MLP Windows Phone 7 Portal UPDATE

My Little Pony Windows Phone 7 Portal (Download)

That My Little Pony Windows Phone 7 Portal (my, what a long name for an app!) that we posted a while back just received an update not long ago, and it added some rather useful features that I'm sure all you Windows Phone 7 users will love.

The new additions to the app are:

- FiMFiction.net- EverFree Radio

- Celestia Radio

- Bronyville Podcast

- In-App-Browser: Share Function, Additional Navigation for PonySquare/Cloudsdale, Exit Confirmation

- Facebook

- "Yay Button" and instant "Eeyup"

Pretty neat, eh? In case you own one of these fancy phones and haven't downloaded this app yet, now might be a good time.

Game Developer's Panel at BroNYCon

Edit: And it's over. Hope you enjoyed the stream!

In a little under half an hour the Pony Game Developer's panel will be airing, featuring various developers of fangames talking about their projects and exhibiting them. I'm really excited for this particular panel and what it promises to reveal to us, and after it's done we will post a summary of new and interesting things from it for all you that can't watch for some reason. If you can we would highly advise to put away whatever you're doing, sit down and watch the stream.

Enjoy!

New MLP:Online Website

MLP:Online

Since MLP:Online recently announced that they were releasing soon after BroNYCon they decided to give their website a well-deserved upgrade. In case you want to check it out it's located at www.mlponline.net, although by the looks of it the site is still undergoing some tweaking and the addition of minor stuff.

Anyhow, don't forget that the team is appearing at BroNYCon in about 30 minutes, so we should have far more details on the game after that. See you on the stream!

Welcome to Ponyville at Bronycon + Interview

Filly Gamez

A little while back Filly Gamez (the developers of that visual novel Welcome to Ponyville) announced that a couple of their team members are attending BroNYCon. Specifically Raish Dash and Writers Block are going, and they will be on the game developer's panel in the tail hall at 2:00pm. Apparently they're answering questions about the game (most of which will probably be on the romance feature) and will present a playable demo for everypony to check (which most of you will presumably use to test romance). They also said they will be handing out free vinyls to fans of the game, although I'm guessing that they will have a limited supply so try and get a hold of one as quick as possible.

Oh yeah, they also had an interview with The Lighting Round podcast. Find it after the break!

OFFICIAL 8-bit Pony Game Coming Soon!

A couple months ago the Hub posted an 8-bit My Little Pony commercial, and we all thought it was amazing. But what happened next nopony expected. The game featured in the commercial is real, and people who attend the Golden Yolk at Comic Con will get early access to the game! There's more detailed info in the press release, which states:

Visitors to the Broken Yolk will also receive a secret code to gain exclusive access on Hubworld.com to the eagerly anticipated "My Little Pony Friendship is Magic" themed, 8-bit "Adventure Pony" game already teased on the network.

 Hopefully they'll release it to the general public after a set period of time, but in case you happen to be attending the San Diego Comic Con be sure to pick up a code so you can play. If you happen to be feeling really generous I'm sure everypony would appreciate some screenshots, right?

Please, Make Me SMILE!

Please, Make Me SMILE!

Sometimes there are games that are good, but since they have such terrible graphics people simply ignore them. Usually this is because most programmers are mathematically oriented and not artistically oriented, and is the reason why most game developers hire an artist to help them deliver as much polish as possible. Please, Make Me SMILE! is one such game. Made for a 24 hour game creation competition, PMMS is a point 'n click adventure game that seems to have had its sprites created in MS paint so the author could focus on somewhat more important things (programming), and while the game itself isn't half bad most people will probably ignore it due to the rather poor sprites.

Anyhow, I'm pretty sure that the creator would appreciate it if you leave any feedback in the comments. Hopefully for his next project he'll be able to obtain somepony to help him with the in-game art and create an even better game for the masses. Cheerio!

Angel Bunny Platform Game

Looks like somepony is working on yet another platformer (can't have enough of those!), and despite it being a My Little Pony fangame you play not as a pony, but as Angel Bunny. Say what you will but Angel Bunny is the pet that gets the most screentime but still lacks a fangame, so it's about time he got his own adventure. The gameplay mechanics shown in the video look rather...interesting, with something called "bunny power" that seems to fuel Angel's various abilities. The video also implies that the story has something to do with Gummy; as soon after the toothless aligator appears the developer jumps into a pit in a somewhat humorous attempt to avoid spoilers.

Mane 6 Attending Pon-E3

Mane 6, the team behind My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic will participate in our very own Pon-E3! On Saturday, July 14th (exact time unspecified at the moment) they will host a stream of their "EVO build": a 4-character demo of Fighting is Magic that was intended to be seen at the Indie Showcase of EVO 2012. For those of thus (myself included) who cannot attend EVO 2012 just to see a build of Fighting is Magic this should be quite interesting, as the team's last stream was a couple months ago and a lot has changed since then.

