Cadence Throw (AKA Best Game Ever)

Cadence Throw

 The current reigning king of Brony game developers, Sebastian Krzyszkowiak (otherwise known as "the cheesehead who brought us Super Derpy: Muffin Attack"), has released an utterly amazing that will knock your socks off; or at least it would if you were running Linux. Since you are obviously too cowardly to even think of compiling a program via cmake I advise that you take a sneak peak at the video to see the amazing pony fangames you are missing out on by not using a real operating system.

Rise of the Clockwork Stallions (Musicians Needed)

Rise of the Clockwork Stallions

 Back in April a guy named ChurchCrusade released a great My Little Pony platformer named Magic Shards. Eventually a sequel was announced to be under development and a rather impressive demo was given to us in August. It is currently halfway under development, but the team is in need of some more musicians. You see, Rise of the Clockwork Stallions is very big for a fangame, with over seven worlds that contain six levels with their own soundtracks. That's 42 sounds for the levels alone; and even more are needed for the overworld, cutscenes, etc. As can be seen from the embedded playlist above the team already has a large portion of their quota done, but they could really use some extra help.

 Feel like helping out the team by contributing some music of your own? Then contact ChurchCrusade via Twitter, Steam, or Skype. Happy composing!

Age of Canterlot

Age of Canterlot

Edit: the first sentence is somewhat mistaken, so please disregard it if you will.

 Despite the name leading us to believe that it'll feature gameplay similar to the Age of Empires series, Hopeabandoner is evidently aiming for his RTS to be more like the Starcraft series, which kind of disappointed me since I'm rather fond of the former. There's also some plans for "original elements", which probably have something to do with unit customization (something that's been available since 1999 in Warzone 2100, along with a crapton of other RTS games). Even so, the pony fandom doesn't have enough real time strategy games and it would be nice to actually see one get finished for once, so...

Follow the tumblr, I guess?

Ponyventure Demo

Ponyventure

 From what I've seen, this is a fairly generic pony platformer with multiple characters and, surprisingly enough, local multiplayer (although I haven't really gotten the chance to try it out yet, as usual). Dunno if this'll go anywhere or not, but Hopeabandoner's other main fangame project looks much more promising so I'll be posting about it next.

 He also made this creepypasta named BENT.EXE, but I dunno if I'll ever get around to posting it.

MLP:Rise of Visis Rainbow Dash Gameplay Footage

MLP:Rise of Vicis

MLP:Rise of Vicis has released a video update featuring Rainbow Dash. I have to say, while it looks fairly promising, it looks like the team could really use a graphics designer. Also, I still think that it's too early to show off yet (even if they do need team members), and they should wait until they're a bit further along then they are right now.

Fighting is Magic: Fluttershy Showcase

Fluttershy Showcase

 It's been quite a while since Mane 6 has released any gameplay videos of Fighting is Magic, although this is probably the fault of the anonymous tester who leaked a pre-release version of the game and caused the devteam to cease their fascinating weekly updates. That was entirely unnecessary on their part, but today they have somewhat made up for it by releasing a showcase video of Fluttershy (who appears to have been nerfed significantly since her infamous original incarnation) and her pet bunny, Angel.

 The trailer itself doesn't reveal a huge amount of information about the game that we didn't know already, although I was impressed with the quality of the character animations and whatnot. We are still entirely in the dark about any future release dates (the "coming soon" bit at the end doesn't help), but at least we know that Mane 6 is taking their time to make the best game that they can and are not rushing it. 

Oh, and in case you're interested the original post on this showcase has some behind-the-scenes information, but not much else.

Review: Island of Falling Stars

Island of Falling Stars

 As far as 3D creepypastas go, newcomer Goerge's marathon entry is pretty standard fare: it stars a defenceless Lyra recolour who wanders about her dreamscape and collects glowing rocks, only for things to get progressively worse as she does so. We've seen this before, of course, but does Island of Falling Stars live up to its comrades?

You know the drill.

 In this kind of game, atmosphere is everything, and Island of Falling Stars is a bit of a mixed bag there. The first couple minutes are silent aside from the sound of your hoofsteps, and as you collect stars the world will grow increasingly hostile until you are left alone to wander in the blowing debris with only the light of the fallen star to guide you. Problem is, none of them are very scary, since the game is fairly predictable and survival is more a matter of routine; once you figure it out the game is an absolute cakewalk.

 There was going to be an entire paragraph here dedicated to the hilariously cringeworthy ending, but I just couldn't do it justice (hint: it's exactly what you'd expect, except even more ridiculous).

That archway leads nowhere, unfortunately, and since it's somewhat out of the way many players won't even notice it.

