PonyQuest dev blog

I can see lots of potential in this game, so, i'll give this a try. I'm an instrumental composer, and looking for something to do at the moment. I'm just curious if this game will need some custom music. Any who, if you do need some, just ask, i'll send you a sample.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:23:47 -0700

Hey, yeah, sure! Go right ahead. The more the merrier!

We should probably make some base pony animations, because we don't want different proportions and pony-drawing styles and such. I mean, we could, but we'd need a full set for each and it would be way too much work. Should I go ahead with that? I'm not an amazing spriter but I should be able to do something decent.

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:04:31 -0700

Heck yes! Feel free to go right ahead with that. Just for posting this, I think I’m gonna sit down and work on PonyQuest some more tonight for the first time in months. :D

I think I’m going to start over from scratch, and copy over bits and pieces of the “old” version, because I’ve come to realize that jumping in headfirst without planning is okay when you’re making just one game, but not so much when you’re making what is basically a game creation toolkit. So I’ll work on making design docs and stuff, for the most part. And maybe I’ll consider using something that’s more friendly to being ported to other platforms, if I can find such a thing that suits my needs and experience.

Thanks for the offer! Feel free to hit me up on Steam or Skype if you wanna talk design stuff.

takua108: I dunno if anyone’s even going to see this, but, I...

takua108 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:17:00 -0700

takua108:

I dunno if anyone’s even going to see this, but, I got a tablet a few days ago (Wacom Bamboo Connect), and started learning to draw poni. So, here’s a sketch of Twilight Sparkle playing Zork on an Apple ][e, because the idea of Twilight playing interactive fiction is so adorable I just had to see it done.

Heads and faces are fun and easy to draw, and legs are an absolute nightmare. Hopefully this leads to me drawing more in the future; I hadn’t done it in years, and I’d forgotten how much fun it is!

Reblogging this here so maybe like two more people can see it!

I got a tablet and I’ve been drawing poni. Hopefully this will lead to me getting back into pony game development…!

So... Pony Quest is the Platforming Project???

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:45:13 -0700

Nope! You’re thinking of a different, far more awesome pony fangame project.

Heya~ is this still active, this sounds pretty cool, and sounds like a pretty ambitious project.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:08:30 -0700

Thanks! I haven’t worked on it in forever, getting sidetracked with work and family and other projects, but I’m thinking of getting back into it here pretty shortly. I’m also getting a drawing tablet, so maybe I can make some better filler art! We’ll see…!

The most promising pony game project I've seen

takua108 — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:10:00 -0700

The most promising pony game project I've seen:

Yes, so I haven’t been working on PonyQuest for the past few weeks, due to work, family, laziness, and other video games being released but that is irrelevant.

PLAY THIS GAME RIGHT NOW.

It’s just an earlyish engine test-type thing, but it’s already great.

Things to point out:

the title screen is great
the “intro” “story” page is fantastic
the “bucking” mechanic “feels” amazing, gameplay-wise
you can press SHIFT for awesomeness
you can climb a tree to the left of where you start and discover a character that will make you shout, aloud, as I did, “GOTY 2011”
more stuff I probably didn’t find

In short, this is the most promising pony fangame project I’ve ever seen, and I just had to share it with the few of you who are following me still.

Hope it turns into a fuller game soon!

"PonyQuest" vs. "Pony Quest"

takua108 — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:51:00 -0700

(NOTE: This is largely copy-and-pasted from this post from my other blog, so… sorry if you follow both that one and this one.)

So it turns out my project isn’t the only pony game project about questing ponies. gerebil pointed me to deviantART user Blue-Cup, who is apparently making his own pony game, called “Pony Quest.”

First of all, let me just say: this excites me. I fully support and endorse anyone who’s making pony fangames; it’s why I created /r/ponygames. The more pony fangames being made out there, the better! This is why I started making PonyQuest to begin with: I wanted to enable other people to make their own pony adventure games with roughly as much programming experience as it takes to operate RPG Maker, instead of having to learn a complicated tool like Adventure Game Studio, or write one from scratch.

