Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #2 (All Planned Out)

     I managed to catch the flu on Monday and spent 3 days recovering in bed. I got better just in time for the first day of 2015, inner flame reignited and ready to rocket Battle Gem Ponies to it's  complete state. I never took a break between this, Dragon Souls, and Unicorn Training, so it was nice to take a breather and just think about how I want this one to turn out. Excited thoughts of getting to a playable state certainly helped in my recovery.

Battle Gem Pony Classes (Elemental Match-Ups)

     If you are familiar with Pokemon's types then you'll know where this idea of elemental match-ups comes from. Based on a mix of real world application and game balancing I've come up with a starting point for making my game's core rock-paper-scissors mechanic. The complex way in which the pony classes interact will lead to interesting strategies on the player's part as one tries to always have the advantage on the opponent.

     There are things like stab damage and immunity to consider too. A Fire Draco class will be different from a Draco Fire class because the class in the first position does 1.5 times damage on a move with that type while the secondary class does 1.2 times more damage. Similar rules apply to defense. On top of all that I can expand move depth by throwing in rare dual type moves. The Steel Wing move is suddenly a threat to Plant, Bug, Earth, and Draco class ponies.

A cool thing about the 18 classes (and 19th neutral class) is how the starter pony will be able to change into any of them so the player can have a version of their favorite.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #1 (Scope Setting)

     I have an upcoming Mobile Game Design course for my Junior year at the Pennsylvania College of Technology and the project I'll be working on is this Pokemon style game featuring ponies. The Ponymon Dawn/Dusk ROM hacks inspired me to tackle turn-based combat, multiplayer networking, and fixing everything that bugs me about the main Pokemon games (mainly the grinding and brainless AI). There are only mock-up images right now but I'll be putting out calls for pre-alpha testers once something actually exists in Unity.

     Development is off to a good start and things are becoming clear as the design document gets filled in. Of course I took a couple days off for Christmas with family, but got right back into development and I'm about 50% done with the game design document now.  I should be nearly finished with it by next week so I can start drafting ideas for ponies and tweaking the document for game balance. Things like items, moves, and abilities will be planned out once I have a set number of pony designs and I know their strengths and weaknesses.

Get a bunch of sales data from my other games and a list of progress for Battle Gem Ponies below.

Next Game: Battle Gem Ponies (Competitive Turn-Based RPG Adventure)

     It's finally time to start this... I've been wanting to make this game for so many years and now I'm free to give it my all! Battle Gem Ponies is the name of the game and it's about making little super-powered horses with gemstones on their chests fight each other for sport. I plan on releasing it before I graduate college in Spring 2016 and having it available on Mobile and PC platforms for $4.99.

     This is the dream game I've wanted to make for years. The success of this game will determine if I'm cut-out for a career in indie game development so I'll be putting everything I've got into making it the most awesome game it can be.

Get a full description of the game and a bunch of details below.