Manananggays

Description:

Manananggays is a narrative-driven 3D puzzle-platformer where love, distance, and understanding take physical form. After a desperate wish goes wrong, a queer couple, a Manananggal and a Tikbalang, are magically split into separate halves and bound by a fragile supernatural link. To undo the curse, they must climb a mountain of trials where every obstacle demands a difficult choice: stay together and struggle, or separate and survive. Switch between Attached and Detached states to solve layered environmental puzzles. Move as one for strength and stability, or split apart to gain independence and precision. As the journey continues, challenges increasingly force parallel control and divided action, turning mechanical coordination into an emotional test. Set in a whimsical supernatural world inspired by Filipino folklore, Manananggays blends metaphor-driven mechanics with relationship drama, where gameplay systems mirror relational tension and personal space.

Abstract:

While 3D puzzle-platformers typically emphasize synergy and cooperation, Manananggays, reorients the genre toward the mechanical representation of a relationship in decline within an LGBTQ+ narrative context. Featuring two distinct anatomical halves, a Manananggal torso and the lower body of a Tikbalang, the game centers its core loop on attachment–detachment mechanics that express tension between closeness and autonomy. This research reinterprets the concept of emotional and physical space in relationship conflict through separation-driven gameplay systems, where characters must periodically sever their connection to navigate environmental obstacles.

As the experience progresses, puzzle design increasingly requires independent and parallel control, allowing gameplay complexity scaling to function as a metaphorical mirror of relational tension and eventual dissolution. The study analyzes how escalating mechanical separation requirements shape player interpretation of conflict and emotional distance between the protagonists. Ultimately, the project demonstrates how ludo-narrative friction and asymmetric character mechanics can translate the abstract process of relationship breakdown into a tangible spatial and interactive form.

Keywords:

3D puzzle-platformer, attachment–detachment mechanics,
ludo-narrative friction, LGBTQ+ game narratives