On the other hand, this is kind of troubling… but not because I’m, like, super protective of my project’s title or anything, but because I don’t want our two projects to be confused. When I started PonyQuest (the first source code commit was September 13th, but I’d been planning it for a few days prior to then), I made sure to Google for “PonyQuest” to make sure the name hadn’t been taken. I remember finding some YouTube video titled “PonyQuest,” but it was about seeking out MLP merch or something. Maybe he had started his project, but I didn’t find it because Google can be bad at finding obscure things like deviantART posts sometimes, or maybe it was because I searched for “PonyQuest” and not “Pony Quest.” I dunno, though, because, from what I can tell, his first journal post about working on his project was written October 14th, and he only refers to it as “Pony Quest” for the first time the next day, October 15th.

I’m only saying this because I’m starting to feel a little bad if it turns out I inadvertently jacked this guy’s project name. I’m cool with coexisting with his project, as they technically have different titles, but if it comes down to it, I’m willing to rename my project and let him keep “Pony Quest.” His project is an actual game that contains ponies that actually go on a quest, and he’s clearly put a lot of work into the art assets and stuff… he deserves the title more than my project does.

To clarify, though:

“PonyQuest” (my project) is a program that lets you create your own pony point-and-click adventure games, and play pony point-and-click adventure games that other people have made. It is my own custom engine that I’m writing from scratch. It is not a game, really, as much as it is a tool to make your own games with. Think of it as RPG Maker, but for making pony point-and-click adventure games (NOT RPGs). I am not making any of the art for it (not counting programmer art), because I’m terrible at art. I’m not doing any writing for any games created with it (though maybe once it’s a little more done?), because I’m terrible at writing.

“Pony Quest” (Blue-Cup’s project) is a JRPG-style game created using RPG Maker 2003. Blue-Cup has made all of his own art assets (except for the music). He’s also writing the story, and scripting out everything that happens in the game. However, like I said, it’s made with RPG Maker 2003 (not that this is a bad thing!).

I’ll have to get into touch with Blue-Cup soon so we can figure out what to do about all this. It’s by no means a big deal at all (at least, to me), but it’d still be nice to talk to him. Plus, I’m fully supportive of anyone working on a pony game of any sort, because I just want there to be more pony games. Heck, after I post this, I’m going to go post a link to his stuff in /r/ponygames.

So yeah, sorry about any confusion, and sorry if this was way too ramble-y (it totally was).

TL;DR “Pony Quest” is not my game. “PonyQuest” (my project) is an engine that lets you play and make point-and-click adventure games. “Pony Quest” is a JRPG made using RPG Maker 2003, by Blue-Cup (not me). I don’t know which one came first (though it looks like mine did), but I’m willing to either have our projects coexist or rename my project. Sorry about any confusion!

So instead of working on PonyQuest these past few days,...

takua108 — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:40:30 -0700

So instead of working on PonyQuest these past few days, I’ve been playing way too many video games and working. When I’m wasn’t doing either of those things, I was hanging out in #rmlp, the unofficial /r/mylittlepony IRC channel. We’ve been making bots, because what else do you do in IRC these days, and this is what I came up with.

If you’re bored, why not come on over and hang out?

I took the past six days off working on PonyQuest, after encountering a sort of...

takua108 — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:47:00 -0700

I took the past six days off working on PonyQuest, after encountering a sort of “programmer’s block.” I couldn’t figure out an elegant way to make items (like, in your inventory) “combine” with props in the world. In the example level I built, there’s a hatchet on the ground and a sign nearby. Rainbow Dash is on the other side of the screen. You can pick up the hatchet, but “combining” it with the sign (“use hatchet with strange sign”) didn’t do anything, despite the item definition file saying that something should happen when you combine it with “strange sign.”

Well, now I have plural artists making sprites and backgrounds for this thing, so I felt a sudden compulsion to work on this problem about a half hour ago.

Now it works! You can chop down the sign with the hatchet. Items can now be combined with props. You can almost theoretically make a one-screen adventure game now.

Also, if you were wondering, “combining” the hatchet with Rainbow Dash makes Twilight Sparkle (the player character of this example game) causes Twilight to basically say “what the hell, player?”

gerebil: Pinkie Pie sprite I made for a game in the making...

takua108 — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:06:00 -0700

gerebil:

Pinkie Pie sprite I made for a game in the making known as PonyQuest. If the creator gives me the okay on how everything is in this one, I’ll be making the rest of the Mane 6, then animating them.

