bulldozerman185

*PHEW* sorry if I alarmed anybody with my initial post ( my mind was wandering to a pretty dark place when I wrote that ). I've been in a pretty frail frame of mine as of late since this thing's never going to get done. I'll keep trying to get this game finished, but I'm not %100 sure how I'm supposed to find the help I need. Paying for it is still out of the question, so there's gotta be other options available.

It's been so long since I started the Maradice Isle project, and no matter how hard I look or how hard I try, I'm still unable to get the tileset assets I need to continue development. At this point in time, I've pretty much given up all hope on the project ever getting completed, and so far in the main storyline, we've only JUST set hoof into Equestria! Sure, I found SOMEBODY whose willing to put aside their time to help get things done, but it's going so slowly, I predict it could be 2029 before I can finally get this thing out the door... if I'm lucky! I can't spend that much time working on this thing. If I had the help I needed since day one, the full game would have been out A YEAR AGO!! The fact that it's still sitting at %20 complete after several years in the development hole has me feeling pretty grim. Guys, I'm sorry for repeatedly bringing this topic up, but I need help getting the tileset assets I need to continue the game's development. And if this can't happen, well, not only am I going to have to cancel the project, I may just stop showing up on this website altogether ( possibly due to very, uh... "GRUESOME" circumstances I won't go into detail about here ). There's got to be SOMETHING that can be done to fix this mess. I either need some tiles of all/most of the main Equestrian landmarks ( Canterlot, Ponyville and all major buildings therein, etc. ) that I can tinker with to my needs ( and that actually WORKS with RPG Maker VX Ace ), or I need a team of people who can sit down and draw up the assets I need to continue development.

Darn, she looks amazing. Thanks a bunch for this.

Gosh, that work is FANTASTIC! I don't suppose you could do Mystical Melody, the main protagonist of Maradice Isle?

As much as it pains me to do this, I need some images of Strange Tidings to use in Maradice Isle. Particularly one of his corrupted form. I have below some example images of Strange in his normal form, and his extremely dark, unnerving corrupted form. You can tell which is his corrupted form easily; Just look at his eyes! Some things to keep in mind: Try to keep the image files around 200x350 pixels in size so they will fit in the game window. Ensure Strange Tidings is facing the screen. The Corrupted form can be as scary or intimidating as you please; He needs to send off those "BIG-TIME BAD GUY" vibes somehow! Try to match the TV show's art style as much as possible... although don't overwork yourself if you don't think it's possible. With all that said, good luck with the drawing! I can't wait to see them. PLEASE NOTE: The user who's image(s) of Strange Tidings are picked to be used in the game will be credited at the end of the game during the credits. If you wish to opt out of this, please notify me beforehand.

Kinda glad I stumbled upon this. I don't suppose you'd be willing to do a couple of pics of Strange Tidings, the main villain of Maradice Isle, for use in the game during his boss battles? I need one of him in his normal form for any encounters you may have with him during the game, and one of him in his corrupted form that's used during the final battle. And yes, feel free to make the corrupted one as scary as you wish; He's supposed to send off major "BIG-TIME BAD GUY" vibes when your fighting him! Just try to keep them both between 200x300 pixels in size so he'll fit on the screen, and ensure he's facing the screen. Also, if you could get as close to the TV shows art style as possible, I'd appreciate it... but don't overwork yourself if you don't think you can manage that. XD Here's some reference pics for you. You can easily tell which one is of his corrupted form; His eyes have kinda gone all black, and deadly looking... PHEW. Remind me to stay away from Shadow magic! And yes, he wears a cloak for a reason: His cutie mark was destroyed during a major battle with his former friends many years before the game takes place. Go figure. XD

