This here is a passion project I've been chipping away at for a couple years. Things are getting serious now as I aim for a full release and I'll be sharing updates on the game here on Itch.io!

Battle Gem Ponies

Command super-powered, shape-shifting ponies in strategic turn-based RPG combat. Embark on a journey to become the best pony trainer in the world and protect the world from those who want to use the powerful ponies for evil. Battle other players in a variety of multiplayer modes both online and offline using either a team developed in the single player mode or by selecting and customizing a team from a list of available ponies.

The latest build and homepage can be found here: http://www.yotesgames.com/2016/08/download-battle-...

Expect updates every month as the project slowly comes together. The biggest milestone on the horizon is the Steam Greenlight campaign coming in January. BGP is made by the extremely small team of myself (Tony Yotes), and two musicians (Eric Eom & Justin Heng). If this seems like a fun project to follow, we'd love for you to come along on the journey!

Get the rest on the official Yotes Games Blog

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #87 (Contacts & Beginning 6.0)

Another milestone down. New fans acquired. New bugs found. Long ways to go. The journey to make Battle Gem Ponies a thing continues. It's time to start drawing out each map and writing elements of the story. Been studying game design and writing all week to see what makes a good RPG feel great.

Get more details and the weekly Yotes Games download numbers on the main blog!

BGP Inspiration (Concept Art Gallery)

I'm still not done drawing maps just yet so I thought I'd share some concept pictures pulled from Google Images that I'm using as inspiration for the upcoming zones. These are the same images the BGP musicians will have as mental placeholders as actual in-game screenshots are under construction.

Check out the gallery over here:

http://www.yotesgames.com/2016/09/bgp-inspiration-concept-art-gallery.html

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #88 (Drawn Plans)

Drawing out each map in detail was taking too long and I want a demo out before the end of October, so I took a temporary shortcut and drew rough outlines of what I wanted in each level (outdoors only) just to have a basic idea of what I want for later. I'll do the maps in detail after I release build 7. I'll only need up to the Peridot Woods for build 8 anyway since that's what I'll be using for the Greenlight demo launch.

Get more development news on the Battle Gem Ponies Website!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #89 (Drawing Ponies)

Been working on pony sprites all week. I gave myself until the 15th before having to start on coding features and fixing bugs again. Then it'll be a 40 day march towards the next release. As you can see above, drawing pony sprites involves looking at a bunch of references that match the image in my head and eyeballing parts of each one to get the pixel shapes/colors I'm looking for.

In the case of this Ghost class pony, Petrifus, I imagined a mummy/skeleton pony with purple fire over it's horn (now moved to just over the head because it looks better) inspired by the Delta form Charmander from the fan game Pokemon Insurgence.

Get more gamedev news and BGP stuff on the Dev Blog!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #90 (Pony Sprites & Polish)

This week centered around making the game look better. Both in my head and in tangible form. I fleshed out a lot of details around the story, drew some characters to put faces to descriptions, and added some little touches here and there to make the game build feel more solid/professional.

Take a look for yourself!

http://www.yotesgames.com/2016/09/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-90-pony.html

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #91 (Pushing Past Setbacks)

This week was spent making menus. Multiple times in fact since Unity kept crashing after an update and I had to start over on these things at least 5 times.

What you're seeing in the picture above is the in-engine concept I have for the move learning screen. The white one at the top will always be the move currently assigned to the specified slot and the grey ones below it are a list you can scroll through to look for a new move to use.

If you want to see more, just look on down below!

http://www.yotesgames.com/2016/09/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-91-pushing.html

Another week passed without much being crossed off the list. Making every menu screen work properly is turning out to be a week-long affair rather than the couple days I had in mind. It's like making a little game in itself with its own little systems. I'll remember that when planning for the future. That multiplayer setup menu is going to be a pain.

Check out this week in gamedev on the Yotes Games Blog.

Challenges Ahead for Demo 6

Sorry I haven't been posting on Fridays for so long. Some of you may remember me saying I'd lay of these weekend posts when there's nothing to talk about, but the rest of you probably feel left in the dark. Thing is, BGP is currently at that boring stage of development where most of the weekly accomplishments are getting basic features to work, fixing bugs, improving organization, rewriting ideas, and trying to figure out how to toss numbers around to program new features at all.

I thought I'd take a minute tis week to talk about some of the upcoming obstacles I need to navigate in order to get BGP V6.0 out in time for Halloween weekend. Check out the full breakdown on the Battle Gem Ponies Blog.

