BGP Battle Readability

     I want all the important decision making factors to be visible in battle. If you're poisoned, your pony should have bubbles by it's head and a toxic icon near the health bar. If it's raining and that boosts Aqua moves, the downpour should always be visible. If the opponent laid a trap, the trap needs to be seen by your pony's feet. If you have an attacked charged up, your pony should be flashing or emitting particles.

     All these things are important pieces of info that should be visible while the player selects his or her next attack. I just feel like it would really immerse you in battle and make what's going on above the buttons that much more interesting to watch. A big problem I have with turn based RPGs is getting bored after long periods. This is one of the ways I can minimize the chances of players feeling that.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #11 (TileMaps & Overworld Setup)

     Unity 5! Sure, it'll cost me $4500 eventually, but I'll gladly pay for the engine's immense help if I ever reach $100,000. Those are the terms of use and accepting them means I can make Battle Gem Ponies even better! Unity 5's audio tools open up a lot of possibilities for pony sounds and various effects. The particle effect upgrades should allow me to do some fancy stuff too.

Get some dirty details on what went down in BGP's development this week.

Oatmeal Mode: Post-Game Challenge

     I know that there are hardcore thrill seekers out there who want a serious challenge or NewGame+ content that's harder rather than easier. To satisfy that itch Battle Gem Ponies will have a built-in Nuzlocke challenge feature dubbed Oatmeal Mode. A challenge that will reduce you to mush. This is basically a permadeath mode where knocked-out ponies stay down and it's harder to add ponies to your team.

Find out what Oatmeal Mode is all about below.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #10 (Shaping Up Well)

     Development is going great! I'm on track to get the basics of the overworld roaming finished by the end of Spring Break. That means I'll have a little island to roam and get into battles on. Battles that actually calculate things based on my party's data, thanks to all the coding done this week. Once this demo island is playable I'll get started on adding a few more moves and polishing the battle scene.

You can find the usual status report information below the break.