shikyokage742 asks: I know that you're suppose to be a brown Earth pony, but I was wondering if it has to be the brown Earth pony or will you be able to choose what you want the pony to look like (i.e. mane colour, skin tone.) Will there be a cutie mark? And will you have to be an Earth pony or can you choose breed? Goodluck with the game!
It is not possible to have the player be customizeable since we would then have to draw a separate version of every picture from every scene it's visible for every possible version.
/Emil
Anon asks: Hey! First off, this game looks great and I cannot wait for it to be released. Now to my questions. First off, when do you expect this game to be released? Im not really asking for a release date, more like a general time-frame. Second, how much will this game cost? Third, it seems like somewhere I read there would be a rule 34 version of this game and a clean one. Is this true? Lastly, how many hours of gameplay do you estimate there will be? Anyway, thanks for answering my questions and I can't wait for MLP:LiM to be released!
1. We hope that we will have the public BETA out somewhere in March. We can not say anything about the full game, but it will take a long time. We don't want to make promises that we're not sure if we can keep.
2. The game will be completely free of charge since this is a fan-game using intellectual property not owned by us. We don't make a penny doing this, nor do we want to- we do this because we think it's fun and we want to contribute something to the fandom!
3. The game will be completed so far in the future that we do not know what will happen after. There is a high demand for an r34 version, and it has been our plan form the start, but you never know. The only thing we can gaurantee is the normal, clean version.
4. We really do not know at this stage, but we have many characters and many branching options. If you want to explore every character and possibility, it will take a lot of time.
/Emil
Anonymous asks: Hi there! I've been following your game for a while and it looks excellent, but I noticed in your recent Q/A answer that the protagonist will be a generic brown earth pony. Now, I'm aware that later on you'll most likely add the option to play as a filly, but I was wondering: are you ever going to add the ability to play as a human?
The game will indeed feature the choice between playing as a mare or stallion. What happens after the game is done is so far in the future that we simply don't know, but I'd say it's a possibility, if demand is high enough.
/Emil
Tokromar asks: Hello, design team. My name is Tokromar, and I'm reasonably intrigued about this project. I'd like to ask about a few questions about the type of character that the player will be controlling in the game. The big question I have here is this. Is the colt/filly that players are going to be controlling in this game a sort of blank slate for players to pour their own emotions and thoughts into, or is the player character going to have his/her own preset background and personality that develops over the course of the story? Or is it some sort of cross between those two types? If the player character has some sort of past, how much of a past will he/she have? PCs on both end of the spectrum can be used effectively in differently written visual novels, and I wouldn't necessarily say that one type is better than the other. But the question remains. Will players essentially be shipping themselves with the heroines/love interests, or will they be shipping a unique pony with his/her own written characterization? Thank you for taking the time to read this comment. Please respond whenever it's most convenient for you. ~Tokromar
The game starts with the player waking up in the Everfree Forest, having no memory of anything whatsoever. Spike finds you and brings you to Ponyville and introduces you to Twilight, who he thinks may be able to cure your amnesia. She will need lots of time to research, however, and so your adventure in Ponyville starts.
So nope, no background. No nothing. The only thing known is that you're a generic brown earth pony.
/Emil
Not Oneblood asks: Do you think that you can perchance expand upon the basic premise story-wise? While I understand that the project is still heavily in development, and the demo is still on its way. Is there any more information we can get on some vague things that may be involved? And another question, how will the events progress? Will you have to perhaps make at least 1-pony not completely despise you for the story to continue in some fashion? Or can you do just about anything that you please and vital events will just play out over certain dates on the calender, regardless of your relations with the cast at large. Can I be a complete tool and douchebag to everypony and still continue?
The story will progress as time goes by (you can do x things in a day), there's nothing you can do about that. But, if you don't have certain requirements at certain times, you won't be able to do certain things. I can't really say any more at the moment, we don't even know if we will have Game Overs or not.
/Emil
Not Oneblood asks: Hello, compliments for that pretty dedication text aside. What exactly due this 'Acts' detail? Can we expect after the initial demo for the game to be released in an episodic function for each act? And do you theorize that they'd be roughly the same in length, or perhaps wildly different?
The full game will consist of four Acts. They will revolve around a big event, eg Act I will be about the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. We will release these Acts by themselves, meaning Act I will come out first, and then it might take some time until Act II is out. There will also have passed a long time in-game between these. We don't know how long the acts will be.
The demo will simply show a small part of Act I, which we actually call Act 0, when you're introduced to all the ponies etc.
