Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #27 (Back in the Crunch, Unicorn Training on iOS)

     With BronyCon fast approaching some extra cuts need to be made. The demo is going to have a few less things than I wanted, but the core battle experience and overworld wandering are must haves that will be present. I need to have a proof of concept to show that this game is a real thing that's actually coming. Way too much is at stake here to have a lousy first impression.

     Unicorn Training is now out in the world and I'm checking sales every day to see if it can boom in popularity just once. If this results in little to no increase from the usual $30 a month, it could take me exactly a year to become Yotes Games LLC (just barely in time for BGP's release).

Adventures in Equica: Unicorn Training [Now Available on iOS!]

     The day has finally come! Unicorn Training is available for iOS devices! For just $1 you get 9 action-packed dungeons and a monster-filled forest overworld to explore! Level up and learn magical spells to blast away any evil creatures that stand in your path to greatness!

     It feels great to finally have my first real game out there for everyone to try. Fans of ponies and action RPGs in general will certainly be getting their money's worth. If you want to try before you buy, a free demo version is available with the entire first dungeon and boss fight. Every download goes toward making my next game even better, so be sure to leave a review and tell me what you think. This is just the beginning of a wonderful series.

Watch the Trailer.

Download on the App Store.
Or Try the Demo.

The Android versions are also available on Amazon and Google Play.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #26 (Post E3, Post Big Move, Still Exhausted)

     Literally nothing got done this week gamedev-wise. All week I've been building furniture, carrying heavy objects, doing shopping trips, and general errands for my Dad to help him settle into a a house in Florida. Silly me thought this would take up 7 days max and only 4 would be spent away from my own work. Never have I been so wrong.

     The thought of not being ready for BronyCon is depressing, but if that means cutting off a couple more hours of sleep each night to just barely make it, then that's what I'll have to do. Battle Gem Ponies going well is the only way I can move out to get a place of my own (where I can concentrate more on development). Believe me when I say, I want nothing more than that freedom.

New Florida Workstation & BronyCon CHAOS!!!

Dad's Florida House
Moving here once I graduate.

     So I finally made it to my new workplace in the sunshine state. Sadly there's no chair, but I'll get one later. Many things were lost in the move, but Battle Gem Ponies wasn't one of them. Now That I'm (nearly) settled in I can get back to work on the demo for BronyCon! Speaking of which...

     I'm in trouble. The day I moved out I got the panel followup message I've been waiting months for. Sadly I had no internet access until just yesterday and ended up missing a big deadline. Hopefully everything works out but if not, I just lost the opportunity of a lifetime.

A form was due on the 15th and somehow I didn't get the message I've been searching for every morning and night.
Really hope there's forgiveness for unfortunate circumstances.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #25 (E3 2015 Distractions)

     At this very moment I am in the process of moving a houseful of stuff from Pennsylvania to Florida so there isn't much time for gamedev. Even when all that gets settled, I have to catch up on E3. For those reasons I won't have download numbers ready this week. Hopefully things should be back up to speed by next Tuesday.

Get a very brief status report below.

Unicorn Training Coming to iOS (June 25th!)

The iOS Trailer is now on YouTube!

     Unicorn Training will be available on iOS in just 2 weeks! I requested it to go up June 25th, giving it 3 weeks to go through the review process. My past games took about 7-12 days in the fall so the 3 weeks leaves me extra time to re-upload if they reject the app for something. I submitted the game on the first and the game is currently under review. Expect the demo version of Unicorn Training to go up on the same day if all goes well.

     I like launching on Thursdays because I want the game to boom over a weekend (where people have the most time to play) but my games typically won't show up in searches or show user reviews on the first day they're out. By going up on Thursday, early adopters (mostly people visiting this site) will download the game and leave good reviews for the people coming into the app store to see on Friday and let the game explode from there.

     Fingers are crossed for better results than on Google Play. The game is much less buggy now, some people have heard of it, and iOS is supposed to be the platform where people buy games more often. My high hopes? 700 downloads before August. It'd be pretty cool to become an LLC before BronyCon even if I won't have time to print off business cards.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #24 (Animations Done, Unicorn Training Submitted)

     A busy week with a lot of sprite making and home distractions. I'll be spending next week moving over to Florida for the rest of the summer (before coming back to Pennsylvania in August) and I'll also be catching up on E3 2015 a few days behind (praying nothing gets spoiled since I love to watch the conferences).

     Don't expect much progress until all the dust settles. Once it does, I'll be sprinting to finish the public BGP demo before July rolls around.

Battle Gem Ponies Delayed (Releases Spring/Summer 2016)

     It takes 1 day to fully animate a single pony. There has to be at least 50 ponies for the game to feel interesting enough. I'd like for there to be 100 ponies for this first game to stay competitive with the others on the app store. Each pony has an ultra form that will require it's own animation set. That's about 7 months of just drawing all the characters.

    Bugs can (and will) pop up and often set me back 2 days. I'll need about a month before launch for a final beta test and marketing hype. I have yet to even start the process of combat balancing which could take weeks longer than I think it will since I've never done it at this scale before. I'm almost guaranteed to run into issues with the online features.

     At this rate, Battle Gem Ponies is almost certainly being pushed back to a May 2016 release. I'm kidding myself if I think it could live up to the vision by November. Since it won't, I refuse to force it to. I'm going to restructure plans to take all the extra time I'll need into account. Battle Gem Ponies should be truly ready for launch by the summer of next year. 

Check below the break for an updated demo release schedule.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #23 (Gamepads, Google Play, & iOS Setup)

Ran into a bunch of hiccups today, but Unicorn 
Training should be available on iOS very soon.

     As of yesterday I am an iOS Developer once more. Most of my early works won't make it over since I don't even have access to the original code. But you won't need them with the best version of Unicorn Training on the way!

     In addition to all that, tons of craziness happened on Google Play as they reorganized their app store and pushed me up in a completely new category. I also have controllers now so my future games can support gamepads! This week has been a busy one, so I'll leave the rest out of the header.

Get all the juicy gamedev details below the break!