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Mutilate-a-Doll 2
________________Q: What is Mutilate-a-Doll 2?
A: MaD2 is a highly customizable virtual stressball and physics sandbox about mutilating ragdolls in various ways using an overwhelming amount of weapons and tools.
A2: Marketing tagline aside, MaD2 is a game with a very simple premise (it's in the name) combined with tons of content and very deep sandbox features for the power users. It'll take a bit to get into it, but once you do, you'll be able to create pretty fancy things (see for example the Maker Environments in-game for examples of content created entirely in-game by other players.)
Q: How much content is actually in the game?
A: Dozens or even hundreds hours if you really really like the game.
As of writing, the average time played is 13 hours, with 22% of all players having played for more than 10h, 5% having played more than 50h, and 1% having played more than 100h.
Content-wise, the game consists of:
- Tons of physics sandbox features that allow for some pretty crazy customization and contraptions.
- Over 2000 Items, a third of which has some form of functionality, with the rest being plain props for creating levels or customizing dolls.
- 20 Tools and Joints to interact with items in various ways.
- 75+ Powers that range from setting things on fire, to turning things
into cookies.
- 25+ Environments, a set of places to play in, with some unique twists (low-gravity Moon environment, windy Desert, and so forth.)
Q: What sandbox features are in the game?
A: Most of the content in the game is customizable to some degree:
- Destroy almost anything via a dynamic cutting system.
- Add properties and resistances to items, e.g. Anti-Gravity, or Shocking on touch.
- Modify the range, duration,
or force of item functionalities and Powers.
- Change the colour palette of items and environments.
- Combine item functionalities together to build contraptions
(e.g. push button to receive explosion.) - Replace default particles and sound effects on items.
- Stamp items with the graphics of other items to customize them.
Q: What physics engine does the game use?
A: MaD2 runs on the Box2D physics engine.
- The
engine handles general physics like gravity, throwing, collisions, and joints.
- Custom cutter system allows satisfying dynamic destruction and mutilation.
- Custom temperature system allows freezing, burning, and conductivity.
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TECHNICAL
________________Q: Why are you charging money for a Flash game?
A: The download release exists to allow people who like the game to continue playing the game while supporting future updates, because web Flash End-of-Life is in effect, meaning the game can't be played on the web any more:
"Adobe is planning to end-of-life Flash. Specifically,
we will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020"
(Full announcement: //theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/ )
Other than that, the simple fact is that MaD2 is a good game that I've worked on for years and years, with potential for hundreds of hours of gameplay due to the sheer amount of content. If you like the game, support it.
That said, I very much know that the game is just not for everyone, especially if they're not aware of the whole web origins aspect of it, which is why I've included the very large disclaimer about the technical limitations on the store page for transparency, even at the cost of sales. If you don't feel like it's a game you'll enjoy, feel free to use Steam's refund system.
Q: What are the technical limitations?
A: Since the game was originally made for the web, there are some gotchas. MaD2 download is packaged using Adobe AIR instead of Flash which comes with quite a few upsides, but there are still some technical gotchas that will feel outdated compared to modern engines.
- The game will essentially run via standalone Flash Player when
launched.
- The game is locked to 60fps, which should be reachable with a decent system,
but unfortunately the performance is inherently not great due to the game being software-accelerated. - The game can be scaled or fullscreened, but at the cost of upscaling performance.
- Raster effects are drawn on a 16:9 canvas. If the game window is resized to a different aspect ratio, they will stop drawing outside the canvas.
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IRRELEVANT
________________MaD2 is a game that is meant to be played, unlike many games nowadays.
Q: Is there DRM?
A: No.
Q: Is an in-game account required to play?
A: No.
Q: Are there microtransactions?
A: No.
Q: Are there ads?
A: No.
Q: Does the game collect data or any kind of analytics?
A: No.
Q: Are there unskippable splash screens or cutscenes?
A: No.
Q: Are there mandatory handholdy tutorials that take an hour?
A: No.