MLP: Rise of the Clockwork Stallions Demo


This morning, Dark Era studios released a demo version of their latest title, My Little Pony: Rise of the Clockwork Stallions! I've had a chance to play through the first few levels, and the polish at this early stage is frankly quite impressive. It's not a tiny demo, either - a significant portion of the full game is available to play.

Check out their trailer video here, and download the demo via the link above!
- Arctic Lux

Game Maker Compilation Post #3


Guess what time it is! Filly Twilight knows... Anyhow, I'm not feeling particularly verbose today, so I'll get right down to it. 

From projects bordering on professional to amateur fan games put together in basements late at night, the Game Maker comp has it all! Four today, hit 'em up after the break!

Review: Doomsday Ascending Part 1

Doomsday Ascending Part 1
Doomsday Ascending Part 1 (NSFW!)
Warning: the game contains Rule 34 imagery, although viewing them is optional.

 Videogame adaptions of fan fiction is quite rare, and for a good reason. As can be discovered by simply picking up a story at random from FIMFiction the vast majority of them are quite lousy, and Doomsday Ascending was no exception. It has no redeeming qualities, and unfortunately falls more on the mediocre side of the scale which means that it isn't quite as amusing to read as, say Winnie the Pooh Assimilated by the Borg. The author, Jerry "Bhaalspawn" Peet, was apparently so full of himself that he decided to create an RPG based off of his cliche storm of a fanfic, and claimed that it used a "heavily modified" version of the RPG Maker VX Ace engine.

  If you have been paying attention you've probably realized by now that this game is going to suck, but just how bad is Doomsday Ascending? The only way to find out other then playing it is to read our review, and you can do so by continuing on after the break.

Gameloft's Welcome to Ponyville Gameplay Footage



Update: the title for the game has been revealed: Welcome to Ponyville. I get the impression that Filly Gamez won't be too happy about this...

Apparently Gameloft has been developing an official My Little Pony mobile game for a while now, and yesterday one of the developers released a video preview that showcased the game. I must admit that overall it does look rather pretty, but it seems that this game is yet another example of how ponies really don't look that great in 3D (PonyKart managed to get around this with some fancy shading, but it would probably drain cellphone batteries to have that). This game should make an interesting review to say the least, although that reviewer won't be me since I do not currently own any working mobile devices.

What do you think of this preview, eh?
- Tuxxy

My Little Game Dev + Creepypasta Contest!

My Little Game DevRoom

  Sometimes I have found myself wishing that there was a forum for My Little Pony fangame developers, but a couple days ago some folks from My Little Game Jam started discussing this idea amongst themselves. Usually this kind of talk doesn't get anywhere, but a bloke going by the username Wishdream took it upon himself to create the My Little Game Dev forums: a place where developers could come together, share their knowledge and just hang out. Sounds fun? Then join via this link.

  In other news the site's founder has set up a creepypasta contest for the users to participate in, and there's a little over 2 days left. The prizes? Free art from Wishdream and exKira, along with a position on the devteam of a super secret fangame. It's not much, but at least it's a good excuse for some more creepypasta, eh?
- Tuxxy

MLP: Rise of the Clockwork Stallions Demo Trailer


MLP: Rise of the Clockwork Stallions

The team behind My Little Pony: Magic Shards, Darkera Studios, is well into the development of their next project - and frankly, it looks pretty cool. My Little Pony: Rise of the Clockwork Stallions is slated to feature more than 30 playable characters, 8 locations, 16 bosses, and a whopping 48 levels. Check out the trailer, and visit the project's development website via the link above!
- Arctic Lux

Rainbow Dash Pony Disaster Playground Demo

Rainbow Dash Pony Disaster

 The wonderful folks that brought you Waiting is Magic and TWALAGHT SPARKUHLZ REVEHNGSHE are currently working on a game titled Rainbow Dash Pony Disaster, and after surprisingly little ado decided to release a tech demo for their project. I'm quite impressed with the game so far, although the combat needs quite a bit of work and adding a little shading to the vectors would work wonders for the overall look. We'll be sure to review this for you when it comes out, but in the meantime why don't you give it a try, eh?

On a somewhat related note apparently our author Enigma is providing vectors for Penta Studios and is listed as a team member on their website. This isn't the first time he's worked on a fangame (his only released one being Click the Twilight Sparkle so far), but it's nice to see that he's contributing to the project.
- Tuxxy

Colors Of Time


Hang on, Discord's stopped time. That's rarely, if ever, a good thing. Right now, JCity's Colors of Time is a fairly short, basic platformer - however, its mechanics are nicely polished and the art very pretty for a 48-hour game jam. He's hinted that he may continue the project in the future - I, for one, would love to see it blossom into something unique. Link to the MLGJ page above!
- Arctic Lux

Corruption


You guys never cease to amaze me. Complete with custom animation, creepy musical styling, and some slightly mind-bending visuals, The Oddwarg's Corruption is certainly one of the most colorful games to come out of My Little Game Jam. It's a little shorter than what I'd normally review, and borders on creepypasta, so I held off from grading it. Find the rundown after the break!

