BGP at EFNW 2024 🌲 (+ Official CONFIRMED Release Date 🌟)

Big thanks to everyone who came by our booth this year. Feels great to share the release date of the project you guys made happen.

On September 2nd you guys will be able to download Battle Gem Ponies right off the App Store, Google Play, Itch, and even Amazon Apps. 📦

Pre-Orders for Google Play and iOS are live!

Sign up to be there on Day One!

And we had a blast sharing our new BGP trading game with Everfree Northwest! 🌲
Every con gets more magical. 🌟 (So we really can't wait for the next!)

Battle Gem Ponies Beta 1 Has Arrived! 🚅🚉

The Battle Gem Ponies Beta is here!! 🤩🎆

And you can play it on Itch.io right now! (Password for access is on the locked Patreon post if you're a $10+ donor and wanna claim your key.)

Or just take a gander at the update highlights below.

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!

Progress Report: Final Crunchdown [Part 3/5]

Hey guys! Feels like it's been a long while and a short one at the same time. (Maybe sitting at a desk for 12+ hours a day is finally warping my mind 😵‍💫, but we'll deal with that after launch.)

This month's devlog is coming in so late because I intended on announcing a playable Alpha alongside it. But unfortunately, there's still at least 2 weeks worth of stuff to be done, so we're gonna miss the mark a little. Catch more details on that below.

The Big Fat Kickstarter 2nd Anniversary Writeup! 🎊

 

Happy Anniversary (Again), guys!

This marks the end of Year TWO of development since it was funded by the 414 generous folks who backed the potential they saw behind Battle Gem Ponies. (Thanks for that, for real guys.)

The #1 thought on the YotesMark team's mind is making a game that lives up to the hype we've promised. To not be another Kickstarter disappearance story. So we've kept regular updates going every step of the way. A clear and detailed task list so we always know what feature is needed next, and what features need to be cut for time to ensure it's out by Early 2024.

YotesMark Patreon's 5-Year Anniversary! (2017 - 2022)

It's our Patreon Anniversary! (From 2017 to 2022...)

It's amazing how far we've come and how long we've kept going despite the hurdles.📈

Big THANKS to EVERY backer keeping this #indiedev dream afloat! 🛳️🥳

[ Join the Stampede!🐎➡️: patreon.com/YotesMark ] 

Patreon Update! (Kickstarter Latecomers, Welcome!)

Updated our Patreon Description, Goals, Rewards! A 2nd chance for anyone who missed out on the Kickstarter Hype 🚂

We now have the funds to make the game, but let's see if we can grow the studio over time and make bigger/better things. 📈

Join in on the journey (or maybe just grab yourself a T-Shirt on the house) on our Patreon.

Battle Gem Ponies (January DevLog): Headfirst Into a the New Year!

We're on our way to Kickstarter Glory and nothin' (short of unfortunate circumstance) is gonna get in our waaayy...

Battle Gem Ponies is gearing up for making a HUGE commotion all year long starting in March. We have some cleanup behind the scenes to take care of for another month, but afterwards we're off to the races polishing up things way easier to implement than this complex battle system.

Get some new info on our progress, setbacks, Kickstarter plans, and Patreon makeover below.

Battle Gem Ponies Christmas Demo! (Available Now!!)

Download the Battle Gem Ponies Christmas Demo on Itch.io using your Patreon login to get a download key for Windows, Mac, and Android!  The download page will only appear if you use the link above to get your key.

Now before you dive in, let's reel back expectations once more. This is a super buggy work in progress that we're still polishing up for February.

Many features are still unfinished so you're likely to run into rough looking animation, strange audio issues, moves that don't work as expected, buttons that were supposed to be hidden, and crazy-looking placeholder text.

We aim to release an update to this Patreon build on a bi-weekly basis next year, and begin releasing a public demo updated with new content every month starting February 2021.

The Patreon exclusive demos will include prototype mechanics (sometimes with debug controls) and half-implemented ideas being worked on for upcoming public releases way down the line. So consider this an early-access pass to the same game build the devs are using for testing.

Main additions this time around are the Pony Customization & Battle Setup Menus!

The complete version of this game is coming (eventually) to the App Store, Google Play, Amazon Apps, Itch.io, and other PC platforms. In May we'll be launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise enough money to ensure we finish development in a timely manner (by hiring a lot more help). We truly have our hearts set on finally being finished by the end of the coming year.

