#fangame development

OK so I decided to put the development process here too Ask is still open btw!!! I just have to push this blog somewhere Anyway, one face set is remade... And one in process!

So, the past month has certainly been a productive one for the Fool's Dev team since we last posted one of these. We've been hard at work on the game. Overall, the demo release is around 80% complete as of now. We have most of the coding and gameplay down pat, it's simply a matter of finishing the last stretch of the project in terms of artwork, some design, and playtesting. Of course, the playtest will be mostly done by the lovely Fool's Gold fandom. Speaking of the playtest/demo release, I have worked on the beginnings of the Foolsdev Itch.io page for our release. We don't exactly have a release date for the demo yet, but you can expect it to come in the not-so-near-but-not-so-far future. The full product will not be released until the full Fool's Gold series has been finished which could be another two years from now depending on how much is left. We've piddle-paddled ideas for a early access model where each arc is it's own updated version of the game that includes patches bundled in to fix previous arcs, but nothing concrete has been established yet. As always, we like to leave some teasers of stuff, so have this portrait of Xanu done by our wonderful @alynwrench as well as our new logo also done by Alyn!

Wow, I haven’t touched this blog in years... hello to anyone who still follows this! It’s been a very, VERY long time since I’ve worked on this project in any capacity, and by now, it’s a relic of years gone by — just about 10 years, if my memory serves me well.

So, to commemorate that anniversary (which is probably not today), I wanted to properly share something to this long-forgotten blog: a project I did in early 2021 as a “final farewell” to this long-forgotten passion project.

[ RECREATING PERILOUS PLATFORMS ] is a recreation of all the levels from various complete(-ish) builds and demos of my old MLP Gen 4 fangame, Pinkie Pie’s Perilous Platforms - designed with the level-creation suite of Nintendo’s Super Mario Maker 2 video game. If you own SMM2, you can find the course world via my maker ID (DDH-165-L5G) or you can click the link to access its portfolio page that lists every individual level’s ID, a short explanation of my process, and a full playlist of my livestreams documenting the process to replay, recreate, and redesign the levels I made very long ago. Quality notwithstanding, I had a great time working on this. It felt very good to analyze younger-me and their level design philosophy at the time, and to critique my video game developer “debut” of sorts. Probably not a home run by any stretch, but a good first start. Depends, really. https://cargocollective.com/sylversedge/Recreating-Perilous-Platforms

I felt it was fair that I make this update to tell folks (or at least anyone remaining) that a lot has happened since I stopped updating the blog. That teaser from 3-4 years ago (this weird bit) was for another idea I had to finally bookend the development journey, but the RPP project ended being a much better sendoff than whatever I had planned years prior. Through random nostalgia flare-ups, storytelling of my personal lore on my Twitch streams, and tons of self-indulgent Internet searches, I’ve come to discover that a good handful of people have played Perilous Platforms in some capacity — via my itch.io page or the old DeviantArt page link, via downloads on Equestria Gaming’s Arcade, features on Equestria Daily, and other specific sites, via BlueMaxima’s Flashpoint app where it’s been properly archived, and by other means that even I’ve yet to uncover. 

Let’s Play videos, written reviews, entries on fan-related MLP wikis, re-uploads on seedy websites, you name it. Thank you so much for playing!

cathal considers him sexy

he says skibidi

he flirty

This post is about two weeks late, but that's okay, because we've been hard at work! The Foolsdev team has expanded yet again, with two new artists joining the team! @alynwrench is our new portrait artist, who will be doing work on certain late-game antagonists, and @odybramm3rdattempt is our new sprite/tile artist who is working on getting our enemy sprites up to date!

The project is coming along really nicely, and we've made some really good progress with the demo version. The dungeon is mostly complete and the story segments of the demo are nearly complete. There's a few things left to do in that regard, and once that's done it's a matter of time until all the sprites and the artwork are done and implemented.

The game is still a fair ways off, but we've been progressing steadily in the past month. Once we get closer to having a finished demo ready, we'll post some information on where we'll be uploading it and we're gonna see if we can put together a trailer at some point around that timeframe.

I figured I'd make a quick little post here to sort of explain what the deal is going to be with the demo, just to set some expectations. - Tenmei

Release/Cost:

Fool's Gold: Hunt For The Crystals will be FREE for all versions of the game, available on Itch.io, with the demo release being made available sometime within the next year. As of right now, we don't have definitive plans on releasing the game in stages (1 or 2 arcs at a time) or if that is something we want to keep on the table. This game is a passion project of a group of some of the most dedicated, amazing fans in the fandom as a way to share our love of this series with an interactive experience.

Gameplay:

Hunt For The Crystals is a JRPG made using RPG Maker 2003 (among a plethora of other programs). This is going to be a somewhat loose interpretation of Fool's Gold. The basis is there, but with respect to the mediums of both the original campaign and this fan project, there will be a considerable level of changes and alterations, some of which may be rather extracanonical or fall into the realm of 'fanon'. You will be able to play as the main six party members, and there are several planned additional characters to be found and recruited as a secret option/side quest reward/main quest character. Different party members may sell items or offer services when they are not in the active party, and various characters may offer the same aside from the generic shopkeepers you may be experienced with. I can say that certain parts of certain arcs will become variable, with different outcomes based on dialogue choices and actions taken.

Story: