My Little Pony: The Game

[HereComesTom 2,266]

I've got a few more graphical elements:

 

The Shacks---I've never really been able to deduce their functions, but my best guess is that other talking-animal characters use them as temporary lodging---that's a guess from the fact that [a] we've seen cows and donkeys and sheep on the show, speaking, and each shack has a little chimney coming out of it and a window.  And for simple tool sheds, they probably wouldn't need a window.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Next is the arch---well, actually there are at least three arches around the barnhouse:  one to enter Sweet Apple Acres in the first place, one near the living-area door, and one on the other side of the barn (right side when looking at the barn from the SAA Entrance) that leads to the orchards.

 

I've got a few versions:

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

Next is the well.  It's not received much attention, but it's fairly near the main entrance to the farm:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've done one more thing today, and that's the wheel of hay near the barnhouse's living-area entrance:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's a few more doodads that need making before I can assemble a large enough area to test with, though---some barrels, some hay bales, and I still need to make the chicken coop and (depending on how large the area is vertically) the pigsty.  Oh---I also need to make some small crops like knee-high cornstalks, cabbages, and carrots, since all that is to the left of the barnhouse.

Edited December 26, 2016 by HereComesTom

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

I'm still here if you need music tracks. 

[Fluttershyponygal 83]

Patience, young padawon.

Game development is a very slow process, especially when you want it done right.

 

OMG....you have no idea how slow it can be... sometimes its so slow that after 4hrs of work I have to fight the urge to hit my internal lazy button and just make something quick and simple. It's taken me 3yrs to get my game this far and its mostly due to me being so lazy about it.

 

I vowed when I began making my game that I would pull out all the stops and make it something worth remembering and many times I regret making that vow but all it takes is a few people telling me how much they love the demos I release and I'm reminded that all the pain and effort will be worth it in the end.

[KBz 499]

Ice bear's also here for any music you need.

[Rikifive 24,126]

@@HereComesTom, Hmmm... I'm not sure either, but my first guess was also them serving as temporary (or not) lodging for other characters or some kind of animals.

The well is an important decoration! ^^

 

That's a great work and nice progress!

 

I've been wondering ~ I think putting the area with trees and the CMC clubhouse on another map would be a good idea. You see, the arches leading to that tree area and that carrot-building is way behind the barn, so we could put these at the ledge of the map and simply make a transition. That would be better for the game's performance (less objects to read and update at once) and make the map visually bigger. What do you think?

 

Since I got back an access to my PC, I hope to make some progress as well, though I still have requests to be done. 

 

---

 

@@Fluttershyponygal, Yeah, it goes ultimately slow, especially if you have a job. I was doing much, much more progress when I was jobless. Now it's really difficult to organize things and find some free time.

 

To make a nice progress, I need to sit down and work, work and work for many hours straight, because otherwise, it takes some time to setup the software here and there, get the point of what I was working on before and get the motivation to work further. It's really important when you're coding, because you're often referring to the previous code (variable names, values, created functions, etc. etc.), when writing further, so there's that de-buff at the beginning, that slows you down.

 

To be honest I'm afraid, that I won't be able to pull that game far. *sigh* I'm not even sure if there is any point in pulling this further at all when looking at my progress. Perhaps I should consider making a smaller game like a platformer or something... Either way, I'm not going to give up yet, though I'm pretty sure, that disappointment can't be avoided. I'll do my best to avoid that though. Make me jobless... =P

 

And that's true ~ ponies expressing their interest gives motivation. 

 

---

 

@@C. Thunder Dash and @@InklingBear, I think you have noticed that. 

Yes, yes, there will be a need and at the moment, I can even describe what will be needed.

 

It will be Sweet Apple Acres Theme.

I'll share some thoughts to give you some tips, if you don't mind. 

 

The most important thing is to make it accurate to the show in general. When listening to it, Sweet Apple Acres from MLP should come to mind.

Genre of music and instruments are obvious. I could only add, that Fighting is Magic has pretty accurate tracks to characters/places style-wise, if you'd need some extra references. Also feel free to make song references like using 'Winter Wrap Up''s note chains to cover a small part of the track or something like this.