 Even for a dream world, this one has a rather odd environment: it's littered with unusually interesting objects and setpieces, most of which serve no purpose whatsoever (aside from the simplistic maze, in which the second star lies). I'd say it's almost cruel to put a cave on the map and not allow the player to enter it: even with the magic barrier in place I kept instinctively checking back to see if it was possible to unlock it somehow, only to eventually wish that he had never included it in the first place. It's not bad for a dream, most of which tend to not make sense anyways, but if Goerge does move on to create other fangames then it'd probably be for the better if he not design their levels quite like this one.


 To be honest, Island of Falling Stars feels like a practice effort in which Goerge the enterprise Java developer tried out various things and slapped a game on top afterwards, and according to the development log that's exactly what he did. From that perspective it succeeds, but as a game it kind of falls flat and thus there's not really much of a reason to play it again afterwards, so for now I'm not really going to put a grade on it.

Note: if you're having trouble playing the game on Linux, try playing around with the file permissions.

Spes Fractus

[Warning: some profanity] A one-man project with original animation? I'm impressed already!

Playing as an OC unicorn, dash through a darkened Equestrian landscape, battling what appear to be corrupted Ponyville residents with a gradually evolving set of spells. So far, Spes Fractus's strongest points appear to be its spell animation and rich vector backgrounds. Hopefully, the gameplay lives up to the visual appeal - but that's impossible to know until a demo is available.

Update: Gameplay trailer after the break!

Raridoom Beta

Raridoom Beta Download

Ahh, Mondays. Good time for a first-person changeling smackdown? Yes. Actually, that holds for pretty much any day of the week.

Raridoom is actually a ponified mod of Chex Quest (read: Doom), with spells, hand-to-hand combat, and voice acting. Difficulty settings are a huge bonus: if it was too easy the first time around, crank the setting to Nightmare Mode and see if you can still knock corrupted Bon Bon for a loop. Posters with slogans like "The Queen is Watching You" scattered around the dungeon corridors add a touch of humor to the otherwise dreary setting. Also, make sure to select the menu option marked "Read This!" to get a hang of the controls.

The beta's still a little rough around the edges: the title screen could use a revamp, and starting certain levels on certain difficulties caused the game to spit errors. Still, if you're a Doom fan, this is a project you won't want to miss - bon appetit!

Magic Hexagon

Magic Hexagon

 As can be gathered from the game's announcement on Tumblr, Magic Hexagon is basically an open source clone of Super Hexagon with pony cutie marks, placing it under the "barely pony related" category. There's not really much to offer for feedback here without either essentially reviewing the original or commenting on the developer's taste in libraries/programming languages, although it would be nice to have some more variety when it comes to songs (the creator is looking for a musician though, so that might be resolved in the near future), along with pre-compiled OS X and Linux binaries in the near future.

 In case you're interested in contributing to the project or compiling it yourself, you can check out Magic Hexagon's GitHub repo at https://github.com/meh2481/magichexagon.

Equestria Gaming now has a Google+ Page!

Well, we've recently decided to get a Google+ page, that you can find at https://plus.google.com/b/104923021330270502188/104923021330270502188. It's not THAT big of a deal, but just decided I'd post anyways in case any of you guys were interested.

XTUX, out!

Luna's Letter

Luna's Letter

 Jach Marsdonpone (primarily known as the developer of No Guns in Canterlot and A World You Should Not Know, now a member of Silly Mare Games) decided to make his own entry for the marathon, and it basically came out as a more boring version of My Little Hang Glider. You float like some kind of really fat duck, touch colourful balls and fly past the occasional incoming projectile with your boost (the aforementioned floatiness prevents you from simply dodging them like in most games). Also, those pretty clouds? They constantly obscure your vision and the interface, rendering the latter almost utterly useless a lot of the time.

 So...yeah, it'd probably be for the best if you skipped this one. Jach's other games are much more entertaining (even if they aren't quite as pretty as this one, which I'd say is probably the most visually appealing game in the marathon), so why don't you try them out instead?

Demo: Lyra and Bon Bon Save the World

Lyra and Bon Bon Save the World

 The brainchild of Supertrentyguy, Lyra and Bon Bon Save the World is a fairly standard side-scrolling platformer/shooter with some absurdly huge jumps and mostly offscreen action, since spamming bullets on the first few levels will usually take out most enemies before you even see them. Still, with fixed controls and better level design this could make for a rather entertaining fangame, although I doubt it'd ever end up matching something like Megapony.

 There needs to be a joke version of this game with this playing as the background music.

