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Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #111 (Aiming for Code Complete)


     Another milestone down, another 5 months to go. Showing the game to new people irl and emailing folks left n' right to get this game out there! With the graphical update in place conversation seems to be shifting towards worries about the gameplay being too similar Pokémon. But I have confidence that the final version will make it very clear that the gameplay of Battle Gem Ponies, at it's core, is Pokémon with more challenge and less filler.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Battle Gem Ponies Greenlight Demo Update!

Watch the New Trailer!
     Time for round two! Battle Gem Ponies is back and better than ever thanks to feedback from the Steam Greenlight community! The turn-based pony RPG now features much more original looking characters, various new environment sprites, and some renamed moves and characters. 

     If you want to check out the newest build for yourself, just click the link below. If you'd like to see this game on Steam someday, be sure to give a thumbs up on the Greenlight page!


(And check back here for more monthly updates!)

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #110 (The Redesigns)


     The long-promised February update is coming this Friday and one last week of bug crunching is underway to make sure it plays perfectly. This way, future builds will be off to a fresh start and development can be focused on new features.

     Namely, getting at least 3 more playable ponies in the game! Check out how the game is coming along below the break.

Friday, February 17, 2017

Battle Gem Ponies: New Look Implemented!


     Despite the cold I've had all week, I managed to make progress on the February BGP update! Finally finished importing all the new sprites and tiles for the overworld! All that's left now is some bug fixes and a way to toggle the touch interface. 

      I'm also still not sure about which color scheme to settle on for Poni-Bot and I still want to try to animate all the current Move Tutor attacks. For now though, things are coming together nicely and definitely call all the graphical changes improvements.

     We're on track for releasing the February Greenlight update by Friday, so hang tight! I wanna thoroughly playtest this time and make sure all the bugs really are fixed.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #109 (Valentines Day)


     Been drawing lots of pretty pixel people. Bigger versions of the NPCs used before. Regarding the overworld's art direction, I think of it as a mix between Gen 3 Pokémon & Wind Waker styles while the battle scenes are a sort of Final Fantasy 6 & My Little Pony art style with a Pokémon interface.

     Hoping to get some more tiles redone and fix all the bugs from the previous version by Friday so I can try to get a new update out before the 25th. I still have a bunch of moves that need to be animated and lord knows fixing the controller input bug is going to take a while.

Friday, February 10, 2017

Plans for Demo 6.5 & Beyond


     Instead of delaying the update I promised Steam Greenlight towards the end of February (with the risk of missing the month entirely), a midway update is coming.

     One with the graphics changes I need to make this game distinct from Pokemon fan games and the ponies distinct from the MLP canon and fanon characters. Also, with much needed bug fixes and a few new fully animated moves.

     This will allow me to keep my advertised monthly playable demo schedule and not stress so much about getting a build out that I skip a thorough playtesting session before release. Demo 7 will be a code complete version of the game released in March. All battle mechanics and overworld functions will be in working order, even if the graphics will be placeholders. The playable release will simply be one last Pinto Island demo but with complex battle moves, complete animations, proper leveling mechanics, and in-game cutscenes.

     The April demo, will then be the first story release. A playable version of what I have planned for the beginning segment of the game, featuring the first 3 towns and the routes between them. The builds that follow will be separate pieces of the final game's adventure mode that show demonstrate my vision for the game while getting people hyped to see more.

     Game development is a messy process that always, always, ALWAYS, takes more work than you were expecting, even for the simplest of things. Here's to hoping that by giving myself even more breathing room, I can get something solid out there people can enjoy.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #108 (More Spriting)


     Making a video game about ponies over here. Drawing lots of new sprites and it's taking a while to get 'em all looking just right from 4 angles and in motion alongside 16x16 pixel tiles. By Friday they should all be in-game and I'll be waist-deep in bug fixing.

Friday, February 3, 2017

Remaking BGP's NPCs As We Speak


     Nothin' to see here. Working on human sprites at this very moment. When they're all done I can make a post showing them off next Friday. Every character should be all done and in-game by tomorrow. Then its on to fixing all the bugs in the last demo, followed by adding some new features and fixing the inevitable bugs those will cause.

As is the ever-busy life of a game developer.