Marilyn Manson: the Video Game

Marilyn Manson: the Video Game
A mock-up of the character portraits and sprites from the first installment of the game.
Developer(s)	Destiny Revival Games
Publisher(s)
Distributor(s)
Designer(s)	Disintigrator82, Kungpow, sawayaka
License
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Engine	Beats of Rage
Aspect ratio
Native resolution
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Platform(s)
Release date
Genre(s)	Beat 'em up
Mode(s)	Single player
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Cabinet
Arcade system
CPU
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Marilyn Manson: the Video Game is a video game designed by Tommy "Kungpow" Watson, Melissa "Disintigrator82" Strickbine and sawayaka, the latter two being members of The Heirophant Council. It has been in development since February 2008, when it grew from a simple sprite created by Disintigrator82, who "couldn't help but wonder what Manson would look like in [a Super Nintendo Entertainment System game]." Disintigrator82 is responsible for the game's sprite designs, while Kungpow is leading the game's coding, which is being done using the Beats of Rage engine. On April 24, 2008, sawayaka joined the game's development team as graphic designer, particularly for the game's character select and game over screens. Each era is planned to be adapted as a separate installment.

Development

On February 24, 2008, Disintigrator82 posted a sprite on The Heirophant Council depicting Marilyn Manson in an outfit worn during the Dead to the World tour, citing that the Antichrist Superstar era was "the most epic, and it would probably make the best game." This sprite was well-received, leading the community to begin brainstorming gameplay ideas for a potential video game adaptation of Marilyn Manson. In response, Disintigrator82 announced that she had begun concept art for Manson and Twiggy's attacks, and welcomed the community to continue brainstorming plot ideas.

The original Marilyn Manson sprite drawn before the idea for a game was realized.

On March 2, 2008, Disintigrator82 first announced the premise of the game, stating that it would cycle "through all eras, so each level would have a different theme, from Spooky Kids to Eat Me, Drink Me, with the character art changing in each level to match." She went on to address the complications of having the game perform this way, from both a technical standpoint and the fact that the band's line-up has been constantly changing throughout album eras. Ultimately, Disintigrator82 suggested that "It would probably be easier to just make a ton of characters and versions thereof to select from that would stay the same throughout." She later confirmed she had revised the premise so that "Instead of one massive game spanning all eras, I'll break it down into lots of mini games, one for each era." This would make it easier to work the band's ever-changing line-up into the stages, and in addition, meant the game would have less data, faster loading times, and would be able to feature MP3s of the band's music rather than MIDIs. Disintigrator82 also stated that she was working on the Portrait of an American Family/Smells Like Children installment at this time, and that a playable version should be available within months. Two days later, several sprites from this particular installment were released, in addition to the announcement that "drunken oompa loompas" and "schoolyard bullies" were being considered as enemies.

Shortly afterwards, Disintigrator82 posted her idea of the first installment, which would be divided into three stages. The first stage would possibly take place in a skating rink (as seen in the music video for "Lunchbox"); the second stage would serve as a bridge between the reality of the first and the surrealism of the third, and would possibly take place in an abandoned building (as seen in the music video for "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)"); and the third stage would be an "acid trip boat ride" (inspired by "Prelude (The Family Trip)"). She also revealed that she was considering using the caricature of Baphomet drawn by Manson as the installment's boss character. On this day, the sprite for Twiggy was also revealed, and Kungpow alluded to the possibility of using a guitar controller, in addition to standard controls, to play the game.

On March 24, 2008, Disintigrator82 stated that to have the characters speak, the game would make use of samples from various interviews and other prerecorded material, and that sound effects "for hitting, getting hit, using attacks, etc." would need to be gathered, as most of the characters would attack using their instruments. She also confirmed that a sprite for Madonna Wayne Gacy was in development, and began to take suggestions for the Daisy Berkowitz and Ginger Fish sprites as well. Disintigrator82 later revealed that the engine the game was being designed using (later announced as Beats of Rage) could not allow playable characters to be used as bosses, but she did not rule out the possibility of Gidget Gein and Sara Lee Lucas appearing as enemies since they would not be made playable.

On March 30, 2008, two sprites for Madonna Wayne Gacy were revealed, each with a slightly different palette. This was followed on April 2 by the revealing of two slightly different Ginger Fish sprites, one which was based on Fish's appearance in the music video for "Dope Hat", and another with "his ridiculous ponytail that sticks up everywhere."

On April 6, 2008, Disintigrator82 expressed interest in the suggested title Marilyn Manson vs. Earth, and once again addressed the premise of the first installment, saying it will contain "acid-trip-Dope-Hat-video-craziness." The final band member prototype, for Daisy Berkowitz, was completed on April 12, 2008. On this date, it was revealed that Kungpow was looking into expanding the game's development team, as well. The following day, Disintigrator82 stated that she hoped to have Manson and Twiggy playable by the release of the game's first demo.

