Battle Gem Ponies - A Pony Tamer RPG

It's lovely, darling! (Fanart, Fanfics, Pony or not Pony. If you're creative, post here!)

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YotesGames
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Magfest Demo Hotfix!

Post by YotesGames (?) » Sun Feb 12, 2023 12:13 am

👴⚙️💬
NEW New Patch is Out!! [0.5.6]

The hardly-tested new feature we added in the previous hotfix completely broke VS Mode Functionality with a Null Ref error that leaves the game in a locked up state with the wrong UI as soon as you get into battle.
  • VS Matches Are in an Unplayable State No Longer!
  • General Settings Page has been Added to Options Menu
  • Text Speed Control Option is Functional
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Backer Rewards (Wave 1): Complete! [New Merch Shop on RedBubble]

Post by YotesGames (?) » Thu Feb 16, 2023 9:45 pm

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Everyone who ordered Add-Ons from the BGP Kickstarter should've gotten some special stuff  in the mail recently, or can at least expect it to show up before March 1st.

(If not, double check your address listed on Kickstarter and let ol' Tony Yotes know if there's been a mixup.)

It's been so nice to see the posts of people opening up their packages and we can't wait for the next wave with all the international ones and the PILE of T-Shirts to come!


With this stage of order fulfillment complete we're also free to let the ol' Shopify site hibernate for a while. It's currently been burning fuel in the company wallet for a while, we'd basically need to sell at least 2 shirts a month to keep it sustained, but that's not been happening for at least a year now. So we're changing things up to a more sustainable model where folks who really want it can still get it, without any extra cost to the YotesMark studio!
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Our New RedBubble Shop is where you can get BGP merch from now on!

(Which is nice because they handle all the orders, inventory, and shipping stuff so we don't have to pay up and reach out to different websites every time an order is placed. 😁)

Just pop over there and see all the crazy stuff they've got with our ponies' faces on 'em. It's a greater variety of stuff than we could ever manage by ourselves! 
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And you can expect a lot more where that came from once the other T-Shirt designs are done and the game is finally out there. 

In the meantime, thanks for making all this possible by following the development of Battle Gem Ponies!
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Re: Battle Gem Ponies - A Pony Tamer RPG

Post by YotesGames (?) » Thu Mar 09, 2023 4:56 pm

An exciting new Progress Report is here!
March 2023 Progress Report (Ponies Under Construction 👷)

Gearing up to animate some new ponies for you to catch and battle with! 🐎
Check it out on the YotesMark Patreon!

patreon.com/YotesMark
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Spritework WIP

Post by YotesGames (?) » Mon Apr 03, 2023 11:37 pm

​One of the main priorities of the game is making each pony character expressive and visually interesting. We want people to connect with them. 🐴💖
Each pony is meant to be someone's favorite for multiple reasons, gameplay related or otherwise.
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Pony Sprite Rigs! (The Menagerie Breakdown)

Post by YotesGames (?) » Mon Apr 17, 2023 11:16 pm

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New MEGAPOST about each of the pony sprites is up on our Kickstarter & Patreon pages! 🌟
https://www.patreon.com/YotesMark
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June BGP Progress Report (Sprites, Camera... ACTION!)

Post by YotesGames (?) » Tue Jun 06, 2023 6:54 pm

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Our biggest accomplishments this past month have been an improved animation pipeline and a functioning cutscene system.

2 ENORMOUS steps forward (despite the Great Zelda Distraction 😅 )

The June BGP Progress Report has just landed!  (So you can read all about it) 

Get ready for "Sprites, Camera... ACTION!  📽️🦄"
https://www.patreon.com/YotesMark
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Re: Battle Gem Ponies - A Pony Tamer RPG

Post by YotesGames (?) » Sun Jul 02, 2023 8:57 am

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Gears have shifted towards the tasks weighing us down. Luckily, we've made great headway and both the story and the tools to make it are really coming together!💡

Come read the July 2023 Progress Report (The Makings of a Story 📖), now Live on Patreon!🗞️
https://patreon.com/YotesMark
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TrotCon 2023

Post by YotesGames (?) » Wed Jul 12, 2023 4:38 pm

TrotCon was amazing!



Tons of new people are now interested in the game, our Discord numbers have shot up 15%, over a hundred people downloaded the demo, we gathered lots of feedback to further improve the game and booth setups, we caught the eye of some pretty large streamers, finally met some BGP community members face-to-face, and we made a handful of valuable contacts to collab with someday. 📈
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August 2023 Progress Report (Battle Gem Ponies LITE 💡📱)

Post by YotesGames (?) » Sat Aug 05, 2023 2:03 pm

​​
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BGP Progress Report time!

New maps, bug squashin', giant vehicles, conventions, & overworld effects.


