My Little Pony: The Game

[HereComesTom 2,266]

You're doing an amazing job, but I have to ask:  do you plan to have the equippable items be like a paper-doll system, so that you can see the ponies wearing them?

I'm hoping I can have a system like that in my game long-term, but I know it'll take years to get that far!

[Rikifive 24,125]

37 minutes ago, Outnick<3 said:

wooooooww nice i want to download it! why i can´t download it? it's still not ready? i wanna play it   sounds fun

Yes, that's because it's not ready yet.  But thank you; I hope we'll get there someday.  

 

26 minutes ago, HereComesTom said:

You're doing an amazing job, but I have to ask:  do you plan to have the equippable items be like a paper-doll system, so that you can see the ponies wearing them?

I'm hoping I can have a system like that in my game long-term, but I know it'll take years to get that far!

That's a good question. I've been wondering on that one for a long time. To be honest, I think I just don't have enough experience in game development to decide, because it's pretty hard for me to imagine that system. I mean, while I totally could implement this, I'm not aware how much work it would require. Ponies are different, so I imagine I'd bump into some difficulties sooner or later -- or perhaps my imagination makes it seem harder that it actually is. Either way, it's tons of extra work for a cosmetic feature, so for now I'll focus on making the game finally playable. I may consider implementing that system in the future. Sure at that point it will require reprogramming things (sprites;animations), but it's nothing new for me. I keep reprogramming things over and over again anyway, constantly improving something.  I need to see how many animations would be there first.

[HereComesTom 2,266]

On 5/20/2018 at 9:05 AM, Rikifive said:

Yes, that's because it's not ready yet.  But thank you; I hope we'll get there someday.  

 

That's a good question. I've been wondering on that one for a long time. To be honest, I think I just don't have enough experience in game development to decide, because it's pretty hard for me to imagine that system. I mean, while I totally could implement this, I'm not aware how much work it would require. Ponies are different, so I imagine I'd bump into some difficulties sooner or later -- or perhaps my imagination makes it seem harder that it actually is. Either way, it's tons of extra work for a cosmetic feature, so for now I'll focus on making the game finally playable. I may consider implementing that system in the future. Sure at that point it will require reprogramming things (sprites;animations), but it's nothing new for me. I keep reprogramming things over and over again anyway, constantly improving something.  I need to see how many animations would be there first.

I suppose it depends on how you'd implement it; if you angled everything so that it made sense to draw the head overtop of the body, and if you had a system where there was one visible item on the head and one on the body, then it'd probably be easy:  the order of operations would be:  draw pony body > draw body-item > draw pony head > draw pony head-item.

That's assuming the head-item would always make sense to be drawn on top of the head:  a necklace might not work because half the necklace would be behind the head and half in front of it, but most hats would hold up to this.

[Rikifive 24,125]

Yep, exactly.

but..

2 hours ago, HereComesTom said:

That's assuming the head-item would always make sense to be drawn on top of the head:  a necklace might not work because half the necklace would be behind the head and half in front of it, but most hats would hold up to this.

This.

That's one of the things I had in mind when saying, that I could bump into difficulties.
For necklaces.. I think I'd have to design its look separately for each pony, due to their different manes and stuff.

 

Either way, it's all doable, but I'd have to cover all frames (sometimes all ponies) for every single item - so that's why I'd like to see how many animations would be there in total. 

[EclipseNightshade 26]

OHHHH things are happening!

I know you get this a lot but, very nice job on everything you've done thus far. I know I offered to help with programming a fair bit ago, but it's looking like you don't really need it XD. Seriously tho, if you ever need help feel free to ask

 

Cheers, and keep up the good work!

[Rikifive 24,125]

A lot maybe not Either way every single comment is appreciated, so there is never enough of that. Thank you very much!

Heh, there are some things that I don't know, but I learn as I go. Sometimes I need someone to point me the right direction though, especially when it comes to make something in the most optimized way, as it's hard to tell that by yourself, because there are pretty much endless possibilities. Nevertheless, when it comes to code, it needs to be something I understand, so that's why I prefer to learn and make it on my own. Though if you wouldn't mind some questions from time to time, it would always be nice to have that one more opinion/idea.

 

Thank you once again!

[Lillyflower 2]

On 9/3/2016 at 10:17 PM, KrazyDashie said:

this looks really interesting! o.o I cant wait to see more

When is this available for ipad

 

[Guest]

So Riki, when will a playable demo be available to the public?

[Rikifive 24,125]

8 hours ago, Key Sharkz said:

So Riki, when will a playable demo be available to the public?

Not anytime soon I'm afraid. 
There are still tons and tons of things to do and my job doesn't let me work on it as much as I used to at the beginning. Because of that and the upcoming end of 4th generation, I started to worry, that I'll never manage to get it far, that everypony will leave before I'll be able to proudly present it to the public. For that reason I temporarily paused this project and started a new, smaller one, which I think will come to 'life' much sooner. It's a 2D ponified platformer shooter that, as the others keep mentioning, is similar to "Megaman" and "Cave Story". I've got most of the gameplay mechanics done by far, and it's already more than I have in this RPG.

