itch.io

Month One Patch+ [1.0.6]

- Old Mobile Versions Updating to Latest No Longer Have Overworld Touch HUD Force Toggled Off
- Spawn rates for Rare and Super Rare ponies have more than doubled.
- Volume Sliders Work More Consistently
- Fixed Missing Endgame Credits

Month One Patch [1.0.5]

- New Balanced Default Sound Effect & Music Volumes
- New Settings for Touch Controls Customization
- Faster Loading Times
- Fixed Obscure Softlocks & Finicky Unlockable Features
- More Reasonable Rare Pony Spawn Rates
- Adjusted Audio Source File Volumes
- Fixed Funky Collision Boxes of Battle's Action Select HUD
- Resolved Countless Typos

Week One Patch+ [1.0.4]

- Overworld Radiance Meter Shows Correct Pony
- Mangled Level Up UI in Overworld
- Universal Audio Settings Apply to All Files
- Random Arena selection only picks from Unlocked Stages
- Raising Stat Stages Beyond 3 No Longer Nulls Out the Battle System Data
- Flex Move Works Properly
- Meeting About Experience Formula
- New EXP Formula and Balancing Tool
- Meeting About Engines, Scope, Stability Issues, & Systems

Week One Patch [1.0.3]

- Pressing the Act Button will no longer lock up player controls in the overworld.
- No more level up resetting. We stopped a wayward level cap check that activated too early.
- When you defeat a wild Chroma pony (captured or not) it will drop a Chroma Scale item you can use to make your pony "shiny"
- Chroma Scales function like they're meant to. Trade them to Auntie Haze to make ONE pony form of yours a new color. And you can toggle that color at the Crystal Stable whenever you want.
- You now must unlock Fast Travel by buying the Warp Button. (And skips the warp map.)
- Music changes to match the scene after Fast Travelling
- The Tamer ID screen is more accurate and helpful.
- Reward Money now displays the correct amount in your Bit Bank.
- The game no longer crashes when you use certain moves, like Solar Blast.
- Game Over checkpoints won't leave you in weird states anymore.
- You can't buy one-of-a-kind items more than once.
- You can't use items on ponies outside of your party of 3 in battle (which fixes a number of wacky battle issues)
- Party Management UI and Overworld Pony Swapping is more consistent & stable.
- You can Nickname your pony right in the Pony Gems menu.
- Radiance Rewards state the correct effect you've unlocked for levels 5 and 6.
- Numerous issues involving ponyback riding & surfing have been fixed. (You'll find overworld is much less janky overall.)
- Can't pet ponies while surfing anymore. (Too dangerous for the stability of the digital universe apparently.)
- Countless minor details polished further. Typos, alignments, tile layering, overlay effects, etc.
- Revised a bug in 1.0.2 submission that was damaging Saved progress on certain maps.
- Fixed Ultra Form Switching in battle to behave consistently.
- Prevented cheat code allowing all Ultra Ponies to be unlocked in VS Match.

Day One Patch [1.0.1]

- Day One Patch Build
- Average 5 Hours of Content + 2-3hr Postgame
- Fixed Finale Boss Fight Infinite Loading Block
- Prevented Use of Chroma Scales within Item Pouch
- Postgame and Final Boss Now Accessible
- Wall Tiles Updated in Crystal Cave
- Increased Hidden Items Sparkle Visibility

Launch Build [1.0.0]

- Full Release Build
- Average 5 Hours of Content + Infinitely Replayable VS Match Mode
- Corruptible Save Files From ALL Previous Builds will be ERASED

Notes on Differences between BGP Builds (1.0 Forward)

The full Mac version is only available on the official Mac App  Store:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/battle-gem-ponies/id6502872475

(for security and professional publishing compliance reasons)

It's like how we don't have the Android version here anymore either. Just Google Play and the Amazon App Store.

It sure will be. This past weekend we got the racing minigame (as well as a bunch of our dev tools) looking better than ever!

Love to see such detailed feedback!
Basically reaffirming the criticisms we've made internally talking about this game every day. We really want to address all we can in a timely manner, one seasonal update at a time. 
And you're spot on about the music thing. We basically have 3 volunteers with completely different styles all contributing different tracks. (And one of them quit earlier this year to go do his own thing.) Best we can do there is have more collaboration from the start with the next game. Get some standard pipeline and shared library stuff going. Or just pay one musician to handle the whole thing and put some serious work week hours into the OST.

(Thanks for the long post, it helps us see exactly what countless other players are probably thinking but not telling us.)

