My Little Pony: The Game

[Rikifive 23,480]

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 23,480]

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 2,232]

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 23,480]

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!  

[Winter Breeze 16]

Phew, I have finally tracked down something from this game...

Hehe, I have been following you since the post on the RPG Maker Forums and only now have I finally found another trace of your game. I would like to say that I think that you should definitely keep working on this. Surely it is hard to document every episode of MLP in one game, but think of it this way. The MLP fandom will survive and if G4 ends, then you won't have to worry about constantly having to update every time a new episode comes out. But I guess then we wouldn't have anymore pony material. Anyway, while I encourage you to take a break every once in a while, I would like to implore you to be persistent developing the RPG. I, myself, have tried to develop many different game ideas. I too, at times, have strayed to go work on other projects since the first might not work and I just want to release something, similar to your condition. But yet, it becomes easier to forget your original project. Soon, one day, you may find the project in your files, and find it hard to remember its purpose. I am not trying to be offensive ot anything, but try to keep it in your mind that it is there and that you may have to work on it at some point. You can release your platformer, but please remember this one. There have been quite a few projects in the past which have disappeared from existence because the game dev forgot about them.

Anyway, that's all I have to say. Please don't be mad at me. I just really like this idea and I would really like it to exist. Also, for a while I though the project was dead until I found this forum post, so seeing it has made me rather excited, now knowing that it still is being worked on (mostly in time though).

[HereComesTom 2,232]

On 10/27/2018 at 10:09 PM, Winter Breeze said:

Anyway, while I encourage you to take a break every once in a while, I would like to implore you to be persistent developing the RPG. I, myself, have tried to develop many different game ideas. I too, at times, have strayed to go work on other projects since the first might not work and I just want to release something, similar to your condition. But yet, it becomes easier to forget your original project. Soon, one day, you may find the project in your files, and find it hard to remember its purpose.

I'm balancing my own long-term project against other coding projects, like learning Android or Ionic.  What I do is I work one week on my long-term MLP project, and the next week on another project, then back to MLP after another week, back to the secondary project after that, etc.

It seems to be working okay for me so far.

[Midnight Solace 5,129]

@RikifiveWhoa, this looks great man.

I can tell this had alot of hard work put into it. 

I wish I could make pony games as well, but I'm not as good as programming as you are. 

Again, great job and keep up the good work!

[horror_n_oates 71]

@Rikifive Just my honest thoughts and what I learned from experience, hopefully it helps.

I can definitely relate on juggling a job and irl matters all the while focusing on game development, in all honesty it can be incredibly stressful and sometimes it can ask too much of us. It can also be incredibly frustrating to not be able to deliver on certain things, be that lack of knowledge (coding, etc), or assets.

It's a bit of a balancing act, but sometimes it's probably best to take a step back and reevaluate what you're doing and when necessary- compromise.

It also largely depends on how you work though, find what's best for you.

In terms of the end of G4, there may or may not be a dip in relevance, but it certainly will be the end of an era, but I find it's best to not see the show as a giver of deadlines as that's not the best for development without a clear-cut plan.

Again, hope it helps.

[Rikifive 23,480]

On 10/28/2018 at 3:09 AM, Winter Breeze said:

Phew, I have finally tracked down something from this game...

(...)

Mad? Why should I be mad?  It's actually the other way around, I appreciate your interest.

I don't think I'll be ever able to forget about this project. It is my very first project I have ever started and this is the reason I've got myself into game development in the first place. Literally, MLP inspired me to give things a try - to approach these seriously - it gave me these hobbies. There may be times where I'll be switching from one project to another, where I may be taking breaks from game dev, but I'll never forget about this project. That's true, that with each day the code I wrote will look more confusing once I'll get back to it, but I keep my code relatively organized, so with time I should be able to get back on track. So in the end I'm not worried about forgetting about this project, I actually keep thinking about it, mostly while I'm at work.

The problem is with the execution - the motivation. I admit the job made me kind of lazy - I get back home, I feel tired, the amount of free time is not enough to start a productive session (I really dislike working in tiny parts - like an hour / day ). I constantly have to count my time, pause in the middle if it gets late (then wonder where I left and what I was supposed to do) and on top of that, there's my brother who keeps poking me to do something together, thus from some point of view encourage me to procrastinate.  

So... Even if the progress is terribly disappointing to everyone, including me, I don't have plans to abandon this project. It will always be my first project that I'll have to get done, sooner or later. I wish I could allocate way more time into game development, like I used to before I got a job. There are so many things I'd love to do, yet so little of time.

6 hours ago, Midnight Solace said:

@RikifiveWhoa, this looks great man.