Well, it's no surprise right now that the game's development has been going fairly well as of late. The story is looking promising, I got the entire soundtrack ready to be imported, and all the player characters are now implemented. There's just one teeny tiny problem: I CAN'T DRAW THE TILESETS FOR ANY OF THE EQUESTRIA LOCALS!! While I've managed to do the tilesets for all the Maradice Isle locals, and a select few for what Equestria areas have been implemented into the game as of now, I lack the skills and the equipment to do the tilesets for the rest of the Equestria locations, such as the towns and Everfree Forest, to name a handful. While I do have one guy who is going to help out with this regard, he's been snowed under with other things as of late, so work on new tilesets hasn't even started yet. And since I'm running out of things to add and update while I wait on those tilesets, this is a HUGE problem! I gotta get the ball rolling on those tilesets, or the project is going to be stranded where it is! So, I must once again (begrudgingly) come and ask for help to get this game completed. I need volunteers to help put these tilesets together and bring Equestria to life. I have the templates for the tilesets attached down below, along with some examples of how they're supposed to look. Of course, there are a few guidelines to follow: The tilesets must be kept within the squares on every template. The tilesets must be kept within the image size; Any bigger or smaller and RPG Maker VX Ace won't be able to use it. The tiles themselves need to fit with the setting of My Little Pony: FiM. Nothing too hyper-realistic, please. As this game is going to be taking the player through almost every major Equestria town and location seen in the TV show ( and MAYBE the movie, if I ever decide to add DLC to the game ), this is going to be a pretty big order; Too big for any one person to fulfill on their own. It's going to take a good number of people to put this game together. So, if any of you want to take a shot at drawing up the tilesets I need for the game, PLEASE feel free to grab the templates below and go for it. Also, if you want to keep up on the games development and see how it's going so far, please feel free to join the games official Discord server for development updates, and to be able to communicate with the team putting the game together. The invite code is "VabKgSC". Good luck, everyone! Let's bring Equestria to life for our four heroes to explore, battle, and have tons of fun in! Tileset Data.zip

HELLO, FOLKS! It's time for another development update! PHEW... I've been hard at work adding various new systems to the game in order to make it more enjoyable, as well as polishing up some other things that needed bugfixing for some time now. And I'm glad to say: Demo V0.2.0 has finally been released! There is A LOT to unpack in this new release, so I'll make it very brief ( I am writing this at midnight, after all; I need to go to bed soon! ): *** NEW IN THIS UPDATE *** - Removed the music from the previous release and replaced it with the enhanced Golden Sun soundtrack from the games alpha, due to our composer having left the project. - Re-balanced the EXP system. - Added the alchemy system! - Added an "Options" menu with various settings to adjust! - Added the first handful of Equestria zones, including the first part of the San Palomino Desert and the Equality Shrine! - Added Lightning Storm as a party member! - Added the Power Orb system! - Added 2 additional equipment slots: One extra Accessory slot and a special slot for Power Orbs! - Added the "Special" and "Summon" tabs to the Magic menu. - Reworked the Ember Pony into a melee-based damage class. - Readjusted the stats of the seven player classes and the monsters to fix a few issues found in the previous demo build. - Fixed a few glitches related to skills. - Rewrote the descriptions of the seven classes on the startup menu. - Several other changes and minor bug fixes. Always remember, if you encounter any bugs in the newest build of the game, let me know right away so I can patch them out! This will very likely be the FINAL demo release before the full game comes out. So enjoy all the new stuff! See you on the flip side, everypony!

Well, for now, I was able to get the new build uploaded to MEGA.com ( Thank goodness; MEGA never lets me down ). If anybody wants to download the new build, here's the link: https://mega.nz/#!KZ4jSA4T!kOJJCn_DNrSKH5jtMrGwOalWnOzG-nafB04uav20wIY I'll have a change-log of what's new with this release up on the game's GameJolt page shortly. QUICK EDIT: Just put the V0.2.0 changelog on the game's page. It'll be on the pinned comment.

Hahaha, can you believe a couple of my friends got together and threw this box art for Maradice Isle together!? I've been teasing at the idea of having a physical copy of the game for myself, but I didn't think anyone would put together something like this! This is seriously AWESOME!! Also, good on them for sticking that anti-piracy warning on the back. They're right; This game is meant to be "FREE", and any attempt to sell it for profit can, and probably will, result in legal consequences.

Well, looks like we're running into some trouble trying to get Demo V0.2.0 of the game up! It seems no matter what I do, it just fails to upload the new demo build! I've tried and tried over and over, but with no success. I understand it's about 813 MBs in size, but this is such a kick in the teeth! Currently I'm trying to put the game up on GameJolt, but so far it hasn't been too successful. Every time I try to upload it, it gets to %98 through the processing phase, and then it breaks down entirely and fails. And since a hacker got my account on RPGMaker.Net shut down, I can't put it up there, either! I'm running out of options to upload and publish this new build, and it's got me deeply depressed, and considering abandoning the project. My only option is to put it up on MEGA.com ( something that I can trust to not screw up on me mid-upload ) and find another site to host it on. If anybody can find me one such site I can host this thing on ( beside GameJolt, because I can already tell they're not going to help me fix this problem, and I can't access RPGMaker.net anymore ) that will allow downloads from MEGA.com, please let me know. The project is in serious danger, and unless action is taken immediately, the consequences will be catastrophic. UPDATE: A member of the GameJolt staff is trying to help me fix this problem. Maybe I'll catch a break and I won't have to relocate the game elsewhere after all. I'll let you know what happens.

