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!
A New Progress Report has Appeared!
Q1 is already almost officially OVER!! And sadly, there's still no Act 1 Alpha demo yet...
However, big important tasks have been done like putting NPCs on every map with movement behaviors, battle teams, and placeholder dialogue. It's starting to look and feel like a real Adventure Mode now, but it's not really "a thing" until there's cutscenes tying it all together, ya know? And that'll take at least another month.
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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.
Starting today, you can listen to the Battle Gem Ponies soundtrack as often as you like on YouTube! 🎶
Check out the brand new YotesMusic channel and Subscribe for more surprise music drops on your Home page ~ 🎵
It's finally out, guys. You can download the long awaited Battle Gem Ponies on Windows, iOS, Android, Mac, Linux, and even Amazon Tablets!
You can check out the Launch Trailer on YouTube (it premiered in the 2024 Monster Taming Direct this morning) if you wanna hype yourself up even more!
Every backer has been sent the download keys ordered since the Kickstarter began 3 years ago. (And if ANY of you are having trouble redeeming them, reach out to Tony Yotes!)
I won't bog things down with paragraphs today, just get to playing! And leave your thoughts in comments and reviews, we want to read every single one!
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!
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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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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.]
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! 🦄
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.
Our first TrotCon was magical! 🤩✨
Can't wait to come back with a finished game and do it all again, but bigger! 🌟
Tons of new people are now interested in the game, our Discord numbers have shot up 15%, over a hundred people downloaded the demo, and we gathered lots of feedback to further improve the game and booth setups! 🎮📱
Plus, we caught the eye of some pretty large streamers, finally met some BGP community members face-to-face, and we met several cool folks to collab with someday. 🤝📈
Everyone who ordered Add-Ons from the BGP Kickstarter should've gotten some special stuff in the mail recently, or can at least expect it to show up before March 1st.
(If not, double check your address listed on Kickstarter and let ol' Tony Yotes know if there's been a mixup.)
It's been so nice to see the posts of people opening up their packages and we can't wait for the next wave with all the international ones and the PILE of T-Shirts to come!
More details on that and new stuff that's available now beyond the page break below!
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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 ]
The Ponatina model by DJTHED is coming along great! With the core setup complete we're free to animate her however we please. And what could be a better start than a smooth idle, smiling at the camera, and showing off a mighty KICK all-in-one!
So we got crackin' on just that.
The Ponatina model by DJTHED is coming along great! With the core setup complete we're free to pose and animate her however we like. Just keeping aware that each render is costly and takes time to "print" out so we can't do it forever without an infinite budget.
This 4K Battle Gem Pony was made based on DJ's existing pony template he's already spent years perfecting, so basically the unique mane was the newest/hardest part. But even this streamlined commission experience has foreshadowed just how tough it'd be to get all the BGP characters done up this way. So it's a good thing we're not planning on jumping to 3D til we're a comfortable couple sequels deep into things and could stretch a budget for it.