Delaying Demo 6 (THIS KEEPS HAPPENING)

Some quick news on how BGP is going. In short, it's not. This week has been full of setbacks and a string of bad luck going on outside of gamedev that's really been demotivating and distracting me. After some mental recoup, I'm ready to get back at it and get this game to Greenlight.

One thing has to be scrapped though, and that's the hope of finishing Build 6 in time for Halloween. I'll be lucky to have it out the following weekend in November at this rate. I gotta step up my productivity soon though, because the one date I can't afford to miss is the January Greenlight launch. Preferably Monday, January 2nd. The perfect time to send my game out to press sites. Even more likely to get picked up now that quality Pokemon fan games are all the rage.

In other scrapping news, Vinerva's Ultra form animations are not at all complete like I thought they were. I was mistaken and probably remembering my days working on this version of BGPwhere all the animations existed in my head. Drawing all the necessary sprites for that would delay the next demo even further, so they're being pushed off into Build 7.

In order to keep things on time, I'll have to limit finished & functional Ultra forms to only Vinerva until after the Greenlight Demo. Then I can take as much time as needed animating the rest of them.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #94 (One Week. Can I Even?)

It's been a lackluster week as far as progress goes, but Yotes Games marches on... Hoping to make a lot more progress this week. Gonna get some extra sleep and crack down on gamedev starting tomorrow!

http://www.yotesgames.com/2016/10/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-94-one-week.html

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #95 (Birthday Week)

A new fire is lit under my butt as I realize the value of getting another demo out before Pokemon Sun & Moon launch. Let's Players will be eager for new Pokemon gameplay but have nothing to do in the couple weeks leading up to the 18th. Gotta put BGP in the hands of some bronies before then and maybe try to reach a few of the small-fry Pokemon channels to sort of get my foot in the door.

Check out this week's progress below.

http://www.yotesgames.com/2016/10/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-95-birthday.html

Yotes Games, Hopes, and Dreams (Birthday 2016)

This is actually the last time for another 7 years that my birthday falls on a Friday so I should try to make the most of it with what I've got. Unfortunately, one of the things I don't have ready is a new BGP demo... Distractions got the best of me.

By this time next year I'll be at Beach City Con with some of my very best friends relaxing on the beach at the peak of BGP's launch popularity. (Well actually, it'd be one week after that and I'll be mid post-con depression.)

If the launch is as successful as I wish it can be, I'll be house hunting and getting ready to establish a new base of operations for Yotes Games! Thoughts of my next birthday are really keeping me alive. Finishing BGP and getting it in front of every brony on Earth is my final challenge. The one last insanely difficult thing to do before I can take a well deserved break and plan out where I'd like my indie career to go.

Should I fail, things may take a serious turn. Either selling my soul and busting my back just as hard to make someone else rich, or risking it all on a Kickstarter push for BGP2 to fix whatever kept it from selling well. All I have to do is sell 25,000 copies to justify this career choice. But I know this game has more potential than that. Pokemon Uranium just proved that there's an audience for this stuff. Indie passion projects from real Pokemon fans that gets the little things right.

Today I turn 23, and I promised myself that I'd become the Tony Yotes I envisioned by age 24. The same age Toby Fox and John Boyega hit their prime accomplishments. In one year's time I'll have a notable game to my name. Hopefully one that brings excitement and smiles to tens of thousands of people across the globe.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #96 (Don't Let It Keep You Down)

New birthday fan art by FadedSketch I'm currently in love with.

BGP's first pixelated fan work!

With spooky season behind us, it's time to move onto the Great Greenlight Crunch. I put myself about a month behind schedule doing all this Orlando networking stuff and I need BGP's Greenlight to be a success if I truly what life to get any better. So it's time to buckle down, and whittle away at that to-do list of mine.

Get the rest here: www.yotesgames.com/2016/11/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-96-dont-let-it.html

Plans for Markets & Pony Health Centers

Unlike Pokemon though, I feel like there's a benefit to keeping shops separate. Makes you want to move around the city more, gives you a different song to listen to, and allows for a mini mart to have a distinct feel. Like it's a real place in this town everyone goes to for groceries and trainer supplies. To make them a tad more special I want to have each town sell a different set of specialties. Like maybe one town sells a certain set of move tutors and another sells battle items that match the town's theme. Maybe one town's store has a little bakery built into it.

