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Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #53 (Demo 3 Christmas Release)


     Another demo is out, improvements are on the way, and the project schedule was redone to more accurately reflect just how long this game is going to take. Current plans extend to the BronyCon 2016 demo. Battle Gem Ponies is aiming for a November 2016 release and the crunch is on.

Check out this week's gamedev progress below.

Some NPCs with complete walk cycles.
   Completed:
  • Tree & Mountain Sprites
  • Touched Up Placeholders
  • Fixed NPC Animation Errors
  • Released Pre-Aplha V3 Demo Build
  • NPC Walk Sprites
  • Reorganized Schedule
     Lessons Learned:
  • I'm hoping my games can play a part in distancing ponies from the show and making it more of a aesthetic that can stand on it's own. Much like how talking animals aren't exclusively tied to Disney and its competitors. Ponies are cool and they shouldn't die off with the show, whenever that inevitably ends.
  • Gotta start releasing demos more frequently and get Let's Players like Cybermagus and Ultra Mag64 on board for game testing. I put up more cool things to play, they put up more videos for people to see.
  • Maybe I should start making midway demo releases with at least all the bugs fixed. Look for demo 3.5 in January and we'll see where that goes.
I spend way too long making sprites and adjusting them to look perfect.
Definitely need to hire an artist for future games to speed this up.
       When reorganizing the schedule I tripled how many days it will take to draw art assets. I'm learning that I'd much rather have someone else make these while I focus on making placeholders act appropriately. So that brings future plans for a Yotes Games Company after graduation to at least 3 people. Me, a musician, and an artist. I'll be expanding after BGP is released.
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   Downloads:


    My Dell laptop is officially on life support and fading fast. Can't run 2 windows at once without crashing, blue screens after 10 minutes, and takes an annoying amount of restarts to actually turn on at all. I have to move all the important files to an external hard drive and start practicing with Mac's equivalents of Microsoft Office in combination with Google Docs and the like.

   I'll need to start saving up for a desktop once BGP is released too. So that, an apartment, LLC documentation, and tons of other living expenses all need to be covered by this game, or else I better start looking for work in San Fransisco. A lot is riding on this game's success.

    Featured:
A new Cybermagus video!
     Another demo tour video popped up after Christmas and it compares demo 3 to the last one and points out some bugs that need immediate fixing. Go watch it here!
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Watching this game evolve fills me with determination.
     I'll try getting a 3.5 Demo out by the end of the week alongside a trailer video. It'll have a bunch of bug fixes and small improvements before I get started on the big features for version 4.

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