Pony Walk Cycles

     I found some really good pony pacing sprites at pauliewx.deviantart.com. I used them as a reference when aligning pixels for my own, much smaller pony sprites. So far I have the trot down perfectly. I'll have cycles for trotting, walking, and running in 3 directions. Just up, down and side because I can flip leg sprites to have movement in the opposite direction.

     I put the animation in Unity to test it out and tweaked it to perfection. I even added a subtle bouncing for the trotting sprite. That combined with the smooth moving camera and flowing directional controls gives the game a really fluid feel, which is exactly what I want. I need players immersed in the game, not worrying about how awkward it feels playing a big game on a tiny phone.

You can take a look at the source code behind the pony bounce past the break.

Choosing Heart Sprites

    I was torn between using Pixel hearts and Smooth glowing ones for the HUD in Unicorn Quest and so I decided to just use both. Players can toggle between them. Now it's a matter of deciding if it should be a given option or something you obtain through gameplay.

    When thinking about ways to display enemy health, I chose to have 4 dark hearts above them, each heart representing 25% of their HP. It can help players know how much they're hurting a tough baddie or a boss. I also made pink hearts to use for friendly things with HP. I have vague plans for a situation in the climax of the story when an entire town is in chaos and a few allies help you in battle. I could also use pink hearts to demonstrate the shield and decoy spells' vitality.

Google Play Testing

      I figured out a way to test games on my tablet without the android driver I'm still missing. I can use Google Play's alpha testing feature to send the game to the tablet whenever I reach a milestone worth testing out. I can also use this opportunity to get used to how Google Testing works. When I conduct a beta and invite increasingly large amounts of people each time, I want to tell people (with confidence) how to find the beta and when they can play it.

     By the looks of things, I just upload an updated APK and it will be available to everyone in the Yotes Games Google Group that signs in and clicks on the link to the game. I'll invite people to the group when the beta is about to come out. I'll do closed alpha testing with myself and friends at school for now though. I'm uploading the test versions under the name of the free demo version of the game so testers don't have to pay $2 for the beta. Once you mark an app as free it can't be changed later, so the demo version is basically set  in stone now. It takes about 2 hours for the alpha and production versions to go live once I update the APK so I'm assuming betas will work the same way. 

     The Google Group is a simple email list wherein everyone in it will get email notifications on what is posted in the group. I plan on leaving it open as a sort of forum for beta testers to talk about the game and tell me what bugs pop up or what features need improvement. Opting out of testing is a click away so anyone who wants to drop out can do so at anytime. I also learned that I can run tests on improved versions of the game while a production release is out. This could be very helpful in the future with games that evolve over time.

     The only remaining mysteries are whether I need to change the build number/product version and if alpha/beta testing when a production version is out will be free for testers. I'm also a bit worried about potential leaks of the game's APK and people playing an unfinished/broken version of Unicorn Quest. 

     But beta testing is months and months away. Right now I have to get back to reaching my smaller development goals. Like getting walk animations done.

Setting Up A Unity Project

     Taking what I learned from other projects into account, I'm making a Unity project that won't fall apart when I move things around. A lot of things went wrong with TriGrid and Candy Shop Catch when I would delete a script or move files into more organized folders. I put all the things I could possibly need in place (as empty folders and scripts) so that I can try this new style of development. 

    I want to be able to test out new ideas for the game as I come up with them. My usual method is writing a full design document before even starting whereas the document for this one is an evolving work in progress as I play around with different ideas until settling for the one that will result in the best product.

If you're interested in the specifics of what I have setup, read on.