ARTISTIC PERMISSIONS RECEIVED!

Great News!  I have received permissions from someponies to use their artwork in the game!  These permissions allow me to make speedy work.  Why make crappy sprites and designs, when someone out there has already made something great and easy to incorporate into the game?!

Please take time to view the artist's work.  They are great! As a thank you, these and any another artists that contribute will be permanently added to the bottom of the blog, with links their work.  If I can figure it out, they will be added into the game's credits.

Hannah Shilliday: (korikian)
http://korikian.deviantart.com/
http://hannahshilliday.com/

ShelltoonTV:
http://shelltoontv.deviantart.com/

Rivenchan:
http://rivenchan.deviantart.com/
http://melinda3d.com

John Jose: (johnjoseco)
http://johnjoseco.deviantart.com/
http://thelounge.keenster.com 

my-crazy-pony:
http://my-crazy-pony.deviantart.com/

xXmegamuffinXx:
http://xxmegamuffinxx.deviantart.com/

and with tradition, (it's a Big Macintosh sprite, I MADE MYSELF.  The eyes need work, I know.)

Gym Leaders and Team Rocket Time

Guys, I need help.

It would be a good idea to start thinking about gym leaders.  In the universe I'm creating, the gym leaders aren't the pinnacles of fighting talent and bravery and care for pokémon.  In my universe, they are representative of testing the bond between you and your pokémon, building friendships with them.  The badges (potentially elements) are milestones to celebrate your friendship.  As such, it would be appropriate to use the friends of Twilight Sparkle and Spike as Gym Leaders.

That said...There are 3 questions.  This is a chance to voice your ideas, give input into this creation.

Question, the first: Gym leader #8 Giovanni.  Head of Team Rocket and giver of the Earthbadge (shaped like a feather?).  Who is worthy to fill those shoes?  One of my play testers has provided great ideas for gym leader selections.  Most often better than my own choices.  Gilda, was the idea here.  Works great with a feather badge, doesn't it?  But I'm not 100% happy with that option.  Also I think I have to use the same color scheme for Giovanni as the main character.  If I can work around that, I would be better off.

Here are the current "Gym leaders", and who they replace:
Brock - Zecora (will be complete with rhyming text.  A rough draft exists)
Misty - Pinky Pie
Lt. Surge - Rainbow Dash
Erika - Fluttershy
Koga - Applejack (poison apple...heh)
Sabrina - Rarity
Blaine - Big Mac

Question, the second but not unrelated to the first:  Team Rocket.  Who should they be?  Do they have a place in Ponémon: Friendship is Magic?  Should I remove all references to them?  Or change them in someway?  Use the Diamond Dogs or perhaps the Cloudsdale ponies that make fun of Rainbow Dash.  Should I scrap them and create my own subplot adventure around ponies, perhaps rip something from an episode?

Question, the third:  The elite four.  I would like to more clearly define their role to the character and their general purpose (if they have one).  I think it loses the Pokemon feel to it without them, they must stay.  But what to do?  Who should these be? Or what should they be like?  Representative of obstacles the main cast faces in the show?

Input appreciated.  Tell me what sounds good...or what is a bad idea altogether.  I'm hoping someone comes up with something brilliant, that works great, makes sense, and is easy to implement.  But if it is good enough, I will go to all ends to make it work.

Also, I'm thinking slightly pinker pokeball lids.  Thoughts?  Or keep them the same?

If you don't feel like posting, there is also a poll to your right that may be more convenient.  It will end on August 12th at 11:59 PM in whatever time zone it happens to be set for.
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Also as promised per previous posts, a picture* 

  

*spike's artwork originally done by xXmegamuffinXx

To do List to be ready for a demo video

My Little Bronies,

I ran into a problem I will probably complain a lot about if you ask me how it's going: Color Palette.  The backsprites for the male and female characters pull from the same place, and I don't know how to tell it to do something different.  So I had to redo Twilight Sparkle's back sprite, while simultaneously doing it for the Spike.  Here there are, both...Using the same 16 colors:

WHOO!  I know where the colors go in the game, so that should hopefully be 15-20 minutes at most to throw together.