That's handy, that you know the source material, unlike it was with the first composer, I've requested, that was mentioned by C Thunder Dash. He really did a great job working in a totally new environment anyway. I still feel sorry for him for invading him with pony content.  :-P

 

Now imagine a track played in background while walking around SAA and talking with ponies or browsing menus to change equipment and such.

 

I'm not hiding, that I'm not sure how to approach that, because there are two of you. I don't want to favor one of you, especially when not being sure about your preferences and such.

I don't want to put you into rivalry of some sort or lead you to wasted work. What do you think about this?

 

 

And please remember - take your time, there's no need to hurry. You're not obliged to make anything for me at all.

Thank you for your support. 

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

@@Rikifive,

 

I've got this. I know exactly what to do.  

[KBz 499]

@@Rikifive,

 

I've got this. I know exactly what to do.  

Ooh, lemme know how this turns out soon. :3

[HereComesTom 2,266]

 

 

I've been wondering ~ I think putting the area with trees and the CMC clubhouse on another map would be a good idea. You see, the arches leading to that tree area and that carrot-building is way behind the barn, so we could put these at the ledge of the map and simply make a transition. That would be better for the game's performance (less objects to read and update at once) and make the map visually bigger. What do you think?

 

This seems like a good idea to me; I think I'll just put together the barn, the area in front of the barn with the well and shacks and the chicken coop, the cornfields/cabbage patches/carrot fields to the left of the barn.  For now, I'll plan to leave the carrot-house out of it.

 

 

 

Perhaps I should consider making a smaller game like a platformer or something...

 

If you decide to switch to a platformer, you can have a look at the editor for my game---I'll be adding dialog trees as a feature probably within the next few days.  But adding features is a slow process for my game engine; I spent over a year on the customizable NPCs feature (which includes dialog trees), and I still plan to add more onto the customizable NPCs feature moving forward.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

I've been moving along with the Sweet Apple Acres Theme. I'm thinking of doing a daytime, afternoon and night theme for it. Right now, working on the afternoon theme, which is kinda laid back. Daytime is gonna be upbeat and night is gonna be calming. 

[Rikifive 24,126]

@@HereComesTom, To be honest I haven't tried that editor yet, so I'm curious about its functionality. However, I think it would be better for me to write the game from scratch, so that I'd be able to program what would be needed anytime. I have some experience in writing platformers (a working demo of a retro platformer shooter written in Ruby) and I can already tell, that it's much easier and faster than writing RPG's. 

Anyway, I still really want to make that RPG, so it will have to wait. :3

 

@@C. Thunder Dash, Actually I like that idea. There will be day/night cycle dependable on story/event progress (not affected by playtime), so they will come in handy. Now I'm really curious to hear them. ^^ 

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

@@Rikifive,

 

Well, got the nighttime theme for Sweet Apple Acres done.

 

Sweet Apple Acres Theme (Afternoon).wav

 

 

[Rikifive 24,126]

@@C. Thunder Dash, Nighttime or Afternoon? Now I'm confused. 

 

I've listened to it few times and I gotta admit, that's a great calming tune. Listening to that theme makes me think of an evening, where the time 'slows down' after hard work on farm, so that's good.

 

There's one little thing that catches my attention ~ while the melody in general is really nice, there are moments, where instruments seem to be not synchronized. It's kinda like getting off the beat or whatever it could be called. One of these moments can be heard at the beginning (0:24), basically that transition ~ generally it's not bad, but kinda confusing, especially that 'ticking' in the background ~ if that was actually done on purpose, then it's okay I think. Don't get me wrong please, it just caught my attention and I started wondering.  :-P

 

Other than that, I really liked the theme as I can see it working well there. Great work!

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

@@C. Thunder Dash, Nighttime or Afternoon? Now I'm confused. 

 

I've listened to it few times and I gotta admit, that's a great calming tune. Listening to that theme makes me think of an evening, where the time 'slows down' after hard work on farm, so that's good.

 

There's one little thing that catches my attention ~ while the melody in general is really nice, there are moments, where instruments seem to be not synchronized. It's kinda like getting off the beat or whatever it could be called. One of these moments can be heard at the beginning (0:24), basically that transition ~ generally it's not bad, but kinda confusing, especially that 'ticking' in the background ~ if that was actually done on purpose, then it's okay I think. Don't get me wrong please, it just caught my attention and I started wondering.  :-P

 

Other than that, I really liked the theme as I can see it working well there. Great work!

