Bastion
LQ: 9.15
Recommended Age: 10+
Skills Used: Planning, Working Memory, Mathematics, Reading
The Manga Works is a life sim game where the player takes on the role of a young manga artist who is just getting started in the business. You begin the game by creating short, one-shot manga, eventually working your way up to longer series and bigger publishers. Players get to select the type of manga they want to create, where it is set, and what its theme will be. Along the way, you earn experience which can be spent on improving your workload capabilities, your artistic talent, and your writing skills. Going out into the world and exploring different scenes can also give you plot points, which can be spent to improve the quality of your work. The player receives deadlines for their work which need to be met in order to successfully work with publishers, and the player can see their work reflected in their manga’s popularity ranking and the amount of awards they win. Money earned through creating the manga can be spent on objects for your home, moving to larger workspaces, paying assistants, and going out and exploring different areas.
The Manga Works is available on iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation 4.
Planning: Developing a systematic approach for setting and achieving goals.
In order to successfully advance in The Manga Works, the player needs to use their planning skills. Writing and illustrating, earning experience, working with editors, going out and getting life experiences for inspiration all require the player to plot out how they are going to spend their money, their time, and their experience points. If the player does not have a plan, they may end up receiving a job and finding they don’t have enough energy, time, or plot points to complete it. Or they may have to turn in a lower quality product, which will affect their ratings. For players who struggle with planning out larger projects in real life, The Manga Works can help them practice this skill in a fun way.
Time Management: Working under pressure.
No matter what type of work you are doing in The Manga Works, your character will have a deadline they need to meet. This means that they player needs to use their time management skills to assess how hard they will need to work to complete a project before its deadline. The pressure of a deadline can be stressful and your character can overworked themselves and end up hospitalized if they get too low on energy so the player needs to find a balance between getting the project done on time and maintaining a healthy work life balance. For players who struggle with getting projects done on time, this game is a way to practice this skill and learn more about balancing time and project deadlines in real life.
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