Mango Menace 64 is a Nintendo 64-style game created as part of a university project for release on Itch.io to raise funds for Special Effect!, a charity that focuses on making games accessible to players with physical disabilities. The brief challenged us to create a complete, short game (approximately five minutes of play) that emulated late 90s N64 visuals while taking advantage of modern resolutions and hardware. The game features a whimsical story where a man crash-lands on an island and must fight mutant fruit enemies before confronting the final boss, Mango Menace, an anthropomorphic mango in a loincloth.
I also made our starting page artwork and our starting cutscene introducing Corporal Lance Davis and his dreadful plane crash over the Bermuda Triangle…
My Roles – 3D & 2D Artist and Sound Design
Our team already had a 2D artist, so I stepped up as our 3D artist, teaching myself Blender from scratch and learning as I go, I also composed the game’s music and handled sound design.
3D Artist
As a 3D artist for our game I took on 3D modelling & texturing in Blender and rigging & animation in both Blender and AccuRIG.
I created all minor enemy characters (orange, banana, grapes, strawberry) and the boss Mango Menace, UV wrapping all models in Blender using textures I drew entirely from scratch.
I rigged the minor enemies and animated them with a stop-motion style in Blender. For Mango Menace, I used AccuRIG (another tool I had never used before) to rig and animate the character with smoother, cleaner animations.
2D Artist
I produced all concept art for the minor enemies and boss, ensuring that the final 3D models closely matched my designs.
I created the title screen and main menu, designing unique buttons that used textures from the enemy fruits.
Sound Design
I composed and produced all the game’s music in Logic Pro, which can be heard on my Game Music page.
Challenges & Learning
Taking on 3D responsibilities was a huge learning curve. I faced multiple barriers as I navigated modelling, UV mapping, rigging, and animating for the first time. Despite the challenges, I successfully produced high-quality models and animations with an N64 style and low poly count, learned to use AccuRIG effectively, and gained a strong understanding of the 3D pipeline in a game development context.
Outcome
Through this project, I developed skills in 3D modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, UI design, and music composition while still contributing 2D artwork. Seeing my concepts brought to life in both 3D and interactive gameplay was incredibly rewarding, and the project gave me valuable experience working on a complete, charity-focused game with real-world constraints.
Ally Dawson 