Celestia's Cake Golf Adventure in Space

Celestia's Cake Golf Adventure in Space

 I was pleasantly surprised to hear that futzi01 would be participating in the MLGD marathon; this odd little game of interplanetary golf is probably one of his better recent creations (most of which were unfortunately a tad dull). It starts off well enough and introduces some interesting gameplay mechanics as it goes along, but suffers from a massive difficulty spike partway through the game that would make bring the chosen undead to his knees. This probably has something to do with the game's being created within several days and there not being too much time for playtesting, so it's still pretty impressive: just don't expect a superbly polished experience.

 Also, I thought I might as well use this spot to apologize to Wishdream for how harsh the "compilation" post turned out. There's more I'd say, but it's probably best that things be worked out in private conversation than on here.

Strawberry Spice Stepping Down

Hey there readers of Equestria Gaming! Strawberry Spice here, and I've got an important announcement for everyone.

I'm going to be stepping down as the head of Equestria Gaming, and I'm handing the position over to the wonderful XTUX345.

More after the break



Thank you all for sticking with me since this blog started almost a year ago, it really has been fun, but now things such as college, work, and other things have come up for me, leaving almost no time to dedicate myself completely to something like this anymore.

XTUX345 has been taking care of the site for a while now, and he's improved it quite a lot as well. I'm very confident he will continue to drive the site in the right direction, as he has been.

Now, I'm not leaving for good! I'm going to still exist, and if something big comes up I might make a post about it, but XTUX345 will be 'officially' running the site now.

Thank you all for reading this, I wish everyone here good luck.

Text Adventures!

Why the random header image? Because back in Star Swirl the Bearded's day, they didn't have any of those fancy graphics we're all so keen on critiquing. Also, because apparently relevant header images are everything here at the stringent and strictly professional EQG headquarters. Honestly, I don't see how this image could ever fail the relevancy test.

Today, I've taken a look into the dark and mysterious world of pony text adventures. Prepare for links and mini-reviews after the break! 

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Star Swirl's Parser Based Adventure (Download)

Overview: In the distant future, the Cutie Mark Crusaders have accidentally released Discord - and with control over time, he's determined to rewrite the events of the past. Playing as Star Swirl the Bearded, escape his traps and save Equestria, past and future!

Writing: The writing here was a plus, especially when Discord got snappish. Handy on-screen instructions and a dropdown menu made it easy to figure out how to proceed...

Difficulty: ...that is, almost too easy. The puzzles weren't much of a challenge, and the adventure didn't last very long.  Still, with time travel and a riddling Discord, there's enough here to make a great extension.

Grade: 7.5/10

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Welcome to Ponyville (Online or Download) (No, not that Welcome to Ponyville)

Overview: After surviving a mysterious tragedy in your home town, you pack your bags and head off to Ponyville for a fresh start. Rather than overcoming puzzles and avoiding death, you advance the story in the style of a visual novel. With RPG-style stats, an open sandbox world and a bare-bones relationship system, there's much more content to love here.

Writing: So-so. The grammatical errors are at their worst during the opening text wall, and as the story progresses the writing gets marginally better. It remains far from perfect, however - so if that sort of thing bugs you, cross Welcome to Ponyville off your list.

Difficulty: Non-existent. The game uses textadventures.co.uk's built in mechanics, which are pretty solid, but I hit a snag when the game timed out and ended prematurely. You may want to create an account or use the client to download and play the game online.

Grade: 7/10

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Death by Discord Demo (Online or Download) [WARNING: HORROR/GORE]

Overview: See that tag which says horror/gore? Well, don't ignore it. The game is pretty dark. Discord's trapped you in a Saw-like nightmare, and you must use your wits to survive. Unfortunately, the demo's very short.

Writing: I enjoyed the writing here - but it's hard to get a sense of it over such a short period of time. At the least, the script is precise and grammatically correct.

Difficulty: Easy. Overall, the challenges were intuitive (though this might depend on your mental state.)

Grade: 5/10, on account of length.

---

Honorable mention: Brony Hero of Equestria (fimfiction link)

A choose your own adventure, rather than a text adventure - not quite a game, but theme-fitting nonetheless. Gallivant around the country, wreaking havoc and seducing everything. There's a lot of random, off-color humor to love here, if that's your style.

---

Well, that's it for today! I was caught by surprise - I'm quite taken with this sort of game. If you'd like to see another text adventure featured, by all means, send it in!

Ponykart

Usually, when an amazing pony-related video game project that knocks everybody's socks off is revealed (finished or not), we are among the first to know about it. However, at times they manage to slip under everybody's radar, and when we finally notice it, we feel immensely embarrassed for not paying any attention to it, or not even knowing of it's existence. This is one of those times. While various MLP:FiM kart racing games have popped up (none of which are yet released), Ponykart is the most well-polished karting game we've ever seen, and I have high hopes for it. 

