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About this blog

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Every month or so, we'll come out with an update on the game. Sometimes progress is super showy & eventful, sometimes it's boring behind the scenes stuff, but they're always kept interesting and have a hopeful message about determination.

The blog is separated into parts to flow consistently. There's a summary/introduction/teaser linking to the full blog post on my website, then from there you'll get screenshot highlights, a list of tasks completed that week, a list of lessons learned, at least one paragraph of an interesting thought/idea/feature, then either a Patreon thank you, articles/videos my stuff has been featured in, or download counts for all my released games so far. Then the blog post ends with a paragraph or two about next steps and my thoughts going into the new week.

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The aim with all this is to inspire other developers the way teams like Mane6 inspired us. To show game development is possible, and even though it takes forever, the progress is visible, the results are tangible, and the process is rewarding.

And for the more casual fan, this monthly blog shows that the devs are not dead, the project is still being worked on, and you'll get to play new content very soon.

So saddle up and come along for the ride!

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www.yotesgames.com

Entries in this blog

August 2023 Progress Report (Battle Gem Ponies LITE 💡📱)

BGP Progress Report Time! New maps, bug squashin', giant vehicles, conventions, & overworld effects. Got 11 headlines for ya, so come see how things are going in gamedev as Summer comes to a close, over on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/YotesMark The next Progress Report will be at the end of September. And hopefully with tons of exciting news! (Like when the Alpha will finally arrive)

Yotes

Yotes in Battle Gem Ponies

BGP DevLog #167 (Orlando Overdrive 2018)

Showcasing the game to new folks, meeting other developers, learning from their experiences, making friends, and dancing my legs off. That's the TL;DR of my Orlando Overdrive experience this past weekend.      Battle Gem Ponies had a booth right in the middle of the indie game hallway leading to the bar & dance floor of The Geek Easy. Turns out the whole brony thing wasn't a passing fad, and lots of people still smile when they see marshmallow horses with super powers.      Check out this we

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Yotes

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #176 (Summer Makeover)

Notice a bit of a facelift? I worked on some of the Ultra Pony designs this week, just filling in those gaps in design I was drawing a blank on for the longest while. Now I can say I'm satisfied with how everypony looks and can clearly see them animated in my head.     Actually animating the sprites is a step to come much later in development, but I can roll with these for now. Come see the steps toward a new playable build featuring a new level editor and a few more motivating surprises in this

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Yotes

DevLog #161 (Wednesday Milestones)

Release feels so close. It's like the pieces are all in my lap and I just have to follow the instructions to put them together. The final version of Battle Gem Ponies is so clear in my head now that I'm fanboying over it sometimes.     In the last 7 days I charted out exactly how all 360 battle moves will look, I recreated every menu, rebalanced the battle system, came up with catchier names for things, sorted out details for a DLC & multiplatform launch plan, and closely studied just about

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Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #168 (HUD Crafting)

Ignore the garbled text. That is a bug for another day.      Been taking my time making these menus and such, and glad to see that stage of development is finally coming to an end. Chewed hard to figure out some bugs and the most efficient way to make things flow, but I think I've got it now and just need to rinse and repeat to get the rest of the menus done.     See my latest (mis)adventures in game development on the Yotes Games Blog.

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BGP DevLog #172 (Map Mastery)

The Map System I've been subconsciously dreading has finally been implemented and the rest of the menus are coming together bit-by-bit as I program all the pieces separately and connect them together (instead of cramming everything I could into one giant, unreadable script like before). The results?     See the latest gamedev update to find out.

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Yotes

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #194 (Speech Therapy)

Happy Halloween, Folks!        Only thing scarier than the monsters out tonight is the possibility of Battle Gem Ponies getting delayed again. Amirite? Harharrr!   But really.        You know how everybody hates the sound of their own voice in recordings? I've been tackling that uncomfortableness all week. The scripts may be written, but I swear saying all this stuff out loud is more difficult than I anticipated. So used to monologues with the voice in my head for decades

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Yotes

BGP DevLog #177 (Sculpting a World)

It's finally happening! Converting the maps from graph paper notes and doodles into working sandboxes that I can actually roam around in the Unity engine! Every single map in Battle Gem Ponies is coming to life AS. 👏 WE.👏 SPEAK.👏     Getting all the different tiles, placeholders, and animations setup took days longer than I expected, but I finally have the process down and can get to work! I'll be using mostly borrowed and temporary tile sprites to have a basic but functional version of the enti

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Yotes

BGP DevLog #174 (Where's The Game?)

Getting REAL tired of this game not being close to finished. I admit to dying inside just a bit each passing week as I fall behind on the schedule I laid out just because the very first bullet point is the hardest pill to force down.      Maybe I'm crazy and doing this wrong. Time to take a different route to the end. As for what exactly what that route is? You'll need to read the ending thoughts to this week's devlog to find out. 

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BGP DevLog #169 (May 2018...)

Can't believe I'm still working on recreating these dang #BattleGemPonies menus! I feel horrible for taking so much longer than I keep promising out loud, but I can feel in my bones that delaying is the right thing to do...  Also, finally got a response from BronyCon on if the panel is happening or not.See #GameDev Log #169: www.yotesgames.com

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BGP DevLog #164 (Still with the Menus? Come ON!!)

