• Game: Between Dusk and Dawn


    Another JRPG Style pony game is on the horizon! This one totally uses a Scootaloo as a cursor, making it the GREATEST POSSIBLE JRPG... kind of.

    Right now, its still very much in it's alpha stages, without any actual animations.  Check out the video demonstration, as well as full informative copy paste after the break!

    Or you can hit up the Ponychan Thread / Forum post about it.

    This is my personal project of the last 6 months or so. I'm hoping it branches out into a group project instead.

    MLP Between Dusk and Dawn (not totally dead set on the title) is a JRPG built with my own custom engine. It is not made with game maker, or RPG maker, or anything like that. This means I have no limits beyond what I'm willing to spend the time implementing. Furthermore, the game's battle system is of my own design; it is not a generic turn based one ripped out of final fantasy you can see anywhere. There are no in-battle cinematics or huge menus. The game is 100% realtime and simultaneous. All abilities can be selected with 2 button presses, for fast and easy gameplay. You will ideally not be spamming a single button and occasionally healing; not in this game. I will also be making every effort to have there be more to battles than just reducing your enemy's hit points to zero; puzzle bosses will be the order of the day.

    Story wise, this will not be a crossover (atma weapon's just for fun) and ideally would not seem out of place in the show proper, barring the extra cartoon violence. It won't be all serious all the time; far from it. There will also be a minimum of OCs, and no OOC moments to push the story forward.

    But that's a lot of "is going to" and "will." To actually make it a reality, I need help, mostly from visual artists. There's a lot of content to make and I don't want to spend a century doing it. If you're confident in your abilities and want to work your rump off for a few months, come help me out!

    Further information about the game and what kind of help I need is on my forum, and in the ponychan thread. Try out the demo, and come help me make a real game out of it.




    42 comments:

    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Confound these ponies! They drive me to play game genres I detest! With that aside, I wonder what Yahtzee from Zero punctuation would think of some of these games.....

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    3. "Sethisto stole Trixie's magic"
      That explains EVERYTHING.

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    4. The one from a little bit ago looks a lot better.

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    5. Is it bad I'm more excited about a pony rpg than final fantasy 13-2?

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    6. Lot's of RPGs it looks like, I'm not really a fan of RPGs, although I might try them if it's pony.

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    7. @Kevster
      Not at all. FFXIII was terrible.

      @Sunset Sprinkles
      Agreed.

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    8. @ftfc
      Not just FF13, but most FFs lately have been less than memorable.

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    9. Seth give back Trixies magic asap, you saw how angry she was in the last post D:

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    10. Not to be a party pooper, but the author of this RPG is basically posting and bragging about a game that doesn't existst yet, and probably never will.

      He specifically joined Ponychan to get people to do all the hard work (graphics, effects, backgrounds, music, EVERYTHING) for him, and if you have visited Ponychan you already should be familiar of -how- that kind of requests always end up and why.

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    11. So what is that, four pony RPGs now?

      Not nearly enough.

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    12. Scootaloo as a cursor? Genius!

      Alpha/beta testing, here I come!!

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    13. @Maneko
      If YOU had read my ponychan thread, you'd see just how much I am asking for. Hint: Far from everything.

      What I need help with is graphics. Coding, music, writing, etc is covered. Whilst I'll accept help with those, they are not actively being asked for.

      Everything I "bragged" about exists. Namely, the game engine itself. I'm banking a lot on potential, yes, but if I had everything done already I wouldn't be asking for help; I'd be releasing a game.





      To everyone else, I do ask you look past the shoddy placeholder graphics and critique the game engine itself. As Seth said, it's quite alpha. I very much appreciate criticisms toward the battle system; it's experimental. With work, it'll be unique... and for the record I'LL be doing work on that, not you :) Feedback helps though.

      I've made a game engine and have started making content. I just need help making it look pretty. That's all.

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    14. It's a shame I really suck at RPGs, otherwise I'd have a lot to look forward to. There needs to be more adventure game projects.

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    15. What limitations of RPG-maker type engines are you talking about? I've seen absolutely stunning RPG maker games. Developing a game is usually such a huge amount of work that time would be better devoted to creating artwork, music, storyline and balancing gameplay than replicating features, 99% of which are available in existing engines. Especially if you are working alone or in small group.

