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Friday, February 27, 2015

BGP Achievement Plans


     A minor thing I'm keeping on my mind is what I plan to do for achievements. Having achievements increases visibility and the lifespan of the game by putting it in a database of optimized compatible products and giving players challenges to take on. Achievements are available in some form on every platform I plan to be on so it'll be good for me to plan ahead and make them universally compatible and evenly divisible by the various reward scores.

     Unlike with my other game DragCore's Achievements I plan on having things that increase replay value and really challenge players to hunt each one down. If you're already being rewarded for doing things like quests, there's no point in tacking on an achievement too. Achievements are meta by nature so they should embrace meta gameplay.

     Chances are you'll be getting high level achievements for doing things like winning stadium matches with bizarre teams, triggering hidden events in the overworld, completing the super hard NewGame+, catching a legendary with the weakest capture gem money can buy, or interacting with secret field objects. I want to make achievements people want to brag about. That's what they're for.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #9 (Spreadsheet Code & Music)


     As predicted, this was a very productive week leading to a week with tons of visible progress. After messing with code stuff for a few days I now have an efficient way to put hundreds of moves, animations, and ponies in my game.

     The screenshot above is what the current Move Info interface looks like. If you click a question mark with a move selected in battle yo'll see this stuff pop up. Move type, power, accuracy, classes, description, elemental match-up, and so on. I think it'll be really useful to players so it should be accessible when and where you need it most.

     I considered just showing the Good, Fail, or Bad symbol above text next to the target but decided that it would be more beneficial to the player if they got the chance to memorize all the classes a move is strong against and get more familiar with all the classes.

If you want to see what else I've been messing with this week, hop on over the page break.
It's DevLog time!

Friday, February 20, 2015

Battle Gem Ponies Music


     A soundtrack really makes a game memorable. You may not always notice it, but the music of a game is the emotional bridge to the player. You can often just listen to a song from a nostalgic game and instantly recall the feeling of playing it. When you face off against an epic legendary boss the music hypes it up even further. You'll even go out of your way to download that song so you can hear it again whenever you want.

     I want Battle Gem Ponies to be one of those games with music you never forget. Unfortunately I can't make music myself and learning how to do it well could take over a year. My solution is to get some help with this. I requested the help of electronic musician Justin Heng and orchestral composer Eric Eom to make the Battle Gem Ponies OST something worth searching for.

     Below the break I'll list all the music I plan to put in the game. There's nearly 50 songs and jingles total so expect it to feel fully featured.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #8 (Maladies & Battle Interface)


     This week is going to be a productive one. I'm determined to get to a point where the ponies can use moves and hit each other. No fancy animations just yet, only functionality. Messing around with ideas for this has gotten me to dress up the menus again, giving a nice polished feel to everything.

Check out this week in gamedev below the break!

Friday, February 13, 2015

BGP Malady & Weather Conditions


     Maladies are afflictions (primarily caused by other ponies) that weaken a pony in some way. Things like poison, paralysis, burns, and freezing are maladies. Curses, shrinking, and being dazed are sub-maladies. Maladies should not be confused with lowering stats, which involves decreasing the numbers of a pony's stats like speed, attack, defense, etc.

     Weather is an important factor in combat because it affects different classes. Some weather boosts the power of some classes while weakening others. However, no matter what the weather is, Chaos class ponies always get a slight boost because of the way they thrive in havoc.

You can find details on how both of these mechanics work in Battle Gem Ponies below.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #7 (Bug Fixes & Recognition)


     This week has been a pretty busy one. There were spotlight features, convention updates, contests entries, bug fixes, revised designs, renamed mechanics, new sales data, and more blog comments than ever! It's gamedev to the max here at Yotes Games and I'm only just getting started.

     Things are finally in place and I can really start getting into adding features to Battle Gem Ponies. I have the action camera up and running, menus planned out, and a basic idea of how battle calculations will be made. It's just a matter of building up the game one layer at a time.

Check out what layers got in just this week below the break.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Dual Class Moves In BGP


     A big feature of Battle Gem Ponies are the moves with two elemental classes rather than the usual one you'd see in games like Pokemon or Final Fantasy. Some attacks are twice as weak against one class, but twice as strong against another. You also have to consider moves that match both the primary and secondary class of the user, leading to attacks dealing serious game-changing damage.

     Moves like Steam Burst (Aqua/Fire) and Wing Blade (Air/Steel) used by ponies with dual classes themselves makes players approach combat in new ways and possibly stand a chance against opponents that would normally have a class advantage.

(Note: This was going to be a much bigger post before I realized most of what I want to explain has been said in other posts or is in a weird state of changing as I keep rebalancing things. Next week's post will be about something new, for now, I really just want to get back to work so I have cool things to show you on Tuesday.)

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #6 (Class Icons, New Look, & Action Camera)

This is running in Unity!
I just have to make the buttons do stuff.
     BGP is looking really good these days. While everyone else was watching the Super Bowl I was listening to it from my bedroom, working on the interface sprites for Battle Gem Ponies. It's weird, but working on this project is my idea of fun. With all these snow day class cancellations I'm able to get a lot done.

     It's been a very productive week as I'm inching toward a playable state. I should have primitive combat working by the end of next Sunday at this rate. You can check out what made this week so good for development below the break.