We thank you for understanding that this is a sneak peek at the tangled web we're currently attempting to turn into a quilted masterpiece. Now, as a Christmas gift straight from our hearts to yours, enjoy the newest playable build of Battle Gem Ponies!

- Tony Yotes, on behalf of the Yotes Games Team

Battle Gem Ponies (October DevLog): Full Speed Ahead!

     The initial hurdles of learning to work together and getting a foundation in place for the project are all behind us now. The Yotes Games team is hard at work every day and we're knocking out features one-by-one.

Come get a not-so-brief summary of the game's progress below.

Battle Gem Ponies (September/October DevLog): Forming a TEAM!

     This past month has been the most productive by a mile.

     A nice new tradition I'm starting up is putting up 2 Patreon updates a month now. One at the beginning of the month and one at the end. These posts are getting super meaty and full of news now, so the separation gives some breathing room to the avalanche of content to talk about. This month's posts are about finally finding a programmer to help me exponentially speed up development. We got a lot done in just the past 30 days and now the prototype phase is at least 50% complete. 

See the full Patreon Exclusive posts here!

     Otherwise come back in a month for some big news. Because now that we have momentum going, a new demo you can play will be here before you know it.

Or for now, come checkout a quick summary of the past month's progress below the break.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog (March: Warmed Up & Eager)

     The Unity project has been cracked open and filled with placeholders and tools for actually developing a playable build now. One screen at a time, one placeholder at a time, one feature at a time.

     There's a long road ahead and I can already see myself going mad trying to animate all these ponies and debug every feature, but that's what makes this work. It's the tedious price paid to get to where I wanna be. And where I wanna be is online sharing links to my finished game for folks to check out.

    A lot of gamedev went on this past month. Hope to be dishing out some videos on the matter soon enough. See what's cooking so far below the break!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #183 (Patron Palooza)

     I got an itchy twitch finger and put up the new Patreon ideas immediately. Still eager for feedback and willing to add any new ideas or mix things around, but I really felt like kicking off August with the new revamp and just having that ready to go as soon as my first couple YouTube videos go up.

    And new videos will be popping up twice a week at least for the next little while, just to build some momentum. It's all really exciting stuff and I can't wait to see how it grows. 

Now then... Onto to the devlog!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #182 (Gotta Gain Marketing Chops)

     A key problem with Battle Gem Ponies right now is that nobody knows it exists. How do I let people who'd probably like it know it exists? Well, sitting here and talking about it on my website nobody's heard of isn't getting the job done. And an occasional mention here and there on high traffic blogs isn't working either. 

     How about I take it to the hypest place on the information highway? The place people specifically go to look to see interesting things they'll probably like...

     YouTube. I'm talking about YouTube. I need to take my channel seriously and start pumping out videos that show what the game is all about, what I'm all about as a dev, and for the love of all things holy get my Patreon numbers up before my debts swallow me whole (this game is officially years too late and things I've been putting off won't stay at bay forever). 

     See all the different ways I plan to save my butt financially by pushing Battle Gem Ponies under a much bigger spotlight in this week's development log!

Brainstorming New Patreon Plans, Rewards, & Goals

I'm brainstorming some new plans for making the Yotes Games Patreon a much bigger deal. My general idea is that I need to put more effort into my YouTube channel due to the level of engagement that gets out of people.

But I'd like to hear some feedback from you! It'd be super great to hear someone else's take on where I should take this crazy train next. Or hear exactly why you personally wouldn't donate to my Patreon but would to another. What rewards would you like to see? Should the project be more polished? I wanna know how to get strangers completely HYPED about this game!

Trying to emulate the success of ALBDifferent, Exiled, & YandereDev here, and a solid YouTube effort is the key ingredient I'm neglecting. Even just read an article today about how Fighting is Magic might not've exploded if that demonstration trailer didn't get shared left and right earning 900,000 views. Nerds like me read development blogs, but everybody watches videos. I outta make some videos.
Check out the huge list of ideas about how I'ma to do just that below the break! (regular gamedev posts coming back tomorrow)

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #153 (New Year, New Beginnings)

     Wow, 2018 is off to a great start already. Doing much better this January than the last with that whole Steam Greenlight fumble. Patreon keeps development afloat, I feel a million times wiser, the soundtrack is nearly complete, and the full game scope has never been clearer in my mind.

     The early part of this new year is just a matter of cranking it out already! Time to wrap up development on this 3-4 year project and launch it with a BANG!

Get this week in gamedev below the break.