Progress Report: Final Crunchdown [Part 5/5]

The 5 month crunch rush is over, aaaannnd... the game's still not done. We were thrown too many curveballs during the home stretch and failed to meet our goal of a May 23rd launch, and it's time to get things back in order before wrapping up development.

In short, we're 1 more meetup away from having a Beta build ready. But that meetup won't be until June 15th because the entire team has personal life stuff to deal with.

And even after a Beta is out there in backer's hands, the bugs and gameplay flaws found in it need to be addressed. So at least another 10 days of work there, plus a marketing campaign for the countdown to launch day so people actually know it's finally coming out.

We're basically a month behind schedule. (A sentence I'm extremely sick of saying...)

Details about what's going on with development are on the BGP Patreon!

Almost November Already, Huh?

If you remember seeing me at TrotCon or Everfree Northwest, you'll remember me excitedly stating BGP Lite would be released on App Stores by Halloween! Well... That's not happening. [More details on exactly why below.]

Combat Demo is Late!!

 

Be assured, we're working hard on this to make the best first-impression possible. We thought it'd be done by March 31st, but new issues keep coming up both in-engine and in real-life. The team has been hopping over these hurdles one at a time, and we're making smooth progress towards the Combat Demo release goal that's ignited the flames within each of us.

You can expect to see the anticipated March DevLog in video form.

But beyond that, something BIG is under construction and we hope to explode on every platform with great news very soon.

(Trust. We'll all be better off if we iron these last few bugs out.)

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #166 (Demo Ready?)

Just powering through and coding my heart out. Nothing to show yet, but things are progressing behind the scenes.

     Working towards that Minimum Viable Product with a few days to go til showtime! Pretty much every feature from the last demo needs to be remade and bug free using the new development tools I have. The next demo has to be ready by Saturday morning, or I'm going to have to introduce countless strangers and fellow devs to my buggy pre-alpha from December! 

     Can't let that happen. It's crunch time.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #131 (Tiles, Tiles, Tiles)

     Spent just about the whole week making placeholder tiles and arranging them in the most efficient way for both memory and ease of use. Another single day task that turns out to be a week long event.

BGP Update Delay (on April Fools, no less!)

     On what was supposed to be a demo launch day, life and bugs got in the way. As of this moment, on April Fools Day of 2017, I just finished getting the ridable pony code to work. But it's untested. I could rush the update out just to have it done, but that benefits no one if the pony riding causes game-breaking bugs in various scenarios.

     Also, the new levitation effect I added for the flying ponies is messing up animations in some funky ways making the whole thing feel super buggy. So instead of forcing out an unstable build, I'm gonna take some time to polish it up and test things out. 

     April will have 2 game updates now. One on the first Friday, and one on the last. I want the game to leave a good taste in people's mouths with each update, not showcase a mountain of bugs on top of tiny bits of progress. So come back next week to get your hands on a shiny new build of BGP!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #97 (This is Taking Forever)

Oh, GOD I'm still working on this thing? And it's not even past pre-alpha yet? 

     Feels like I've been working on this game my entire adult life. And I kinda have, considering this started as a Pokemon fan game when I was in 10th -11th grade.

Challenges Ahead for Demo 6

     Sorry I haven't been posting on Fridays for so long. Some of you may remember me saying I'd lay of these weekend posts when there's nothing to talk about, but the rest of you probably feel left in the dark. Thing is, BGP is currently at that boring stage of development where most of the weekly accomplishments are getting basic features to work, fixing bugs, improving organization, rewriting ideas, and trying to figure out how to toss numbers around to program new features at all.

     I thought I'd take a minute this week to talk about some of the upcoming obstacles I need to navigate in order to get BGP V6.0  out in time for Halloween weekend.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #79 (BronyCon Prep)

It's been a busy week. The game looks and feels really different now.
Has it really only been 7 days?

     One week until judgement day. In the sense that people will be judging the game and it's popularity for the rest of the year is on the line here. 7 days left to compile a build that can impress a crowd. Can I get this done without anymore bugs? Finger, toes, and other appendages crossed. I'm staying up 'til 4am every night pretty consistently now because I just get so focused in those quiet hours. Whatever it takes to finish this demo for BronyCon...

I'm feeling that game jam pressure. It's crunch time.

Battle Gem Ponies: Pre-Alpha 4.5 [Delayed because BUGS]

Version 4.5 was supposed to be up today...

     This one's a minor update with some bug fixes, new sprites, new text box system, and full gamepad/keyboard support. It's a sort of halfway point between the last version and the big jump to version 5 (where the game starts looking real). Too bad the gamepad control functionality is acting up. Now whenever a menu pops up, the game gets confused as to what the button presses do and locks you into a certain screen, making the game unplayable.

     As always, when the game is ready it'll be up on Itch.io. I'm betting the bugs can be squashed by the time final exams are over and I can concentrate on it. I'm kinda drowning in last minute projects and cram sessions, so programming this game an hour at a time isn't getting me very far.

