Showing posts with label work in progress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work in progress. Show all posts

Legends of Equestria News: Bronycon and Open Server Weekend

Legends of Equestria
How's everyone doing today? It's me, Enigma Sage, coming to you live from the swirling, primordial mists of the Equestria Gaming of yesteryear, and I'm here to bring you some fresh LoE news.

For those of you headed to Bronycon this weekend, the team behind the ever-popular MMO Legends of Equestria will be there to showcase the game's latest developments in their panel on August 7. In addition, the team will be hosting one of their trademark Open Server Weekends August 14-16 so you can test out these additions for yourself. For more info, head on over to their website, or check out their announcement after the break.

Legends of Equestria hosting yet another open server test


 For those who haven't been following updates on the game's site, the Legends of Equestria team will be running an open server weekend this January, from the 24th to the 26th, to test a new server system. Just about any comment I could make about the game has already been said, so check out their news post on their site or below the break.

Shattered Kingdom


 There are a lot of story-based games circling around the pony fandom, but not many have the strong player-influenced dynamic that Shattered Kingdom aims to provide. The project, being developed by a group known as Alicorn Games, is a turn-based strategy RPG centered around an Equestrian civil war between the Celestial Empire and the New Lunar Republic. The game will be heavily story-oriented and non-linear, with the player's actions influencing various story elements throughout the course of the game.

 The game is still early in development, and no public demo exists (at least that I can find), but a recent video of their panel at Bronycon 2014 showcases some of the team's current progress. More information can be found on the team's official blog.
- RedEnchilada

Demo: The Underworld's Cello 2.0


Note: This game contains a few mature themes, as well as some crude gore.

 Are you enjoying Halloween so far? No? Let's do something about that. Octavia in The Underworld's Cello is a point-and-click adventure game made by Herooftime1000 wherein two ponies get lost in an old mansion. Within, you'll find puzzles, alchemy, and even a few card games. The content present is a lot of fun, and the game seems to take inspiration from old LucasArts point-and-clicks in every aspect of presentation.

 Though the game is unfinished, the current content is more than enough for a good evening of fun and jump scares, as long as you make sure to save often. The puzzles present are great fun, and the mechanics help to add a lot of depth to the gameplay, though occasionally an item seemed to vanish upon pickup with a full inventory.
- RedEnchilada

Minipost: MoonLight engine, music and general update

 MoonLight Tumblr

If you remember the game MoonLight from a few posts back, it now has its own Tumblr in case you want to follow its progress. Along with that, the creator has added a "demo" of the engine being tried out and a sample of the music that has been made so far. The engine is still in an extremely early state, but I think it gives a good feel of what the game is aiming for.
- Strate

Poképon early alpha release


 This one's been sitting in the inbox for a little bit while some preparations were made for the post. Poképon, made by Silverweed91, is a Pokémon-styled battle simulator featuring various ponies and other characters from the FiM universe. The current early release is a little barebones and unstable, but battling and teambuilding over the internet are fully supported. The game takes inspiration from Pokémon Showdown in its presentation and layout, for an easy transition for anyone used to that interface.

 A download link is available on the game's site, and the source code is located at the game's GitHub repository. Since there's no official game server running, I've set one up on my VPS; to connect, set the IP to lyrawearspants.com and the port to its default. There may not be anyone ready to battle when you connect; in that case, simply wait around for someone to show up.
- RedEnchilada

Silent Ponyville: Echoed Sorrows is hiring


 Silent Ponyville: Echoed Sorrows is a game where you dive into Pinkie's mind to uncover the cause of her constant nightmares. (Or something like that. There isn't much to go off of from their site.) The team behind the game is currently looking for a few extra hands to assist with development. Though there isn't much information about the project at the present time, they already have a trailer up, and  a GitHub repository of unfinished code is available on one of the developers' profile for curious eyes to look over.

More information, including how to contact the team, is available either on their site or copy-pasted below the break.

MoonLight game looking for team members


That video thumbnail may be confusing, but rest assured the topic of the video is indeed ponies. The team working on a game called MoonLight are looking for new members to help in the making of the game. Below the break I will put the details as to what they're looking for right now.

Horse Game and more at BronyCAN 2014


 The development team behind Horse Game, a 3D game about... something, will be hosting a panel at BronyCAN 2014 next weekend. The Horse Game panel begins at 3PM on Saturday, and will feature the developers as they (as described in the press release) showcase gameplay, detail the development process, and explain their goals for where this project will lead.

 Pre-registration for the event closes tonight at midnight, for those interested in attending. Other games present include Twilight Sparkle's Secret Shipfic Folder, which will be on sale in the dealers' hall, and Legends of Equestria.
- RedEnchilada

Legends of Equestria running an open server weekend



 We already posted about this when the announcement was made, but Legends of Equestria, the most well known horse MMO in the fandom, is hosting an open server this weekend to live out all of your romping around and boundary-escaping fantasies in. They've now put the client up for download, and the servers will be going up soon if they aren't already. Check out their news post for more information, or read the important bits mirrored below the break (as their site servers always seem to go down often during open servers).

Demo: Super Pony Wars

http://project-spw.tumblr.com/

Super Pony Wars is a turn-based strategy game modeled after the Super Robot Wars (or Super Robot Taisen) games. The player moves each pony around a grid-based map and chooses from a list of attacks to defeat the enemies. You can also choose to watch the neat attack animations or skip them if you'd prefer. It's currently under development and the creator of the game is looking for anyone who would like to help in the making of it.