This topic has come up before in our community Discord. Basically one of the team's programmers says it's a huge undertaking we can't figure out in a reasonable amount of time. We haven't looked into Save Editors either, so can't help you there.

Hopefully our future cross platform games can utilize cloud saves and avoid these issues. It really is a beautiful feature.

We've got tons of ideas for games we want to make and a streamlined plan to grow into a big enough business to make them all happen. Keep up with us on social media (or at least hang out in our Discord) and see exactly when these gamedev dreams come true!

I'm not entirely sure how the conversion process works, but I've seen people from all around the world purchasing the game so assumed it happened automatically or through PayPal. I don't see any options on the Developer side to allow alternate currencies or not, so I hope this hasn't been a silent problem all this time.

**Month One Patch+ [1.0.6]**

```

- Old Mobile Versions Updating to Latest No Longer Have Overworld Touch HUD Force Toggled Off

- Spawn rates for Rare and Super Rare ponies have more than doubled.

- Volume Sliders Work More Consistently

- Fixed Missing Endgame Credits

```

**Month One Patch [1.0.5]**

```

- New Balanced Default Sound Effect & Music Volumes

- New Settings for Touch Controls Customization

- Faster Loading Times

- Fixed Obscure Softlocks & Finicky Unlockable Features

- More Reasonable Rare Pony Spawn Rates

- Adjusted Audio Source File Volumes

- Fixed Funky Collision Boxes of Battle's Action Select HUD

- Resolved Countless Typos

```

**Week One Patch+ [1.0.4]**

```

- Overworld Radiance Meter Shows Correct Pony

- Mangled Level Up UI in Overworld

- Universal Audio Settings Apply to All Files

- Random Arena selection only picks from Unlocked Stages

- Raising Stat Stages Beyond 3 No Longer Nulls Out the Battle System Data

- Flex Move Works Properly

- Meeting About Experience Formula

- New EXP Formula and Balancing Tool

- Meeting About Engines, Scope, Stability Issues, & Systems

```

Whoa! That's a good find. Thanks

The Wait is OVER!! 🤩 Battle Gem Ponies has gone LIVE on Google Play! You can actually play it on your phone now! 📲
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yotesmark.battlegemponies

The game will be available on iOS, Google Play, and Itch September 2nd!

No, just delayed. 

Game's still in ongoing Beta testing which Patreon supporters have been playing. We're looking to launch the week of Labor Day and our 3rd Kickstarter Anniversary 1st week of September.
Preparations are underway to hopefully participate in a big Indie Direct, with submissions due next week and hopefully we make the cut. After that, we'll come out with a definitive launch date and countdown.
So don't worry, this game is anything but abandoned.

(I will update the description to not say Spring 2024 though since we did miss the mark there. Apologies.)

**Known Easily Encountered Beta1 Bugs include:**

```

•  Big White Boxes representing Missing Sprites (after a big animation sheet changeup some objects point to the wrong places to grab graphics)
•  Text Spilling Over Boundaries (we changed how auto resizing text works last minute and didn't review every place with text on it to make sure they still fit nicely)
•  Some moves are invisible (still perfecting those animations and unfinished ones have visibility turned off for now)
•  Some cutscenes feel... off. (we intend to touchup on those next weekend. Everything should feel natural and smooth)
•  Sound Effects are missing (a lot of them still need to be placed)
•  Some Move Tutors aren't working (move select screen data seems to be out of sync with the latest movepool changes)
•  Swapping Ponies in the Pony Gems menu can lock you into that screen (an update to prevent being able to put KO'd ponies at the lead party position seems to be affecting the menu as a whole)
•  Level Parities can't be selected in Battle Rules Menu (buttons were left disabled)

```

Looking forward to having all these fixed in Beta 2 already! 

Known Easily Encountered Bugs in Beta 0.7.0 include: 

- Big White Boxes representing Missing Sprites (after a big animation sheet changeup some objects point to the wrong places to grab graphics)

- Text Spilling Over Boundaries (we changed how auto resizing text works last minute and didn't review every place with text on it to make sure they still fit nicely)

- Some moves are invisible (still perfecting those animations and unfinished ones have visibility turned off for now)

- Some cutscenes feel... off. (we intend to touchup on those next weekend. Everything should feel natural and smooth)

- Sound Effects are missing (a lot of them still need to be placed)

Thanks for letting us know. I'll toss it to the coding team and see if they recognize this.

The game's been up for years with over 20K downloads and no reported problems yet. Our newer builds might have already resolved whatever that thing there is and will be uploaded here in a month or so.