Now let's talk turkey.  I want so badly to put up a demo video and possibly an IPS patch file or have someone host the ROM so that I can get community feedback.  That's the whole reason of having a blog about it.  I sat down and made a list of all the spriting I want done to get the demos started.  Here is that list in its current condition, in it's separation of done and not done.  I will just update this post to simplify letting you know what's going on.  So if anyone gets curious about what's the status, check here:


Todo list (as of 8/5)
-------------------------
Not done:
N/A

Done:
-Male walking sprites w/ palette
-male biking sprites
-female walking sprites w/ palette
-female biking sprites
-rival walking sprites w/ palette
-male intro sprite  w/ palette
-female intro sprite w/ palette
-Oak intro sprite w/ palette
-male battle backsprite w/ palette
-extra line so it appears I've done more
-female battle backsprite w/ palette
-rival in battle sprite w/ palette
-rival intro sprite w/ palette
-Oak walking sprite (done, but ugly as hell) w/ palette
-Redo blog layout and stuff
-Add video bar to blog, so as soon as i upload a video, it will appear for everyone.
- 6.5 Gym Leaders added.
-fix crash when talking to the old man
-Intro Text (again, don't want to talk about it)
-Text up through entering Viridian City
-Email Sephisto at ED an update, and link to video

And a couple more**:

*Backsprites' original artwork done by rivenchan
**small Trixie sprite artwork originally done by my-crazy-pony

What I did this weekend.

I have bad news and good news and gooder news.  What order do you want it in?...I don't hear anything...so let me guess.  Bad news first? Bad news, it is, then!  I have had class this weekend and family came in yesterday.  I am taking a trip on August 5th, so don't expect much that following week.  Not a ton of productivity these next few weeks.

But, the good news: I have been productive this weekend, regardless!  Let me introduce....THE FIRST BACKSPRITE!  YES! I am very excited!  I have completed the base back sprite for the female protagonist.  From this base, I have to realign and tweak it's position over 5 frames to have the image for going into battle and throwing a pokeball.

In terms of Twilight Sparkle, I have the original game sprites, I must simply bring up each frame, and maneuver this sprite to work in that frame, and draw magical waves around where the original's hand is to wrap it around the pokeball and make it look like she is throwing it with magic.  Simple, no?  So I am very excited.  Once I do this, I will go into tweaking the appearance of Twilight's walking sprites, and then use those to build her bicycle sprites (Pro tip: I'm not using a bicycle.  I can ultimately change anything I want.  Why use a bike when that will only make life harder?).

And finally, the gooder news: after that, I will make a demo video of me playing the start of the game as Twilight Sparkle, and let you, the followers know exactly where I am on the game.  I don't want to leave this a once a month update, and that one update be a small list of the the best news I have.  I want to update often, and keep you in touch and what exactly is up with the game.  But you still don't have a good idea to start with, so I will  do this video to show the current state of it.

If you have any questions, thoughts, comments, funny stories, insights, ideas...feel free to comment.  And please do! I enjoy knowing that people are interested.  I'm not doing this so that I will have fun playing, you know.  This is for everyone else.

Oh dear...is it 2am?  I'm going to bed.  Hence, why I'm stopping after the base.  Also, let's me save the final backsprites for another post.  I will keep my promise of at least one image per post as long as possible. Which reminds me... I need to contact those online deviant artists and get permission to use their art as a basis to speed up the spriting.  I want to get their permissions for this project.  I don't want any snags.  I'm also not going to post those here until I get them.

For now, Twilight Sparkle's battle base backsprite*:

*Original artwork done by rivenchan

The Run Down

So here's what's up, My Little Bronies.

I have to do sprites for two protagonists: male and female.  All trainers.  In battle and out.  Tile sets for the map (some stuff won't make sense), music, etc.  During my two weeks, I've made some casting decisions (most, in fact).  I have coerced three play testers.  A majority of the male sprites are done.  A handful of the female.  The standing forward sprites for 7 gym leaders are done.  One map sprite for one member of the Elite 4.  The in-battle sprites for gyms up through Koga are done.  A handful of text (up to walking into Vermillion), and the intro sprites (with the exception of the Rival).  When I have sufficient stuff done, I'll load up some demo videos to YouTube or something, and get more play testers.

From the title screen you should be able to guess the two playable characters...Obvious picks, amirite?  But can anyone guess the remaining cast?  Does anyone care?  I'd say not.  I haven't put up a lot of information in the little time this blog has been up, so without further ado, some sprites*:

*original artwork done by rivenchan

Two Weeks into the Project.

Hello All,

Let me introduce you to my pet project: "Ponémon: Friendship in Magic."  It is heavily based on "Pokémon: Fire Red."  I wanted to do something with my time this summer, and this is the form it manifested in.  So far, some spriting and some text editing have been done.  But to whet your appetite, I will provide you with a screenshot of the title screen.  I will attempt to update twice a week and provide pictures with every post. Either sprites I have already done, or an example of what I did that day or recently. 

We'll keep in touch. Smell ya' later!