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Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #128 (One More Delay)

This situation bites.
     Instead of continuing to keep folks in the dark another week while I bang my head against the wall between 10pm and 5am every night, I figure I should just admit that this demo is taking way longer than I planned for. Turns out animating the battle sequences in order is a lot harder than coding the logic behind it all. A weekend-long polishing task has turned into a multi-week task and I'm too deep into this programming mess to just release a build with just the numbers.

     So in short, the demo I wanted out last Friday probably isn't coming until this Friday. But I can't even promise that. I'm just going to try and get it out ASAP.


   Completed:
  • Edited Battle Interface Text
  • In-Battle Placeholder Animations for Maladies, Weather, Statuses, Buffs, Debuffs
  • Multiple Effects Play in Order
  • Multiple Buffs & Debuffs Spawn in Rainbow-Style Order
  • Different Battle Text Based on Condition and Number of Conditions
  • Malady Orbs Correspond to Current State
  • Changed Some Scripts to Work More Efficiently
  • More Placeholder Animation Sprites
  • Story Ideas Edited
  • More Maps Drawn on Paper
  • Detailed Dev Task Notes on Things Needed to Begin Alpha Development Stage
     Lessons Learned:
  • Other brony devs are still popping up with projects like Starved for Light and trying to get their games out there.
  • Never underestimate how hard sequencing will be. Hope cutscene planning doesn't give me this much trouble.
  • Turn-based RPGs are 100% NOT easier to make than action games. Unicorn Training's combat was FAR easier to develop than this one.
  • Gotta stop announcing dates I aim for in my head. I keep missing them. The game will be done when it's done.
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     And the worst part of it all is, even when demo 7.0 is finally out, it still won't be the last Pinto Island demo... I still have to add things like special encounters, the Ponipedia, ultra transformations, cutscenes, travel moves, equips, and worst of all abilities. Which will probably be just as difficult to program as the moves, but thankfully without animations to go with them.

     I'm scared of none of this being done in time. I wanted to at least be deep into Alpha by August so I could have friends playtesting while I go to BronyCon. If not, then an October release date will definitely be impossible. I'm sure it's going to take at least an entire month to animate everything I'm making placeholders for, which is why I wanted to be in Beta by the end of September.

     Student loan bills are coming in and I promised my parents an alpha by the end of July to prove I can come out with the game in time to cash in on the holiday rush and help pay it off. Really hoping I can pull through on all these deadlines without pulling another Unicorn Training style content cut.

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