Also, as a side note to Tak(if I can call you that harhar), send me a message if you’d like these to be more thoroughly shaded, or if the flat coloring is fine. I wouldn’t mind doing either.

Looks awesome!

Hey, after I heard from your project I looked around the 'net and found the "Adventure Game Studio" which makes it pretty easy to create Lucasarts and Sierra-like point an click adventures. I don't want to belittle your work but maybe its worth to check it out before spending hours upon hours for a game engine that already exists and looks quite complete. I spend about 8 hours to create a little 2 room game featuring Twilight and Derpy while learing how to create a game with it. Just my 2 cents.

takua108 — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:23:00 -0700

Hi, hello! Yeah, I knew about AGS before starting work on PonyQuest. I’ve played a few games that were made with it, like The Chzo Mythos and the 1213 series (the former are meh and the latter are awesome), and Gemini Rue (a fantastic game that everyone who likes the genre should check out), and I even tried using it myself a few years ago.

The engine is great because it’s so customizable; The 1213 series and Trilby: The Art of Theft are both more platformer-style games, and the fact that AGS allows that level of customization is great.

Like I said, I tried AGS out a few years ago, but I found it not very easy to use for a newcomer. Also, the “compiled” games don’t work as well as they should on modern computers.

My goal with PonyQuest is to make something a lot easier to use and more focused than AGS. I want StoryQuill to be really straightforward in its UI, PonyScript to be really easy to pick up, and the game engine itself to work great on any modern Windows machine (for example, you can set the screen resolution to whatever you want, and the game will scale accordingly). As a result, PonyQuest stories won’t be anywhere near as customizable as AGS games, and you won’t even be able to compile them into executables or anything; you’ll always launch the stories from within PonyQuest itself.

On the upside, PonyQuest stories will be a breeze to make. You won’t have to worry about making your own art unless you really want to, because there’ll (hopefully) be several available packages full of sprites, backgrounds, and so forth that you can freely use. Also, PonyQuest will act like a library of stories you’ve downloaded, and you’ll be able to browse through them and easily find and replay them. A super long-term goal I have is to make a website where you can upload your stories and packages you’ve made into a kind of social network, and then easily download and review them.

Basically, I want making a PonyQuest story to be less like writing an AGS game and more like writing fan fiction.

So I’m kind of hitting up against programmer’s block...

takua108 — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 05:32:44 -0600

So I’m kind of hitting up against programmer’s block with PonyQuest again. I’m gonna take a break for like a week (or until someone sends me some art assets [!], whichever comes first).

In the meantime, I’ve been working on a layout/design for a pony news site that would be like Equestria Daily, but without all the things I don’t like about it and with a more visually-appealing design. I’m calling it “Pony News Network,” because a.) it acronyms nicely into PNN, and b.) ponynews.net was available.

You can check it out at http://ponynews.net, but it’s little more than me just experimenting with layout and color stuff at the moment. It’s entirely nonfunctional for now; that all comes later, if at all.

If I get a positive enough response, I’ll work more on it!

I’ve been sick and stuff recently, so I haven’t...

takua108 — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 02:36:00 -0600

I’ve been sick and stuff recently, so I haven’t worked much on PonyQuest, but I have been slowly but surely chipping away at the UI for StoryQuill. The script editor is now in! Don’t expect PonyScript syntax highlighting or anything, but hey, you can totally type stuff in and it almost saves properly.

I think eventually I am going to have buttons you can click to help you construct PonyQuest statements, though. Like, you click some sort of “give item” icon button and it gives you a list of all items in your story, and you pick “red balloon,” and then StoryQuill fills in

 * giveitem "red balloon"

for you.

But that all comes later, if at all. I really, really gotta get the basics in first. I’m possibly just a few days away from having StoryQuill actually let you make rudimentary stories!

Well, except for the Stage editor. That’s going to be by far the most complicated thing in StoryQuill. Whereas the rest of this is all just reading and writing data to and from text files more or less, the Stage editor is going to have a nice interface for you to draw out NavMesh polygons and place Actors and Props. I’m not gonna have you, like, type in the X and Y coordinates for every Actor and Prop, much less every vertex of every polygon in the NavMesh. That would be silly!