OOH MAN, I LOVE FINAL FANTASY 1. I still have it on my phone, and actively play it on a GBA emulator when I'm not working on Maradice Isle. That game rocks, whether it's on the Nintendo Entertainment System ( even if it is a little dated ), PlayStation 1, GameBoy Advance, or whatever. In fact, it was one of the inspirations for Maradice Isle ( along with Golden Sun and Wizard101, which is especially notable since it borrows elements from those games ). Honestly, I would be super excited to play such a game and see how it goes. It might be a lot of fun... as long as it's not using the character development system from Final Fantasy 2. I still frown upon that system for how much it slowed that game to a crawl.

Hello, everyone. It's been awhile, hasn't it? Well, there's some new stuff in the game I wanted to tell you about, so I figured I may as well put up another development update. Now, I know I promised you that Nature Hills would be joining the team, and Ponyville would be in the game with the next update, but sadly, this didn't happen. I don't have the assets I need to add them into the game yet. So your going to have to wait a little while longer for that. Sorry, everyone. Luckily, I have found some new stuff to include that will help pass the time until I'm able to continue with the main story. *** ALCHEMY *** This feature was hinted at several times in the past, but as of now, it's finally in the game: ALCHEMY. The player is now able to collect raw materials in the world and use them to craft and upgrade various items to aid them in their journey. While a handful of items are sold at a vendor, the majority of them will be found in the world, either found in the environment, dropped from monsters, or awarded for completing a side quest. The Playing Manual has also been updated with an explanation of the Alchemy system, just in case you need a refresher course on how it works. There's many things you can do in Alchemy, including: Crafting and upgrading HP, MP, and status restoring items Forging new equipment ( there's 8 weapons and 1 accessory to make right now; More recipes may be added later ) Processing raw materials found in the world Exciting stuff, am I right? I can't wait to see how it's used in Let's Plays and the like. Especially when the player is going for a certain ultra powerful weapons, which may or may not be a reference to my primary character in The Lord of the Rings Online. But I'll leave it up to you to figure out how to get that monster on your own. *** CLASSES *** The Ember Pony has seen a HUGE overhaul for this update. No longer focusing on damage over time, they now concentrate on physical DPS using their equipped weapons. While they still have a handful of magic attacks for crowd control and the like, they definitely have the strongest physical ATK of the group. There's a couple of enemies that have high resistance to magic attacks, so having a powerful physical attacker will be very handy. On a related note, the ATK stat of all the classes was changed to better reflect this change. Darkness Ponies no longer have equal ATK to Ember Ponies, but their PWR was beefed up a little to compensate. Also, all the classes accuracy has been boosted to %100, meaning that barring any debuffs or special effects some enemies have, your melee attacks will always connect a hit. The enemies can still miss with physical attacks. *** MENUS *** The inventory menu was changed to reflect the Alchemy update. There is now a 6th category for items: "Materials", where all those items you use for alchemy are kept, separate from the items you use in battle to heal HP and the like. So when you get a material, don't wig out when you can't find it in the "Items" menu; Just look in "Materials" and it should be there. *** WHAT'S NEXT? *** There's a couple of features I want to work on next before I make anymore progress on the main story. If nothing else, it gives me something to do while I wait on the tilesets I need to add Ponyville and the rest of Equestria to the game. I'll let you guys know when it's FINALLY time for that update to come out. Until then, take care!

I'm going to try and get another demo out while I'm waiting for the tilesets I need to design the rest of the game. I just finished designing the alchemy system. And if I'm lucky, I may be able to use it's menu design as a basis for FINALLY adding in an item that can warp you to any previously visited town. That will probably be the next thing I work on.

Well, things are certainly heating up in the world of Maradice Isle. With the much anticipated "Alchemy" system on the horizon, players will FINALLY be able to gather raw materials around the game world ( either bought from vendors, dropped from monsters, collected in specific areas, or any combination of the 3 ) and either create or upgrade their items to help them on their journey to stop Strange Tidings from wiping out the world before Season 9 can even take place ( that is where the game is set; Between S8 and S9 ). So this has me wondering this: Since it will be possible to take a Minor Healing Potion, and upgrade it all the way to a Max Healing Potion with the right materials, at what point should the in-game stores stop selling the higher level Healing Potions ( heals a single character ), Mist Potions ( heals all characters in the party ), and Star Lights ( restores MP )? As of now, these are all the ones that are in the game, in ascending order from weakest to strongest: - Healing Potion ( Minor > Medium > Large > Ultra > Max ) - Mist Potion ( Minor > Medium > Large > Ultra > Max ) - Star Lights ( Star Light > Silver Light > Platinum Light > Premium Light ) NOTE: There are higher level versions of Elixir's and Angel's Tears, but I'm already not planning to have those sold in any store.

