Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #116 (April Release Part 1)

     Working hard to iron out the bugs in the current version of BGP by Friday. After that, I have a lot of behind the scenes restructuring to do in order to make the game ready for code-completeness. Goal is to just get everything in there and working, no matter how simple/ugly the sprites are, and finally get the hardest parts about developing this finished once and for all.

     That way I can spend the next few months doing the fun stuff. Making maps, drawing prettier sprites, and testing what's fun to play. The polish can come later, but right now, I really want this game to have a solid foundation. So here's part 1 of that. The Penultimate Pinto Island Demo!

BGP Update Delay (on April Fools, no less!)

     On what was supposed to be a demo launch day, life and bugs got in the way. As of this moment, on April Fools Day of 2017, I just finished getting the ridable pony code to work. But it's untested. I could rush the update out just to have it done, but that benefits no one if the pony riding causes game-breaking bugs in various scenarios.

     Also, the new levitation effect I added for the flying ponies is messing up animations in some funky ways making the whole thing feel super buggy. So instead of forcing out an unstable build, I'm gonna take some time to polish it up and test things out. 

     April will have 2 game updates now. One on the first Friday, and one on the last. I want the game to leave a good taste in people's mouths with each update, not showcase a mountain of bugs on top of tiny bits of progress. So come back next week to get your hands on a shiny new build of BGP!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #115 (Miss One Mark, Make Another)

     The Battle Gem Ponies Steam Greenlight Campaign is still ongoing, but the service is rumored to be shutting down some time next month. I can still update the game and hope for a miracle before Greenlight closes it's doors for good, but at this point I'm not expecting to make it. BGP will be pushed as a mobile game,  but will still have PC/Mac/Linux versions available through Itch.io.

     It doesn't spell DOOM for the project or anything, it's just a demonstration that people need something more polished than what I launched with to make it at this point in Steam Greenlight's troubled lifespan. I'll try again via Steam Direct once the game is actually complete and see if I can get a different reaction on that platform. Just hoping that it doesn't end up costing an arm and a leg.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #114 (Plugging Away)

     Progress for this week has mostly just been behind the scenes stuff. Editing entires in spreadsheets, fixing bugs, altering animations, positioning sprites, making textbox options more dynamic, and stuff like that. This upcoming week is where I'll be putting in notable features like pony riding, new moves, and nicknaming.