Inspired by mecha anime and games, Manta Project was a personal game jam I began in August 2024 as an opportunity to design, construct, and rig a fully controllable mech, then pit it against waves of enemies.

The level took the form of a contained arena that procedurally spawned buildings of varying heights for the player to climb, jump from, and use for tactical movement.

My original plan was to create a second mech as the primary enemy type, but that quickly pushed the project beyond a manageable scope. Instead, I introduced flying drones — represented by the red cubes — to keep the gameplay loop intact while keeping the workload realistic.

Before starting the jam in earnest, I produced a series of sketches and drew heavily from them during development, simplifying the design where necessary to meet the practical requirements of rigging and animation.

Rigging a mechanical character proved very different from working with organic rigs: none of the components could deform, and every part needed to rotate cleanly around its intended axis.

Modelling with these constraints in mind made seeing the final animations especially rewarding. The feet were the most complex element, incorporating pistons and a dual‑axis joint, but the extra effort paid off by reinforcing the grounded, mechanical feel I wanted for the mech.

Although the project stretched well beyond the typical one‑month game jam window — and I eventually had to call it “done” rather than “finished” — I’m proud of the outcome and learned a great deal from the process.