So I guess there are some good and some bad news... The thing is, that I'd love to release 'anything' before it will be too late. What kind of game developer am I if the only things I share are images and gifs. 

Once I'll feel fulfilled, I'll come back and continue step by step.

It all kinda bothers me, I'll be doing my best.. Sorry if this answer is disappointing. I'm kinda disappointed myself too.

[Shadow Nightwing 24]

This is pretty impressive!

 

[emma_22 30]

you are actuall right to worry.but there are great people here with great talents.so...no matter where we live,no one can succeed if we do not help each other. 

[Thorgir the Mighty 736]

Is this for IOS? I must know!

[Guest]

On 7/7/2018 at 9:11 PM, Rikifive said:

Not anytime soon I'm afraid. 
There are still tons and tons of things to do and my job doesn't let me work on it as much as I used to at the beginning. Because of that and the upcoming end of 4th generation, I started to worry, that I'll never manage to get it far, that everypony will leave before I'll be able to proudly present it to the public. For that reason I temporarily paused this project and started a new, smaller one, which I think will come to 'life' much sooner. It's a 2D ponified platformer shooter that, as the others keep mentioning, is similar to "Megaman" and "Cave Story". I've got most of the gameplay mechanics done by far, and it's already more than I have in this RPG.

So I guess there are some good and some bad news... The thing is, that I'd love to release 'anything' before it will be too late. What kind of game developer am I if the only things I share are images and gifs. 

Once I'll feel fulfilled, I'll come back and continue step by step.

It all kinda bothers me, I'll be doing my best.. Sorry if this answer is disappointing. I'm kinda disappointed myself too.

Hey, that is part of the industry, you know? Sometimes you work on a game for so long and the fanbase moves on before you can release it. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

[Rikifive 24,125]

On 7/8/2018 at 8:02 AM, Shadow Nightwing said:

This is pretty impressive!

 

Thank you!

6 hours ago, emma_22 said:

you are actuall right to worry.but there are great people here with great talents.so...no matter where we live,no one can succeed if we do not help each other. 

If not job... Perhaps you all could play at least the first parts of the game by now. 

6 hours ago, Thorgir the Mighty said:

Is this for IOS? I must know!

To my knowledge, it should work on Windows, Mac and Ubuntu. It could be released on many other platforms as well, including IOS, but these would require additional licences, that are not cheap. 

6 hours ago, Key Sharkz said:

Hey, that is part of the industry, you know? Sometimes you work on a game for so long and the fanbase moves on before you can release it. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

Nevertheless I want to try to be in time, if not with this, then with something else. Then I'll be working on things 'peacefully'. 

We'll see how it goes. 

[AJ2489 2,855]

This looks awesome!!!

[Rikifive 24,125]

18 minutes ago, Thorgir the Mighty said:

Dang it!                       

Yeah sorry about that. Personally I would be interested in releasing a mobile version of the game, but heh...

3 minutes ago, AJ2489 said:

This looks awesome!!!

Thank you! 

[FARG2003 31]

It looks awesome, so as the art, great job!

[HereComesTom 2,266]

Don't worry too much about G-4 ending before you're done with this; this fandom probably won't die that quickly.  I, for one, plan to keep working on Weather Factory Meltdown for as long as it takes, partly because I've thought of plenty of non-MLP-related things I can do with the engine one WFM is done, and partly because I know it's got the potential to be awesome

I know I'll sure stick around to see the final product.  But I don't expect I'll be the only one who does, not by a long shot!

[Rikifive 24,125]

Some people seem to leave already, so it doesn't give optimistic thoughts.  But yes, you're right. The works could be used for something else afterwards, so it's not like it would be completely wasted if I'd be too late or something.  

Thank you for your input.  

[Phoenix123 7]

That Looks Awsome Keep Up The Good Work Sport

[EclipseNightshade 26]

Even if nothing gets released from this project, at the very least this was a huge learning experience for yuh. Game development takes a lot of time, sometimes too much time. All the more if you want to make a good game, and/or you’re making this on a minute amount of free time. That’s the thing most people don’t understand about game development. All you can really do is your best, really. Which from what I’ve seen, is exactly what you’ve done, Riki. As long as you’re proud of what you’ve accomplished so far, then that’s a massive win in my book.

 

I guess my only criticism is on the next project you should try to be a little less critical of your work, so that you aren’t re-doing things over and over again. From my understanding, you seem to have put this project through development hell which stems from the developer never really feeling satisfied with their work. I’ve done this with one of my projects, and it’s gone absolutely nowhere because of it. This is also one of the reasons I offered to help you so many times. Having multiple people on a project really helps to define a project’s direction and really gets the ball rolling in that direction. And this effect only grows exponentially with the scale of the project.

 

That all said, I think there’s still plenty of time to finish your game as a sort of tribute to gen4 at the very least. The start of gen5 definitely won’t be a brick wall, so to speak, where anything and everything gen4 must cease development. So you have well over a year to finish this if you feel it’s worth the investment. In either case, fantastic work m8. I’m eager to see what you have next!

