http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/65645
Or direct download(4.mb, Windows):
http://koti.mbnet.fi/erkkavir/downloads/The_Manipulator.zip

All comments are welcome-
I consider this game finished but if any big bugs or annoyances
come up, please report them and I'll fix them.

Virtanen

[William Broom]

Ooh, I know your games. Will definitely try this and return with feedback!

[JLJac]

This looks hella good! I can't download files from where I'm sitting though, some kind of firewall Will download as soon as possible when I can.

Tip, you could put the screenshots in there as images instead of URL:s, more efficient to catch peoples immediate attention.

[Cheater]

Tip, you could put the screenshots in there as images instead of URL:s, more efficient to catch peoples immediate attention.

Or you could put the screenshots as URLs [ url=URLGOESHERE][ img]IMAGEGOESHERE

Close as usual.

 

[Alex May]

Grammar mistake in the intro: 'be alert on all times' should be 'be alert at all times'.

I didn't get why my manipulated dood was instantly recognised and killed by one of the other doods.

[Cheater]

There were some spelling mistakes in the mind reading, like cocain.

[Evil-Ville]

I don't think killing yourself should be done the same way as killing the manipulated people. Sometimes I press down and don't even notice that I am actually killing myself when trying to go down a ladder or something and then I die accidentally. Happened twice as I was about to beat a very easy but long and tedious level. Then I figured out what was causing it.

Non of the enemies other than turrets and the basic soldiers were ever any threat, which seems a bit backwards considering that they appear later in the game. A few times a guy I manipulated decided that he doesn't want to be manipulated and shot me instantly afterwards.

I picked the blow everything up and now I am kind of curious what the other one is like. The game is quite long so I don't think I am going to beat it again though. I guess beating it without killing anyone could be interesting though.

[Deacon Blues]

I noticed a spelling mistake in the cutscene before Sector 4, but I can't remember exactly what it was. A pretty obvious one, though.

Amphetamine is spelled incorrectly in mind reading.

Some of the facts in mind reading go outside of the box. This happens a lot with the ones that contain names, but I noticed a few static ones that do this.

Possible ending bug:


The credits lists people you've killed even if you restarted the level after killing them. I guess this may have been intentional, though.

[Virtanen]

Thanks for all the comments and bug reports!

I didn't get why my manipulated dood was instantly recognised and killed by one of the other doods.

Well... Yeah I know it is kinda stupid (How can they know who's manipulated and who's not?)
but that way it's better for the gameplay. If they wouldn't know anything, then the game would have been quite different with sneaking and stuff... If you want a reasonable explanation for the trigger happiness of the guards then here goes: The guards have been commanded to kill anyone who moves out of their position. 

I don't think killing yourself should be done the same way as killing the manipulated people. Sometimes I press down and don't even notice that I am actually killing myself when trying to go down a ladder or something and then I die accidentally. Happened twice as I was about to beat a very easy but long and tedious level. Then I figured out what was causing it.

I decided to keep down as the suicide button because I was running out of usable buttons and thought it would add something to the story and paranoia, like "If I kill those manipulated people with the down button, does that mean I'm being manipulated too?"

Some of the facts in mind reading go outside of the box. This happens a lot with the ones that contain names, but I noticed a few static ones that do this.

This was something I myself noticed right after uploading the game but I was just too lazy to do anything about it ... I'll fix it.

Possible ending bug:

The credits lists people you've killed even if you restarted the level after killing them. I guess this may have been intentional, though.

And about the ending, yeah it was intentional. I think it works but it does make it harder to go through the game without killing anyone.

I'll also try to fix those grammatical errors as soon as possible with the help of a Finnish-English dictionary 

[vdgmprgrmr]

Erm... I can't play it.

When I run it, it says, "Failed to Initialize Direct Music Audio."

Then it goes to a screen with some guys down at the bottom, but just stays at that screen and doesn't do anything...

[increpare]

I've just started playing it now.  The platforming feels quite good, with the exception of ladder-climbing, which is gross.  Could you do something about that?

On stage 4-2 I found it weird that the guy who had the key couldn't use it himself, that it had to be picked from his corpse.  Would probably be a scripting paint to get that to work, but it was something that stood out for me.  Also to have people thinking about themselves in the third person was a bit weird.

Oh, the jumping guys are a pain to hit.  In a perfect world it'd be easier, I think.  Not a big problem though.

I found the visuals interesting, though a little hard on the eyes (especially found myself ravished by the end-of-level yellowish bloom effect).  The same goes for the music/sfx (on ears, though).  I don't know if I'd recommend you change either though, if you're happy with them.

The mechanic is interesting, your implementation of it is pretty good, and I like the mind-reading innovation (I think that's new).

Oh, no save/resume.  I won't go back playing immediate then, maybe tomorrow.  Not a big issue, I guess.

Anyway, nice game.  Some interesting level design, as well (I especially liked the room with the jumper, and the narrow passageway before it...).

[Ooso]

I can't open the archive, though. Which is a pity. 

Any chance you have a special kind of archive software?

[increpare]

Some other waffle, now that I've finished the game once (warning:spoilery)

if you stop possessing someone in mid-air, they get stuck
on sector 2-3, when i deposessed the jmping guy from on front of the start point, he disappeared and reappeared back in his starting room.

i like how heavy the helicopters/bombers feel
would nice to be able to press space to skip through some of the dialog

I like the dilemma.  I thought hard about making the choice (possibly because I didn't like the prospect of playing through the whole game again straight away ... ).  I liked that the intermissions depend on your behavior.

[Alex Vostrov]

Good job on the art style; it's a very effective use of minimalist art in my opinion.  One almost gets the impression that that's the way the Manipulators view the world, all warped and distorted.

[Melly]

Interesting game you got here.

Like its been said the ladder climbing is just too slow and annoying. I avoided using ladders whenever possible because of that.

I'd imagine later levels would have turrets as well. Seems odd that the most inner parts of a secret facility aren't as well guarded as the entrance.

The whole thing is pretty interesting, but like its been said the game does drag after a while. I'm not sure I'll be replaying it to try and find out what the other ending is.