For more information on Ponykart, check after the break!

Locomotive Rush by Ponykart

Mines 142bpm by Ponykart

Sweet Apple Acres 128bpm by Ponykart

Rainbow Dash Road (complete) by Ponykart

Celestia Runway Final by Ponykart

Sky palace by Ponykart

Whew, that was a lot of stuff. XTUX, out!

Battle Royale: Forward to the Past

Battle Royale: Forward to the Past

 Xinef's main entry into the marathon also proves to be one of Silly Mare Games' first forays into multiplatform development; no longer will users of Unix-like operating systems have to run their games at abysmally low framerates. Even those of you who don't care about such things should still enjoy this fun little deathmatch game, especially since Xinef is planning on adding online multiplayer in a future update (whereas for now you'll have to either find someone to play with or exploit the AI's shortcomings).

 I'll probably review this once they add online multiplayer, but if you can find a friend to play it with I'd highly recommend giving Forward to the Past a shot.

Super Ethical Shipping Climax Demo

Super Ethical Shipping Climax

(Tumblr)

 Billing itself as a SFW-ish parody of shipping-centric visual novels, the Super Ethical Shipping Climax demo is an awkward jumble of borrowed vectors, annoying placeholder music and plenty of fourth wall-breaking dialogue. This might sound bad, and from several perspectives it leaves a lot to be desired, but to be honest I rather enjoyed this weird little MLGD Marathon entry in spite of (or perhaps partially because of) its shortcomings. Perhaps that's what the developers intended in the first place?

 Since this is only a demo there are several missing endings and whatnot, although I hope they leave in several of the blank scenes in which the narrator laments their lack of a visual artist.

MLGD Marathon Compiliation (Or Not)

 When Wishdream announced Part 2 of the My Little Game Dev Marathon, he said that sites would have to wait a couple days after the event's end to post things while he whipped up a compilation video. Thing is, "a couple days" turned into two bloody weeks, and the video purposefully leaves out several key games to make room for ones that were either a part of the previous marathon or not even entries at all, but separate games that he just decided to throw in there. I'd say that's more than a tad dishonest: kind of makes me wish that I'd never agreed to wait for this in the first place (especially since it comes out on Sunday, which of all days is supposed to be my day off).

Given how poorly things were handled I'm not even going to bother posting the video, so I'll just post the games separately and give them the attention they deserve instead of shoving them all into one big compilation post.


Edit: slight change of heart, I'll put the video down here anyways.

Thoughts on Legends of Equestria

 Given the heavy load that Legends of Equestria's servers are under, it was a wonder I was able to get into the game at all. Many were not so fortunate; I've heard of people who literally spent several hours trying to log in before giving up, and over the weekend things are probably going to get even worse as people use their day off school/work to participate in the open server weekend.

 Aside from the connectivity issues (which are to be expected, given the game's current popularity), how good is Legends of Equestria in its current state? You can find my thoughts on it below the break.


 After spending several minutes logging in, I decided to start off with a unicorn character and fondly named him "Terrible Tuxxy", only to discover that the teleportation system is horribly broken and requires you to mash the left mouse button in hopes of it actually working. There's not really any point in using it unless your destination is some otherwise inaccessible high spot on a building, since the time spent mashing could otherwise be used to simply walk there like a normal pony.

 So much for them, I guess. Pegasi are really the only class worth using at the moment anyways, since they can fly and whatnot. They also have this amusing glitch that lets them effectively limp around in mid-air instead of flying, and since they can fly it's possible for them to reach areas that nobody else can. Oh yeah, and navigating Cloudopolis as any other race is a pain in the ass (especially since you can uncontrollably slide around after jumping and accidentally slip off a cloud), so there's that.

It's easier to appreciate a lovely view when you've worked hard to reach it.

 Even if pegasi are the only really useful class, shortly after making the purposefully tacky mudpony "Cantermore Invader" I realized that LoE's movement system is flawed in that the player can, with some practice, walk around the sides of near-vertical walls, enabling them to access incredibly remote areas that only a pegasus should be able to reach via normal gameplay. This was honestly the most enjoyable part of the game for me, and I hope that the developers decide against fixing this quirk or go out of their way to make these high spots easier to reach. In its current state the game unintentionally rewards players who are willing to think outside the box, something which should be treasured.

 Scattered about the wondrous land of Equestria there are NPCs, most of which are involved in fetch quests. Some will also break the game if you try speaking to them, forcing you to log out and waste valuable time. These quests often provide very little reward for completing them, and if you'd really want cash you're much better off farming the mines for gemstones and selling your findings to a merchant.