Val's you liked the theme. The hardest part for me was the percussion, which is probably what you heard. I'll do the day theme tomorrow.

[HereComesTom 2,266]

I'd like to know if I'm on the right track with this layout for the in-front-of-the-barn area---it's far from complete; I haven't figured out what the left side will look like or whether there should be more of a barrier in the top part of this area.

 

I might need to draw a new shack-graphic that is turned about ninety degrees to make this work, but another option that occurred to me while I was putting this together was having the shacks go diagonally and forming a barrier for the right-hand side of the area, so that's why I set up the right side of the map the way I did with this draft.

 

Please let me know what you think of this so far:

 

 

 

 

The lines are every 90 pixels vertically and ever 160 pixel horizontally; hopefully they'll make it easier to place the sprites when I get done with it.

 

 

 

 

 

Don't feel bad at all if you think changes need to happen in terms of placements, the size of the area, or anything like that; I'm asking for feedback early so I can do course-corrections early if they're needed.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

@@Rikifive,

 

Alright! I got the Sweet Apple Acres Day Time Theme done! This one was quite tricky. 

 

Sweet Apple Acres Daytime Theme.wav

 

 

 

 

[Rikifive 24,126]

I was trying to reply much sooner, but making the reply required some time and having to go to job always interrupted me... Sorry.

 

 

@@HereComesTom, First of all I really wanted to put your draft in game to see how things will look like out of curiosity.

 

 

(By the way I was working on sprites for a while and I've managed to make side view of Rainbow Dash - so much of my progress, wow  )

I've inserted my silly quickly-made-grass-background to give it a slightly better preview.

 

Anyway, after giving it a legit try in game I got to this conclusion:

 

The structures/blocks/tiles/whatever themselves are really nicely done. As you can see in screenshot, they're looking great and correctly scaled to match pony sprites. They're just awesome!

However, their placement seem to be kinda random. Sorry to say this and please don't get me wrong, but their placement isn't fully correct, especially the right side of the map, because they look like being 'forced' to be there ~ they form a plain border of the map, which doesn't look nice. There's no need to block these like this as there's nothing wrong in touching map borders, if it's done nicely of course.

Also I'll remind just in case - remember, that you don't have to limit yourself to a grid. Everypony will be able to move freely around the map, so only objects' rotation degrees are important in order to make it easier to interact with these, as you can face 8 directions.

 

So summarizing ~ Objects are great, but their placement requires some changes.

I know, that you said that I shouldn't be feeling bad, but I'm still feeling bad for that 'whining'. 

 

I've took a look at few SAA references...

 

 

 

...and decided to give a try to quickly make a sketchy concept art of the map.

It's not great, because I'm not a really good artist and drawing with a mouse isn't good for quick drawings.

 

 

 

 

Despite tons of mistakes like scaling and some details regarding placement, this sketch more or less represents what would nicely work in the game.

As you can see, the right side is nicely blocked ~ in the reference images you can see haystacks to the right side - let's use it to nicely make a map border. Nothing needs to be blocky ~ the more freedom, the more natural it will look like.

The left side however, I kinda derp'd with all of this, but it doesn't look that bad in the end. There's no need to block left border as it's kinda obvious for a player, that there's nothing in here, so touching that wall will not be an issue. ...Or always I can make these farms with plants not passable, so it will do the thing.

 

I have no idea what to do with that carrot-building - was it used in the show? I don't even remember.. If not, then there's no need to cover that part or... at least we should place it on another map, where it wouldn't have much anyway. Perhaps some nice parallax-view in background and some items to steal get. (RPG's logic - don't look at me like this  ) .. or ponies with quests..

 

The area with trees also should be on another map, to make SAA visually bigger. If you'll approach the entrance (where the arrow is drawn), it will take you to there.

 

Now the tragedy - my extremely bad barn sketch. In my opinion it would be better if that would be facing down.. It would give a more accurate look of the whole environment as seeing it faced to the right makes it slightly confusing.

 

Since you made that facing sideways, I was wondering if rotating the whole map to that degree would be a good idea. ~The main entrance being on the right and everything else placed relatively to other objects. To be honest I have absolutely no idea how that would look like, so perhaps I'd try drawing a sketch with that perspective to see how more or less things would be placed.