Another week in and the game's revamped menu systems still aren't done! Feels like I'm running in place sometimes, but week after week new things are being added and I'm feeling more and more capable as a developer. I just want the alpha build done already!      Take a look at what I managed to do this past week. (The Yotes Games Blog) 

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BGP DevLog #170 (Re-Coding)

Once again, starting from scratch. But this time it's in regard to how I code things. Going forward I'll be using new organization tricks to make sure I understand how the entire game works inside and out. No more endless bug hunts because I'll know exactly where they are and what that line of code interacts with, all to better help me deduce the cause of any problems.      Also took a stab at rearranging the development schedule to aim for a July 25th release. The path is laid out, but the main

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Yotes

BGP DevLog #171 (Cleaning Up n' Keeping Up)

Feels like every day now I'm discovering some new and better way of doing things. The project is crawling towards a point where all systems exist and are easy to tweak. So good news is I can both feel and see myself becoming a better game developer. Bad news: I'm already a week behind schedule. Again. That won't fly. Time to crunch up and catch up. For this week in gamedev featuring my thoughts on a rather impressive Pokemon fan game coming out soon, check out the Main Yotes Blog

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Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #190 (Lackluster Progress)

Here's my attempt to associate with the moth meme. Just wanna make a public PSA, the Battle Gem Ponies project is NOT dead. It's just kinda on life support. It's hospitalized. Yeah. Progress is still going, but at a snail's pace. Which (believe it or not) is a lot worse than usual.     Gotta throw that out there because dev time took a massive hit while I'm trying to get a work/life balance going while also living an hour away from the office and ALSO trying to get back in shape after months of

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BGP DevLog #165 (Game Engine Bone Structure)

A lot of time has been spent remaking the components needed to make the game run smoother and look nicer. Way more time than I originally intended, but I feel too deep into the mess to turn back now. The results are showing, but it seriously delayed the game's progress and the makeover still isn't complete.     I'm hoping that with these menus out of the way and all the fancy scripting stuff simplified into usable tools, the post-alpha development will come easy. Much like a house, the game's go

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Yotes

BGP DevLog #178 (Refocus on the Hook)

Starting to build out all the actual tile maps to be used in the beginning segment of the game, up to the first badge and a little beyond, just to get players hooked and hungry for more.      Now, while the completed Alpha won't be a thing until the entire game is playable start to finish, I do believe I can get the first part of the game out within the month of July. While everyone is enjoying the new story, learning the mechanics, interacting with the world, and getting that first badge,

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Yotes

BGP DevLog #180 (Coding, Cures, and Confidence)

Hope rises as pieces of the overworld are coming together.   Weighed down by post-delay sad vibes all week and only just now getting back into the swing of things as I write this at 3:30am on a Wednesday. This week was code fever and I wore a programmer cap tight while sprucing up BGP's bones.  Lots of things are working better than ever, and lots more are sure to come. The real issue right now is seeing how much can get up and running before BronyCon. The panel is going to be a slideshow ab

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Yotes

BGP DevLog #182 (Gotta Gain Marketing Chops)

A key problem with Battle Gem Ponies right now is that nobody knows it exists. How do I let people who'd probably like it know it exists? Well, sitting here and talking about it on my website nobody's heard of isn't getting the job done. And an occasional mention here and there on high traffic blogs isn't working either.      How about I take it to the hypest place on the information highway? The place people specifically go to look to see interesting things they'll probably like...     YouTube.

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Yotes

BGP DevLog #163 (Interfaces In Your Faces)

Menus, menus, menus... Looking fresh though. Still going through the process of making sure all the interfaces work and feel better than ever before. Cleaner sprites, dynamic sizing and positioning for every possible device, and helpful new tools like scrollviews and shaders to add some extra polish. Plus, it all runs 40 times smoother now since it gets compressed to one draw call at runtime, meaning no more horrendous lag just from opening a menu! Read More: yotesgames.com

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BGP DevLog #173 (Let's Go Ponatina!)

Not much was done in terms of progress this week since I took about 5 days off to basically see all my friends one last time at the local convention MegaCon before swearing to lock myself away until BGP's completion. In place of that there is tons of Pokemon news. A fan game was released and a bunch of new spinoffs were announced so there's lots of interesting things to reflect on and talk about on this week's blog.Read up on it here!

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Battle Gem Ponies (June DevLog): A World Restored!

Starting development on things I can actually show off with visuals! Tilemaps recovered from oblivion, and steps towards an explorable overworld, this time made with a lot more common sense and cleanliness. Catch details on all that and more in this month's DevLog for the prototype of Battle Gem Ponies! (Get on the Patreon Hype Train for Exclusive Posts about the making, and remaking, of the game!)

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Yotes

BGP DevLog #162 (Getting It Together)

Finally coming to grips with the new tools and having something to show for it! There's been a real headache and a half over this, but hopefully it pays off with a bunch of dropped jaws and people saying "Oh, that's cool." when they first open the game..      I need to settle into a groove! Time to crank out some content! (Check the link for the full, HUGE blog post)

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Yotes

BGP DevLog #195 (Inspiration Manifestation)

My entire past week revolved around a game that wasn't mine for once. I took the time to play the newly released followup to my favorite indie game of all-time (Undertale, in case you didn't know) and it was time well spent.     I came out the other side of those credits re-energized, inspired to work harder, and pumped up on well-designed RPGs and quirky/interesting fantasy worlds. Overall, a nice reminder of why I love gaming so much.See what notable new design elements are coming (without get

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Yotes

Brainstorming New Patreon Plans, Rewards, n' Goals

I'm brainstorming some new plans for making the Yotes Games Patreon a much bigger deal. My general idea is that I need to put more effort into my YouTube channel due to the level of engagement that gets out of people. But I'd like to hear some feedback from you! It'd be super great to hear someone else's take on where I should take this crazy train next. Or hear exactly why you personally wouldn't donate to my Patreon but would to another. What rewards would you like to see? Should the p

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