Being able to hang out in someone else's bedroom is kinda creepy, come to think of it.

 Once you've gotten bored of exploring, doing fetch quests and engaging with combat with enemies (which mostly involves running up to foes, using the ground slam ability and retreating before repeating the cycle once more), there's not much to do but chat and roleplay. The game would be pretty good for this if the chat window didn't keep automatically scrolling back up to the top, making conversations at a distance/in a crowded area fairly difficult. I'm also baffled as to why the chat was censoring "earth pony" but not "mudpony" at one point, perhaps the filter's maintainer is a unicorn supremacist or something.

 Of all the parts of Legends of Equestria that need work, the environments need the most. Ponydale feels more like a collection of oddly misshapen boxes than a small town, Cantermore's skybox distant mountains and water have incredibly shoddy textures that look like they were borrowed from a bad SuperTuxKart track, while the ground far below Cloudopolis resembles an ugly green blob. I know, they need to keep system requirements fairly low, but I've seen far more lightweight amateur games that looked much better (most of which admittedly benefited greatly from good art direction, I might add).


 So...yeah. We all knew the open server weekend would feature an unfinished game, and that's exactly what we got. It's not something I really enjoyed (aside from the time I accidentally escaped the skybox, along with the aforementioned "exploit the movement system" bits), but plenty of casual players seem to be enjoying it and if you're one of them I'd definitely recommend giving the game a shot if you manage to download it successfully and are lucky enough to get logged in.

For a brief moment Cloudopolis reveals its dark side.

Based anon from /mlp/ shows us a weird cloning glitch his friend discovered.

Outside Ponydale's skybox the ground slopes downward, making it feel like you're descending some kind of green mountain into oblivion. It's strangely calming, actually.

I jumped.

At this point, Cantermore Invader started vibrating in a rather humorous fashion.

Falling off the edge of the world will temporarily ruin your hair.

Admiring the sunset past the invisible walls which surround this world.

*blasphemous boast*

A friend from Horse News managed to break the skybox himself and flew to "Canterlot".

Open Gaming at Brimstone Games February 15th

The Windsor Gaming resource returns to Brimstone Games on Saturday February 15th from 6pm until Midnight. Brimstone has a huge gaming area with tons of tables, chairs and great lighting. I'm told by the owner Sean that we could fit 60 of us in there.

This is an open, all ages, theme-less gaming event. Just a bunch of us getting together to play some games. Magic the Gathering and Warhammer are popular at Brimstone along with the usual mix of card and board games.


You can find Brimstone at 3298 Walker Rd. Parking is available on the south side of the building and on the street around back. Note Brimstone used to be located in McGreggor. This is no longer the case, they moved into Windsor last year. Some internet mapping sites seem to have not gotten this figured out yet.

I CAN FLY

Immolation

Immolation

At Equestria Gaming we get to see many different types of pony-related indie games that are under development. Massively multiplayer online games, platformers, adventure games, and a complete overload of RPGS. Ironically, up to this point in an industry saturated in first person shooters we have not seen a single first person shooter under development, and no, I don't count mods. However, today that all has changed.

A My Little Pony FPS (while still in early development) has arose. Find out more information after the break.

Immolation's creator, "Piedoom" describes his project as a pony-related, steampunk first person shooter with a great emphasis on stealth. While we have no actual gameplay footage yet, Piedoom has released a couple screenshots, concept art and two music tracks (one of which can be found in the video at the top). Even though it's still in a very early state of development, it looks great (if a bit bare), and I look forward to giving it a try once it's released.

The fella also has a tumblr, which you can find at http://immolationgame.tumblr.com/.

XTUX, out!

Play Legends of Equestria Tomorrow

 On Friday at 12:01AM EST the Legends of Equestria open server weekend will presumably begin, provided that their servers can handle the load. Even now they are crumbling under the weight of thousands rushing to download the MMO's client in preparation for the big day, and quite probably things will only get worse come tomorrow. Still, if you do actually manage to get in and play for a bit you'll be able to experience lawyer-friendly locations such as Ponydale, Cantermore and the Evershade Forest, and thanks to the /stuck command earth ponies will no longer be subject to eternal damnation in Tartarus.

 You can download the game here and read their exclamation mark-riddled announcement post here, but I'll copy & paste some of it below just in case the site goes down.



