Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #11 (TileMaps & Overworld Setup)

     Unity 5! Sure, it'll cost me $4500 eventually, but I'll gladly pay for the engine's immense help if I ever reach $100,000. Those are the terms of use and accepting them means I can make Battle Gem Ponies even better! Unity 5's audio tools open up a lot of possibilities for pony sounds and various effects. The particle effect upgrades should allow me to do some fancy stuff too.

Get some dirty details on what went down in BGP's development this week.

HEADS UP:

     I'm out of town for the week and likely to have no internet, so all info is up to date as of 3/6/2015. I'll be able to work on the game throughout Spring Break, but I won't be able to talk about it or respond to emails until I get back.

   Completed:

• Mastered TileMap Layering
• Figured Out TileMap Collisions
• Working Walls In Overworld
• Animated Overworld Tiles
• Edited Avatar Sprites
• Downloaded Unity 5

     Lessons Learned:

• I have 9 months to make something awesome. Every minute counts.
• For time's sake I need to cut corners where I can. No long showers, try to eat lunch/breakfast in class, strictly 2 hours of free/girlfriend time on weekdays, and never work out for more than an hour.

       I'm planning on implementing a day/night cycle just because 2D Toolkit makes it so easy. I'm considering a Majora's Mask style in-game time to eliminate the problem of players only being able to play at certain times of the day. With a game specific time schedule players can see both night and day events within an hour or so.

     Day/Night cycles also open up gameplay opportunities like time passage when sleeping, legendary events triggering at certain in-game times, meeting with Mavens after hours to talk instead of battle, and so on. Nothing is concrete until I write it all out and see  how it works, but the idea's in my head now. If it doesn't work out, I'll see if I can tweak it for use in a later game.
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  Featured:

     I passed 80 likes on the Yotes Games Facebook and am creeping up on 780 followers on My Twitter. I'm really hoping my Facebook audience will grow once I start tossing BGP demos out there because I feel like that's the place to get the most personal interaction.

     I see Pokemon style games reach over 60,000 likes pre-launch and get flooded with comments and activity from people just excited to play. I know that kind of frenzy is earned so I can only do my best to obtain it. Twitter is the channel I expect to boom only if BGP is a major success. That's when people want to follow and get up-to-the-minute details on what's next.
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       I usually get most work done on Sunday, which hasn't happened yet, so this week's update is a brief one. The game is on schedule and I'll keep chipping away at it until BGP is something awesome. I want a playable pre-alpha for the world to download by the time summer vacation rolls around. It's back to the ol' grind for me!