All these things service the gameplay and world building needs of Battle Gem Ponies. I just felt like sharing what's on my mind for them with you this week.

Oh, GOD I'm still working on this thing? And it's not even past pre-alpha yet?

Feels like I've been working on this game my entire adult life. And I kinda have, considering this started as a Pokemon fan game when I was in 10th -11th grade.

Get this week in gamedev: Yotes Games Blog

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #98 (Mid-November)

I know for a fact that I won't have Demo 6 out in time for Sun & Moon. And I'll likely spend a week playing Sun and feverishly taking notes and looking into what improvements fans are latching onto to make my own game better.

In light of that, a midway build was released on Itch.io to at least give players a build with some bug fixes and a tiny bit on polish. Get the rundown on recent events below. (You can even take a peek at my new OC pony if you're curious.)

Blog: www.yotesgames.com

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #99 (Getting Somewhere)

Catch up on this week's progress on the BGP Blog!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #100

I have never worked on a game for this long before (Unicorn Training only made it to 64 Status Reports) and I'm really feeling the effects of being overambitious. The hardest hump has yet to be crossed as the game's pre-alpha is still under construction. I'm coming out of Thanksgiving weekend on a tight schedule to make the January Steam Greenlight deadline!

Read the rest here: http://www.yotesgames.com/2016/11/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-100.html

Demo 8 for Steam Greenlight?

So the plan was to blitz a bunch of press sites and forums the Monday after Magfest and get as many people to check out the latest build of BGP as possible. By the looks of things though, that build may be Demo 8.0 (the Pinto Island demo) and not the beginning segment of the game with tons of polish like I had wanted.

With that, I may still be Greenlit with the help of the brony community, and could even catch the eye of gaming sites looking for Pokemon fan game related scoops just as Sun/Moon hype is on the decline and Pokemon GO winter updates are either released or proven to be rumors.

Should things go swimmingly, I'd still like to have that big story update come out piece-by-piece. I'd like to release 3 different segments (one month at a time) showing off how great the final game will be. From the beginning to the end of the first forest, then a batpony hunt in a cave further along in the story, then a level where you confront the game's villains in a way that leaves you wanting to see what the rest of the game could be like.

I am promising to make a game that is worth the average Pokemon fan's time as well as anyone else patient enough to give this unknown game from an unknown developer a quick look.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #102 (Pony Surfing in the USA)

I can't get over how cool this is.

It'd be so great to have it be the opposite of the Hoenn ocean segment and be one of this game's highlight moments instead of a boring grind like ocean exploration parts feel like in Wind Waker and Pokemon Emerald. Plus, this gives players a way to bond with their pony. Can't help but love your little buddy a bit after speeding around like this.

Get a few GameDev Updates below!
http://www.yotesgames.com/2016/12/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-102-pony.html

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #105 (Thoughts on Greenlight Launch)

This... has been one hectic week, and it's only Tuesday.

Let's talk about what I've learned from releasing the BGP Pre-Alpha on Steam Greenlight.

Full Blog Post Here: http://www.yotesgames.com/2017/01/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-105-thoughts.html

Read the Full DevLog Here: http://www.yotesgames.com/2017/02/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-108-more.html

Plans for Demo 6.5 & Beyond

One with the graphics changes I need to make this game distinct from Pokemon fan games and the ponies distinct from the MLP canon and fanon characters. Also, with much needed bug fixes and a few new fully animated moves.

This will allow me to keep my advertised monthly playable demo schedule and not stress so much about getting a build out that I skip a thorough playtesting session before release. Demo 7 will be a code complete version of the game released in March. All battle mechanics and overworld functions will be in working order, even if the graphics will be placeholders. The playable release will simply be one last Pinto Island demo but with complex battle moves, complete animations, proper leveling mechanics, and in-game cutscenes.

The April demo, will then be the first story release. A playable version of what I have planned for the beginning segment of the game, featuring the first 3 towns and the routes between them. The builds that follow will be separate pieces of the final game's adventure mode that show demonstrate my vision for the game while getting people hyped to see more.

Game development is a messy process that always, always, ALWAYS, takes more work than you were expecting, even for the simplest of things. Here's to hoping that by giving myself even more breathing room, I can get something solid out there people can enjoy.

DevLog #109 (Valentines Day)

Hoping to get some more tiles redone and fix all the bugs from the previous version by Friday so I can try to get a new update out before the 25th. I still have a bunch of moves that need to be animated and lord knows fixing the controller input bug is going to take a while.