That's excellent. While this has been going on, I've been able to spend some time fine-tuning the gameplay, mainly with balancing the game out. I got a few complains from players saying that Spark, one of the Thunder spells, was too overpowered, since it could utterly demolish the bosses and if used on the player by enemies, could quickly lead to some cheap deaths. Especially on Lava Mountain. Now that magic spells are no longer able to critical, and Spark itself having been nerfed, all those issues should be fixed. Hopefully that'll make the game more enjoyable.

Hey again. Hope all is going well with those tilesets. I understand things have probably been a little chaotic lately, for both of us. I've been taking the time off to polish up some of the games content, such as balancing the gameplay a little.

Just made it official on the games development blog. At the bottom of the latest entry, it says the following: *** IMPORTANT NOTICE!! *** As of now, the project has reached a point where the story can no longer be spoiled, so as not to ruin the experience for new players. As such, from this day onward, Bulldozer Studios will be enforcing a "ZERO TOLERANCE FOR SPOILERS" policy in regards to Maradice Isle's story. Any spoilers towards the games story must be marked with an appropriate tag so others know to avoid them. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action being carried out. Nobody likes it when a games plot is ruined for them before they even get to play the darn thing! This was posted to the games development Discord channel as well. Any and all spoilers are to remain there only, unless given appropriate tags and warnings for those who don't wish to be spoiled. It may sound extreme, but believe me: It's for a good cause.

HEY HEY HEY! It's been a while, hasn't it? But it looks like some new stuff is being added to the game, as well as some exciting new changes! And there's a few things here I can't WAIT to tell you about! *** NEW AREAS *** With the completion of the San Palomino Desert area, I've managed to incorporate a proper world map into the game, using an actual map of Equestria I picked up offline! Different colored markers on the map will lead you to different places: - Green Markers: Towns, settlements. - Yellow Markers: Passages to other maps. - Red Markers: Dangerous areas with monsters. - Blue Markers: Revealed secret areas. ( And yes, I am aware that the map screen in the screenshot below doesn't have the colored markers. I literally took that RIGHT BEFORE I colored them all. They'll be color coded in the final game, don't worry! ) As much as I would have loved to include an actual overworld map of Equestria, much like with Maradice Isle itself, this was just impossible to do. I do hope everyone understands. In addition to this: Several new areas have been added, chief among them being the Ghastly Gorge Pass you must pass through to get to Ponyville. Due to the original overworld map being removed, Frostbite was moved to this location so he can once again teach you all about Power Orbs. In addition, there's a special event that happens here the first time you pass through. What is it, you ask? You'll have to find that out for yourself. *** NEW SPELLS *** More spells have been added for the Mystery, Darkness, and Equality Ponies. I estimate that every class now has %50 of the spells they will have by the end of the game. *** SPELL CHANGES *** Due to a few complaints about balancing I have received, several changes have been made to the spells across all 7 classes, as well as for monsters. - Spells can no longer score critical hits. Criticals now only apply to physical based attacks, such as the Ember Pony's "Sword Dance" and the Equality Pony's "Cross-Slash". - The MP cost for many spells was increased. - The SP gain of all the spells was reduced heavily. - The spell "Spark" has been nerfed to only strike 2 enemies instead of 4. However, it's damage multiplier was buffed back to the same number as the rest of the Thunder spells in order to compensate. All of these changes are helping to better balance the gameplay, prevent classes with group attacks from going on mass killing sprees, prevent Thunder Ponies from easily cheesing bosses with 4 critical hits from Spark, and to prevent cheap deaths from a monster scoring a lucky critical with Sandstorm, Meteor Blast, or worse yet, Spark. ( Something that cost me my fair share of games on Lava Mountain ). *** SOUNDTRACK *** Alas, our wonderful composer who handled the games music since Day 1 has stepped down and left the project in order to pursue a career in the military. While we're sad to see her go, we're forever grateful for all the help he/she gave us, and we wish them only the best. I can already tell that finding a composer equal to her to take her place will be next to impossible with no budget, so that's why I'm not even going to try. Instead, the game will be using a remastered version of the Golden Sun 1 and 2: The Lost Age coundtrack, complete with the GameBoy Advance tones removed and with much better clarity. I've already replaced all the original tracks with these updated songs, and along with that, the menu sound effects have been replaced as well. For those of you who loved our composers beautiful musical tracks, fear not. The song she composed for the cinematic that plays right before you arrive in Equestria will be staying in the game, and all of her songs will be boxed in with the final game for your listening pleasure. Keep an eye out for that whenever that comes. *** POWER ORBS *** More Power Orbs are being added into the game, including one that'll allow for quick MP recovery when used in a tense battle! Be on the lookout for them as your exploring the world! *** WHAT'S NEXT? *** As of right now, I cannot continue development until I get some tilesets I'm waiting for. But while I wait on those, I am getting some other things done that I needed to get done for a very long time, including the re-balancing I mentioned above. I'm also getting the sprites for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna ready, so they can make their big debut when the time comes. Next time I pop in to give you guys a development update, Nature Hills joins the party, and we just might get to visit Princess Celestia! Until then, everyone! Take care! *** IMPORTANT NOTICE!! *** As of now, the project has reached a point where the story can no longer be spoiled, so as not to ruin the experience for new players. As such, from this day onward, Bulldozer Studios will be enforcing a "ZERO TOLERANCE FOR SPOILERS" policy in regards to Maradice Isle's story. Any spoilers towards the games story must be marked with an appropriate tag so others know to avoid them. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action being carried out. Nobody likes it when a games plot is ruined for them before they even get to play the darn thing!

