Manifold Garden
by William Chyr Studio
Finished: ✓Manifold Garden is a game that instantly got me on board as soon as I saw the first trailer of it. One of the first things that you notice about the game is the infinitely wrapping 3D space. Towers that go on forever, hallways that have no end, holes that have no bottom. Everywhere you look, you are surrounded by countless copies of the environment you’re currently standing in.
It’s one thing to look at this sort of effect in art, but to actually interact within that space is something else. The experience of looking up to see the top of a structure and then reaching it by falling downwards onto it (because it’s both above and below you) is such a good effect.
The game also messes around with other “impossible geometries” like buildings that are much bigger on the inside, or doorways that lead to completely different locations.
Navigation is as much a part of the puzzle as all the other mechanics in this game.
Manifold Garden is exceedingly beautiful.
Very clean colors with a focus on gradients and simple shading. Architecture that focuses on geometric shape and silhouette. It’s an excellent art direction that goes really well with the infinitely wrapping space. The focus on simple geometry really emphasizes the incredible nature of seeing the same repeated structures out in the distance.
I don’t think that I’ve played a game that really conveys the sheer scale of the world as well as Manifold Garden (Jet Island is another game that I’ve played that does it well). In Manifold Garden, you are constantly thinking about the scale of the areas you’re in because falling endlessly is a main mode of travel, and the wrapping space really feeds the imagination.
Manifold Garden has stuck with me as a game that excels in its creative vision.
I highly recommend the GDC Talk: Manifold Garden: Level Design in Impossible Geometry where William Chyr details some of the challenges that he ran into while making the game. The levels in Manifold Garden are done so well it almost seems effortless, but it’s interesting to see the new types of problems that were created because of its creative vision.
Another good talk is Arthur Brussee’s Manifold Garden Rendering Retrospective that goes into more technical details of how they achieved certain visual effects like the world wrapping, portals, and edge outlines.