Read On: http://www.yotesgames.com/2017/02/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-109-valentines.html

Battle Gem Ponies: New Look Implemented!

Despite the cold I've had all week, I managed to make progress on the February BGP update! Finally finished importing all the new sprites and tiles for the overworld! All that's left now is some bug fixes and a way to toggle the touch interface.

I'm also still not sure about which color scheme to settle on for Poni-Bot and I still want to try to animate all the current Move Tutor attacks. For now though, things are coming together nicely and definitely call all the graphical changes improvements.

We're on track for releasing the February Greenlight update by Friday, so hang tight! I wanna thoroughly playtest this time and make sure all the bugs really are fixed.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #110 (The Redesigns)

Check out this week's progress on the dev blog: http://www.yotesgames.com/2017/02/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-110-redesigns.html

Watch the New Trailer!

Time for round two! Battle Gem Ponies is back and better than ever thanks to feedback from the Steam Greenlight community! The turn-based pony RPG now features much more original looking characters, various new environment sprites, and some renamed moves and characters.

If you want to check out the newest build for yourself, just click the link below. If you'd like to see this game on Steam someday, be sure to give a thumbs up on the Greenlight page! You can download the demo itself right here on Itch.io!

Vote for Battle Gem Ponies on Steam Greenlight!

(And check back for more monthly updates!)

So, About BGP's New Look and Copyright...

Hopefully some explanation combined with the game's recent graphical update on Steam Greenlight will put those Cease & Desist concerns to rest.

Get the full blog post here: http://www.yotesgames.com/2017/03/so-about-bgps-new-look-and-copyright.html

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #115 (Miss one Mark, Make Another)

It doesn't spell DOOM for the project or anything, it's just a demonstration that people need something more polished than what I launched with to make it at this point in Steam Greenlight's troubled lifespan. I'll try again via Steam Direct once the game is actually complete and see if I can get a different reaction on that platform. Just hoping that it doesn't end up costing an arm and a leg.

Read More: http://www.yotesgames.com/2017/03/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-115-miss-one.html

Battle Gem Ponies Demo Update! (Ver. 6.8)

Watch the BGP Trailer!

Looks like Steam Greenlight will be shutting down permanently any day now, so this may be the last chance for the game to get through. So, if you'd like to see this game on Steam someday, be sure to give a thumbs up on the Greenlight page!

Find the Battle Gem Ponies
Download Link on Steam Greenlight!

(And check back here for more monthly updates!)

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #119 (Functional, but Not Fully)

Take a look at the rest of this week's progress in the Yotes Games DevLog!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #123 (Step-By-Step)

     Development is crawling along. Coding each attack move by using special keywords seems so simple in theory, but in practice, so many tiny things go wrong and break the battle system in a variety of brain-melting ways.

Get a peek at what was done this week! --> Battle Gem Ponies Development Blog

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #124 (Stuck on Specials)

     Still working on making moves work properly, mostly struggling with making the changes display correctly. I have all the variables reacting how I want, but when animating them during the attack turn, things go haywire. The game is officially behind schedule, and I'm feeling the heat.

On top of all that, I'm feeling sick as all heck with a wicked cough.



Wrote a few drafts of how the panel description should go.
I find the Pokemon song reference (Alt 2) extremely cheesy, 
but I think it will connect more with people than name-dropping 
things from the Battle Gem Ponies story that nobody's ever heard of.

I'll also have my friend Robyn helping me out at the panel.
Maybe you've seen her around, cosplaying Doctor Whooves before.
  
 Completed:

• Console Debug Logs for Every Tiny Calculation in Battle
• Sketched Ultra Pony Ideas
• More Random NPC Dialogue
• New Panel Descriptions
• BronyCon Panel Info Submissions

     
Lessons Learned:

• My god. I should've planned an entire month for the combat system. This is messier than I thought it'd be.

       Got sick this weekend and am currently spending a few day bed-ridden and coughing up rocks. I really wanna leap out of this mess and get closer to the map building part of BGP's development.
__________________________________________________________

   Downloads:

    Featured:

Oh...

     Got some bad news in the mail... Looks like Battle Gem Ponies won't be at BronyCon in panel form. I'll still be there, but unless someone drops out, the game won't be onstage again. It's a blow to my marketing campaign, but not one I can't recover from. I'll still find some way to get the game in front of a million bronies by Christmas!