 

What do you think?

 

@@C. Thunder Dash, Well.. I could say the same thing as before?   

I'm extremely sorry to say this, but I think I need to be honest. 

While I like the theme in general, it has moments, where the instruments aren't synchronized and go off the beat. There is even one right at the beginning.

I literally listened to it multiple times and tried to get used to that, but I can't ~ it's noticeable each time I listen to it.

Generally it's a good theme, but it's difficult to follow the melody as it kinda sounds like there were two different tracks played at once.

Basically - it's not clean, and that's the issue in both tracks.

Maybe muting few instruments during transitions would work? Reorganizing few notes would work as well. I've noticed, that the problem occurs mostly during transitions performed by low notes of the piano (if I'm not mistaking), so perhaps that's where you should take a look to make the song neater.

 

And don't get me wrong please, I really appreciate the help and everything, sorry for whining. 

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

I was trying to reply much sooner, but making the reply required some time and having to go to job always interrupted me... Sorry.

 

 

@@HereComesTom, First of all I really wanted to put your draft in game to see how things will look like out of curiosity.

 

 

(By the way I was working on sprites for a while and I've managed to make side view of Rainbow Dash - so much of my progress, wow  )

I've inserted my silly quickly-made-grass-background to give it a slightly better preview.

 

Anyway, after giving it a legit try in game I got to this conclusion:

 

The structures/blocks/tiles/whatever themselves are really nicely done. As you can see in screenshot, they're looking great and correctly scaled to match pony sprites. They're just awesome!

However, their placement seem to be kinda random. Sorry to say this and please don't get me wrong, but their placement isn't fully correct, especially the right side of the map, because they look like being 'forced' to be there ~ they form a plain border of the map, which doesn't look nice. There's no need to block these like this as there's nothing wrong in touching map borders, if it's done nicely of course.

Also I'll remind just in case - remember, that you don't have to limit yourself to a grid. Everypony will be able to move freely around the map, so only objects' rotation degrees are important in order to make it easier to interact with these, as you can face 8 directions.

 

So summarizing ~ Objects are great, but their placement requires some changes.

I know, that you said that I shouldn't be feeling bad, but I'm still feeling bad for that 'whining'. 

 

I've took a look at few SAA references...

 

 

 

...and decided to give a try to quickly make a sketchy concept art of the map.

It's not great, because I'm not a really good artist and drawing with a mouse isn't good for quick drawings.

 

 

 

 

Despite tons of mistakes like scaling and some details regarding placement, this sketch more or less represents what would nicely work in the game.

As you can see, the right side is nicely blocked ~ in the reference images you can see haystacks to the right side - let's use it to nicely make a map border. Nothing needs to be blocky ~ the more freedom, the more natural it will look like.

The left side however, I kinda derp'd with all of this, but it doesn't look that bad in the end. There's no need to block left border as it's kinda obvious for a player, that there's nothing in here, so touching that wall will not be an issue. ...Or always I can make these farms with plants not passable, so it will do the thing.

 

I have no idea what to do with that carrot-building - was it used in the show? I don't even remember.. If not, then there's no need to cover that part or... at least we should place it on another map, where it wouldn't have much anyway. Perhaps some nice parallax-view in background and some items to steal get. (RPG's logic - don't look at me like this  ) .. or ponies with quests..

 

The area with trees also should be on another map, to make SAA visually bigger. If you'll approach the entrance (where the arrow is drawn), it will take you to there.

 

Now the tragedy - my extremely bad barn sketch. In my opinion it would be better if that would be facing down.. It would give a more accurate look of the whole environment as seeing it faced to the right makes it slightly confusing.

 

Since you made that facing sideways, I was wondering if rotating the whole map to that degree would be a good idea. ~The main entrance being on the right and everything else placed relatively to other objects. To be honest I have absolutely no idea how that would look like, so perhaps I'd try drawing a sketch with that perspective to see how more or less things would be placed.

 

What do you think?

 

@@C. Thunder Dash, Well.. I could say the same thing as before?   

I'm extremely sorry to say this, but I think I need to be honest. 

While I like the theme in general, it has moments, where the instruments aren't synchronized and go off the beat. There is even one right at the beginning.

