Happy BGP Launch Day Anniversary! 🎊🥳🎉

 

Thank you all so much. We really have come a long way since picking up the scraps of a corrupted and utterly destroyed Unity project back in 2020.

It's been a busy year and we haven't stopped working towards making the most incredible pony themed RPG the world has ever seen!

The game is really starting to look and feel like a full-scale RPG production now and we're excited to show it off as soon as we can.

Check out the full post on Patreon for a preview of what's to come in BGP Act 1!

End of 2024 Progress Report (Winter Wrap Up🎄🥂)

 

A new development update is here! Last one of the year.

Lots to celebrate as the year of BGP's launch comes to a close. But there's so much content yet to come that we feel like things have only just started!

Head on over to Patreon to get the details on progress as of December 2024, plans for 2025, and screenshots of the lovely places you'll get to explore in Act 1 a few months from now.

The BGP Alpha has ARRIVED at Last! (+ New Release Plans)

The Battle Gem Ponies Alpha Demo is finally here! Kickstarter & Patreon backers can grab an access key from the latest blog post and download it from Itch.io right now!

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Your BGP Adventure kicks off with meeting the young Professor Bucky of Equestrian Labs.

Which then leads into a hunt for the 6 Alpha Ponies roaming the regional outpost. Find them all, and trigger a showdown against the villainous Paragon Cartel who are out on a hunt of their own... 

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And in related big news, the release plan for the final game has changed!

BGP will now be releasing in 4 parts throughout the year (seasonal style) starting with the prologue "Arrival Story" coming by the end of this month [May 2024].

At launch you'll be able to play this smaller chapter and get in at a discount ($5 on mobile) before Act I of the "Mane Adventure" comes along by the end of Summer, raising the price to a full $10.

Act II and Act III will be released months later as free content updates. And there are plans, but not promises, to also release a PC version on Steam this year.

You can find all our social links and download portals on the YotesMark Linktree

We're happy to finally hand over hours and hours of fun new gameplay to the community and can't thank everyone enough, especially the backers, for the patience our team is graced with. The hurdles, setbacks, and long nights over the years will all be worthwhile when this love letter to the brony fandom hits the gaming world.

Hope you enjoy all the awesome stuff we jam-packed into this little ponymon game!

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Tilemap Door Connections in Progress

Never appreciated the true tedious chaos of labeling and connecting doors together until this week. 🫨

Every city is like this and the mountains are worse. 😵‍💫

But then there's those simple little linear paths. Those are a treat🧁

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.]

Unity Fees Won't Stop Us

We've been getting messages from Battle Gem Ponies backers with worries that the Unity Per-Install Fee could delay or even cancel the project. Here to say now, that won't happen. ❌

Not only are we expecting to not come close to the 1M downloads & dollars a year mark to trigger it, but this project's been through way worse hardships than an engine change over the years. We'll do what we've gotta do to make BGP a reality and not allow a greedy company to bankrupt us with poorly thought out monetization schemes. 💸

Especially in order for us to keep the promises made to every person who supported this Pony RPG dream with their own hard-earned money! 🦄 

Artwork Update: Sprite Rigs Complete!

It took about a month and a half, but ALL the pony sprite pieces have finally been drawn and as of right now I can begin the frame-by-frame animation process!

Should be done and in-game by April's end (but given how that estimate's measured in gamedev time, we'll see how that goes 👀).

The BGP Development Journey So Far... (As of 2022)

 

A Retrospective on Battle Gem Ponies Development is up on our YouTube channel now. This marks 2 years since Psyaryu joined the project as lead dev and we've been chipping away at the task list every day since... 

It's been a VERY long stay in development hell, but we're well on our way out. Hopefully this project will be all-wrapped up by 2024 and we'll be starting fresh on what's next!

April Progress Report (Growth & Prep)

 

This past week we've welcomed a new member to the scrappy Yotes Games team! 

