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Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #104 (Holiday Week)


     Christmas and Hanukkah passed over on the same weekend, Super Mario Run came out, and the app store exploded. So while some devs are rolling in dough at the moment, I'm still chipping away at my project for the next winter rush.

Take a look at this week in gamedev below!

Submitted.
When catching ponies, a Pokemon GO style minigame happens where
you have a chance to slightly increase your catch rate.
The gem shakes and becomes less transparent until it either breaks or locks in your new pony gem.
Tension builds for each of the 3 shakes!

   Completed:
  • Pushed Demo 6 Back to be the Greenlight Demo
  • BronyCon Panel Submissions Opened (found a new co-host)
  • Pony Capture Mechanics & Animations
  • Planned Steam Greenlight Launch in Detail (January 1st)
  • Pushed Rainbryte back to Demo 7
  • Citrine Desert Music (by E^2)
  • Reorganized Dev Task List to Account for Changes (again)
     Lessons Learned:
  • With Pokemon Prism cancelled, games press might be hungrier than ever for a high quality Pokemon fan game to pop up. Mine's not exactly Pokemon, but might just fill the void. Or at least worth writing about.
  • This Horse Games Video was an interesting find. Breaking down some beginner mistakes brony games have been making (and I'm guilty of similar mistakes in Unicorn Training)
     No new demos 'til Greenlight. Doing things this way relieves some stress and will give me more time to ensure bugs are fixed and the demo is perfectly playable for everyone. I'm just going to wrap up everything I wanted in Demo 6 then spend a few days ensuring it isn't easy to break while also working on a new trailer.

     Also, gives a rush of excitement for the Greenlight build since it's all new content people have wanted to see since V3. You can finally catch ponies, use Move Tutors, and surf across the water with Orscina! Features that I hope will be enough to get Equestria Daily readers to click through.
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   Downloads:

No notable difference between holiday sales and a regular week here.
     Christmas sales numbers 2 years later? Eh. Once you're not featured on the front page or in the first few past "See More" you're pretty much done for unless you get looked up by name or genre. And even then it's gotta be one of the top 20 of those to matter.

     Unicorn Training didn't last because of the amateur design and the festering nest of launch bugs. I won't make those same mistakes again. I want BGP to have a long and healthy sales lifetime.

    Featured:

Look below for my current draft of the BGP Panel description.
Battle Gem Ponies: “Pokémon... but with Ponies!?”

     Meet your very own super-powered, shape-shifting pony and embark on a journey to become the Pinto region’s next Prime Champion! Think you can defeat the evil Paragon Cartel? Want to learn more about the mysterious Legendary Alicorns of the Sun and Moon? Then come see the finished version of the long awaited pony RPG that recently launched on Steam, iOS, and Android! The panel will include a gameplay demonstration as well as Q&A.
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     All these setbacks are living proof that nobody really knows when a game is going to be finished. You can aim all you want, but you're always going to go over as minor problems end up bigger than they appear and life decides to intervene too often.

     Just gotta get Greenlit and become "legit" already. It's the difference between "Yeah, that's cute" and "Oh! This is real". Once I see this game has a real chance at success (and not just me hyping myself up) I'll feel more fired up than ever. Time to make something newsworthy.

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