I literally listened to it multiple times and tried to get used to that, but I can't ~ it's noticeable each time I listen to it.

Generally it's a good theme, but it's difficult to follow the melody as it kinda sounds like there were two different tracks played at once.

Basically - it's not clean, and that's the issue in both tracks.

Maybe muting few instruments during transitions would work? Reorganizing few notes would work as well. I've noticed, that the problem occurs mostly during transitions performed by low notes of the piano (if I'm not mistaking), so perhaps that's where you should take a look to make the song neater.

 

And don't get me wrong please, I really appreciate the help and everything, sorry for whining. 

The biggest issue with redoing is consistantcy and timing. I had like so many redos on tracks because I was trying for perfection. If I have to redo one thing, it means I may have to redo everything and it'll take even longer to try to replicate the melodies and harmonies I did on the first. Anyway...what's the next theme I should work on?

[HereComesTom 2,266]

Since you made that facing sideways, I was wondering if rotating the whole map to that degree would be a good idea. ~The main entrance being on the right and everything else placed relatively to other objects. To be honest I have absolutely no idea how that would look like, so perhaps I'd try drawing a sketch with that perspective to see how more or less things would be placed.

 

I think redoing the map so that the entrance to the whole farm is on the right is a good idea.  I think I'll start with redrawing the shacks.

 

Thanks for giving me a second opinion on the perspectives; it hadn't occurred to me that the barnhouse's really big barn-doors were supposed to face the farm's main entrance until you showed me that second screenshot of SAA.  I have the first of the two screenshots; that was from the premiere, but what episode was the second screenshot from?

 

 

 

I have no idea what to do with that carrot-building - was it used in the show? I don't even remember.

 

The only thing I can remember it being used for was Applejack standing at the carrot-building with her camera, trying to get a picture of the Apple Family Reunion.  Other than that, I don't think it's been used.

Edited January 7, 2017 by HereComesTom

[Rikifive 24,126]

@@C. Thunder Dash, I see... Nevermind then. Either way, that's all for now. More tracks will be needed with further progress. There's no need to make everything right away.

 

@@HereComesTom, To be honest I'm kinda confused with these perspectives. From one point of view, it would be better to have the entrance on the right - that way the barn would be like you have drawn, which looks better than if that would have to face down I think. However, that will mean that some of the shacks and the entrance to the tree-area may get covered by that barn as it's pretty high... Though actually it shouldn't...?

 

Personally I think, that the perspective like in the concept art would be easier to work with as it's clearly showing the important parts of the map, that are easy to spot for a player. Though the front view of that barn isn't looking really good (at least in my masterpiece), so perhaps giving the other (based on your barn drawing) perspective a try would be good indeed, though honestly I'm not sure.

 

The second screenshot comes from S05E03 ~ somewhere in the middle of the episode.

