Time Shield

From the latest episode of Tasting History.  I know the article is talking about applejack whiskey, but it's still an entertaining image out of context.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4797543

Posted here because horse-related.

Seriously though.  First 10 seconds of Dragonshy.  She kills fish and worms in order to feed other animals.  That's nature though, so I'm sure she's perfectly fine with it in the end.

She didn't bat an eye during the first 10 seconds of Dragonshy.  I don't think she'd take it as hard as you might think.

I would say that in terms of raw power, Twilight has the edge due to the power that being an alicorn grants her.  Otherwise, I think Starlight closes the gap caused by their difference in power by being more creative and improvisational (for example, when she combines spells).  That, plus her talent in magic, is what allowed her to fight Twilight to a standstill in The Cutie Re-mark, despite not having the same level of power as Twilight.

Has anyone else noticed that Twilight seems to learn how to cast a spell just from seeing somepony else cast it once?  Like when Starlight encased her and Spike in that crystal, and then she casts the same spell back at her later.  This seems to happen throughout the series; for instance, she watched Celestia cast a shadow spell once in The Crystal Empire, and then uses it later while searching the castle.  One could even point out that the first time we ever saw her teleport is right after Nightmare Moon teleported her away from the others.  With this in mind, any prolonged fight with Starlight could in fact give her the edge in the long run as she learns all the spells that are used against her (UNLESS she has trouble with the aforementioned combined spells that Starlight improvises).

Well, okay then... Turns out it was quite a while longer than I expected before I could start working on Fluttershift again.  But I have recently started up on it again, and I got a basic area of it more or less finished (might still need some adjustments).  Currently I'm using some temporary sounds for the ghosts (some I used in Twilight Escape), the ambient music from Twilight Escape, and Twilight's voice clips (which will be replaced once I find someone to do Fluttershy's voice).  I've recorded a sample video of gameplay as it currently stands (This is still work in progress, mind you, but it's proceeding quite well, all things considered):

Notable things in the video:

• You can see Fluttershy checking an artifact periodically.  She's looking for another artifact piece, randomly placed somewhere in the woods.  It pings higher/faster the closer she is to it.
• The top yellow bar indicates how calm she is.  Seeing ghosts reduces it slowly, contact with them reduces it greatly.
• The more afraid she is, the more likely she is to shift into the dark world.  In the dark world, contact with the ghosts is lethal, which you see at the end of the video.
• Sometimes you can see Fluttershy closing her eyes.  This is to calm herself down, which also leaves her vulnerable, so it's best to do it when there are no ghosts around.
• Her flying lets her avoid the ghosts easier (since they can't fly), but it drains stamina, and she can't fly as fast as she can gallop, so it's better to just run sometimes.
• I remind you that she is temporarily using voice clips from Twilight Escape, so that's why she sounds like Twilight right now instead of Fluttershy.

Feedback appreciated!

*EDIT*  Also, just realized that the volume on the video is lower than expected.  Sorry about that.

1 hour ago, Pestylense said:

One thing I think to make it better in the future once the graphics are figured out would be two things.

• Different characters - Stats and Such to create a variety of play styles.
• Controller Capability - Many people just love their USB controllers.

Not sure what language you are using but these are things to consider for future versions as well.

I still don't have anyone to help me with graphics.  I do plan to have multiple characters and/or customizable ones with different stats.

Controller support is already in the game though; just try out the demo to see.

So the figure literally booted its leg?

On 3/21/2017 at 10:10 AM, Dsiak said:

I tried to play with by brother (p1 and p2) but the commands configurations didn't allow (more on that later) so I went single player at first.
 
(Played for about 40m)
 
Overall I found it difficult to control all 3 at once, but I can see myself doing it after a little practice (I'm used to micro management)
 
I had a high miss rate with the jump buck
    moderate hit with the heavy buck
    light buck landed most if not all the time
whoever I believe most of those misses are due to the lack of a good depth perception rather than faulty collision.
 
The speed the ball is going was ideal for me, it was slow enough so I could switch my focus but not so slow to make it boring, same goes for the speed of the players.
 
Then I had my brother play for around 15 minutes
 
He could not control 3 at once at all (he is not used to micro management)
    high miss rate with jump buck and heavy buck
    most of his light bucks landed
He felt as if the players where moving too slow, and the ball was going out to much because of that
 
And then, finally, we played together in the same keyboard (2 rounds) in the same team, I was controlling the defender and the assistant and he was controlling the attacker, it was really fun! Because of that I really think you should implement optimized support for 2 players on the same team, possibly even 3! I bet having a 3 vs 3 will be really fun! controlling then individually is quite simple so anyone can pick up and play.
 
About being unable to play p1 vs p2 was due to the fact you can't select keyboard for both teams and we don't have a joystick. I think that's worth fixing, this game will really shine in multilayer so gotta have all crazy ways to bind keys

Great feedback!  Having people crowded around the same keyboard gets pretty difficult, but if I can get online play to work, I would definitely look into 2v2 or 3v3.

If it helps, the shadow shows the actual location of the ball and each pony.  If you pay close attention to them, it will be much easier to line up shots and blocks.

Still looking for feedback, and especially looking for help with graphics!

Made a video showing the gameplay in the current test build:

The first post was updated with both the video and the link to download the test build.  Feedback appreciated!

I was trying to see if I could get online play to work, but I'm having difficulty with it.  I might have to forget about it for now.

