Battle Scene Backgrounds (In BGP)

     Vibrant backgrounds are a pretty important part of the battle scenes in Battle Gem Ponies. It took a bit to get the feel just right, but this is how I pictured the Meadow Battles in my head. A Grassy plain with scattered flowers and weeds. I still have to add slow moving clouds to the sky in the back but I've been focusing on battle engine bugs lately.

     The backgrounds are made by simply making a 346x128 rectangle, splitting it in half, making the bottom a solid ground color, adding subtle gradients to the sky and ground, blurring the horizon line, tossing on foreground sprites (and other details), blurring out the sprites softly, then making the foreground and detail sprites halfway transparent. The result is a background that pops but is noticeably less attention grabbing than the sharp, solid-colored, animated sprites that are the ponies.

     I plan on using a similar design for all the backgrounds. A recolor of the ground and horizon mixed with new foreground elements and some subtle animated touch. I need backgrounds for the desert, different caves, indoors, in a forest, by a creek, atop a mountain, and many other places. Now that I have a system for it though, it's much less overwhelming than it sounds.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #20 (School's Out! GameDev Time!)

     Ready to shift into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE!! I'm all settled in at home and cracking down on my development task list. With the BronyCon panel fueling me, I have all the motivation in the world to get down to business. Every cent I've saved so far is about to be put to use as I get more supplies that allow me to launch Battle Gem Ponies on more and more platforms.

For details on the past week and what's to come, look no further than below the break.

Last Day Of Junior Year

     There's not much game development to report on today since I'm focused on finishing my last few tests then going home to start the biggest crunch ever. Progress is going to rocket on by starting next week so I hope you're looking forward to it. I want a playable PC version of Battle Gem Ponies out to the public by the first week of June.

When it's ready, you'll find it over on the Games Tab.

I dressed up the Games tab a bit.

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!