 

~~~~

 

Mhm, I see. It will be good to put that in a separate map anyway.

[coopster1101 52]

This looks amazing, you seem to have a pretty big following, looks like you have your work cut out for you

[HereComesTom 2,266]

I don't think the show in general is super-consistent about the layout of SAA; take this one for instance from Apple Family Reunion:

 

 

 

SAA show ref 20.bmp

 

 

 

The way the fence is set up...isn't really consistent with the other screenshots in this thread.  I think the best we can hope for is to get something that's 80-90% consistent with the show, since the show is only about 80-90% consistent with itself!

 

Please let me know if you don't think my tentative plan will work, but for now, I'm planning on doing a layout with the entrance on the far right, the shacks on top with a fence behind them, and then the fence goes diagonally from the top of the screen to the barn, with an arch that leads to the orchards in the diagonal part.

 

Of course, having a diagonal arch means you'll needs two separate graphics, not one, to accurately show a pony walking through that arch, so I've split the graphic into two parts:

 

 

 

 

Here's the whole diagonal arch:

 

 

And the left half:

 

 

And the right half:

 

 

 

 

 

I've also made a new shack-graphic to go along the top of the screen:

 

 

 

side-by-side with the original shack graphic for comparison:

     

 

 

 

...Weird question:  the layout I'm proposing gives us the following:  a lot of non-apple crops on-screen, a path to the orchards through the arch, a good view of the well and the shacks, the gazebo if we decide to put it on the lower-left or lower-right, and a path to the carrot-house if we want it.  We could have as much or as little space as we wanted; what's the optimal amount of space?  I'm asking because I'm not sure how much space you'll need for the things you have planned for your game.

 

If you're going to adapt the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy episode, for instance, will you need a lot of space for tents, the cider-wheel, etc.?  Or would that not even be on this screen, since the apple orchards will need to be on the same screen for that scene to really work?

[HereComesTom 2,266]

I've got part of a layout going.  It's not near complete, but I figure that---again--I should get feedback on it early-on.

 

And again---don't feel bad about telling me if anything's wrong with it; I'm making it a point to post this draft early so that, if a course-correction is needed, I can learn that it's needed sooner rather than later:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have kind of a hybrid of your sketch and what I had before; some of the things that were right angles in your drawing are obtuse angles in this layout, and I still have the broad side of the barn showing.

 

I also did something different with the farm's entrance; my first thought was to put the entrance on the right-hand side of the map, and the player character comes into the map horizontally.  But I realized I wanted to re-use* the arch I put together for the entrance to the orchard that's by the barnhouse.  I also knew that the entrance to SAA was kind of...well, concave:  it's like someone bit out a chunk of Sweet Apple Acres' land, and they built a fence around the bite-mark, if you see what I mean.  I ended up making that bit-out chunk the lower-left corner of this map, and then the entrance to SAA ended up being diagonal.

 

This compromise has its advantages; first of all, it makes the screenshots from Season 1 Episode 1 look pretty plausible, as the view Twilight would have from the SAA entrance would have both the protruding house-door and the barn-door on the barnhouse very visible with this layout.  Secondly, if you wanted to have some dialog that's on the threshold of SAA, on the SAA map, but not yet inside the farm proper, then there's some room to have that dialog in that bit-out section.

 

That being said, you know more about your project than I do, so don't be afraid to let me know if changes need to happen, and what those changes are.

 

 

* I need to add more leaves, apples, and a rectangular wooden apple-sign to the arch before it's show-accurate; this is just a preliminary draft.

 

 

EDIT:  don't mind the diagonal fence-bits at the bottom; this is a working copy, and I was using that space in the image-file to edit the diagonal chunks of fencing.  Actually, I don't have much along the lines of solid plans for that area of the map, other than maybe filling it up with rows of carrots/cabbage/corn...

Edited January 12, 2017 by HereComesTom

[Rikifive 24,126]

This looks amazing, you seem to have a pretty big following, looks like you have your work cut out for you

Yeah ~ Even too big in my opinion ~ it kinda worries me considering, that I barely can find some time for myself - I mean working on the game and make some progress myself. I have so many things to do and there's still something, that I owe to community, which will delay the development even more. 

I was worried, that getting a job will ruin my all of my plans and.. I was right.   Silly real life!  :-P

 

Thank you for visiting! 

 

@@HereComesTom, As always - sorry for replying late. I tried to do that earlier, but of course, each time I didn't manage to do it in time as I had to go to work.

As for layouts ~ Yep! The show itself doesn't know how its locations look like. For example the layout of Ponyville changes every time it is shown. Only the Town Hall and its surroundings have a solid layout, though it still slightly changes as well. To this day I have no idea where Twilight's Library is, for example. One time it's on the outskirts of Ponyville, one time it is in the center (there was that one scene with it exploding if I recall correctly). Everything changes dependable on the perspective. They're reusing images pretty often, but if it comes to show something from different perspective, then many things are misplaced.