I guess that makes sense. I just don't want the game ruined for people who haven't seen the story before, the same way Undertale was ruined for many. Perhaps I can replace that "EARLY ACCESS BUILD" message with something. That could work.

I can see that the staff here on this website are quite serious about having ZERO SPOILERS for the finale of MLP: FiM ( aside from that one forum ). Frankly, I applaud you guys for the effort. Especially after all the criticism and backlash the shows staff has been getting on Twitter lately. If I had to count the number of accounts I've had to report to Twitter for harassment this past week, I'd set my fingers on fire! ( Also, am I the only one who wants to banish those idiots who leaked the final episodes to the moon for the rest of time? Seriously, guys, wait until the episodes are released like the rest of us! ) Which leads me to my main question for today: Would it be possible to have similar rules enforced for Maradice Isle when the full game is released, whenever that should be? At least for a couple of months. Keep in mind, the game will feature a very unique story full of twists and turns, and more surprises then you can shake a broadsword at! I don't want it ruined for anyone because someone couldn't keep their trap shut ( remember what happened with Vannamelons and people spoiling Undertale for her? Yeah, nobody wants a repeat of that disaster ).

How's it looking so far? And I forgot to mention earlier, but are you only doing the Ponyville sprites, or will you be doing all the tilesets for the locations in that game? I do want to be able to include famous areas like Canterlot and the like.

Fantastic. I got the tileset bases right here. The base Lower_Tileset is used for the ground sprites. base Staits_Tileset is used for anything involving stairs. base Wall_Tileset is used for walls, as well as the roofs of said walls. This is the one used to make all the houses in the game. And lastly the Blank Tileset is used for all those other sprites used for everything from doors, plants, scenery, background objects, and the like. Up to 3 of these can be used per map, in combination with the other 3 tileset types ( much more then RPG Maker 2003 ). I doubt you'll have any trouble getting them to work. So have at it and good luck!

I got the message I had written out here: "It gives me great pleasure that somebody out there wishes to help out with Maradice Isle and help keep it alive. However, there is one big problem: The game files are VEEEEERY big, and it could take a full week between uploading it, waiting for you to edit it, and then send it back to me. The better option by far would be to send you the base's that are used to create the tilesets, and you can put all the necessary sprites into them. After that, I can directly import them into the game over the current ones. It'll be much less time consuming then SLOWLY uploading the work-in-progress twice in a row just to update the tilesets ( how do you even GET those, anyway? ). Also, I STRONGLY suggest joining our development Discord channel, where we're all pitching around ideas and staying in contact to work on the game. I have the code right here: "VabKgSC" Please note that once you join, you'll need to manually be added to the "Supporters" role before you can see or post messages. This is to help keep spam and bots out of the channel. Let me know what you think ASAP. Thanks!" I can send the bases for all the tilesets here.

Say, SparkleSan, I sent you an email at the address above. Did you ever get it? I hate to say it, but at this point in development, I simply can't just send the Work-In-progress to just anyone. Simply because the games filesize is so big, it would take WAY to long to do that. I have another solution that's in that email. I would appreciate it if you could check it and reply back as soon as possible.