Posts by MM

Maniac released on PC

Gamers around the world are gearing up for an adrenaline-pumping experience as MANIAC, the highly anticipated action roguelite game, is set to launch on Steam on March 28, 2024. Developed by Transhuman Design, MANIAC combines the fun and lunacy of classic top-down Grand Theft Auto with the “just one more try” addictive nature of Vampire Survivors. And the best part? All of this insanity is only going to cost you as much as a fancy cup of coffee. MANIAC will retail for just $4.99 USD! “MANIAC is my dream game because you start by escaping a hospital, get chased by the police, FBI, and eventually end up with the entire military declaring war on you and launching a nuclear strike to stop you. How crazy can it get?” explains Transhuman’s Michal Marcinkowski. MANIAC will be available for purchase on Steam starting March 28, 2024 for the incredibly low price of $4.99 USD. For more information about the game, please visit the Steam Page.

WATCH THE TRAILER: MANIAC announcement trailer

Play, experience, transcend

What exactly is Transhuman Design? Let me explain what it means and what is our mission.

Transhumanism is the movement towards becoming a better human. Much like the philosophy of the Overman/Uberman. However transhumanism achieves this with the use of technology. I see computer games as an important tool that can aid us in evolution and the development of our consciousness.

Transhuman Design’s goal is to aid everybody in their evolution by providing experiences that make them better, faster, stronger and more conscious human beings.

By playing games you can become a better woman or man. You can have experiences you would never have had in your normal waking life. You can become faster by playing games – think faster and have better reflexes. You can become stronger in your will and your logic. You can learn the joy of competitiveness and the usefulness of collaboration.

Games are a gym for the mind. A gym that can be shared with people from around the world from all cultures. The ultimate lesson games provide is that all of humanity is sewed from the same cloth. We all like fun, we all have the same emotions when playing good games. This is what unites us all and what games can teach us.

The challenge is to create such experiences that provide emotions in an impactful way, whether it is joy, sadness, happiness, fear or love. Transhuman Design strives to spark these emotions by making better games everyday. This is what makes us and people that play our games better humans. This is how we become – Transhuman.

Enter King Arthur’s Gold

There is a well established trend in creating computer games these days. This trend is to make a game NOT fun at all. This happened a while ago and we haven’t noticed it because it didn’t happen suddenly. It was a slow degradation.

How did it happen? I think because game developers forgot what games are meant for. Modern video games have in the essence become movies with rendered graphics. You only control how fast the movie progresses.

How many times have you bought a game thinking it delivered what it promised, only to experience the same repetitive gameplay over and over? These games are developed with a trailer in mind. Game companies try to blind you with flashy effects and trick you into buying the game – NOT fun.

The good news is that this trend is starting to reverse. The successes of indie games like Minecraft in the last year, tell us that millions of gamers are tired of mainstream games and are beginning to see what games should be like and what they themselves enjoy most. This is the beginning of a revolution. A revolution that will show you what video games were always meant to be…

This is where King Arthur’s Gold comes in.

This game is my dream come true. My name is Michal Marcinkowski and I am a single coder and game designer who used to draw simple war games on pieces of paper with friends at school. All my life I have been looking to experience that simple wonder and fun on a computer. So much freedom from something so simple. Few games come close. That’s why I decided to make them myself. The pencil doodles have come to life and you too can experience the sheer fun of it. This is the only point of my games. To have as much fun as possible.

King Arthur’s Gold – affectionately known as KAG – is a unique build’n’kill game. KAG lets you use siege engines and catapults to knock down castles in randomly generated medieval worlds. It lets you mine for gold and set traps. Cooperate with your friends and watch as the meticulously-built enemy fortress topples down on the tiny pixel heads of your foes. It’s bloody fun. It’s Free. And hey… King Arthur’s Gold has ZOMBIES! You haven’t seen anything if you haven’t played this game.

KAG is a perfect blend of the coolest aspects of the latest indie games. Mine, build and fight real people in real-time. Use castles, catapults, siege engines and traps to gain advantage. In KAG the environment is 100% interactive – everything can be built and everything can be destroyed.

KAG brings a new level of fun never-before-seen in a computer game. We all deserve to enjoy and have some REAL fun after years of being robbed of our time and money by shitty games.

As gamers..
We love to explore.
We love to build.
We love to fight.
We love to cooperate and compete with others.

Not with a scripted character that is being forced on us.

How many times have you been tricked into believing that a given next gen game will feature a revolutionary cooperative AI only to end being stuck in a corridor? A real person playing like you, interacting with you and striving to achieve a common goal is the only friend you will ever need. Playing with other people is fun. Destroying your enemies castle is fun. Watching them fall into your spike trap is fun. Dropping a rock on their head and seeing them make an angry face is FUN.

But that is not all. While most independent games focus on gameplay, they tend to forget about the graphics and do not appeal to the eye. That’s a mistake – the visuals are also important. And I’m not talking about bleeding-edge bloom effects that try to mimic reality here. We’re talking about special aesthetics, because that’s what counts. KAG is presented in beautiful hand-drawn pixel graphics. Every pixel is carefully picked and matched to create a unique visual experience and to paint a great story. A story of King Arthur and his knights trying to prevail over the evil enemy.

Experience a work of love that mixes mythological themes of grandiose battles and dreams of bravery and combines that with the best aspects of classic and future gaming trends that rock the very foundations of video game design.

This is King Arthur’s Gold. And you are invited to join the adventure.