System Requirements

• To run our game, you'll need to make sure you have the following: 
• 2 GB ram 
• Dual core processor, somewhere near 2 GHz. A single core processor works, but is not recommended 
• An okay graphics card. If the computer is made after 2007, you'll be fine. The bare minimum would probably be 128 MB vram, DirectX9.0c/OpenGL2.0 
• 1.5 gigabytes of hard drive space 
• OS: Windows, Mac OSX, or Linux

Commands 

/listfriends Lists all your friends.	/logout Logs out of the game.
/players Lists all the players in the room.	/help Lists all the commands.
/report <player name=""> Lets you report a player to the moderators. You can also click on a pony to report them.	/playervisible <true false=""> Toggles your player invisible for you only, everyone else can still see you.
/cinemacamera <true false=""> Your player will disappear and the camera turns into a camera-fly mode.	/removeitem <inventoryslot> Removes a game item according to the inventory slot it is in. Starts at 0.
/stand Makes your pony stand.	/sit Makes your pony sit.
/dance Makes your pony dance.	/unwearall Removes all items from your pony.
/facehoof Makes your pony facehoof.	/inventory Opens your inventory.

Getting to Cloudopolis

In order to get to Cloudopolis, you must travel via the airship in Cantermore!

If you're in Cantermore, travel up the cliff to the airship port and board your way onto the airship.

 If you're starting in Ponydale, you must first go to the train station and travel to Cantermore, and then go to the airship port.

Getting to Cantermore

In order to get to Cantermore, you must travel via train from Ponydale or via airship from Cloudopolis!

If you're in Ponydale, you must travel via train.

The train station is just past Sugarcane Corner. If you're in Cloudopolis, go to the airport located high up and to the right of the main cloud.


Getting to Ponydale

If you'd like to visit the quaint little town of Ponydale, you must go by train from Cantermore.

If you're in Cloudopolis, go to the airport and get to Cantermore.

Once you're in Cantermore, simply go to the train station by by Astral Charm.


Questing

Plenty of NPCs (Non-Player Characters) need help with their tasks! Some give out special prizes if you lend them a helping hoof!

Go up to any NPC, right click, and select "Talk." NPCs have a "..." over their name.

Listen to what they have to say, and be sure to follow their instructions in order to move on in the quest.

At the end, you might get a reward for your kindness!


Battling

Watch out when going to the Evershade Forest! It's home to some scary monsters!

In order to defend yourself against the creatures you'll encounter, try using your special combat abilities!

Earth Ponies have Seismic Buck, Unicorns have Rainbow Fields, and Pegasi have Dual Cyclone! All three races have Ground Pound.

When ready, select a creature, a target reticule should appear. Attack the mob by getting in their range and selecting your skill.

When the enemy's health gets to zero, they'll faint! Don't worry though, I'm sure they can just walk it off.


Trading

Do you have an interesting item that you'd like to give to a friend? Well, you can trade them!

Simply right click on your friend and hit "Trade." The other pony needs to accept your trade for it to continue.

Once accepted, you'll see a screen. Left click and add the item to the trading menu.

When both players are satisfied with the trade, they both must hit "Ready." When both players hit "Ready," a "Done" button will appear. Once both players hit the "Done" button, the trade will be completed.


Stuck Somewhere?

Have no fear! No need to call the moderators! Simply type /stuck or unstuck me and you will be moved to the starting point of the map. (This will not work if you are in combat.)

Check this out: a card game you don't need a table to play on. Oddball Aeronauts (Prototype) Review

I was contacted by maverick:muse back near the end of 2013 and asked if I wanted to check out a new game they were working on. This new game was a two player card game that simulated a fantasy airship battle. The most unique part about the game was that it was played "in hand". This meant that it didn't need a surface to play on. That game is Oddball Aeronauts.

I checked out some of the links Nigel Pyne, the game's designer, provided and I was blown away. First by the artwork and then by the way he made the whole surface-less thing work. I really liked the look of Oddball Aeronauts and jumped at this chance to check it out before the kickstarter goes live in February. My prototype copy showed up a couple weeks ago.

Since getting the prototype I played a few games with my wife. I also brought it out to one of the Windsor Gaming Resource events and showed the game off to a few people. I figured I've given the game enough of a shot now to write up a formal review:

Oddball Aeronauts Overview

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The prototype box I received is a bit thicker than an old Magic the Gathering starter set. Inside were a couple pages of instructions and 54 cards. The cards are split into two 24 card decks and there are 6 additional encounter cards. I will admit the instructions were currently a bit rough. I communicated my questions and concerns to Nigel and he assures me that they will be fixed in the final version of the game. You can check them out yourself here: Oddball Aeronauts Beta Rules V2D

The back of the cards showing the two factions airships

The theme of the game is an aerial airship duel between two factions: Pirates and Pendragons. These factions and characters come from something maverick:muse is calling the Oddball Realms. The art for this realm has a steampunk anthropomophic slightly anime look to it that I really dig.

