Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #79 (BronyCon Prep)

It's been a busy week. The game looks and feels really different now.
Has it really only been 7 days?

     One week until judgement day. In the sense that people will be judging the game and it's popularity for the rest of the year is on the line here. 7 days left to compile a build that can impress a crowd. Can I get this done without anymore bugs? Finger, toes, and other appendages crossed. I'm staying up 'til 4am every night pretty consistently now because I just get so focused in those quiet hours. Whatever it takes to finish this demo for BronyCon...

I'm feeling that game jam pressure. It's crunch time.

Look at that! A cool and informative level up screen! The WIP version anyway. It's prettier now.
Feels like I've been staring at this game forever...

All you see here is what has burned into my eyes lately. Gamedev is all I know.

As of Monday night, I'm making the Move Details page. I have to make code so all the right info gets in.

But BronyCon is right around the corner and the good times will flow...

In Other News...

Giving it out for free this week just to see what happens. Normally this gets near zero weekly downloads on Itch.
If this picks up attention, I'll try making it free on Google Play and the App Store the week before
Battle Gem Ponies comes out. Maybe even when it hits Steam Greenlight too just to draw people in.

   Completed:

• Title Screen Code & Animations
• File Slot Management
• New Game Initialization
• Name Your Character & Pony
• BronyCon Panel Scheduled
• Unicorn Training Sale! (Go to Itch.io)
• GUI Sprites
• Formula for Stats Calculation and Leveling Up
• Level Up Interface & Functionality
• Victory/Defeat Banner
• Prize Money
• Changed Trapdoor Battle Item to Accuracy Booster (saved idea as an Ability for later)
• Name Change of "Special" Move Slot Group to Tutor (LHST)
• LHST & ACE Symbols
• Stat, EXP, and Prize Formulas
• Level Up Animations
• File Deletion
• Fixed Fade-In Bugs
• KO Party Gem Icons
• Alternate Text for Defeated Trainers
• Move Details Interface

     Lessons Learned:

• I have a great time slot lined up for BronyCon and better not screw it up.
• Figured out how to make sliders in Unity Editor so I can adjust an objects properties more easily. Should've been using this all along.
• Itch.io is not a good place to get people to download your mobile game. It's simply less convenient.  There are a few thousand users out there though, which may make a great audience for beta testing BGP on Android.

     I am tripping over deadline hurdles left and right. I pushed a few complex features to the gap between BronyCon and FillyCon to  have the 5.0 build ready in time. That means pony customization, a bit of polish, and new moves will have to wait 'til Build 5.5. That's the version I'll be sending to every single brony Let's Player I can find.
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   Downloads:

     Nice even numbers here and there. Can't wait to see what kind of spike BGP gets after BronyCon. Unicorn Training is doing well too. The 60,000 people into it is the crowd I envision serving BGP to. If I could get just half those people to try it in March, I'll be able to move out of my parents' place.

     To celebrate hitting 60K total players and tag along with the Steam Summer Sale, Unicorn Training is free for the entire week, ending on the 30th at midnight. Numbers went up by hundreds on itch which is funny because I was struggling to get 3 total before and I was starting to think people didn't like using itch for android games. Luckily that doesn't hold true. I even had a nice person donate $2. Despite the game being on sale for free, they chose to pay double the original price. I feel really special when something like that happens. 

     You can go get the full version of Unicorn Training for Free on Itch if you've never tried it before. This is the first time the full version of the game with all 9 dungeons and expanded overworld has been available for free (in a non-piratey way). Sale ends July 1st, so get your hands on a copy if you're eager to go dungeon crawling today!

    Featured:

That's a pretty prominent feature I think. First page of Con Day 1.
In the afternoon too after the big Vendor Hall rush and possibly lunchtime.

     Being right there on the BronyCon schedule's first page means my panel is one of the first people see listed and get hyped for. I might get a huge turnout this year! The pressure is on to show off a game that's worth the hype and keeps people talking throughout the whole convention.
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Yeah, Simber. I'm feeling tired too. But we have to finish the crunch!

     Working on this game for so long is starting to get to me. BronyCon week is going to be a really nice break from all this gamedev madness. The next few days are going to be mostly debugging (my absolute favorite...) so let's crunch that into the dust!

One more week of pressure to go~!