On April 24, 2008, sawayaka joined the development team, confirming that she would be responsible for designing the character select, and title and game over screens. sawayaka's first character select portraits were released two days later. Shortly afterwards, Disintigrator82 acknowledged the possibility of each playable character having their own unique combat stats, and sawayaka speculated that the first installment's game over screen may involve Oompa-Loompas or the band being "devoured by this giant mouth thing from the beginning of the Dope Hat video." Before long, sawayaka posted the character profiles for the potential Antichrist Superstar installment as well.

Concept art for the Cyclops boss.

On May 5, 2008, Disintigrator82 confirmed a demo version was in production, which would feature Manson and Twiggy as playable characters, would contain "one to two levels," and would feature a Cyclops as the boss (inspired by the song "Cyclops", although the song's title character is actually a woman). Concept art for the Cyclops was also released with the announcement. On May 14, 2008, sawayaka released the profile images for the potential Mechanical Animals installment. This was followed by Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) portraits on May 22, and The Golden Age of Grotesque portraits on June 3. On May 30, 2008, Disintigrator82 made a brief update assuring that the project was still underway, that she was studying live footage for conceptual references, and that "whipping enemies with your hair whilst headbanging" would be a standard attack for Manson and Twiggy. On July 8, 2008, an early animation of Manson walking was released, which Disintigrator82 confessed was based on "concert footage of him walking, ripped [...] frame-by-frame into Photoshop." The same day, she revealed that there were "plans in store" for the Antichrist Superstar installment, which she later mentioned involved fire and "a giant hydra."

On July 26, Disintigrator82 announced that there were two new members added to the development team (who have since grown apart form the project), and that once the first installment, based on Portrait of an American Family, was completed, the project should progress much faster. On August 4, 2008, it came to Disintigrator82's attention that Beats of Rage accepted higher resolution graphics, leading her to consider higher quality sprites. Two days later, she revealed a possible concept for special attacks: "by killing enemies/picking up items, you charge up your power bar, and once it's full you can do your giant super move. I've been toying with the idea of having him change into different forms for his super, like in the Portrait game, he changes into his Willy Wonka look, with top hat and cane, and he lets magic out of his hat that wipes out all the enemies onscreen." A month later on September 3, 2008, Disintigrator82 displayed a high-resolution image of the Marilyn Manson sprite, but opted not to use it as it took much longer than expected to design, and she had assumed the bulk of responsibilities for the game, as Kungpow had become less involved in its development. She also mentioned being uncertain that a second playable character would be available by the release of the first demo.

On February 25, 2009, the final walking cycle for Marilyn Manson's sprite was released, which showed that his standard weapon will likely be a microphone stand rather than a cane as initially planned. This was followed on March 13 by a weak combat animation, and Disintigrator82's proposal that in combat, Manson will "impale the enemy on the mic and either flip them backward over his head, or kick them forward off the mic." Although this has been the latest significant update on the project, on April 15 administrator Vixen Windstorm spoke briefly with Disintigrator82 and was given the rights to host the game's installments after MansonWiki's renovation was completed. While MansonWiki's redesign was completed in May 2010, the status of the video game is unconfirmed and it is believed to now be in development hell.

Characters

• Marilyn Manson, who will attack using a microphone stand. Initially, he was planned to attack using a "[Willy] Wonka-esque cane," while the microphone stand was used in the Antichrist Superstar installment. Manson will be a playable character in the game's demo.
• Daisy Berkowitz, who will attack using his guitar.
• Twiggy, who will attack using his bass, which he may have the special ability to fire lasers from. Twiggy was initially planned to appear as a playable character in the game's demo, however difficulties encountered during development have made this uncertain.
• Ginger Fish, who will likely attack in a "magic satchel" manner, by throwing snares or cymbals, and use drumsticks as his standard weapon.
• Madonna Wayne Gacy, who will likely attack using mutilated dolls and a keytar. Disintigrator82 had trouble coming to this conclusion, as Gacy played a stationary keyboard until the Dead to the World tour.
• John 5, who will attack using his guitar, which he may have the special ability to fire lasers from.

Enemies

• Angry parents, common enemies in likely the second installment.
• Cyclops, the final boss in the first installment, who will fire lasers from his eye.
• Giant kittens, common enemies in the first installment.
• Headless police, common enemies in the third installment.
• Hydra, an enemy in likely the second installment.
• Oompa-Loompas, common enemies in the first installment.
• Priests, common enemies in the second installment.
• Protesters, common enemies in likely the second installment.
• Schoolyard bullies, common enemies in the first installment, who will wield lunchboxes.
• Scientists, common enemies in the third installment.
• Spooky trees, common enemies in the first installment.

On March 2, 2008, Disintigrator82 revealed that she was interested in the suggestions of having "ex-girlfriends and record execs" as enemies, however she would later revoke this statement, citing that "As far as the protagonists go, we're treating them as the heroes, so as long as we're not making money off of the game it should be alright. However, once we start listing people as enemies and portraying them negatively, we walk the thin line between parody and slander/libel." She later attested that even though certain real-life people will not be adapted for the video game, a tutorial would be written to help players add custom characters themselves.