     But, in "things going well news", a senior editor at Engadget spotted me on Twitter and offered me a seat at an E3 indie discussion. But once again, my limited funding kills an opportunity because I have no way of attending E3. Flying over there, reserving a place to stay, and buying tickets to the show are all just way too expensive for someone dealing with double digit monthly income.

It's nice to be noticed though. Kinda validates time spent writing these blogs every week, ya know?
__________________________________________________________

     I've still got so much work to do, but I'm almost at the fun part. Just gotta sweat through this last bit of hard coding...

I WAS planning on celebrating Independence Day with the sweet, freeing release of BGP Pre-Alpha 7.0, but then I checked my emails and something came up... Turns out I'll be hosting the Battle Gem Ponies panel at BronyCon 2017 after all! Now pressure's on because I have exactly one month to build an impressive Alpha to showcase in front of the biggest crowd yet.

Come get a big, juicy gamedev update on the official Battle Gem Ponies blog.

Gotta say THIS looks really good! I hope you do make a tweak to some of the graphics, to avoid any legal issues, but it's good to see you're passionate about this! Even though I'm not a brony, I'll def keep an eye on this! I also followed you on twitter! Keep up the good work!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #133 (About That New Battle System)

     Still hard at work getting a stable, polished BronyCon build ready. I wanna put on a good show, and that's gonna require a couple more late nights of work and a lot of afternoons spent testing. But it'll all be worth it if we can get that crowd to cheer...

Take a look at this week in gamedev below!

Official Yotes Blog

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #136 (Road to Alpha)

     The race to the finish starts here. Gotta whip up a game in a matter of months, no time to waste! Details on the official site, yotesgames.com!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #137 (Sprite Week)

     Once again, drawing these sprites takes forever. But the first frame is always the hardest because I want it to look just right before I take apart all its pieces and animate them. These battle sprites are what the players will be staring at for the longest time and it's through these battle animations and flavor texts that I get folks to fall in love with my characters.

     I have to get this right. I have to convey personality out of each of these ponies. I want players to say "Wow!" or "Ooo..." or "Aww!" or "Holy CRAP!!" when they see these things for the first time.

Blog Here: yotesgames.com

DevLog #139 (Make It Well Thought Out)

     Most of the week has been all about planning every small detail to come in the full game. Where each item is placed and why. A believable reason for every character's decision, interaction, and motive. Logical consistency throughout the game world. Something interesting to do in every room, an emotional roller coaster, a varied color palette, and a sense of discovery and fun that'll keep players invested even beyond the credits.

Read More: http://www.yotesgames.com/2017/09/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-139-make-it.html

DevLog #145 (A Full & Colorful Roster)

Ponatina's Elemental Forms

     Here it is! This game's Eevee equivalent and starter pony Ponatina and all 18 of her various specialized forms. Which is your favorite? Which looks the worst? I'd love to read your thoughts on them in the comments.

Get the rest of this week in gamedev on the main blog!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #146 (Impressionable Ponies)

Some of the bigger battle sprites.
(the Ultra forms are a lot less pony-like)

     The Ponatina post last week made a lot of impressions and it's refreshing to see so many pony fans excited for this game. It's lit a fire under the Yotes Games balloon and now we're soaring straight to our destination!

     Every pony has a second draft design and is now in the final nebulous zone of "what color combination looks best" or "maybe this should be the Ultra form and the base form should be toned down a little". It annoys me as a developer because it's taking so long, but this is arguably the most important part.

     These ponies are what players will attach themselves to. If they look awesome enough, and have enough personality, it'll spawn fan art, discussion, attention, and thus sales. All very important if I want Yotes Games to be a viable career choice.

Get the rest of this week in gamedev on the Yotes Blog.

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #148 (Paper Maps)

     Been taking on the task of translating rough map sketches into detailed exact maps on graph paper.  It's a matter of putting every detail from the design document down and marking out exactly how many steps it takes to get anywhere, roughly how many screens a zone will be, where items will be hidden, which buildings and NPCs I'll have to draw, and all the minor visual details.

     All this fuss so I only have to lay down tiles in the editor like I'm following a blueprint. And these definitely help make the game feel more real. Actually seeing the game world has me super pumped to make it happen in full colorful pixelated glory!

     It's a tedious process though and will probably take another day or two, especially when I double check to make sure the cutscenes can play out how I want them to. Also, still working on the last few Ultra form sprites to show off next week.

