Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #52 (A Solid World)

     Development so far has led up to a stable build of the game I can release to the public and continue to expand upon. I just want a basic overworld and a fixed combat system. Multiplayer, advanced AI, and all that other stuff can come after the foundation exists.

Some temporary backgrounds were made to test battle setup data recognition.

Curious to see if it spikes even a little this Christmas.

   Completed:

• World Menu Sprites and Icons
• Overworld Running
• Overworld Ponies (Not Following)
• Altered NPC Overworld AI
• Critical Hits, Misses, and Health Percentage Change Indicators
• Accurate Health Percentage Calculation
• Multi-Hit Icon + Counter (No Multi-Hit Moves)
• Fixed Battle Load Crash
• Challenger Party Setup Controller
• More Accurate Battle Text
• Rearranged Title for Universal Screen Sizes
• Sketched BGP Title Logo Ideas
• Updated my About Page Bio
• Demo Was Tested and Child Approved
• Menu Sketches (All Except Ponipedia)
• NPC Turning Sprites
• Edited Walking Animation Template
• Moved Spreadsheets to Google Sheets (because computer is unreliable for quick weekly access)
• Specific Development Plans for Demo Builds 4 & 5

     Lessons Learned:

• I got the most honest feedback of all by letting my 4 and 5 year old nieces playtest Battle Gem Ponies. (Sweet-Bot and Orscina were their favorites, the loading times were too long, and Flamethrower was the coolest attack.) Even with low-level reading skills they picked up on how to navigate and defeat the grass pony with the fire moves.
• Like every other nerd in America, I saw Star Wars Episode VII. It was Thursday night, and I went with my brothers after a trip to Disney World.

  

• The Final Smash Bros Direct video got me thinking about what it would be like running a project that big for so long and how tired Masahiro Sakurai must be. How tired of BGP would I be if I spent 4 years on it? Here I am out of breath at the start of year 2.

       The demo is coming along nicely and I'm currently on track to have it out by Christmas! Just need to make some tile sprites to replace the placeholders.
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   Downloads:

[Sudden Computer Failure, No Data Available]

   I'm paying attention to how the app stores are updating over December. If I can get BGP in the top 10 like Unicorn Training was I'm sure it can stay there until the holiday rush. A genuine deep RPG among the free-to-plays and Santa apps is sure to stand out! Plus, Star Wars came out this year and definitely eats up the attention of everyone this Christmas.

    Featured:

     Got some evened out numbers on Twitter. Follower count is steadily rising. Maybe I'll get more with some press once Demo 3 is out.
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     Hopefully a build will be up sometime next week. Let's see how long this sprite art takes.