Battle Gem Ponies (May DevLog): The Starting Point

With the first release of a playable build (still Patreon Exclusive until a June update) comes the bold new start of BGP. Playable updates as we make them, growing this game up from sprout to giant tree. Documenting everything along the way.

Take a gander below the break to see the development shenanigans we've gotten up to over the past month here at Yotes Games.

State of the Game 

Aren't those weather effects nice? Excited to polish them up further but for now it's all about getting everything functional at a rapid pace.

Unity tools have been used to setup a bunch of sprite effects and particle systems that'll allow us to make cool effects like rain, snow, fire, etc. much faster than the individual sprite objects process used before.

With these new particle toys comes the ability to make all the effects needed for animating attacks in the game. All 360 of them are currently under construction, and it's looking like it'll take an average of 30 minutes to get each one completely finished and looking nice. 

A big time eater that'll have to be handled in chunks. Starting with the first batch of moves in the next demo so we can make sure the development process works as nice as we think it will.

   This is just a taste of what we can do now.

Also, spreadsheets have been filled with info on Ponies, Moves, Abilities, and all the other information that will be appearing in-game. So nice to cross huge tasks like writing thousands of lines off the To-Do List.

Setbacks 

I mean, all of 2020 is pretty much a setback amirite? 😅

But really...

Royal's caught up with work projects (basically tasked with saving our employer's entire company with a killer app) and has been/will continue to be doing hardcore overtime hours at the job actually paying his bills for the time being. Instead of stacking onto his 12 - 16 hour workweek and crunching him to death, we're gonna pause code-side development for a bit.

Gives him time to settle that business and recharge with some rest afterwards before diving back in. I know what it's like to gamedev on empty and those are not the long-term results we're looking for.

Next Steps 

The very morning I'm typing this I've just been laid off completely form my job. The furlough is now a straight up fired. So I'm all-in now. If BGP fails it's time to go job hunting all-over again. But I've prepared for this scenario anyway, so full speed ahead. 

(It was a very straight to the point surprise phone call though. Instant. Just poof, no more job.)

You can see the mid-month Patreon Exclusive progress posts here!

Thank you, for following the development of Battle Gem Ponies.

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If you've been, well, alive over the past week you know exactly what's going on and can guess how I feel about it as a young black man myself. Fight for what's right, but set a good example. Stay safe as you can out there, everybody. See you next month.

- Tony Yotes