PonyRL

A screenshot of PonyRL
PonyRL

 One thing we don't have nearly enough of these days is roguelikes, and not just in the Brony fandom either. Then again, it's probably because everybody has been too busy playing NetHack (which, in all seriousness, can take years to beat) and The Binding of Isaac to make their own contributions to the genre, but some Russian guy has decided to finally give the pony fandom what it deserves: a My Little Pony roguelike. Don't be fooled by the ASCII graphics; PonyRL is very easy to pick up and play, especially since it can be played in the browser instead of the traditional Unix terminal.

 Mind you, the game is still in beta and incomplete, so the creator would really like some feedback (preferably on the PonyRL My Little Game Dev thread). He also doesn't speak English natively, so the game may contain its fair share of typos.
- Tuxxy

Review: Gates of Tartarus

Gates of Tartarus title screen
Gates of Tartarus

 Last year I reviewed Doomsday Ascending, a 2D RPG adapted from a mediocre fanfic by the same name. The game's creator, Bhaalspawn, has made a point of telling his followers not to submit his various works to Equestria Daily or other fansites, so until today I was not aware that he had later created another My Little Pony RPG under the name "The Gates of Tartarus". The game seemed to be in a decent enough state (although still in an unfinished state), so I downloaded it in hopes that it would be better than its predecessor...

 Does Gates of Tartarus manage to overcome its predecessor's flaws and become a decent game in its own right? Find out in our review after the break.

Nightfall Beta

Nightfall

 Over the past few months we've been posting videos of Nightfall, a sidescrolling platformer/tower defense/whatever game by Silly Mare Games. Development went along smoothly, and now they've already released a beta build of their game (which was quickly followed by another with various balance improvements). The demo even features several bosses: a rarity for a pony fangame, which almost guarantees an appearance by our favorite swiss cheese-legged queen. Still, I am curious to see what other bosses they have in store...

 Given that the game is a beta and still in active development it's unfortunately more than a bit too early for us to review it, but you folks can still play it and perhaps give Silly Mare Games some feedback.
- Tuxxy

Board Game: Randleshackle (Playtesting Version)


Seems Sun and Moon inspired a little more interest in pony board gaming! I'll bite. This game was actually sent in a while back, but I've got quite the backlog to get through.

In the style of its predecessor, Randleshackle is a chess-like game played between two players marshaling the forces of Celestia and Luna. The goal of the game is to amass points by capturing the opponents mules, unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, and ends when the opponent's alicorn is captured. A 3-player mode is in development, but it looks like it has a way to go at the moment.

On their turns, players can empower their ponies to use special racial powers: resilience for earth ponies, flight for pegasi, and magic for earth ponies. The powers function as a roshambo mechanic - unicorns have the advantage against pegasi, who trump earth ponies, who in turn stymie unicorns.

The best thing about the game? It's still in play-testing, so your feedback determines how the final project comes out! Enjoy.
- Arctic Lux

Super Hexagon MLP Pack (Balloon Party Edition)


Ahh, it's good to be back! A couple of days ago, we received this little treat for the nimble-fingered Super Hexagon fans among you. The Super Hexagon MLP Pack changes the game's music to songs from Balloon Party, its typeface to Celestia Medium, and its mechanical sound effects to tidbits from the show.

To install, just extract the downloaded files and copy them into Super Hexagon's data folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Super Hexagon\data is the Windows default.) Installing the pack will overwrite files, so back up the data folder beforehand for safety. Enjoy!


- Arctic Lux

Review: A World You Should Not Know

A screenshot of A World You Should Not Know
A World You Should Not Know

 A while back some guy over at the My Little Game Dev forums thought it would be funny to make an Equestria Girls game with dubstep, lousy textures, and annoying audio. The resulting project took a mere two days to make, and along the way somehow turned into A World You Should Not Know: a horror game starring Twilight Sparkle as she tries to retrieve the magical crown from...whatever. Sunset Shimmer isn't involved at all: the story is basically just an excuse for the game.

The review continues after the break, as usual.

Game: Twilight Wing

Play it Here!
Futzi01, pony flash game maker nonpareil, just released his newest game - Twilight Wing. Play it now while it's still hot off the presses (seriously - this game is only a few minutes old at the time of writing)! It's a bullet hell style game where you must retrieve Elements of Harmony by blasting enemies with Twilight's magic. This game will definitely be getting a full review in the near future - but for now, simply play and enjoy!

- Enigma Sage

A Foal's Errand

A Foal's Errand title screen
A Foal's Errand Announcement

 After a hiatus of decent length, Filly Gamez has proclaimed that they are "rising from the ashes" and are releasing a brand-new game at BronyCon, titled A Foal's Errand. Unsurprisingly, it is a visual novel, and from what little I've seen I must say that it doesn't look half-bad. Hopefully the team will have learned from the mistakes they made in Welcome to Ponyville, although I'm still a little worried that it'll still end up being an unnecessarily massive download like the original. They also mentioned that it'll feature "a little horror", which should be at least somewhat interesting (as long as they handle it better than they did in WtP).