New Megamare X trailer

 Megaman being one of my favorite series, I GOT HYPE from this one. Toasty Justice sent in the showcase trailer for Megamare X from EFNW 2014, and it's looking like the project is making good progress. "Now featuring Mech-suits, new enemies, intense platforming, vigorous challenges, and more to come!" he says? Well, count me in!

 Get the trailer above; if you want to follow the project, you can do so on twittertumblrdeviantArt, and their website. Also, apologies to Toasty Justice for being a little slow on posting.
- ApocalypseUndone

Play Legends of Equestria in August


 Since I'm guessing that most of you people have already participated in one of Legends of Equestria's many open server weekends and pretty much know what to expect, there's not much for me to say aside from that it'll begin at 12:01 AM EST on August 8th and end at 11:59 PM on the 10th, and that you will need an account on their forums in order to participate in the usual mixture of general chat, roleplay, and enterprising young chaps finding increasingly convoluted ways to leave the confines of the map. Not the sort of thing that I usually enjoy, but it's not like I really have much for friends to play LoE with, so I usually just run around as a lowly mudpony and quit shortly after reaching that one really high spot just outside the lawyer-friendly city of Cantermore.

In case you wish to read the original announcement for whatever reason, you may do so at http://forum.legendsofequestria.com/index.php?topic=11989.0
- Tuxxy

Special Somepony Dev Log #1


 Well what do you know, Special Somepony (also known as Cloudsdale's infamous SSP, who has simultaneously been the most popular and infuriatingly annoying person on Romance) has recently announced that he/she is providing updates about their status for whatever reason. Not that you'd want to follow the premature dating misadventures of several twelve year old children on an internet chatsite anyhow, but apparently this is pony related so I guess you can...try to enjoy this?


Demo Footage of Story of the Blanks HD


 Only a couple days after the previous Story of the Blanks HD update comes this new video, featuring two very similar concepts for the game's visual style: the former being more zoomed-in while the latter taking a more effects-heavy approach with a more distant camera and the background being blurred out quite a bit more. I lean more towards the latter myself, although I get the impression that using varying camera distances for different scenes would actually be rather useful for story and atmosphere-related purposes, but if you want to give your own feedback then feel free to comment on their YouTube video and speak your heart out.

 Also, you'll be pleased to hear that the team are apparently going to continuing the original, more show-accurate style unless they happen to receive a C&D, a decision which I fullheartedly support.

Story of the Blanks HD Update


 After over a year of almost absolute silence from the developers of the Story of the Blanks HD remake, aside from the rare animation preview and occasional snippets of the soundtrack by Kyoga, their head has come forth and confessed that she's essentially paranoid about the possibility of a C&D (nevermind that the vast majority of fangames have never received one, contrary to what your average EqD commenter might tell you) and is really wanting to move to an entirely original style with renamed characters and...ugh. It's almost as if she's forgotten that this is supposed to be a fangame, let alone a remake of a fairly well-known creepypasta, and such a project should be more a labor of love rather than merely an opportunity to make money. Heck, the reason why people were attracted to this project in the first place was because it purported to be an expanded re-imagining of the original game in the same spirit, not some cutesy Power Puff Girls-style romp that just happened to share its title with Story of the Blanks.

 Look, I'm sorry if this comes across as rude or anything like that, but this was honestly the one ambitious fangame I was really, really excited to play someday (aside from some quirky projects like Raycord Legends and Curse of the Lost Kingdom), and now it almost looks as if it's all going to go down the drain just because the creator is afraid to accept the necessary chance of a C&D. If you're going to enter the fangame development scene at all you have to take some risks; trying to skirt around the issue by changing names/character designs will only result in people getting upset and a smaller overall playerbase.

Fallout Equestria: the Unblinking


 Now that The Overmare Studios has released this new Fallout: Equestria preview, I can kind of understand why their previous videos used a first-person perspective: their current pony model looks surprisingly creepy when animated, especially with those large, unblinking eyes. Come to think of it, it feels like there's something a bit off with almost all of the animations, although I can't quite lay my finger on it. Perhaps it's just because the animations are incomplete, or maybe this is actually a surreal horror game and Littlepip is an android who happens to fall into the uncanny valley. It's already scarier than Dead Space, so why stop there when you can go all the way down?

 They're also recruiting, and since I don't feel like pasting their ad below the break this time you can read about their requirements at http://theovermare.com/blog/2014/04/flow-of-animations.

Ponykart Looking for 3D Modelers

Rainbow Dash's kart design.
Ponykart

 Work on the Ponykart C++ port seems to be progressing smoothly, if at a rather slow pace, but it seems that they still have a shortage of 3D modelers (a problem seemingly shared by many FOSS games). The fandom does seem to have a distinct lack of those as well, sadly, but if you happen to have some experience with 3DS Max and/or Blender and would like to contribute to the community in some way or another, this is probably an almost perfect opportunity for you to get some practice and should look pretty good on your résumé.

 I wasn't told exactly where interested applicants were supposed to apply for the position, so you might as well just do so at the recruitment thread if you feel like it, which can be found at http://ponykart.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=dqbg1ss4oeajnblv8k3b5g44f0&topic=52.
- Tuxxy