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    16. I played this and beat the optional boss, he was tough as ****. great game.

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    17. How many attacks/abilities will you get for each of the mane 6? And how does speed factor into the game play?

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    18. @Shantara
      I'm aware RPG maker games can be quite awesome, but getting the engine to do what you want would not take less time than doing what I just did. Besides, knowing my way around how absolutely everything works makes it MUCH easier to add well, whatever I want. No need to scroll through docs when everything is in your head :)


      @ombetescentdin
      Current plan is 4 offensive and 4 support abilities. Might give more, as I've already coded in the ability to have up to 12 of each type.

      Speed determines how fast your turn comes up. Rainbow Dash always goes first because her speed's the highest, unless of course you stick a bunch of speed on twilight or rarity and none on her during leveling up.

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    19. @Kaijyuu:
      What I saw on Ponychan was you saying this:

      "What I need right now is mainly spriters and visual artists in general. I'm but a dabbling visual artist myself, and there's a lot of content to make. If you're confident in your abilities and want to work your rump off for a few months, come on and help!

      Past that, I could use somepony for sound effects (surprisingly difficult to come up with good ones). Later I'll start asking for composers and story editors."

      You came out emptyhanded and asked others to take care of everything. No matter how you try to reword it to make it sound less as a massive request, these are your words, not mine.

      At least you should have tried making your own graphics for the demo instead of using placeholder graphics and leaving everything to fate.

      Also, as it was pointed out, your custom game engine is nearly unplayable because of it's confusing controls, exagerated speed and annoying quirks, as the characters can kill themselves because of the bad coding.

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    20. @Maneko

      Look, dude. I'll accept criticism. Please tone down the vitriol, though.

      The other things I can indeed, do myself. I'd rather not, but hey. I can even do graphics; it's just that will take a lot of time. I can come back this summer with an hour demo, all drawn AND coded by yours truly, but I'd rather come back this summer with a full game, coded by me and drawn by other people. Are you faulting me for trying? :( Am I not allowed to ask for help before being nearly done?



      You know what? Even if I don't get help, I'm continuing this project. You'll see that hour demo this summer. I'm not lazy and wanting people to do things for me. I'm pragmatic.


      As for the problems you mentioned, I'm not ignoring that criticism. I don't have my head stuck up my bum. I'm highly appreciative of the feedback given to me there, and am working on fixing the problems mentioned. Though I do disagree with "nearly unplayable," as most the feedback I've been given says the opposite, if with some reservations about the gameplay's quirks. It's experimental; a work in progress. And it WILL be finished.

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    21. Am I the only one who's turned off by non turn based combat? Just me? Okay then.

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    22. @Kaijyuu:

      Please tone down the monstrous ego and the unwarranted self-importance, then.
      You are behaving as if you had been entitled to a "special" treat just because and anyone who doesn't praises you and your promises is being "vitrolic".

      Trust me, it doesn't works like that and nobody here is interested of turning this thread into a fight.

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    23. The combat takes a little time to get used to, but is surprisingly fun and addictive, targeting yourself is just LOL, but should be fixed. the boss fights are fun as hell when you get used to it. Luna is hard, and I have yet to beat (getting closer). the shop is bugged and goes negative money (another LOL). right now the best thing you can do is spam aoe heals and buffs (twi-barrier AJ-applebuck season RD-steel wind Rar-rejuv ~AKA all the ->A button moves)then using their "ultimate" (<-X button) I didnt find myself doing much else, as this worked best. This kept me from dying and gave me the AP to use their ults alot. TLDR-combat is fun when you get the hang of it, and spamming heals and buffs is win

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    24. @Maneko

      Where's the monstrous ego, and how is he emptyhanded, exactly? There's a game engine right there. Of course he'd want people working with him, instead of doing it all by himself.
      Nor can I see where he expects to be treated specially. I just don't see where you're going with this.

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    25. well i just beat Luna, but right as I ran outta time, so it glitched and it's trying to kill me but it wont because I killed her, but it wont let me killer her because I ran outta time so I'm going to try to beat her one more time.

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    26. @Maneko

      Coding a game engine is a *huge* amount of work. If you're not familiar with programming, even a simple 2D engine like this requires you to write about as much text as A Tale of Two Cities. I don't think it's at all fair to characterize Kaijyuu as "emptyhanded."