ConfidentCow will be helping us with graphic design work to take some things off the overwhelming plate that is making this game look nicer.

He's an old friend who's been at this professionally for a few years now, ready to take on something new and exciting in his spare time. A pandemic side-hustle!

@Confident_Cow's gonna help us make trailers, YouTube content, promotional artwork, capture game footage, make a press-friendly website, redesign interfaces, plan out interfaces we haven't made yet, and polish up the attack graphics starting in May once he's all set to pursue his streaming & game development dreams. So give him some love and wish him luck!

Check out more of what we've been up to lately after the break.

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 (March DevLog): Corona Con Cancellation Craze

Some crazy new decade we're having, huh? Should come as no surprise now that delays and scrapped plans are happening left and right, even here at little ol' Yotes Games, thanks to ya homeboy COVID-19.

Get some details on how we're handling the situation below.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #178 (Refocus on the Hook)

     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.

     Now, while the completed Alpha won't be a thing until the entire game is playable start to finish, I do believe I can get the first part of the game out within the month of July. While everyone is enjoying the new story, learning the mechanics, interacting with the world, and getting that first badge, I'll be working on getting the demo in as many Let's Player's hands as possible by day and implementing the rest of the design notes by night.

     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!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #171 (Cleaning Up & Keeping Up)

     Feels like every day now I'm discovering some new and better way of doing things. The project is crawling towards a point where all systems exist and are easy to tweak. So good news is I can both feel and see myself becoming a better game developer. Bad news: I'm already a week behind schedule. Again. That won't fly. Time to crunch up and catch up. 

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #45 (Tile Layers, Fan Art, & Panel Footage)

     Battle Gem Ponies exposure is happening! Getting lots of activity on social networks and the BronyCon panel footage even hit the web. Time to kick things into overdrive since I just found out that a playable demo for my class is due next Monday!

Take a glance at some Yotes Games love and some close-ups of the demo's maps below!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #32 (Pre-Alpha V2 Release)

     Battle Gem Ponies is finally in a playable form. There's animations, randomly assigned teams, and a win/lose condition. I even made a gameplay video to show it off. You can download the PC Demo and look below the break for more news on the project's development.

Updated BGP Demo Release Schedule

     With June's delays accounted for, the Spring 2016 release date still seems possible, but the demo releases are thrown out of whack. There is only time for one public demo before BronyCon 2015 and features once intended for the convention will not be available until a number of weeks after.

Below the break you can find a modified version of the BGP demo release schedule.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #19 (Finals Week & BronyCon Confirmation)

     This is the last week of my junior year at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. It's also the last week to hang out with my girlfriend before shifting over to full-time gamedev all summer. Progress is inching along this week but is set to go into overdrive starting next Monday.

     By far the biggest news this week is the email I got on Sunday that told me that I'll be presenting Battle Gem Ponies at BronyCon this year! Find more details on that amazingness and more below!

BGP Pre-Alpha Task List (Stuff For Demo V2)

     At a loss on what to post since I'm working on everything besides the game this week (homework, tests, extra credit presentations, and trying Mewtwo in Smash). To put what's on my mind out into the world I decided to share my big ol' To-Do List that needs to be cleared before releasing my first BGP update over the internet. It's all copied straight from my iPod Notes app, separated by what I think I can accomplish in one sitting.

Check out the list of things to do below.

Experimenting With Dragon Souls Prologue

     I learned a lot about how 2D Toolkit's TileMaps work. I now know how to set the origin points to place character feet on the center of a tile, make it so no tile's coordinates are below zero, have objects with a lower Y value layer over things with a higher Y, and efficiently snap objects to the tile they need to be on. The objects are supposed to slide smoothly when moving and pause at the center of an adjacent tile if they stop.

Dragon Souls Prologue Status Report #2 (Setting Up)

     Development is underway! I am seeing the pieces come together as I try new techniques I want to perfect in future games. Things like smaller/sharper sprites, smooth controls, and clean general organization.

Check out some sales data below!