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Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #68 (Miitomo, Con Plans, & BYOC)


     I learned a lot of things this week. Much of it was research, some of it was experiencing another live demo showcase, and I got to think about where I want to be in a few years a bit more. My first big spend in a while was the Rewired Unity plugin that easily allows for controller and keyboard input, eliminating one of the game's fussiest problems for the price of $45.

     In terms of big news the crazy fun Penn College BYOC happened on Saturday, I'm excited to graduate in less than a month, and I plan to attend BronyCon in July, FillyCon in August, and Magfest in January before launching my Steam Greenlight campaign.

Lots of planning for the future and this hectic week in review below the break!


Let's see what this turns into over the next year.
The BYOC went great!
The top 3 games were all from members of the PCT GameDevs club.
   Completed:
  • Plans for AirConsole for of BGP's Free 'Battle-Only' Spinoff
  • Facebook Integration Tutorial (Through Class)
  • Practiced Coding Enums
  • Made a Rezli Account
  • Tested Rewired Plugin (Free Trial)
  • Purchased Rewired (Now Keyboard and Joypads Work Perfectly!)
  • Planned Out Convention Financials
  • Learned About Car Insurance Quotes (Adulting!)
  • Penn College BYOC
  • Uploaded BYOC Build to Itch.io
  • Updated Itch Page to Look More Appealing
  • Read BYOC Feedback Sheets and Noted Suggestions for Battle Gem Ponies
     Lessons Learned:
  • Companies really take pride in finding little ways to screw you over and drain your paycheck (I'm referring to insurance). Although it's nothing new to me after Personal Finance class, it's been on my mind all week.
  • After listening to so many podcasts while doing pixel art, I have a new perspective on the gaming industry. I heard a bunch of people working in it describe what it's like and I realized going indie out the gate isn't as risky as I thought. Even if you get into the industry, you shouldn't get cozy. 
  • Layoffs are rampant, small teams usually aren't looking for more idea guys (my favorite part of development/the reason I'm doing this), and the AAA gaming industry is built around working people to death and destroying your home life. 
  • If I can make indie work, even on a base level of barely matching a $70K salary year after year, I'll probably be much happier than if I was working for someone else.
Can you spot mine?
     The BYOC was awesome and lots of people found Battle Gem Ponies to be interesting. I got feedback ranging from "I'd Greenlight this" to "This Pokemon-clone trash shouldn't exist" and I got to put advice to practice by reading into all of those.


      Funny how FillyCon falls right on the Yotes Games anniversary weekend. I remember starting this website on August 25th about 4 years ago...
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   Downloads:

Gonna keep posting these until I make a game that passes 100K!
     Planning out this Con Season turned out to be a day full of number crunching and research. In addition to planning out reservations and flights, I needed to look up how car rentals work, research all the legal stuff behind car ownership, figure out which insurance company rips you off the least, and write down the costs of nearly every scenario so I can easily cross things out and recalculate without having to look them up again.

     The total cost of attending BronyCon and FillyCon will be about $560, so hopefully we can put a dent in that number with my graduation money. Attending Magfest in January will also be big expense, but I can't start planning for that stuff at least until around October. But by then, I'll have a whole new financial situation so my current estimates will be inaccurate anyway.

   I can use the $30 a month from my games along with the monthly $10 PayPal donations to buy food and things to live off of during those trips. And I'm talking just survival food. I need enough Ramen, Kool-Aid, Chef Boyardee Spaghetti, Bologna & Ketchup Sandwiches, Cheez-Its, Vanilla Ice Cream Tubs, Cereal, and Milk for 2 months.

    Featured:

A new Let's Play was found!
     I learned a bit more about Reddit after poking around a bit. I wasn't sure where my stuff should be posted so I looked around for some blogs where indies shared news, specifically about RPGs. If you know of any, feel free to drop 'em in the comments so I know what to follow.
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   Gotta tell ya, I've got senioritis real bad. Classes and grades just mean so little compared to having BGP be a success. I try to get the B.S. homework assignments done as fast as possible to minimize the time and life force they suck out of me. Every class I sit through is physically painful. More than ever at this point, but the light at the end of this tunnel-of-the-damned is so bright and warm... I'll be an adult soon. A free one. Then daily life will be set right.

     All eyes are on me at home as my parents wait to see if all this indie game stuff pays off. More than really hoping it does, I'll make sure it does. To the best of my ability, I'll make Battle Gem Ponies something thousands of people want to download.

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