For clarity

S-Rank bugs = makes the game unplayable

A-Rank bugs = very noticable breaks immersion

B-Rank bugs = not noticable to most, but reveals a broken system

C-Rank bugs = a minor glitch or balance issue that can be tweaked in seconds

D-Rank bugs = minor cosmetic jankiness that can be left alone

**For the BGP Alpha**

List of Known Bugs & Issues:

- Missing graphics & animations

- Wacky unbalanced audio levels

- Wrong party member names are displayed in battle

- Some text animation tags are configured wrong and look weird or show codenames

- Pony & move stats are unbalanced sometimes

- Ponies dont learn enough cool moves early on

- Things are too expensive/ not enough ways to earn money

- Granny in green house glitches out instead of giving you cookies

- The ending cutscene is missing transitions

- The postgame start is missing an intro cutscene

- The move Bide doesn't work right

- The super saddle doesnt do anything and nobody tells you that you have a normal one

- Sound Effects are missing

- Some cutscenes have little visual errors

- color tinting on sprites get stuck sometimes

Can't believe it's been a whole decade since first making this... But at long last, a much needed patch is here!

The game runs better than ever, and now it works on computers too!

Hop onto our BGP Discord and our Build Dev @Psyaryu can help sort out any issues with getting the game to run.

New offer just dropped! (Looking much better already)

Yet ANOTHER HotFix! [0.5.7]

Due to the last patch overlapping with unfinished features, VS Match was broken in that it doesn't display any Battle Complete UI, leaving you sitting around until you hold [Esc] to go to the title screen.

- VS Matches Now Conclude Properly

Yet ANOTHER HotFix! [0.5.7]

Due to the last patch overlapping with unfinished features, VS Match was broken in that it doesn't display any Battle Complete UI, leaving you sitting around until you hold [Esc] to go to the title screen.

- VS Matches Now Conclude Properly

👴⚙️💬 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

👴⚙️💬 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

Hey, All!

If you'd like to see us at TrotCon 2023 (or have us invited to more conventions in general) you can do us a solid by filling one of these forms out and let the convention know:
YotesMark (known for Battle Gem Ponies) would be a perfect fit for their video game themed pony party this year!
 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdv_MCSnAN0LsQecSMGgccUAtfY8H7r0RLOhxBykG35CdAS8Q/viewform

Hey, Guys! We made a big OOF and pushed out a build missing the extremely VITAL ability to swap out your newly caught ponies with the Gem Storage system in Town Hall!

So we patched that up just now and you can download the fixed 0.5.5 build on Itch and GameJolt!

As an added bonus, you'll also get the couple features we've added to the game since Saturday:

• Mid-Battle Dialogs with the Boss in Town Hall
• Extended Keyboard Control Functionality (B, M, and Space Keys now DO something!)

Hey, Guys! We made a big OOF and pushed out a build missing the extremely VITAL ability to swap out your newly caught ponies with the Gem Storage system in Town Hall!

So we patched that up just now and you can download the fixed 0.5.5 build on Itch and GameJolt!

As an added bonus, you'll also get the couple features we've added to the game since Saturday:

• Mid-Battle Dialogs with the Boss in Town Hall
• Extended Keyboard Control Functionality (B, M, and Space Keys now DO something!)

To keep the project organized I use a program/website called ClickUp to write out every task I need to do to finish the game and give each task a time estimate. I tally it up and base the release date guess on that.

Long story short, I made some spreadsheets to chart out exactly how much money I'd need to be able to pay bills and work full-time on BGP for 18 months and based the Funding Goal on that. No such thing as too much money (as far as I'm concerned) and any extended budget beyond what was planned would go towards marketing efforts and hiring professionals to help make the original vision without extending the promised scope. Not getting enough money means I have 2 more months to try again, otherwise surrender the dream for a bit, work a paying job and try again in 5 years once I stabilize money-wise.

At the end of that timeline I ran out of the money, got better at organizing and predicting how long things take with experience and found out I needed another 18 months to actually finish the game. So now I'm getting by using a scary amount of debt with the new DEADline of March 2024 being where I either start to make all the money back or ruin my life financially (great motivation to do the work required).

So it all comes down to experience (from making 7 mobile games), good tools (Unity, Clickup, Discord, Google Docs, etc.), and ALWAYS assuming things will take 3 times longer than you'd originally think.

Something ALWAYS goes wrong and you need to be prepared to roll with the punches. Always have a plan B, C, D, E, & F (heck, even G)