Look forward to the 4.5 update in early May.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #64 (Back to the Crunch)

     Spring break's over and I spent a lot more time relaxing than I thought I would. It's officially mid-March and demo 4 still isn't ready. Time to get serious. Take an hour off sleep, quicker showers, quicker meals, and less YouTube with friends. The next BGP demo needs to be ready to play in time for the My Little Pony season premiere weekend (March 26).

     Funny enough, that day also happens to be the next 12 hour game jam date. A nice reward for a fierce crunch on this years-long project.

BGP's 1st Demo On the Way!

     One week from today you'll be able to play an early build of Battle Gem Ponies! It's the same build I'll be showing off at BronyCon. The Pre-Alpha V2 demo will be the first playable version since my school's BYOC three months back.

     I know I said it'd be done by this date at the latest, but that just goes to show how unpredictable this game development stuff can be. It's no wonder so many games get delayed multiple times. So many things can go wrong out of the blue.

     But judging by how close I am to finishing now (and how much I did last week) I'm guessing I'll have a demo ready by Tuesday night. I'll even have extra time to polish and make a gameplay video of it before release on Friday!

Just need to put finishing touches on! 5 more days tops!

Last Day Of Junior Year

     There's not much game development to report on today since I'm focused on finishing my last few tests then going home to start the biggest crunch ever. Progress is going to rocket on by starting next week so I hope you're looking forward to it. I want a playable PC version of Battle Gem Ponies out to the public by the first week of June.

When it's ready, you'll find it over on the Games Tab.

I dressed up the Games tab a bit.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #13 (4 New Ponies!!)

I'll be talking more about the bottom 3 on Friday.

     Pony designs galore! Also, crunch-time and tons of coding! The first BGP demo is on its way and has me feelin' hyped! My goal is to get this in people's hands fast and I'm sticking to that. I've never worked on a project this exciting before. This week was full of behind-the-scenes progress and spritework inching toward that first public build.

Look below for this week's accomplishments and discoveries!

Status Report #63 (Unicorn Training Beta)

     It's almost finished.... It's almost out into the world and I'm almost ready to take another step towards who I want to be. Keep an eye out for Unicorn Training which I plan to have up on Google Play on Friday, November 14th! That's next week! Crazy exciting.

     With that being the case I'll be doing my big blog post schedule change soon after Status Report #64 (which is cool because I love the N64) and it'll feel like new beginnings all around. I'm not sure when I'll be doing a full website color scheme change, but keep an eye out for that too in the coming months. As for content to see now, look no further than below the page break.

Unicorn Training Is In Beta!

     I finally did it!! My dev task list is clear of additional features and bugs to fix! Unicorn Training is effectively done being "developed" and only needs to be tested on some actual devices over the week. I guess this is what you'd call beta. Unicorn Training is in BETA!! Which means the launch is bound to come next week and I couldn't be any more excited/relieved/proud/victorious.

    I'll be working on trailer footage and putting a gameplay reel together for tomorrow. After those I'll do some final testing on multiple devices before wrapping this up, making a free version, testing that, then sending both versions out for review to be put on as many android appstores as I can reach. For those of you who stuck around for the whole ride, thanks.

    I've been at this for about a year now. Th idea came to me during DragCore's development but I didn't get started until February when I wrote the announcement post. I remember how excited I was to make my first RPG adventure, and it was every bit as challenging as I expected. What I didn't see coming were the cutbacks I had to pull to finish this thing, but in the end, I'm better at this than ever and I'm ready to start fresh and get it right.

    Clover's training is almost over and so is mine. Let's see what I can do with this title under my belt! I aim to get this out by next Friday, November 14th!

Crunch Time To Get A Quick Game Out

     The race is on to get started on my next game jam style project. I want a free smaller game finished before appstores shut down for winter holidays. That means it has to be up before the 20th since they usually stop accepting and reviewing submissions around the 22nd. If I want to ensure my place when most companies are rushing out Christmas apps, I need to be completely done with my game done and submitted by December 10th to get on stores like amazon, Samsung, and GetJar. Google Play lets you upload whenever you want, but may still close off uploading for Christmas.

Status Report #62 (Finishing Touches To Unicorn Training)

     It's soon to be trailer week as I finish up some last minute things with Unicorn Training. Game breaking bugs have been turning up all week and I've been squashing every one I could find. Next week will be all about the game trailer, a gameplay compilation, and bug testing before making a free version of the game and putting both on the appstore waiting list before next Monday. It's really the home stretch now!

Musical Transitions In Unicorn Training

     Another small touch was added to the game that makes a huge difference. I smoothed out music transitions from scene to scene and replaced all the placeholder music with the final soundtrack, courtesy of OpenGameArt.Org. It took a while, but I finally found a soundtrack that fits decently. The selection of free stuff is alright, but it's impossible to find stuff that fits perfectly this way. I'm really excited to have custom made songs for my games in the future.

Balancing Unicorn Training

     Until now all enemies had the default amount of experience point value and magic cost / power was pretty unfair. Now those values have been tweaked to a point that feels more natural. Enemy HP was altered too. The game feels legitimate and easier to play this way. Aside from the basic balancing I also have been hunting for more game crashing bugs (I found so many!) and should have everything clear to go so I can finish this once and for all over the weekend.