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    27. Hubb:

      Go check his Ponychan thread and watch all the smugness and self-fanfarre he gave to himself for no good reasons at all.
      Then check out how he tried to fight criticism using semantics, more smugness and lots of backpedaling.

      Compare his thread with other RPG project threads, especially the one with the Final Fantasy 1 remake and you will notice the ego and unwarranted self importance problem too.

      Well, at least I can give him credit for not using Desktop Ponies animations, since that is something that practically every newcomer does when they make a fangame.

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    28. Well I beat the demo, and I have to say I've never played much like it. I'm not a fan of jrpgs but this I enjoyed. The fast paced combat was actually really fun. The whole thing is buggy as hell, but this is to be expected. This is something to keep and eye on. No animations was a letdown but its still a baby. No fluttershy/pinky but it is still a baby. its too short, but as you guessed, its still a baby. I am loving this combat system and I hope to see it develop like choosing skills from a bunch, picking characters for your part that best fit whatever your doing, and I would like to see ALOT of exploration and loot, because that's always fun.

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    29. @Maneko

      Having actually seen the guy on a few other forums, I can assure you he does not have a large ego at all, and I'm with those other people who are confused as to where you got that impression from. You can keep saying "read the Ponychan thread", but we all have and there is no such attitude you speak of there.

      As has been stated, coding a game engine is a feat in itself, and the fact that he actually did that rather than resorting to a pre-made one shows his devotion to this project. Nobody is going to code something like that to scrap it a week later. That level of interest alone should warrant some help. I mean, you can't expect him to be stellar at every single aspect - nobody is.

      I dunno. I'm just getting a nastier vibe from you than I think is necessary, so I'm going to assume you've either had some bad experiences with fangames in the past or you're naturally someone who can get downright nasty over things like this. I'm going to assume (and hope) it's the first.

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    30. *internet hugs all around*


      @DrAldix

      Wow, massive behavior bug there! Haha, guess I got the timer spot on. I'll fix her up. Should be easy to account for it.

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    31. After playing this some more, I really like the combat system. Turn-based might appeal to some people more, but this is pretty fun because you have to think quickly and make good decisions rather than spending a long time to make optimal decisions. The "active" quality fits pretty well with the show. I'll definitely be following this project.

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    32. @SNN

      You are right about a lot of things.
      Yes, I had some awful experiences with projects in the past, and I have seen a lot of horrible people at Ponychan trying to use the community to suit their own needs and act as if every person with a different opinion were evil, mean or dumb.

      I don't like much this project and it's creator because he has spent more time defending a flawled concept rather than polishing it (the fact that the game code had so many bugs means he didn't even bothered to test it before posting it) and because the first thing he did was request others to complete his game, when that should have been his last option.

      After a time, you start noticing certain patterns repeating on different people, so you can tell when a project is going to mean trouble or not.

      I apologize if I came out too confrontational, though.

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    33. @Maneko

      No offense, but I think you're being a little unreasonable here. What exactly is wrong with starting a project, getting to the point where you can show people what your idea is and what your vision for the project is, and then asking people for help? This is almost exactly what I did with My Little Investigations: I coded up the game engine, created test content to fill it with that included audio and visual placeholders (including, yes, Desktop Ponies, which despite your distaste for them is a very nice way to quickly get fluid pony animations), and then invited people more artistically talented than I am to fill in deficiencies in my abilities.

      Why did I do this? Simple: I have little to no artistic or musical ability, so if I didn't get help, the final project would be subpar, very limited, and not anywhere near what I feel it could be. Sometimes someone really does have it all, and can make every aspect of an amazing game almost all by themselves. World of Goo is an excellent recent example of this, having been made by only two people. But people with that level of talent are very few and far between. If someone has a great idea, has made the framework and foundations for that idea, and has the willingness to dedicate themselves to it, I don't see anything wrong at all with them asking for help when the project is still in its early stages. If they can find people more artistically talented than they who are interested in the project and who can make it that much better than it otherwise would've been, why not?

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    34. man, i'm not even interested in JRPG but i have to play because it's ponies in it X)

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    35. Posted by sethisto stole trixes magic lol

      haha.

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    36. Posted by sethisto stole trixes magic lol

      haha.

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