Manny's

***Manny's*** is a 2023 psychological survival horror first-person indie video game developed by Bonesaw577 and published by Bonemeal Productions for the PC.

*Manny's* sees protagonist Bryan as he attempts to survive long enough to be rescued after a plane crash leaves him stranded on a small deserted island in the Pacific Ocean. Starving to death, Bryan is shocked one night to find that a fully stocked, fully functional fast food restaurant, called Manny's, appears seemingly out of thin air once the sun goes down.

The game was released worldwide on October 13, 2023 on Steam and itch. It has received mostly positive reviews, with praise for its story, characters, graphics, and music. However, there has been some criticism of the overall gameplay and lack seemingly thereof, as well as some of the puzzle elements.

## Gameplay

*Manny's* takes after most low-poly indie horror games, but favors cinematics over gameplay. The gameplay that is present is very linear and straightforward, with most of the mission objectives throughout the game being simple fetch quests or getting to a certain location. Since most of the game is comprised of cinematics, the player character is almost never in any danger of dying during gameplay, featuring only two levels throughout the entire game where the player can get a game over. The player can also pick up items but has almost no weapons with which to defend themselves with, with the exception being during the final boss battle.

The game features an hour and a half long single player story, with additional bonus content in the form of a fishing minigame. Catching fish during this minigame unlocks an in-game collectible Manny's trading card, depending on the type of fish that is caught. Fish also have a % chance to be a rare fish, making these rare cards more valuable.

### Collectible Cards

Fish cards are unlocked depending on the level of fish that is caught. Each fish has a % chance to be a rare fish, with chances decreasing the higher the level of fish the player is attempting to catch.

## Plot

After a plane crash over the Pacific Ocean, Bryan, the game's protagonist, is saved by a woman and brought aboard a life raft. Adrift for days with no rescue in sight, Bryan becomes desperate over the remains of the raft's provisions. Eventually, his thirst gets the better of him and he murders the woman on the raft with a raft knife over the last bottle of water. Overcome with guilt, Bryan passes out. The next morning, Bryan awakes on the raft, noticing that it has run aground on a very small deserted island.

With the raft punctured and Bryan beginning to starve to death, he looks around for any available resources. He is able to procure a few coconuts and even finds a fishing rod in a cardboard box that has washed up on shore, allowing him to catch some fish. Bryan finds a fourth coconut, but throughout the first half of the game he cannot seem to get it off of the tree. Bryan's new provisions do not last long and during the evening, he begins to die of starvation. While laying on the beach as the sun goes down, the island lights up and Bryan realizes that an entire fast food restaurant, called Manny's, has appeared behind him.

Bryan meets the restaurant's sole employee, Tyler, who is confused at Bryan's behavior toward the restaurant. Tyler explains that the restaurant has no working telephone and offers to get Bryan something to eat, with Bryan noticing that the menu board has no prices. Tyler tells Bryan not to worry about the price, as Bryan has "already paid". Bryan goes along with Tyler and enjoys his meal.

The next morning, Bryan awakes on the beach, thinking the previous night to be a dream, until he finds an empty Manny's soda cup that he was using the previous night. Bryan continues his efforts to be rescued and uses palm fronds in order to spell out a large SOS in the sand on the beach, waiting until the evening for the restaurant to reappear. He sees another customer in the restaurant, Victor Petrovsky, who looks agitated and anxious.

Once Bryan attempts to order a second meal, Tyler stops him, saying that Bryan has not paid for it. Tyler then explains that Bryan has enough credit to donate to the franchise's charity, Manny's House, handing him a paper to sign his name on and stick on the donation wall. Confused and angry at Tyler's refusal to allow him to order food, Bryan grows hostile and threatens Tyler with physical violence. Tyler is unphased by Bryan's sudden shift in attitude.

Tyler reveals that customers who have murdered someone are the only ones allowed to order food from the store. One person that is murdered is equal to one order you are allowed to place at Manny's. Tyler tells him that the woman he has killed was pregnant and, as a result, he has killed her unborn child, leaving Bryan with not enough credit to afford his next meal, only able to donate the soul to charity. Tyler produces a kitchen knife, saying that since both Bryan and Petrovsky want to eat, then one of them has to kill the other.

Petrovsky wins the knife after Tyler spins it on the counter, where it stops, pointing to Petrovsky. He begins hunting Bryan around the island, where he finds child's drawings depicting a father that murders his entire family for a meal at Manny's. Seven Seals of Hell that were previously invisible to Bryan begin to appear. Touching the seals releases them, weakening the barrier between reality and the Underworld beneath the restaurant. Bryan is attacked by Petrovsky but uses the previously stuck coconut to defend himself, beating Petrovsky to death.

