Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #2 (All Planned Out)

     I managed to catch the flu on Monday and spent 3 days recovering in bed. I got better just in time for the first day of 2015, inner flame reignited and ready to rocket Battle Gem Ponies to it's  complete state. I never took a break between this, Dragon Souls, and Unicorn Training, so it was nice to take a breather and just think about how I want this one to turn out. Excited thoughts of getting to a playable state certainly helped in my recovery.

   Completed:

• Game Design Document (Rough Draft)
• Adjusted Some Status Condition Definitions Based On Pokemon's
• Changed Myth Class To Magic
• Basic Story Flow
• Organized Sequel Ideas
• Saved Crazier Ideas For Spin-offs

     Lessons Learned:

• Sick Days Can Be Nature's Way Of Forcing A Short Vacation.
• There's No Feeling Like Working On A Project You Truly Believe In.
• The Kinda Funny Crew Quitting IGN To Be Indie Content Creators Put The Appeal Of Freedom In Perspective For Me. Having What I Thought Was A Dream Job Pales In Comparison To The Allure Of Doing What You Love Under Your Rules To Earn As Much Money As People Are Willing To Give You For Using Your Talent.

       The rough draft of the design document is done. I'm calling it a rough draft because I don't have finalized pony designs, moves, abilities, items, dialogue, NPC teams, cutscene scripts, or world map details done. A lot of things written down can change over time and I'm sure new ideas will replace old ones once I start working on the pre-alpha in Unity when school starts next week.

     With most of the game vision clear in my mind it's time to get specific. I'll be designing ponies and planning out moves this week. I'm excited to get something tangible working by the third week of school. I can tell I'm going to blitz through development on this one.

     My plans for mobile class are to get to a playable state as soon as possible. I want 4 ponies playable and polished to perfection so I can show that my idea works. If I can set up the battle and menu infrastructure I can add things like ponies and levels one at a time and watch the game grow. That kind of development would keep my spirits really high the whole way through.

     I started drawing a bunch of pony parts yesterday before deciding to do this differently. It didn't feel right and I knew I'd redo it all in MS Paint anyway so I'm starting to remake all of these in pixel form. Once I have a library of pony parts I can start experimenting based on designs I like, ones in the document for balance or variety, and ponies from the show the game is inspired by. Seeing sprites always gets me pumped to bring them to life. My pixels look way better than my doodles.
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   Downloads:

Rockin' that rating for Unicorn Training. 80 reviews are in!

   My Amazon payment of $11 came through and I have $88 from Google coming in a couple weeks. It feels to to be inching toward the money I need for a Macbook. If Unicorn Training keeps selling I can launch Battle Gem Ponies on iOS alongside the Android and Steam versions. I have $500 of the $1200 I need. Almost halfway there, but sales are dying down so I may not make it without another boost. Hopefully my BronyCon appearance combined with birthday money will be that boost.

    Featured:

     I tried to get more eyeballs on this site by posting mock-up images of Battle Gem Ponies on Brony Facebook fan pages. There's more comments early on for this game than any of my other ones and I want to see this trend continue. Battle Gem Ponies is getting people hyped. Those that tried Unicorn Training are staying with me and that game's existence gives Battle Gem Ponies credibility.
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The class chart has changed already. Most changes happened to the Magic class.

    A year from now there will be a Pokemon game on mobile and Steam that focuses on the metagame. It will feature all ponies and be created by me. Imagining how much fun I'll have playing this thing in a year has been fueling me through the design process. I've wanted to play a game like this for so long and I get to be the one who makes it happen.

     I still remember a moment when I was watching Game Grumps years back and they started talking about how fun the Pokemon meta is, but how tedious the grind was to get there. The video is here and the specific moment I'm thinking of starts 8 minutes in. I basically want to provide that deep gameplay strategic system but without the hours of time investment that could be spent trying new strategies.