All we can do is to look at few references and try to come up with the most accurate working layout.

That being said, these first few references on this thread (mainly the first seasons and such) seem to be the most accurate as they're reused in the show very often, so let's stick to them.

 

 

Yep, yep ~ your plan is what I meant ~ rotating the whole layout by 90 degrees. I believe it should work, though I'm not sure. That perspective would allow us to put a nice parallax background with Ponyville* at the top of the map behind the shacks.

* Why Ponyville? According to S02E15, when you'll enter SAA through the main entrance, Ponyville should be on the right. Though it's not confirmed, I'm just assuming. More information later.

 

As for space - the most important thing is to place all objects accurately relative to each other, so you can use as much space as needed as long as it will be more or less accurate to show. I think the best way is to make the objects, place them around and see how spacing looks like. For example if the gaps would be too big (comparing to show), then making the map tighter would be the way to make it look nicer.

 

Regarding Super Speedy Cider Squeezy episode, yes I'll probably adapt it. There will be an arcade-like minigame related to it.

The action takes place in a totally different place ~ somewhere between SAA and Ponyville ~ more on the entrance to pathway leading to SAA.

Something like this I believe:

 

 

 

 

~ Though of course, the pathway is way longer and more curly than in what I drew. But as you can see, there are tree apples in front of SAA, so I believe, that the competition takes place in that area with trees. It's a pretty big place considering, that the pathway is pretty long.

Also when these brothers won the competition, they're telling, that they'll rebuild the barn and stuff - when they're referring to it, there's a transition and then the farm is shown from the front, which can suggest, that they're on that pathway, not directly in SAA or orchards behind it.

That all would make sense I think, but more importantly, it would give us a lot of space to make it all work nicely.

 

And getting back to SAA-Ponyville location relations ~ Assuming, that the pathway more or less leads directly to SAA without changing direction, then Ponyville seems to be on the right according to this screenshot (S02E15):

 

 

 

 

~ hence mentioning Ponyville like this in my first image on this post.

 

---

 

Oh this layout now looks much better, especially the top.

 

Everything looks nice so far ~ if I'd have to suggest something, then I'd prefer making it more show-accurate by doing something like this?

 

 

 

 

Please don't mind the quality and stuff, I was making it in hurry ~ Genereally that would make the map less plain by giving some unique characteristic things in the corners, not just fence. writing this post took me ages and now I have to go to work. 

 

I gotta go, sorries! Hope that helps. x3

Edited January 13, 2017 by Rikifive

[HereComesTom 2,266]

 

 

Please don't mind the quality and stuff, I was making it in hurry ~ Genereally that would make the map less plain by giving some unique characteristic things in the corners, not just fence. writing this post took me ages and now I have to go to work. I gotta go, sorries! Hope that helps. x3

 

 

Just so we're on the same page with this:  there's bushes and trees on the right-hand side acting as an end-of-navigable-map barrier, while those apple trees and bushes are visibly inside the fence?  And the hay-wheels at the top are acting as an end-of-navigable-map barrier, too?

[Rikifive 24,126]

More or less, though don't focus on blocking the borders with prop-barriers. There's always Invisible Wall™.

 

But yes, I've placed them there referring to screenshots ~ while giving them an usage to block these paths.

 

Take a look at this one:

 

 

 

The entrance has fences along its pathway - there's no fence to the right (nor to the left) as there are bushes and trees instead. Doing the same on our map will visually fill the map better, than just fences all over the place. It will give it a more unique look for each part.

 

As for hay-wheels at the top ~ They're visible in the screenshot above and even more clearly in this one:

 

 

As you can see the fence ends near the shack with that different perspective. There are hay-wheels blocking the way. I'm not sure how far they go, but even if we'd leave the space empty, I'd just block the way with the Invisible Wall™. I think it would be obvious for a player, that there's nothing there anyway, considering, that there would be a parallax landscape at the top and stuff.

Heh, and these aren't even hay-wheels ~ just a random piles of hay. Let's say I've derp'd on my edit of your layout ~ I was working quickly.   Anyway we should make it as random as in these screenshots ~ it could be hard to make 'tiles' of these as they're merged with each other, so I think making one big background object would work. Eventually you could leave it up to me, so I'd draw these at the end manually. I think I'll have to see how it all will look like in game first.

 

 

 

Now there's that bottom-right corner with trees - now I see, that I've derp'd. I mean, they're okay~ filling the bottom part like this gives the map more 'fullness' and is of course, accurate to the show layout. However, I drew them too early, if I can say it like this.

In my edit of your layout, there are trees all the way to the entrance, while in screenshots above and this image:

 

 

~ They're not. They need to be drawn further from the entrance.

 

Buuuut as for these trees at the bottom and perhaps the whole top - no need to worry as this is what I'll be toying with myself when I'll be placing objects on game-map. I'll see how it will look like and tweak it to my needs. There are background thingies, that can be made out of drawn-by-you objects, so you can focus on major points of the map. ~ I'll fill the rest. 

Edited January 13, 2017 by Rikifive