Golden Email #37: The state of MANAGO in August 2026

I've focused on making the game MANAGO (https://notacarclub.kbrecordzz.com/newindex) "objectively" good for a while now, a good game in the classical sense and not just a wacky art project. But now I think it's time to go back to the magic. To what made This Is (NOT!) A Car Club (https://notacarclub.kbrecordzz.com/) fun and special. This Is (NOT!) A Car Club wasn't polished and refined, but it was made from one weird idea in one position and time in my life that could never happen again. With MANAGO I want to borrow some quality and learn from others and make it a good game in the traditional sense and not just an art project, and I've made some progress on that, so now I think it's time to go back to the art project and see what's the thing that can only be created by me in only the position and time I'm in right now.

So I'll stop with the design think and the quality think while creating. I have the tools so I can just add whatever without thinking about the bigger consequences Let the barriers loose for the rest of the year, and see if the magic still is there. Double down on what I said in February (https://kbrecordzz.com/2026/02/the-state-of-manago-in-february-2026/), "make it as if no one will ever see it" and believe in it. I have to stand for everything eventually but that's an afterthought I can spend time on later. I don't know what is possible unless I unleash those barriers. What if this game included every true and fun statement I could ever think of, regardless of class and etiquette? Beware!

My vacation is over now so I'm able to get lots of inspiration from work. Part of this game will be everything I've wanted to say at work but which I haven't since I want to keep my job. Another part will be all the jokes I've kept inside me because of anxiety of what people will think or of the fact that I have to stand for everything I put out. A third part will be the relentless work towards a quality game, inspired by my favorite games.

I feel like the project manager have spoken for a long time for the production of this game. Now it's time for the creative director, the visionary, the Miyamoto of myself, to come in and say what needs to be said. To rush to get a new bigger cartridge with more storage when the Pokémon developers want to scrap 70% of the Pokemon to make place for a nickname functionality. Because not even, and maybe especially not, the developers and creators themselves always know the right answers for their own project. One bottleneck in creating a video game can be inefficient technology or tools, and other times it can be design issues that need to be sorted out before everything else can continue, and other times still it may be the ambition, the audacity to even dare to think bigger or weirder or more personal or more honest, that holds down the brake. That's the bottleneck I'm trying to fix now, when production and design have done their jobs sufficiently for the last months.

/kbrecordzz, 2026-08-11