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Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #62 (Catching Up)


     It's March now! New Pokemon games were announced! And on top of all that I need $3000 to start presenting my game at expos like MAGfest! I gotta hurry this up a bit. I want a demo out before the 15th, even if that means sleeping a little less.

    Right now I'm messing around with making an easy way to implement all the complex move effects that don't revolve around just depleting the enemy's health. With this out the way combat programming should come easy. After Magfest I'm more determined than ever to make a name for myself and be as awesome to other people as my idols are to me.


Getting tax breaks won't come as easy as I'd hoped.
Was reading some Gamasutra which led to this book.
Also, I'm not the only deveolper who thinks the
thing setting Pokemon apart is its combat system.
   Completed:
  • Cleaned Up on Social Media
  • Steadied Schoolwork Schedule
  • Created Unicorn Training Project Page
  • Studied a Game About Waifu Stealing for Unicorn Quest Implementation Ideas
  • Found a Faster Spreadsheet to In-Game Process
  • Accurate Special Move Effect Reader
  • Sound Effect Volume Testing
  • Edited Sound Effects
  • Impact & Attack Sounds
  • Name Boxes for Special Characters in Overworld
  • Template for Special Move Code
     Lessons Learned:
  • As a creator, I have a strong desire to be known for making something. I feel kinda unworthy talking to people who accomplished things because I'm just not on their level yet. If BGP was finished and well-received it'd do wonders for my confidence.
  • Studying articles like this and this are helping me dive into how Pokemon's design philosophy works. I also have to write a research paper about the competitive side of the series for school.
  • This game's fun and simplicity combined with how I just went to a panel about classic Atari game design has me thinking about making a single screen game jam title. 
  • This fan game and Cave Story's design got me thinking about combat design for a 2D sidescroller I wanted to do eventually.
  • Gotta say, I'm pretty envious that Ambient Prologue is still making $604 a month on Patreon for a game coming out in April. But that just shows there is a dedicated audience out there. That team is testing the waters and I can learn a lot from how they're doing.
Seeing this makes me think I can get away with selling
the complete version of Battle Gem Ponies for $5.
       Man... A budget would be pretty nice. Maybe I'll go for crowdfunding on future projects to guarantee covering rent, utilities, and business expenses while spending previous game proceeds on things like food, gifts, and fun. To have that much money coming in regularly before the game is even out just sounds magical to me.

I can't tell if this will help or hurt my game.
     Pokemon Sun and Moon's timing couldn't be any more on queue with me. Battle Gem Ponies was going to feature Sun and Moon themed legendaries and be released in November as well. Either this will make it much easier to call the game a copycat in comments and reviews, or it'll help me out when people get caught up on Pokemon fever and go searching for stuff online or in the app store. I'll have to try that much harder with my game's story to make it stand apart from Pokemon and be judged as it's own RPG and not an attempt to be better than a nostalgic hit AAA title.

     The focus on BGP's marketing will have to be on the ponies, competitive features, and platforms that Pokemon games are not available on. Hopefully people won't write it off as another simple ripoff when it's really a lifelong fan's passion project.
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   Downloads:

Right under 1000 UT Demo downloads on Opera.
Expecting hikes here with demo 4. Let's aim for 100.

   Not rolling in dough, but also not suffering. I consider the 5th & 15th of each month my paydays.

    Featured:

Got randomly featured here this week.
I think it's automated based on twitter though.

This is the first devlog of mine I've seen hit all these sites and it's not even just
a retweet. This particular blog must've been timed just right to be shared so much.
This one has to be my most popular tweet in a while.
All thanks to @cinemassacre retweeting it.
     The Magfest dust has settled and I saw my numbers rise a tiny bit. Now I have even greater potential for spreading the word on BGP when it eventually hits Steam Greenlight.
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    All the experiences I've had with game jams recently have shown me that I can do a lot in a short amount of time. They've also shown me that I will never have to worry about running out of ideas. If I can keep adding substantial features to the game week-by-week, I'll have something awesome in my hands in time to show at BronyCon.

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