I can tell this had alot of hard work put into it. 

I wish I could make pony games as well, but I'm not as good as programming as you are. 

Again, great job and keep up the good work!

Why, thank you. 

Oh it all takes ages, that's for sure. 

Nobody was great from the beginning.  If you're interested in game development, I encourage you to consider giving it a try someday. I know programming may look like some extremely complicated science, but it just looks like that at the beginning.

Will do what I can, thank you. 

1 hour ago, horror_n_oates said:

@Rikifive Just my honest thoughts and what I learned from experience, hopefully it helps.

(...)

Oh yes, it's always easier to imagine, than actually make it.

I tend to get stuck somewhere once in a while, but with time there's always a solution in the end, so it's all okay there. It's just that constant feeling of being rushed, that seems to be problematic for me. Programming and the other tasks require time and patience - I can't fully enjoy it when I keep watching the clock, counting every minute, hence why I tend to end up doing nothing. 

1 hour ago, horror_n_oates said:

In terms of the end of G4, there may or may not be a dip in relevance, but it certainly will be the end of an era, but I find it's best to not see the show as a giver of deadlines as that's not the best for development without a clear-cut plan.

I was thinking about this before and I came to the conclusion, that many people will probably leave the community at some point, but the game and all other fanworks will have their own life. People may bump into these one day anyway and/or perhaps will be coming back once in a while.

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

---

P.S. It's 9:34 AM for me and I'll be going to sleep now - Sorry if there are any typos or other disasters; I'm just tired.

[HelloJinxie 28]

I literally created an account to ask if this game is still in development. It looks good so far and I wanna play it!

[Rikifive 23,480]

It is still in the works, though the development is currently paused. I don't want to call this game 'dead', because I hope to get back to it one day.

The insane amount of work required made me worried, so I decided to start a smaller project, that has higher chances for seeing the light. It still goes rather slow and I blame my job for that, as it drastically slowed it all down.

You can read more about the other project there.

 

Sorry if it is disappointing.

Thank you for kind words though. I wish I had tons of free time like I used to when I started all of this.

[Deadsorry 23]

I very much hope this still isn't dead, really want to play it! 

[Rikifive 23,480]

Happy to hear you're interested, although sadly I don't have good news.  Well I don't want to say it's completely dead, but currently I have other projects in the works (mainly pony metroidvania). 

Oh.. I can't believe it's been years already and I don't have anything done in the end.  This particular project holds many good memories though and I'm still interested in making a game of that genre, so hopefully maybe one day it will see the light of day, at least as a small demo or something... 

[Deadsorry 23]

1 minute ago, Rikifive said:

Happy to hear you're interested, although sadly I don't have good news.  Well I don't want to say it's completely dead, but currently I have other projects in the works (mainly pony metroidvania). 

Oh.. I can't believe it's been years already and I don't have anything done in the end.  This particular project holds many good memories though and I'm still interested in making a game of that genre, so hopefully maybe one day it will see the light of day, at least as a small demo or something... 

As long as it isn't completely gone, it can always be added to! Don't give up hope! I mean I try to write, and wouldn't be as far as I am if I did give up! 

[Rikifive 23,480]

55 minutes ago, Caotic said:

As long as it isn't completely gone, it can always be added to! Don't give up hope!

Yep! I still have all the files and whatsoever, as well as backups, so it's not going anywhere!  I keep in mind getting back to it someday, but for now I have higher priority projects to work on, that still don't get enough attention from me, heh.  

Corona boi threw me out of track back in March, I took a break for several reasons - a break that apparently has lasted for a year now, but I did few things once in a while though.  It's a new year, so I "plan" to fix my sleeping schedule soon (having troubles will sleeping and afternoon shifts only don't make it easier) and try to organize my time better. Easier said than done though, hah, but we'll see.

1 hour ago, Caotic said:

I mean I try to write, and wouldn't be as far as I am if I did give up! 

Nice nice! And that's the spirit, keep it up!  I hope everything goes well for you and your works! 

[Deadsorry 23]

Life makes everything complicated, we either deal with it. or make it deal with us!

We can only hope so, until we can do so!

[Trot Shuffle 3,581]

@Rikifive Please never give up making games! This one looks like a lot of fun @Rikifives Answer agrees with me

 

[Rikifive 23,480]

On 2024-03-02 at 5:40 AM, Trot Shuffle said:

@Rikifive Please never give up making games! This one looks like a lot of fun @Rikifives Answer agrees with me

 

Yeah about that... heh, I wish I could say that. 

There's so much I'd love to do, if only the life would slow down. 

~but thanks, I appreciate that.