To start the game each player chooses one of the factions. Each faction has it's own 24 card deck. To that deck each player adds three encounter cards that are randomly selected. You then hand your deck to your opponent who shuffles it and then hands it back to you face down. When both players are ready you flip your decks and begin.

Holding your deck of cards eliminates the need for a table

All of the stats for the for the cards are located on the left hand side with the artwork taking up more than half of the card on the right. There's a reason for this. They way you play is that you slide the cards out to the left so that you see three cards at a time (as shown there on the left). I thought this was particularly well done and is one of the main ways that the game eliminates the need for a surface.

Each card has three statistics on it. Each statistic has two numbers: a rank shown as a number and a bonus shown as a number with a plus. In addition every card ha a special ability which is located below the stats. Only the special ability of the top card is used each turn. The skills going in order from top to bottom are: Sails, Guns and Boarding. There is an exception to this: events. Event cards do not have skill numbers.

Example of an event: here the Pirates would recover 1 card

Once both players have their top three cards showing, both players check for an event. If both players have an event they are both discarded. If only one player does then the event happens. Events generally have players comparing one of their respective skills on the top crew card shown. Some events check for the lowest skill others look for the highest. Once the event is resolved it is discarded.

The way you discard cards in Oddball Aeronauts is the other way that this game keeps the cards in your hand instead of on the table. When you have to discard something you just flip the card over and put it at the back of your deck. Sometimes you will be told to recover a card, when that happens you look through your deck and find the first card that is face down and flip it face up. I thought this was also brilliant. The game ends when one player's entire deck has been discarded aka flipped over and in that case the other player wins.

Now that there's no events in either players hand we can get to the meat of the game. The active player is going to look at his top three cards and pick one of the three skills to attack with. The opposing player then chooses which skill they want to defend with. Now here's where it gets interesting: both players then decide how many cards they want to use for support. Player simultaneously hold up either one, two or three fingers (We found using a rock paper scissors like pumping motion and counting "one" "two" "three" and revealing worked well) to indicate how many cards they will use. 

Here comes the math bit: now each player adds the skill on their top card to the bonus of any other cards they decided to use. Note this can be one, both or none of their support cards. The player with the highest total wins the round.

Example Pendragon cards

Both players now have to discard the cards they used. Then, based on what skill was used by the winner, players recover or discard cards. If Sails were chosen the winner gets to recover two cards. If Guns were chosen the looser must discard two more cards. If Boarding were used, the winner gets to recover a card and the looser must discard a card. This resolution system adds a nice level of strategy to the game and gives a valid reason to not always just go with your highest combo. 

Sounds simple enough right? Well there's just a bit more to it. Remember I mentioned those special abilities on the cards? These mess with the basic system and modify games in a variety of ways. Most of the special abilities give you a bonus based on what skill your opponent chooses. Stuff like "you get +2 guns if your opponent chooses Sails or Boarding" (note it's not that verbose, it's all done with symbols on the cards.

Other special abilities will let you recover cards or they can modify the next round in some way. These next round modifications are handled in a very interesting way. Any modification for the next round is added to the top right of the back of the card. When you discard the card you leave it sticking up just a bit to remind you of this rule in play next round. Something I've never seen before in a game and it works really well. 

So that's basically it. The winner of the round becomes the active player for next round and you rinse and repeat until one players deck has been completely discarded. All this without a single card having to touch a table.

Final Thoughts:

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Okay I will admit I was a skeptic when I first read about this whole "card game that doesn't need a surface" thing. I just couldn't imagine how it would work. How do you 'play your cards'? How do you discard your cards? Heck, what do you do with your deck after you shuffle it? Now I know, and I really dig it. Oddball Aeronauts managed to pull off the game you play 'in hand' brilliantly. 

Example Pirate cards

This means that my wife and I can play it anywhere. The last time I actually played a game was standing in front of the cash at Hugin & Munin, showing the store owner how to play as I played against one of the other patrons. Next time my wife and I head out to our favourite coffee shop I'll have her toss the deck in her purse. 

Not only is the game uber portable and playable almost anywhere, more importantly it's actually fun. Sure it's not the most strategic game I own and sure it's not the most engaging two player experience I've had, but it's a solid little game. It very strongly reminds me of the old Citadel Combat Cards from Games Workshop but it takes the basic mechanic (I pick a stat, you pick a stat, whoever is higher wins) and improves on it quite a bit. There are some real tactical choices to be made here. Using more cards to win the round means you are eating through your deck quicker. The different attack types mean that you may not always want to go with your highest skills. There are even ways to combo your special abilities if you can manage your attacks properly (If I use one card now and my opponent is using boarding that will mean that my third card will be on top, which means...).