/Emil
Alright, I will be answering 5 questions tonight. You haven't heard from me (Jeff) in awhile, have you? There is a story behind that. Check the blog. Anyway, first question. This one is from shikyokage742, who asks, "Will you be able to play as a filly? I'm a girl and would rather have the option to be a girl then a colt...."The answer is yes. We want everyone to enjoy this game in their own way. But, Filly Mode will not be in the demo, but is planned to be released with Act I. BND asks, " I am fully aware that there's going to be a Rule 34 version of the game as well as a more safe version, but is there going to be some sort of "in-between" option? Something that isn't full on R34, and not completely worksafe at the same time?" Well, at the time being, we have no idea how the Rule 34 version is going to play out because we are working on just the clean version at the moment. Expect the start of Rule 34 discussion after the release of act III. aaron asks," will it be our actual full name in the game or a name we create? if it is full name then is there a way around that?" I am pretty sure what you meant by that was if you make a name for the game?If so, then yes. It's not going to steal any personal information or anything, it's not going to ask for your credit card and social security numbers, any of that. In the beginning, it is going to ask, "Are you a boy? Or a girl?" and what your name is. Not OneBlood asks, " How goes the progress on the demo? Namely as to whether or not the demo is still on track for late September-early October estimate on the FAQ. I'd also be interested in knowing what exactly is the most time consuming aspect of the game that your team must handle. Just for the sake of curiosity." I have unfortunate news. The game has in fact fallen behind, because we haven't gotten all the artwork in, and we had to set the writing deadline to 9/30/11 due to unforseen setbacks. And the most time consuming aspect? I would have to say either the artwork or the programming. Emil's edit: Programming? Time consuming? Not at all compared to everything else, if you continue being snails. Seriously, you should have known your "deadlines" were way too optimistic. Finally, RPG asks, " Hello there, Gentlecolt Collaborations. First of all, I wish you all good luck with your project, can't wait for the demo. And now, for the question. I know that the options to romance are the Mane 6, (TGAP)Trixie, Spike and BigMac, and possibly other male character, but the question is: What background ponies will we be able to "interact" with? Best regards, good luck and thanks for your time."Well RPG, that is a good question. Firstly, Spike is NOT romancable, we (read: most of us, not all) decided that he IS a baby dragon after all. (But, we might throw Rainbow Dash's new color scheme in there as an Easter Egg!) But all of the romancable characters are, The mane 6 The Great and Powerful TRIXIE!!! (Oh god do I hate her) Big Mac LUNA!!! Soarin And maybe possibly another male... Well thats all for now, keep those questions coming! -Jeff UPDATE::: aaron sent me this message clarifying what he meant." I realise too late that I was really unclear in my previous question and for that i apologise. Its the same aaron from the big answer update and my origional question was "Will it be our actual full name in the game or a name we create? If it is full name then is there a way around that?" I was talking about donating and the the thing where our names would appear in the credits. So the question I was trying to ask but completely failed at was "When we donate do we have to use our full names, fake ones, or our choice? If it's our choice or a fake name then how does it work when i donate using pay pal or credit card?" (I plan to use pay pal.) so if you could change that for me or if you want keep the origional and add this in seperately. I would really appreciate it. And sorry for any confusion, iconvience, or trouble i have caused. Also sorry about the long message and sorry if I am doing this in the wrong place. I couldn't find any other way to directly contact you about this problem other then by this. Is there a way to directly contact gentlecolt collaborations for general stuff like this? Can't wait to play this game, and good luck to everyone/everypony." From what I can tell, its going to be the name you donated with. And if you have a GENERAL QUESTION, you can email me directly at GhettoGarden1@gmail.com-Jeff :3 There should be a text field that says "name" or "comment" when you donate. You can write the name you want to be credited as there, or simply state that you want to be anonymous. If nothing is written we'll take your real name. You should send everything to our official @gentlecolts.org adresses. General questions can go to contact@gentlecolts.org. /Emil
DeathNight78 asks: Will this take place in all of Equestria, or just in Ponyvile/surrounding areas?
As far as we've planned, it will just be around Ponyville. That's where all the ponies will be, after all. At least for the first act...
/Emil
Cokegamer asks: Will you be able to choose if want to be a earth pony, a pegasus or a unicorn and if so, will that change what you are able to do?
No, we decided that it would be too hard and pretty unnecessary, so you'll just be an earth pony.
/Emil
gekiganwing asks: What sort of difficulty level do you intend to create? Do you want to make a game that challenges the player with elements such as stats, schedule management, and relationship balancing? Or do you intend to create a simple game, where the player can get a decent ending without having to use guessing or strategy? An aside: in case you were curious, I've played two difficult romance games recently. Just yesterday, I re-started the indie game Spirited Heart, and was reminded that it's quite challenging, with many random events that set the player back. And a few days ago, I was getting back into the fan translated version of the second Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side DS game, and was reminded that the more characters the main character meets, the tougher it is to work on stats and schedules. Thank you. -gekiganwing
We don't really have a goal as for what difficulty we want the game to be. It will be pretty simple though, no stats or that sort of thing.
The game will only keep track of two things: How nice and flirty you are to each pony. We call them "friendship" and "romance" points. You start of with 0/0 for all characters. When you make choices, you will sometimes gain or lose points. Like, if you say something nice, you might get +1 friendship points for that character. But if you instead say something really rude, you might get -2 friendship points. And if you say something that could be considered... flirty... you might get some romance points. To successfully romance a character, you'll have to balance these points carefully. It's ALWAYS good to have lots of friendship points with EVERYONE. If you act like a douche to even just one character, the others won't like you either. But if you go around flirting with everyone, they'll think you're a pervert, or that you're not being serious. Only try to get romance points with ONE character. But you'll also need friendship points, especially with that character. If you're too flirty compared to how overall nice you are, you'll be compared to Blueblood. Certain characters will also require different balances between these, and will be differently difficult to get, in different ways. Rainbow Dash, for example, will require very little romance points, but many friendship points. She'll think you're too "mushy" if you are too obvious with your feelings. Rarity, on the other hand, will surely appreciate every little compliment she gets, thinking that you're a real, romantic Gentlecolt™. She won't require as many friendship points, however.
And we're also planning on having some conversation options only available if you have a certain amount of points or higher (or lower). Like, if you start off being rude, more douche options will appear in conversations. But if you're nice, eventually more friendly options will appear. And the more you flirt with somepony, the flirtier conversation options you'll get. Think Mass Effect 2.
/Emil
|
RSS Feed