Read More: Battle Gem Ponies Blog

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #149 (Stuck on Alicorns)

(Art by Jowybean)
An example of epic looking MLP alicorns in action.

     Progress has been stalled this week as the final few pony designs are being turned into pixel art. The sprites just didn't seem to fit the idea of "The Epic Legendary Alicorns" in a way that made me picture players saying "I want that one!" so I keep drafting new ways to make these ponies look a little cooler than the other ones.

     For the love of me I just can't figure it out. Spent way too much time staring at the sprites and starting over.  Not to mention their alternate forms related to their special capture mechanics. Those have to look feeble in comparison, yet still cool and capable of combat.

     This is tricky, and it may take another couple days to get everything all cleaned up, but I want the placeholders and base sprites done in time to start programming after devlog #150. But for the time being, get DevLog #149 below...

Read the rest here: yotesgames.com

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #150 (Roster Complete)

     Finally finished everypony and their ultra forms! They're in need of cleanup, but sometimes you just gotta move onto the next step or the bigger picture will never be framed. Can't believe I've been on this for over 150 weeks now... Time to kick things into even higher gear to get this game out on time for a Spring 2018 release!

     This week is filled with tons of exciting news, updates on Yotes Games as a business, retrospection on previous games, plans for the future, and tons of inspiration for getting through the rest of the development of Battle Gem Ponies.

Get a MAJOR gamedev update to make up for the weeks of silence on this Holiday 2017 Devlog!

It's official! Yotes Games now has a Patreon dedicated to the improvement and outreach of Battle Gem Ponies. If you're interested in helping the game get into more hands and support its development, consider pledging whatever you easily can.

Become a Patron to Yotes Games!

BGP DevLog #151 (Gotta Catch 'em All!)

     And by "catch 'em all", I mean all the players who would definitely love this game! I really need to figure out a way to get more eyeballs onto this project. The only way I can think of is to finish the pre-alpha, iron out the kinks, hand that to Let's Players who've played BGP before, then construct the alpha build, polish the beginning areas, and hand that to as many Let's Players as possible.

Check this week's devlog for more details on how that effort is coming along. (BGP DevLog #151)

DevLog #152 (BGP Awareness Month)

     Most of this week was spent arranging placeholders and detailing/editing maps on graph paper. I wanted all the planning and placeholder stuff done by New Year's Day, and it got done. I also wanted to dip my foot into every webpage that could be used to promote BGP in the coming new year, so that got done too. I've started being more active on Reddit and various forums, since I feel that'll play a great part in organically getting the word out about BGP in 2018.

     Next step is to get to work programming the last few features and have this game ready for an Alpha state by February! The crunch is on! Time is not on my side, and there's a pony RPG waiting to be born!

Check it out here: http://www.yotesgames.com/2018/01/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-152-bgp.html 

DevLog #153 (New Year, New Beginnings)

     Wow, 2018 is off to a great start already. Doing much better this January than the last with that whole Steam Greenlight fumble. Patreon keeps development afloat, I feel a million times wiser, the soundtrack is nearly complete, and the full game scope has never been clearer in my mind.

     The early part of this new year is just a matter of cranking it out already! Time to wrap up development on this 3-4 year project and launch it with a BANG!

Get this week in gamedev on the Yotes Games Blog.

DevLog #154 (Story Beats & Maps Aplenty)

     A whole week of wicked coughing and drawing maps on graph paper. It's been a drag-myself-through-the-mud kinda week but I finally got there. The maps are done, detailed, and ready to be tiled in-game soon as I line up all the placeholders.

     Also handled some story details and progression design. The game's design document has been updated with new overworld interactions, cutscenes, object placement, and more to make for a more fun/smooth/professional experience. I want people playing this game to be blown away by it's quality and looking at the overall vision now, I think this'll be a pretty great attempt.

Read More: yotesgames.com

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #155 (Placeholders in Their Place)

   The pieces are all lined up. Just a week or two of coding and another week of polish, and I'll be set to start shaping the world of Battle Gem Ponies! A playable version of the story mode at long last! 

I'm super eager to share all the recent progress (and there was a lot) on this week's devlog, so check it out! 🎮💎🐴
yotesgames.com/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-155.html

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #156 (End of January...)