Got 11 headlines for ya, so come see how things are going in gamedev as Summer comes to a close, over on Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/YotesMark

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The next Progress Report will be at the end of September. And hopefully with tons of exciting news! (Like when the Alpha will finally arrive)
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Back From Everfree Northwest 2023!

Post by YotesGames (?) » Thu Aug 17, 2023 7:41 pm

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Love how the #BattleGemPonies #everfreenorthwest booth turned out 💜

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This man was fixing bugs LIVE ON THE SHOW FLOOR!! #EFNW #Convention

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By Day 3 we had the super nice & new cutscene/tutorial build working and took careful notes on how different players explored it.​​
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The Big Fat Kickstarter 2nd Anniversary Writeup! 🎊

Post by YotesGames (?) » Sun Sep 03, 2023 6:40 am

[media]https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/042/16 ... 841352db0e[/media]

It's officially been 2 years since the Kickstarter now and the Battle Gem Ponies dev team is happy to see things finally taking shape!

There's a celebration/progress report post on our Patreon blog to commemorate the occasion: https://www.patreon.com/posts/big-fat-2nd-88688631
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The Big Fat Kickstarter 2nd Anniversary Writeup! 🎊

Post by YotesGames (?) » Sun Sep 03, 2023 6:41 am

[media]https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/042/16 ... 148004be2b[/media]

One of the main design goals for Battle Gem Ponies is making the choice between these three for your first transformation an excruciating decision.

Very early on in your adventure, you'll come across a strange old woman beckoning you to take one of 3 mysterious, colorful, vision-inducing stones that your buddy Ponatina will have an interesting reaction to...
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Unity Fees Won't Stop Us

Post by YotesGames (?) » Tue Sep 19, 2023 6:46 pm

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We've been getting messages from Battle Gem Ponies backers with worries that the Unity Per-Install Fee could delay or even cancel the project. Here to say now, that won't happen. ❌

Not only are we expecting to not come close to the 1M downloads & dollars a year mark to trigger it, but this project's been through way worse hardships than an engine change over the years. We'll do what we've gotta do to make BGP a reality and not allow a greedy company to bankrupt us with poorly thought out monetization schemes. 💸

Especially in order for us to keep the promises made to every person who supported this Pony RPG dream with their own hard-earned money! 🦄
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New Backer Preview Demo Went LIVE!

Post by YotesGames (?) » Sun Oct 01, 2023 6:15 pm

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That September Demo we promised is finally here! 🤩
Grab a Backers-Only Password from the post on Kickstarter or Patreon to play it right away! [ https://www.patreon.com/YotesMark ] ⭐
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Almost November Already, Huh?

Post by YotesGames (?) » Mon Oct 30, 2023 12:35 am

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Enough messin' around. We're charting a course to get Battle Gem Ponies out in Five Months (or collapse trying). Here's details on how we intend to pull that off.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/almost-november-91825382
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The Countdown Continues...⌛

Post by YotesGames (?) » Tue Jan 02, 2024 3:37 am

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This is it... this is the year #BattleGemPonies comes out... My entire #gamedev life has led to the number 2024 being on the title screen of my high school #ponymon dream game 🦄🎮

- Got 120 days left to make it happen! 😤🚀
#NewYearsResolution
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Progress Report: Final Crunchdown [Part 2/5]​

Post by YotesGames (?) » Mon Jan 15, 2024 10:01 pm

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The latest and greatest progress report has arrived! As of the 15th of January, it's officially the end of Map Month! That means ALL the maps are IN the game!

Well, the 1st draft unconfigured foundations at least. But you can SEE them!

(All that's left now is to polish them up, replace the placeholders, sprinkle some characters around, put the story together with cutscenes...)

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Foundations are set for all 600+ rooms you'll be exploring once the game comes out. Take a peek at what's going into them with the Patreon Update below:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/progress-report-96548962
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Progress Report: Final Crunchdown [Part 3/5]

Post by YotesGames (?) » Fri Feb 23, 2024 5:16 pm

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The pieces are coming together one-by-one as each map gets fleshed out. But it'll still be a little while before it's considered to be in a "playable" state. Check it all out in the latest BGP Progress Report!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/progress-report-99080476

Really looking forward to seeing people run around all these maps! I wonder what things will captivate people's exploration instincts most... There's going to be branching paths to let you do things "out of order", different ways to get certain ponies on your roster early, countless customizations by the time you reach the end of Act 1 of 3 and (if I do my job right) lots of fun and memorable moments around every corner!
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Re: Battle Gem Ponies - A Pony Tamer RPG

Post by YotesGames (?) » Fri Mar 22, 2024 11:49 pm

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RIP to the Relic Castle forums...

Was shocked to see it wasn't up anymore when I went to share an update.
I've been posting updates to the Battle Gem Ponies project over there since long before the Kickstarter and shift from fangame to indie game.
*********************************************
Just working on a cool new Pokemon-inspired indie project called Battle Gem Ponies :-I

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