Starting to build out all the actual tile maps to be used in the beginning segment of the game, up to the first badge and a little beyond, just to get players hooked and hungry for more.
Time to put everything I've got into a super-polished build that'll make people go nuts when they try it. Time to make sure every 30 seconds of the game gives players a Ben & Jerry's sized chunk of fun to chew on. Time to get Battle Gem Ponies on the map!
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Feels like I'm super late to the party, but I finally figured out how useful sorting layers are. |
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I can keep better track of what sprites should be overlapping whatever else. |
- Adjusted Task List to get to Alpha Demo Release ASAP
- Figured Out Sorting Layers
- Got Used to How Prefab Tiles Worked
- Reorganized & Setup Prefabs
- Prepared Placeholder Scripts
- Changed Some Story Scenarios
- Created Map Template
- Edited Some Tile Sprites
- Finished Converting 8/20 Demo Tile Maps
- Wrote All Demo Dialogue
- Planned Demo Events in Greater Detail
- Rewritten Schedule (ANOTHER huge delay, it never ends!)
Lessons Learned:
- Actually placing all the tiles takes about 4 times as long as just drawing the dang things.
- I'm going to have to go back and trace over a bunch of things I want to have animated later. Might even need to extend my sprite sheets because it turns out the animated tiles can't rotate in the editor.
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Equestrian Labs Interior (Graph Paper version) |
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Equestrian Labs Interior (Tilemap version) |
An incomplete alpha, sure, but with all the playable parts I want folks to see before release in there so it's clear what the game is going to be like. After that I can tinker away at the rest of the game while hopefully word spreads. The goal is to become one of those highly anticipated fan projects like the ones I follow all the time.
If I want to blow up like those I'll do what they do. Have an awesome demo, a story and characters people can get behind, a gimmick/mechanic nobody else is doing, familiar themes/references to popular IPs for mainstream press to pick up on, a developer people can root for, and a presence all over the web.
Pretty much almost there except for the awesome demo part. Pinto Island exists but it's an overwhelming, confusing, buggy mess with a ton of missing polish. Need to get something solid, pretty, understandable, and engaging out there so people take it seriously and see what I'm trying to do here.
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Featured:
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The ONE night I don't check emails. OF COURSE this happens! |
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An attempt to salvage this... Hoping for another miracle. Nothing for two days... Then... |
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God Bless America... |
This panel is the exact motivation boost I needed this month. I'm willing to cut out a bit more sleep and wolf down meals in order to squeeze more dev time out of each day. Plane takes off in 20 days. It's on.
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Updated my To Do List and depressed myself a little... Not making that July goal by a longshot. Turning 25 years old on October 28th and will still be living with my parents... |
After all these years, I need to be 100% sure I can live off this game's success long enough to make an even bigger one with more help in a much shorter amount of time. If I deliver the goods, the people will come. If the people like what I delivered, the money will come. If the money is plentiful, I can deliver greater goods, and the cycle continues.
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