Sunset Defender


Man, four whole days without a post? This needs to be remedied, stat! Fortunately, Amethyst Air has just the thing. This little game was created for My Little Game Jam, but missed the deadline by a couple of hours. Help Cadence and Shining Armor defend Equestria from changeling missiles, chain reaction-style! 

Letting a couple of locations be destroyed at the beginning proves to be the most effective strategy, as you can then focus your fire on the last remaining area. Waiting to click until the missiles are close to impact is a quick way to clear the board, but a little risky - if you miss, you're doomed. I couldn't get past level 13... if you beat me, feel free to disparage my skills in the comments!
- Arctic Lux

Ponyvasion


 Next up from My Little Game Jam is...well, I'm not exactly sure how to describe Ponyvasion to be honest. According to the game's description the player is tasked to "Defend Unicorn-land against the invading pony's", and by that they mean "Kill Them All!". You are then given a variety of weapons that can be swapped with the keys 1-4 and thrown right into the thick of things. Shooting the multicoloured ponies increases your score, while hitting the fluffy white unicorns decreases it. In my opinino it is one of the worst fangames that we have ever come across, although as the case may be it might just be a trollgame. Either way you can give it a shot if you like, but don't expect to come back for more.
- Tuxxy

PonyPlace


Is it a game? Well, you can move ponies around on the screen - good enough for me. PonyPlace is a simple yet elegant idea - a 2d pony chatroom with a wide variety of swappable avatars derived from the Desktop Ponies sprites. There were plenty of people online both times I logged on, although the project's still pretty basic - ideally, we'll see some more features in the future. Go check it out!

Update: Issue resolved, ponyplace is up and running again.
- Arctic Lux

Review: Order of Twilight


Order of Twilight

 Being a Mac/Linux user I often lament the lack of multiplatform My Little Pony fangames, and often I wondered why nopony was using the excellent LÖVE engine to do so. However during the last My Little Game Jam a certain game named Order of Twilight was submitted to the competition by a member of a certain Stabyourself.net. Sound familiar? It should. Stabyourself.net was the team behind the famous indie game Mari0 (which was pretty much Mario with portals) and the fact that one of their members decided to contribute to My Little Game Jam is rather encouraging.

 Just because Order of Twilight comes from a well-regarded source doesn't mean that it's automatically a perfect game. To read our short review of it continue on after the break.


Super Smash Ponies Update #2


You guys, this project is being developed so fast it's blowing my mind. The new update video features a booming announcer voice, a selection interface, and 3 playable stages with 7 characters. Zilven's also started a development Tumblr, which you can access via the link above, and he's looking for feedback on the game. You can expect an open beta soon!
- Arctic Lux

Screenshot of an Official MLP Flash Game

Screenshot

Apparently this is a screenshot of an official My Little Pony flash game from their Facebook page. A year ago I would have been squeeing over this like my sisters over an autograph One Direction, but to be honest I must say that it looks kind of...dull. Sure it's always nice to have official games, but we already have an overload of cloud dodgers and the lack of a unified art style disturbs me. Of course I'll save most of my criticism and praise (hopefully) for the final product, but I do hope that this will be as good as Adventure Ponies, don't you? Speaking of which it would be interesting if we were able to put Adventure Ponies on the Arcade, although I kind of doubt that Hasbro would approve...
- Tuxxy

Questria Video Update


Questria

 The Questria team has released a rather short video update for their game, showcasing the new weapons system and a player character mindlessly hacking away at a poor changeling. Having ponies carry weapons in their mouths looks...different from what most of us are used to, although hopefully unicorns will be able to wield them with their magic. The fact that it supports Mac OS X and possibly Linux will be a huge plus for many of our readers (myself included), and if the team decides to invest in the pro version of Unity3D they could utilize some rather interesting postprocessing effects such as SSAO and depth of field effects for those with more powerful computers.

What do you think of Questria so far, eh? Let us know in the comments!
- Tuxxy

Sun and Moon (Strategy Game)

Sun and Moon
Now, this isn't a video game. It's a strategy board game for two players (like chess), created by Dave Bryant. You can find the game's rules, as well as printable game boards and pieces at the link above, so you too can engage in the epic struggle between celestial and lunar. It's simple to learn, but offers many strategic intricacies that could make matches of Sun and Moon true battles of wits. You can find a bit more info after the break...

My Little Game Jam Open For Voting


As you probably know, My Little Game Jam finished up last weekend - and they received a very impressive 37 successful submissions. You can expect a wrap-up post (or posts) featuring the fan favorites after the contest's end, but for now: Go! Play! Vote! 
- Arctic Lux

Project:Harmony Teaser



Alas, our wondrous fandom still lacketh a MOTHER-style RPG, but fear not! Project:Harmony is here, riding on its shining horse and repelling the forces of darkness with its stunning graphics, terrifying foes (just look at the size of that giganto robot!) and a cast of incredibly handsome Bronies who can love and tolerate the crap out of all haters, even not-so-invincible clumsy robots! For the first time ever I am going to rate a game based off of the trailer alone, and give it a ten out of-