[Rikifive 24,125]

It takes tons of time indeed. Doing pretty much everything on your own from scratch is an incredible challenge. This is the very first project I have ever created, I basically started the whole adventure having this game in mind, started as a complete 'noob'.   I learned soooo many things along with its development, mainly programming-wise, that's why I kept redoing things over and over again. Everybody says, "Start small, don't be too ambitious in the first projects" - Yet I just had the idea I wanted to stick to. The further I went, the more I realized what they meant - I constantly felt a need to improve the silly things I came up with whenever I was getting better at this... But for the first time I think I can say, that I'm really proud of the recent progress I've made here - while these latest designs are not perfect in my view, I am truly happy with the results and I think I'd be on the good path with all the menus and whatsoever from now on. I don't feel like thinking of changes anymore - it's good enough. -- maybe except the overworld screen, I'm aiming to come up with another HUD already.

I haven't really accomplished much yet, as I just have some silly games (more like science) on my account, but I don't have any regrets. It was, and still is an exciting experience.  

The real problem-- and pretty much the only problem is my real life job. I began working on games when I was jobless - I used that time to learn as much as I could, I worked on things for many hours (even all day) almost every single day. Nowadays though, having the time split like this, I'm having difficulties to find the motivation. Afternoon shifts only are inconvenient, I often have to stay longer than 8 hours at work, which wrecks my plans and mood, generally having small gaps of free time - it all is demotivating, hence my major performance drop, comparing to how fast I used to progress back then.  That makes me feel terrible for everything, because this project seem to have gathered way more interest than it deserves - and I truly don't understand why. Apparently the presentation sounds promising, but personally at the moment I see it all as promises I'm not sure I'll be able to keep... And what bothers me is, that I'm afraid some people see it that way too...

However, I don't want to give up, not entirely at least. This project requires tons of work and even more time, so I started to worry, that I simply won't make it. I don't really want to end up with nothing, so I started a smaller side-project, a platformer, which requires much less work than an RPG. It's going relatively well and I hope, that I'll finish it "in time", if I could say so. Also this time I decided to wait with making a thread, though couldn't resist sharing few things in blogs.

Finally having my contribution to the community would make me feel better and then I'd be able to work further on this RPG, no matter how well it would go.

You are right - working in team itself gives the motivation and is good in general. I really appreciate your desire to help, but it seems like out of all aspects of game dev, coding is the least problem.  Even I can't really code myself, because I'm blocked by other parts, such as art - the lack of it.

Now that you mentioned that, the upcoming end of G4 is another thing, that bothers me and what encouraged me to switch to a smaller project first. Either way, no matter how my projects will go, I will be working on things until I'll be satisfied with something. I definitely don't want to give up - MLP inspired me to get into game development and I won't stop until I'll make a ponified game I'd be proud of. This is my destiny! 

 

Thank you very much for everything you have said. I truly appreciate your kind words and support in general. I only hope to not disappoint any of you, nor myself. I'm doing a pretty much poor job with game dev so far, that's true, but I look forward to finally getting somewhere. 

[EclipseNightshade 26]

Heh, since you put it that way, the way you took in this project sounds a lot like how I took on my first project.

 

It’s good to hear you still haven’t quit on this. Can’t wait to see what’s next

[HereComesTom 2,266]

On 9/5/2018 at 12:33 AM, Rikifive said:

It takes tons of time indeed. Doing pretty much everything on your own from scratch is an incredible challenge. This is the very first project I have ever created, I basically started the whole adventure having this game in mind, started as a complete 'noob'.   I learned soooo many things along with its development, mainly programming-wise, that's why I kept redoing things over and over again. Everybody says, "Start small, don't be too ambitious in the first projects" - Yet I just had the idea I wanted to stick to. The further I went, the more I realized what they meant - I constantly felt a need to improve the silly things I came up with whenever I was getting better at this...

I can definitely relate; I'm slowly adding things onto Weather Factory Meltdown's engine and editor (the editor is what's slowing me down so much, IMO).  And sometimes I discover that things I thought were small were actually much larger, like I wanted to add customizable items to my game engine---and then realized that, if I'm to add consumable items, then I need to have a buffs system in my game, too, which massively cranked up the scope on that idea :/ 

Just keep at it; you'll end up with something good---trust me!  And I, for one, am going to be patient, partly because I can relate so well!

[Rikifive 24,125]

4 hours ago, HereComesTom said:

I can definitely relate; I'm slowly adding things onto Weather Factory Meltdown's engine and editor (the editor is what's slowing me down so much, IMO).  And sometimes I discover that things I thought were small were actually much larger, like I wanted to add customizable items to my game engine---and then realized that, if I'm to add consumable items, then I need to have a buffs system in my game, too, which massively cranked up the scope on that idea :/ 

Just keep at it; you'll end up with something good---trust me!  And I, for one, am going to be patient, partly because I can relate so well!

Yeah making editor or generally something, that needs to be user-friendly and offer customization takes a lot of time.  

I will, thanks - and good luck to you too!