Overall I really dig this and I want to thank Nigel and maverick:muse for giving me a chance to check this out. The kickstarter isn't launching until February but when it does I recommend anyone who's looking for a fun two player game that can be played anywhere to back this one.

A Bonus for Windsor Gaming Resource Readers

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As noted above the Kickstarter for Oddball Aeronauts goes live next month in February. Watch this blog when it does because I've made a deal with Nigel that I think is rather cool. We will be hosting a give away here with a pretty unique prize:

One of the 'Event' cards will be 'Bounty Hunter'. We're proposing that the winner designs the character for this card. They would work with Lloyd to develop the card art, choose a name for the character that will appear on the card, would receive the original artwork and be credited in the rulebook as co-designer of that card.

In addition, once the game is in production we will be getting a couple copies to give away at WGR events as well as hosting another give away here on the blog.

Update: The contest is live:

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http://w-g-r.blogspot.ca/2014/02/oddball-aerounauts-giveaway.html

Updates: Rainbow Dash Shooter / A Chaotic Crisis

Merry Tuesday! It's a smaller updates post this time around - everyone's mired in the January doldrums, it seems. Head down past the break for a new Chaotic Crisis demo as well as updates from the Rainbow Dash Shooter project!

A Chaotic Crisis

A Chaotic Crisis Demo Download

WaltzBrony, developer of A Chaotic Crisis, recently released a demo for the upcoming title! So far, the game is pretty basic - trot around in three different locales, collecting crystals to increase your harmony level and make progress towards your eventual goal of freeing Princess Celestia.

Interaction with the various ponies is the game's strongest point so far: although the stylized pony sprites and animations are far from perfect, they remain visually interesting. Meanwhile, the game's voice acting, especially the voice of Discord, is far less cringe-worthy than in most projects of this size. The game certainly has promise, although in several respects, namely the MS paint-esque backgrounds and the bland, blob-like enemies you're required to walk around, it still has a ways to go.

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Rainbow Dash Shooter

Here's a project we haven't heard from in a while! The Rainbow Dash Shooter now features new OC manes and accessories, a new color picker utility, and a few bug fixes. Overdose is now a power-up, meaning you'll have to defeat larger enemies to collect Overdose Cupcakes and recharge it.

Play Rainbow Dash Shooter

Games and Grub - Feb 1st at the Green Bean

Look for this banner at gaming events around Windsor

The Windsor Gaming Resource is proud to announce another free Games and Grub gaming event at the Green Bean on February 1st 2013, running from 6PM until 11PM

The Green Bean is an independent coffee shop that provides a wide variety of coffees, teas, lattes and more. They have a full menu that includes fresh made soup, paninis and some really tempting deserts. There's the option for a bottomless cup of coffee and they have free WiFi. For us gamers they have a wide variety of tables and a well lit stage.

This is an open non-competitive gaming event that anyone is welcome to attend. Any form of game is welcome: board, card, rpg, miniatures, whatever you want to bring we are willing to have you. We aren't rule lawyers. You are welcome to bring your own games or share in some of ours. Everything we bring we are willing to teach and no experience is necessary. The goal is to get as many local gamers out as possible to enjoy some good food, some good company and some good games!

Games we've played at events like this in the past include: Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Scrabble, Ca$h and Gun$, Bohnanzha, Magic The Gathering, Carcasonne, Race for the Galaxy, Puerto Rico, Agricola, Core Worlds, Munchkin, Scrabble, Chess and more.

An important note: we are not a private club. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come out and join in the games. If you see someone playing a game and it looks interesting, ask about it. If you see a game on a table and you want to try it out, ask around and see if someone will teach it.

Free Giveaway: Jason Russell has kindly donated a copy of Gears of War from Fantasy Flight games. This will be given away at the end of the event. The only requirement to enter will be to play at least one game at this event as well as stay until the roll off at the end.

The Green Bean is located near the University of Windsor at:
2320 Wyandotte St. W (Lower). Windsor, ON.
It's in the basement of the Church with the big sign that says "God Loves Students" on the side of it, next to Harvey's

Note: The Windsor Gaming Resource has no political or religious ties to the Green Bean or the Church it is located in. It just happens to be an awesome place to play some games and meet other gamers.

You can find them on facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/greenbeancoffee

You can find them on the web here:
http://www.greenbeancoffee.info/

The Windsor Gaming Resource on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/windsorgamingresource/

The Windsor Gaming Resource on G+:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/116086449289642584022

The Windsor Gaming Resource on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/WindsorGaming