Sorry, I can't keep this up. In case it somehow managed to escape you the above paragraph was a joke, and despite what you might expect Project:Harmony is an actual fangame. They're releasing an actual announcement and trailer for their game on November 21st (which also happens to be my birthday), but they made this silly teaser just for laughs and...I couldn't resist posting it. Sorry folks, but you'll have to wait a mite longer to find out what Project Harmony is actually about...
- Tuxxy

TEMNO Trailer



 If you've been following our Twitter account you may have been aware of a Limbo-style platformer/puzzle game through various screenshots that we have retweeted and given feedback for multiple times. Many times I have wished to see some actual gameplay footage of TEMNO, and last Saturday Astonov granted that wish with the release of a video update. Apparently the game takes place within a depressed Pinkamena's mind in which she is trapped inside and Twilight has broken into in order to rescue Pinkie. In a game like this graphics are of the uttermost importance, and hopefully Astonov manages to pull off a look reminiscent of Limbo (although I don't expect it to be as good as Limbo, since it is a solo fangame project after all). The fact that he is designing the majority of the game's environments with his DS is impressive, although I suspect that without some of Limbo's subtle effects such as grass blowing in the wind the environments may end up feeling flat and dull. That doesn't mean that the game will suck though!

Also, one thing that I think Astonov appears to have forgotten is that Pinkamena is not only depressed, but batsh** insane. If he realizes this and makes TEMNO reflect this somewhat...we might just have a winner on our hands.
- Tuxxy

Lunar Defense Force


Man, what's up with you guys and best princess blasting aliens recently? It seems the Shroobs do have a use beyond comprising the low point in Nintendo's excellent series of Mario RPGs, anyway. FearlessPie over on DeviantArt's come out with another flash, this one dedicated to purging mycological aliens from the surface of Woona's moon. It's not very complex, but it has a nice degree of challenge, and it's a nice way to cap off a Saturday evening.

Speaking of Woona, I'm off to go mash f5 on the Moonstuck homepage - good night!
- Arctic Lux

Game Maker Compilation Post #2


It's that time again! If you guys continue to appease me, I'll grant you more posts full of games. 

For those unaware, the Game Maker Compilation Post shows off games created with the engine Game Maker. While the program has it's limits, and the free version makes it difficult to package and distribute games online, it's easier interface offers great opportunities to new game developers. This compilation is dedicated to showing off every game, without the harsh critiques we sometimes give in reviews - however, many of these games are impressive in their own right.

I've got three for you today - one older, and two new games currently being developed. Check them out after the break!

My Little Game Jam has begun!


Why are you reading this? You're already behind! Yes, the first round of My Little Game Jam started four hours ago! You've only got until this weekend ends (midnight Sunday to Monday UTC, or 4:00 PM Pacific Time on the 7th, for all my Seattle bronies) to complete your game. It's certainly not too late to start - but you must have your chaos-themed My Little Pony fangame completed and submitted by the deadline. Here are the rules, shamelessly copied from their front page:
  • All assets and game logic must be created during the weekend of competition. 
  • The contest is individuals only. You have to work alone.
  • The game must follow the theme announced at the beginning of the competition (chaos).
  • Code and assets must be open-sourced and added to the submission.
Caught flat-footed? Never fear: you may miss the contest, but any 48 hours is a perfectly good time to make a pony fangame in my book. I'm thoroughly jazzed to see what you guys come up with, and I'm certainly looking forward to raving about the winners come next week!
- Arctic Lux

Super Smash Ponies


Everyone loves Fighting Is Magic - however, not everyone was raised by the Street Fighter series. For some of us, our first and fondest memories of side-scrolling brawlers will always belong to Super Smash Bros. Fortunately, we at Equestria Gaming only feed our armada of caged game developers when they're hard at work. At their current rate, we're on track to ponify every major game release since Pong by 2018.

For his latest project, Fluttershy77 (Zilven Sparkle) is hard at work on a ponified, pixelated version of the classic. We're still waiting for a playable release, but he's recorded several more trailers on his channel. The project looks promising - so far, we've seen final smashes and some basic bot fighting - so go check it out!
- Arctic Lux

Luna's Quest Help Needed!

Luna's Quest
Surprisingly enough adventure games are a rarity in this fandom, and until recently the only existing MLP adventure game was the stunning Cutie Mark Crusade: A Dash of Adventure (which has sadly been put on hold). Thankfully this one bloke and his sister decided to do something about it and created an adventure game titled Luna's Quest with the Adventure Game Studio engine. Together they managed to complete a decent portion of the game along with some rather impressive pixel art for the cutscenes, but it turns out that the workload is too great and apparently they could use a couple pixel artists to help with the level backgrounds and field sprites. If you are interested in helping then send  them an email over at mariobud@gmail.com.

Part of me wanted to include this in the last Lyra's List, but then I realized that it was far enough into development to warrant its own post. Have an outdated gameplay video after the break!

Lyra's List #6


Look at Lyra - she looks so happy, doesn't she? Why is she happy? Because it's the first of the month, and that means it's time for another Lyra's List! If you don't know what Lyra's List is, click the link in the previous sentence! Let's get right down to business. The deadline for Lyra's List #7 is October 31, 2012. Check out the GDDs after the break...