I could really use some feedback on the current version though...

I just updated the test build with an AI that plays pretty decently.  It's still meant to be played as a 2-player game, but it can be tested single-player now.  Feedback appreciated.

*EDIT*  Made some more tweaks to the AI and the way the pegasi hit the balls back to the earth ponies.  Seems to be better now.  Still hoping I can get some feedback though.

*EDIT EDIT*  The latest version allows you to set your teammates (the pegasus and unicorn) to be controlled by the AI instead of controlled by you directly, allowing you to focus on controlling just the earth pony.  This makes it easier to practice the earth pony's controls, but the AI is not that great.  Once you've got the earth pony's movements mastered, it's a good idea to turn this off so that you can have full control over your team.  I also fixed it so that when the game is over (one team reaches 6 points), it immediately goes back to the menu screen now.  Before, it would stop during the final replay and wait for you to hit escape, which was kind of confusing.  Anyway, same download link.  Feedback appreciated!

Has anyone had a chance to try it yet?  I'd really appreciate some feedback.

Twilight Escape (my fan game) wasn't shut down. I included a disclaimer at the start just in case, and it's a free game. So it IS possible, you just need to be careful with it.

I know I haven't posted to this in a while, but I have completed a playable test version of the game.  There still aren't any graphics, just the placeholders as I had before, but I'd like to get some feedback as to the game and the controls.  You can use keyboard and controller, or two controllers (this is the preferable way to play).  After the controller select screen, it plays a normal game of Buckball (first team to 6 points wins).  The download link is here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/msehr4m6lkg74y2/buckball_test.zip?dl=0

Feedback appreciated!  I'm also still looking for someone to do graphics for it.  Please let me know if you're able to help me with it.  Thanks!

If you need help, I might be able to assist with pony models or graphics. I am extremely busy, though, so I can't guarantee meeting any deadline.

I'm not really sticking to any deadline, so I appreciate the help, either with this game or the other one I was working on (Fluttershift).  This one would need many sprites, while the other one I just need some help animating pony models.

Had a chance to actually test a two-player game yesterday.  It was actually quite fun, even though I was a lot better than the person I was playing against (I won 6 to 1).

Still no luck finding someone to help with graphics.  For now I'm going to see if I can tackle it myself.

1) Apple Bloom was a baby in this episode. She is a full year older than Diamond Tiara, but started school a year late (maybe had a summer birthday or maybe just wasn't ready). Mom and Dad were either dead already or were taking care of Apple Bloom during the flashback (probably dead already).

Couldn't be dead already, because if so, that means Apple Bloom was a baby being left home by herself while the three of them were up to the shenanigans at the hospital.  That's a big no-no for a baby's guardians.  Given that they weren't mentioned at all, and the fact that they were assuming control of the farm would go directly from Granny Smith to either Applejack or Big Mac, that tells me that the parents weren't there, which eliminates the possibility of Apple Bloom having been born yet.  It's far more likely that they were just someplace else.

New theory: They left without notice, and at some point in time they had Apple Bloom, who was then sent back to the farm to live with them.  This also opens up the possibility that they're still alive; maybe the Apple family just hasn't seen or heard from them since.

What kind of art are you looking for? Vector? Pixel?

I'm good with either, whatever's easier for the amount of work that needs to be done.  It's a lot of individual images after all.

If you have trouble finding anyone you could try asking in the requestria section.

So far, no takers.  If this keeps up, I'll probably try my hand at doing the graphics myself.  Although I'm terrible at art, I might be able to get it to work if I go with simple pixel sprites.

In this thread over in the games section, I'm working on a 2-player Buckball game.  The gameplay itself is practically done (I may be tweaking it a bit, but it's otherwise fully playable), but right now all it has is placeholder graphics where the sprites would go, as you can see here:

I need to find someone who's good with making sprites that can help me with the graphics for the game.  It may get a little complex, because my plan is to try to make the characters able to be customized.  This means each sprite will need to be divided up into different pieces that are assembled in-game.  For instance, each frame of the animation will need both a mare and stallion body, a few different mane and tail styles, and different cutie marks.  (These will not be based after any of the main characters, but will just be some basic choices that the player can pick from.)

In terms of how many total frames of animation are needed, there is a minimum amount, but I'll put in as many as the artist is willing to contribute.  For instance, it would be nice to have different animation sets for the Earth Ponies for looking forward, up, and back, but ultimately it's not required.

Separately from the sprite work, the game will also need backgrounds and menu art (it doesn't necessarily have to be the same artist).

If anyone's interested in helping with this project, send me a PM!

Does anyone know an artist that might be willing to do the art for the game?

The hardest part will be the ponies; it will need each of the animation sets in two different body types (mare and stallion), with the mane, tail, jersey and cutie mark as separate images so they can be swapped out.  In all, they need these animations minimum:

• Earth Pony animations (standing, galloping, hitting, jumping)
• Pegasus animations (hovering, swinging)
• Unicorn animations (standing, trotting)

Other art needed would include backgrounds and menu art, as well as a title screen.

I have a child.  The thing about having a child is, it's strange how much your perspective on death subtly changes.  On one hand, you want to be around so that the child grows up safely, so you do more to avoid death in order to make sure that they will avoid death.  But in addition to that, it's also comforting to know that a part of you survives on in them, and their children, and so on.  It's like a strange form of immortality that I find is more comforting than actual immortality.