     Tiles, tiles, tiles galore! Wanna see some tiles? I'll show you some tiles anyway. Because that's what I spent most of this week staring at, touching up, reorganizing, and reconstructing. Right now this is the step I'm tackling to make sure I have all the pieces I need to build the BGP world that currently exists on 100 sheets of graph paper. The gamedev grind never seems to end, but my confidence in the project increases by the day!

Here is where we stand with Battle Gem Ponies at the end of the first month of 2018!
http://www.yotesgames.com/2018/01/battle-gem-ponies-devlog-156-end-of.html

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #157 (Study the Competition)

     Another week flew by and somehow I spent most of it in planning/prepping mode instead of programming crunch. One link led to another and I ended up researching marketing techniques, storytelling tips, Lets Plays of competitor's games, game design breakdowns, and tons of RPG reviews. All while comparing what I saw with the notes, documents, and files I have open for Battle Gem Ponies. 

     Every part of me so badly wants this game to be perfect. Seems like I've become addicted to double checking my work before it's even finished. Time to fix that. This next week has to be ALL gamedev. One by one I have to knock out bugs and add in features.

     But thanks to this past week of knowledge binging, I can go in knowing exactly how high the bar is. Take a look at this week's blog to see how I intend to counter BGP's potential shortcomings and how I think it'll manage to stand next to some pretty established RPGs.

Full Blog: yotesgames.com

DevLog #158 (Major Restructuring)

New Texture Packer tool is making my sprite file sizes 75% smaller!

     Time to clean things up. Look, I made a big mess of files and code while figuring out how to put this game together. But now with years of experience and new tools at my disposal, I know I can do better. So I'm basically recreating Battle Gem Ponies using everything I have, but this time it'll be much more organized, run smoother on all devices, and have some neat features I couldn't pull off before.

     This change up won't affect the release date that much since I planned to do all this for the alpha build anyway (but to a lesser extent before Patreon boosted the budget). So basically, just expect a prettier Battle Gem Ponies to come out this Summer.

Get an idea of what I mean in the devblog here!

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #159 (Prep-Work)

     Still setting up the new BGP workflow. Gotta convert the spritesheets to super-efficient packed-textures, recreate all the prefabs using the new Unity systems, and start painting all the tilemaps that will make up the region of Pinto... 

     Exciting things are coming, and if you're curious about the steps towards this glory, then check out this week's devlog!

DevLog #160 (Big Changes Worth the Wait)

     Improvements to Battle Gem Ponies workflow are showing some promising results and I'm looking forward to showing off a very impressive demo in March. For now I'm slowly getting used to the new tools I'm using and figuring out the most efficient ways to bring all these ponies (and everything they can do) to life.

     Each passing day I want to see the alpha build exist more and MORE but new things just keep slowing progress down. Game development really does take forever and the small things are always big things in disguise.

Take a look at the full devlog and see for yourself! www.yotesgames.com/BattleGemPonies

DevLog #161 (Wednesday Milestones)

     Release feels so close. It's like the pieces are all in my lap and I just have to follow the instructions to put them together. The final version of Battle Gem Ponies is so clear in my head now that I'm fanboying over it sometimes.

     In the last 7 days I charted out exactly how all 360 battle moves will look, I recreated every menu, rebalanced the battle system, came up with catchier names for things, sorted out details for a DLC & multiplatform launch plan, and closely studied just about everything that makes the games that inspired this one so great.

     To keep track of things I made a week-by-week breakdown of the rest of BGP's development. Counting down what's left to do to get the game to a launchable state. If you wanna find out what the Yotes Games Wednesday Milestones are, look at the list on the new devblog!

BGP DevLog #162 (Getting It Together)

     Finally coming to grips with the new tools and having something to show for it! There's been a real headache and a half over this, but hopefully it pays off with a bunch of dropped jaws and people saying "Oh, that's cool." when they first open the game..

     I need to settle into a groove! Time to crank out some content!

BGP DevLog #163 (Interfaces In Your Faces)

     Menus, menus, menus... Looking fresh though. Still going through the process of making sure all the interfaces work and feel better than ever before. Cleaner sprites, dynamic sizing and positioning for every possible device, and helpful new tools like scrollviews and shaders to add some extra polish. Plus, it all runs 40 times smoother now since it gets compressed to one draw call at runtime, meaning no more horrendous lag just from opening a menu!

Read More: yotesgames.com

BGP DevLog #164 (Still with the Menus? Come ON!!)