Anyhow, below the break you can find a screenshot of the game, a vector of Sethisto throwing up, and a sneak peak for a very special surprise...

Starlight Studios: Project Cygnus


 The team behind MLP:Online, now Starlight Studios, game have been working hard since December on Project Cygnus. The game itself, and its development, has been kept secret and shrouded in mystery, but not anymore! We are pleased to announce that at BronyCon 2013, you'll be able to play the demo at their table in the games room. Find out the secret behind the lemons between Aug 2nd - Aug 4th or lose your chance, for it will not be released online.

Be sure to follow @NebularFusion on Twitter for announcements regarding Project Cygnus. Also, you should totally check out their awesome new website at http://www.starlightstudios.org/.
- Tuxxy

Simple Othello


 We don't seem to have an official policy on board game clients, so I figured that I might as well post this Reversi implimentation. It doesn't have way too much pony aside from the game icon and background, but why not? The Brony fandom could use some more presence on the Windows Store anyways. Spread the love!

I was going to blab about news being slow, but maybe I should shut up and get back to work on my visual novel. Wonder how much production will cost in paper and crayons consumed...
- Tuxxy

Super Lesbian Horse RPG Trailer

Super Lesbian Horse RPG

 Much progress has been made on Super Lesbian Horse RPG since we last posted about their demo, even if the game missed its planned release date in June. At least good old Bobby was nice enough to release a trailer showing off the latest additions to his upcoming fangame, mainly showing off his fancy tilesets and the fairly impressive original soundtrack, along with another small sampling of the game's bizarre trademark humour. It also reveals several of the game's enemies for the first time, and for some reason they feel a tad underwhelming. I'm not entirely sure why though...maybe it has something to do with the fact that the art styles used for the foes are somewhat inconsistent with the rest of the game.

My Little Karaoke Released

 It's been quite a while since we've posted anything related to My Little Karaoke, so you'll be pleased to hear that a new version of the game was released on Saturday. It features a whopping 150 songs from both the show and our fandom's talented musicians, support for up to 6 players on 2 screens, and high quality audio and video.

Well, what are you waiting for? Download it over at http://www.mylittlekaraoke.com/index.php?pages/Game-download and tell us what you think about it in the comments.
- Tuxxy

Lyra's List #15


A bit later than usual yes, but once again it's time for Lyra's List! Everything you need to know about Lyra's List, if you're unfamiliar, can be found here. Submissions for Lyra's List #16 should be in by July 31, 2013. You can check out the submissions for the month of June after the break...

Legends of Equestria is Hiring

 Looks like the Legends of Equestria team has decided that it could use a couple more developers, so they decided to send out a press release to various pony fansites. We weren't included in that list for some reason, but ah well. Might as well post it anyways...

 Interested in working on the fandom's largest MMO? Then head on below the break for more details on submitting an application.


Super Smash Ponies AI Showcase


Zilven Sparkle, the developer of Super Smash Ponies, has released another video of the work in progress, showing off the AI this time around in a good ol' fashioned man vs. machine Twilight Sparkle showdown. Super Smash Ponies is making some great headway, and the little glimpse of Rarity at the end provides a hint  towards future development. Enjoy!
- Enigma Sage

Game: Quickspell

Download it Here!
Note: You'll need 7zip or similar extraction software to play on Windows, plus additional software to play on Mac or Linux. 
If you were at Everfree NW this past weekend (it was an absolute blast, by the way), you may have noticed this game being played extensively in the Gaming Room. It's called Quickspell, and it was created in 48 hours by Sind and Amadiro for the Crystal Games Challenge. It was programmed using the LÖVE Framework, and features sprites from Urimas and music from RoccoW.

The game is a simple two-player game where the object is to knock your opponent off their pillar using magic. During each players' offensive turn, they cast up to four different spells using either the arrow keys or WASD. The other player must cast defensive spells that correspond to the color of the spell being cast. If the defensive spells are correct and are timed well, very little damage will be taken.

Quickspell is a very fun and quick multiplayer game, and it's still in development. I'll definitely be watching for the revamped version of this game. Edit: Download link updated to newer version.
- Enigma Sage

TODAY:Legends of Equestria's Open Server Weekend


  As announced last month, the Legends of Equestria Open Server Weekend begins today after their Everfree Northwest panel ends at 6:30PM PST, although it looks like their server isn't able to handle the excitement and thus their website is down right now. Not all is lost though, as we were able to grab some download links and information about the game's current state to make things a bit easier for you. Hopefully the game's servers will be able to handle the huge amount of traffic that this will generate...

 Even if the event isn't live just yet, you can download the game client in the meantime so you can be ready the moment it's live. Downloads and copypasta after the break!