Bryan orders his final meal and signs his donation paper with "Bryan was here". Tyler escapes down a hatch in the freezer, leading to the Underworld, a cave-like system containing old and long forgotten Japanese World War II-era weaponry and equipment. Bryan finds Petrovsky's body down here, where he uses a sacrificial blade and dynamite on the body to create an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). Several employees of Manny's and Tyler himself ambush and restrain Bryan, preparing him for a demonic ritual.

During the tirual, a giant monster, called a Maneater, reveals itself. Bryan interrupts the ritual by running to Petrovsky's body and lighting the dynamite. The detonation results in the death of all of the employees, killing everyone but Bryan and Tyler. Bryan flees the ritual and comes across Tyler later on in front of a Mitsubishi A6M Zero airplane, which he packs his luggage in to.

Bryan confronts Tyler with the intent of killing him, but Tyler apologizes for his actions. The two form a friendship and Tyler invites Bryan to go to a concert with him to which Bryan accepts. Tyler and Bryan enter the Zero, attempting to flee the Underworld before being attacked by Manny, who destroys the plane. Tyler lights some explosives, dropping himself into Manny's mouth, killing himself and Manny but saving Bryan.

Bryan survives and is rescued from the island, but to his horror, sees that Manny's has manifested itself to him again while walking in the city one night. Bryan looks at the donation wall, noticing that one of the donation stickers is the same one that he filled out on the island. Bryan stares at the donation, realizing that he may never be fully free of Manny's.

## Development

Development on *Manny's* started on September 22, 2021 after Bonesaw577, the game's developer, got the idea while under the influence of cannabis edibles. There were only a few sentences that started the idea at the time, which was "fast food restaurant on deserted island" and "but it's haunted". The idea then progressed into a prototype in Unity, which Bonesaw577 livestreamed in late December, 2023.

Bonesaw577 worked on the game's development for a few months, creating several levels of the beta version of Manny's. This version included a much bigger and more detailed island, including a jungle, cliffs, and ponds. The beta also included a third person camera perspective instead of the final version's first person perspective and featured a more talkative version of Bryan.

The beta also featured a few set pieces, including a pair of airplane seats with a dead body sitting in them stuck in a palm tree. The model for this body is the same model used for the woman on the raft in the final version of the game. The final set piece is a model of an old crashed biplane that is stuck on a cliff face. On approach, the landing gear from the plane will come crashing down, intended to scare the player with a loud sound.

Due to the overambitious nature of the sheer size of the jungle, Bonesaw577 shelved the project for some time. However, in February, 2022, Bonesaw577 got the idea to greatly decrease the scope of the environments needed for the game and returned to his original idea of a small piece of land, which merely consists of sand and a few trees. On February 19, 2022, Bonesaw577 restarted the project.

Bonesaw577 contacted indy. in order to ask permission to use his music for the project and "Today is a New Day" was included during development. Molly Nemecek, the game's primary 2D artist, was contacted around this time to provide logos and a cute character rendition of Manny for use as a logo in the restaurant and as the game's icon.

The first trailer for the game was released on July 7, 2023 as well as the first official Twitter posts about the game appearing on the official Bonemeal Twitter account. Development continued until the game was completed and began its testing phase under the supervision of Ovendonkey, a professional QA tester. On October 3, 2023, the initial Manny's release date of Friday, October 13, 2023 was released to the public. The game was released at 12AM EST on October 13, 2023 from Bonesaw577's residence in Tokyo, Japan.

Since its release, the game has received many updates, including 8 translations, accessibility options, and several puzzle and UI revisions. Planned updates for the game are the inclusion of controller functionality. The developer has also stated that they would not be opposed to making a sequel sometime in the future.

## Reception

*Manny's* has been mostly well received by players and has a "Very Positive" rating on Steam, based on almost 100 reviews. Players praised the game's story, complementing the characters as well as the plot, calling it a weird yet somehow emotional story with comedic and unsettling horror elements. Among the different aspects praised are the soundtrack and the expressiveness of the characters through the use of animated ultra-realistic facial textures to convey emotion on low-poly models. The cutscenes are sometimes regarded as "movie quality".

Some players expressed mild criticisms with the game's puzzles, specifically a revised puzzle where the player had to search for a crank in the first portion of the cave. Other criticism included the lack of gameplay, simplicity of the gameplay, UI, brightness, and the lack of accessibility features early on in the game's release.

The game has been played by such online personalities as insym and Distortion2, with both leaving such positive reviews as, "I've played a thousand horror games and I've forgotten most. This one I'll never forget. Truly incredible," and "Very fun short experience! Make sure to do all the endings!" respectively.

## Trivia

* *Manny's* was originally called "Big Island #5", due to the plot initially being about paranormal investigators researching the island for its supernatural powers. This was the codename that the investigators gave to the island.
* Music for the game had been created months, even a year in advance in some cases. The track that plays during the final boss fight was the first piece of music created for the project.
* Bonesaw577 has stated in the beta version's livestream that though development has not begun yet, he has enough content readily available in order to create a possible sequel to the game.