     Another week in and the game's revamped menu systems still aren't done! Feels like I'm running in place sometimes, but week after week new things are being added and I'm feeling more and more capable as a developer. I just want the alpha build done already!

     Take a look at what I managed to do this past week. (The Yotes Games Blog) 

BGP DevLog #165 (Game Engine Bone Structure)

     A lot of time has been spent remaking the components needed to make the game run smoother and look nicer. Way more time than I originally intended, but I feel too deep into the mess to turn back now. The results are showing, but it seriously delayed the game's progress and the makeover still isn't complete. 

    I'm hoping that with these menus out of the way and all the fancy scripting stuff simplified into usable tools, the post-alpha development will come easy. Much like a house, the game's gotta have good bones. A foundation to build an entire series of games on top of, actually. Each one more polished than the last.

Read more on the blog.

BGP DevLog #166 (Demo Ready?)

Just powering through and coding my heart out. Nothing to show yet, but things are progressing behind the scenes.

     Working towards that Minimum Viable Product with a few days to go til showtime! Pretty much every feature from the last demo needs to be remade and bug free using the new development tools I have. The next demo has to be ready by Saturday morning, or I'm going to have to introduce countless strangers and fellow devs to my buggy pre-alpha from December! 

     Can't let that happen. It's crunch time. Check out the devlog.

BGP DevLog #167 (Orlando Overdrive 2018)

     Showcasing the game to new folks, meeting other developers, learning from their experiences, making friends, and dancing my legs off. That's the TL;DR of my Orlando Overdrive experience this past weekend. 

     Battle Gem Ponies had a booth right in the middle of the indie game hallway leading to the bar & dance floor of The Geek Easy. Turns out the whole brony thing wasn't a passing fad, and lots of people still smile when they see marshmallow horses with super powers. 

     Check out this week's devlog to see how the indie showcase went. 👾 - www.yotesgames.com

Battle Gem Ponies DevLog #168 (HUD Crafting)

Ignore the garbled text. That is a bug for another day.

     Been taking my time making these menus and such, and glad to see that stage of development is finally coming to an end. Chewed hard to figure out some bugs and the most efficient way to make things flow, but I think I've got it now and just need to rinse and repeat to get the rest of the menus done.

     See my latest (mis)adventures in game development on the Yotes Games Blog.

BGP DevLog #169 (May 2018...)

Can't believe I'm still working on recreating these dang #BattleGemPonies menus! I feel horrible for taking so much longer than I keep promising out loud, but I can feel in my bones that delaying is the right thing to do... 

See #GameDev Log #169: www.yotesgames.com

BGP DevLog #170 (Re-Coding)

     Once again, starting from scratch. But this time it's in regard to how I code things. Going forward I'll be using new organization tricks to make sure I understand how the entire game works inside and out. No more endless bug hunts because I'll know exactly where they are and what that line of code interacts with, all to better help me deduce the cause of any problems. 

     Also took a stab at rearranging the development schedule to aim for a July 25th release. The path is laid out, but the main factor determining if I can make it is getting to that Alpha build I've been yapping about for years now.

     All this reorganization stuff should help with that, because things will be more efficient than ever. No more hardcoding, no more just copy/pasting from solution forums, and no more being stingy with line spacing, name lengths, or comments.

Read More: Yotes Games Blog

BGP DevLog #171 (Cleaning Up n' Keeping Up)

     Feels like every day now I'm discovering some new and better way of doing things. The project is crawling towards a point where all systems exist and are easy to tweak. So good news is I can both feel and see myself becoming a better game developer. Bad news: I'm already a week behind schedule. Again. That won't fly. Time to crunch up and catch up. 

For this week in gamedev featuring my thoughts on a rather impressive Pokemon fan game coming out soon, check out the Main Yotes Blog

BGP DevLog #172 (Map Mastery)

     The Map System I've been subconsciously dreading has finally been implemented and the rest of the menus are coming together bit-by-bit as I program all the pieces separately and connect them together (instead of cramming everything I could into one giant, unreadable script like before). The results?

     See the latest gamedev update to find out.

BGP DevLog #173 (Let's Go Ponatina!)

Not much was done in terms of progress this week since I took about 5 days off to basically see all my friends one last time at the local convention MegaCon before swearing to lock myself away until BGP's completion. 

In place of that there is tons of Pokemon news. A fan game was released and a bunch of new spinoffs were announced so there's lots of interesting things to reflect on and talk about on this week's blog.

Read up on it here!