But yeah, that is going to be the hardest part by far, and I’m not even 100% sure that you can, like, dynamically draw lines over an image using WPF. But I sure will try!

oh yeah! I totally made a subreddit for pony fangames

takua108 — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:02:00 -0600

I should’ve mentioned it earlier, but yeah, yesterday I made /r/ponygames, a subreddit for makers and players of pony fangames. I’m hoping it’ll pick up traction (20 subs already!) and eventually become a good go-to place for pony fangame creators and enthusiasts alike, since there seem to be a growing number of the former!

(And also I want a convenient place for the latest news in pony fangames to magically appear.)

More work on StoryQuill today! Still just doing UI layout stuff,...

takua108 — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:39:34 -0600

More work on StoryQuill today! Still just doing UI layout stuff, nothing actually does anything yet. See how the “Invalid combination” field is a drop-down menu? That’s because it’ll list all the Scripts in your Story, so you can choose one there, or just type in a line of dialogue if you want that instead of a script! This feature will be all over the place in StoryQuill (ugh, we really need a better name).

But yeah… I’m dreading actually making any of these fancy little widgets do anything.

Today I started working on the PonyQuest story editor,...

takua108 — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 08:54:52 -0600

Today I started working on the PonyQuest story editor, temporarily titled “StoryQuill.” If anyone has a better punny pony name, post it in the comments and I’ll be happy to use it.

I’ve never made a Windows application before, so this is all new to me. I’m using Microsoft Expression Blend to design the interface, and it’s surprisingly easy. I get the feeling that actually making the interface do things is going to be difficult, though.

See? It pays off to have well-commented code.

takua108 — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 23:32:41 -0600

See? It pays off to have well-commented code.

no real PonyQuest progress, but I made this instead

takua108 — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 23:48:00 -0600

no real PonyQuest progress, but I made this instead

Why did nobody tell me about Celestia Medium Redux before? I put...

takua108 — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:22:00 -0600

Why did nobody tell me about Celestia Medium Redux before? I put it in PonyQuest today, so now we have a great public domain menu font in place.

Yes, the everything else about the menu looks like balls still. (Those black boxes are going to be invisible, it’s where you click to activate that menu option.)

I’m trying to figure out how to best lay it out in a cool way, to avoid looking like the old Team Fortress 2 title screen and make it look more like the new one. (Fluttershy being in the background of that one is entirely coincidental; it’s the first thing I got when I searched Google for “Team Fortress 2 title screen.”)

Oh, and if you’re an aspiring XNA pony game creator or something, feel free to use this bitmap font I generated using SpriteFont 2.

Are you still looking for an artist to do sprites for you and whatnot? Because I might be able to help with that. How big do they need to be, and what kind of animation are you looking for?

takua108 — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:34:00 -0600

I’m always looking for more sprite artists! I’m working on making a sort of art guide, but basically, just know that the game runs at 320x240, and that you can use whatever colors you want. Here’s a LucasArts-style sprite sheet I found; it’s a human, obviously, but it should give you a good idea of how big the sprites should be.

As for the animation, you can do whatever you want! The game runs at a max of 60FPS, and I’ll eventually make a tool to help spriter makers/animators make animations easily, but for now, just lay all the frames out in the sprite sheet. If you want to focus on the animation specifically, feel free to make a GIF, but in the engine, we just use a sprite sheet and a YAML file (don’t worry if this seems to complicated).

Basically, just make your art, and then I’ll help you make it usable in the game :D

If you want to contact me, the best way to do so is probably on Steam chat.

Anyways, thanks again for offering to help out!

EDIT: Oh, and as for which animations: just walking and talking for facing right, up (away from camera) and down (towards camera), for now. Check out my terribly-drawn programmer art to see what I mean. (That sprite sheet is a little smaller than it should be, and includes an “idle” and “talking (angry)” animation; you can make those, too, if you’d like, but walking and talking are the important ones [and maybe just one “idle” frame” {I really hope I’m not confusing you or scaring you off ^_^}].) If you want to animate anything else, be my guest!