See you on the stream!

Daring Do Flash Game v.89 Alpha

Daring Do v.89 Alpha

A couple months back we posted about a very promising Daring Do Sidescroller Demo, and never heard anything else about it afterwards. Unbeknownst (and unreported) to us was that the project was updating behind almost everypony's backs, and until today we had no idea it had even made any progress. But my, what progress has been made! The game has evolved from a simple (and very pretty I might add) framerate test into a full-fledged fangame with loads of levels, a couple bosses, beautiful graphics and a great soundtrack. While we can't provide a review yet due to the state it's in and the game's large size for a Flash game makes putting it on the Arcade a tough decision, we can say that this game is a must-play, and is undoubtedly the greatest My Little Pony platformer we've seen to date.

Equestria Gaming recruitment

This blog is getting kinda big, fairly quickly. And I'm sure I can handle it alone for a while, but planning way ahead is what I try to do, makes things easier in the future!

Anyway, I'm looking for someone else to help with reviews, and news posts with Pony Games!
If you want to submit a review, just to see how you'll do, here are three you can do: (Yes, I will be doing them myself later)



Game Review - http://www.equestriagaming.com/2011/06/pony-touhou.html
Game Review/News Post - http://forum.steam-united.com/viewtopic.php?f=173&t=313
News Post - http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/06/equestria-online-announced.html

Shoot me an email at strawberryspice@ymail.com if you're interested!
ALSO: You can stop by the IRC CHAT to chat with me about something if email is too slow for your liking :D

Ah, and if you want to try to rate the games, here is the new system I'll be using shortly to rate the games:


1 - Poorly put together, bad graphics, bad music (if any), no story line, or nonsensical, compltely inacurate and poorly made characters
2 - Graphics that aren't made too well, music that doesn't fit, poorly made story line, if any, badly developed characters
3 - Mediocre graphics, music that was just placed in there, poorly made story line, not well developed characters
4 - Less than average graphics, decent music, some story line, some character personality
5 - Average Graphics, Fitting music, a shorter story that makes sense, some character personality/development
6 - Average-Good Graphics, Fitting music, A slightly more detailed story line, More character personality (Like talking and such)
7 - Good Graphics, Music that fits well, a decent story line, developed characters
8 - Very Good Graphics, great fitting music, a good story line, and developed characters.
9 - Great graphics, fitting/original music, a developed and great story line, developed/accurate characters
10 - Professional Styled game, could likely be sold. Amazing original Graphics, professional original music, well developed and amazing story line, and accurate/well developed characters

Review: Lights in the Sky

Lights in the Sky

 

 The Brony Fan Fair's decision to release a promotional visual novel is rather unusual, but we don't really mind since the Brony fandom doesn't have enough VNs aside from the upcoming Starswirl Academy and that other one which should not to be named. Still, it is a relatively low-risk decision on their part, as the number of guests is unlikely to be affected negatively by the game's quality unless it turns out to be grossly offensive. Even then it would probably still attract folks looking for a cheap laugh, but the game isn't that bad...right?

 

Our review can be found after the break, as usual.

 As is to be expected from this type of fangame, Lights in the Sky is fairly short when compared to commercial visual novels or its bloated sibling (most of you should be familiar with the game I'm referring to here). This is probably for the better, as the plot is relatively simple and would have felt stretched out had it been much longer. As for the story itself, it is told from the perspective of the convention's mascot, Rising Star, as her elder sister takes her to an astronomy museum to deliver some starfruit to a loyal customer, and various somewhat unexpected events ensue. According to the press release the game was developed with a younger audience in mind, so you won't find any Story of the Blanks references in here. Sorry, creepypasta fans!

 Of course, the most important element of any visual novel is the quality of the writing, and Lights in the Sky performs quite well in this regard (especially since it was made as a final project for a "Writing and Narration for Video Games" course at the University of Texas). As the course's teacher puts it, "...[A]s a work of interactive fiction -- from what I've seen -- it succeeds on every level. There is conflict, exploration, a sense of adventure, and the writing always stays safely in the established My Little Pony universe". I would have to agree with him for the most part, although the designated antagonist is surprisingly unintelligent for a colt reading books on astrophysics due to the requirements of the plot. There was also little time to flesh out the main characters: hopefully future installments in the series will correct this flaw.

>Racism

 Contrary to what some rabid Filly Gamez fanboys have claimed, graphics are fairly important to a games of this genre; after all, it is a visual novel, not a choose your adventure fanfic. In this area Lights in the Sky is decent for a fan project, aside from some tacky gradients and odd character colourations. The use of Pony Creator for some side characters was also rather jarring when placed alongside more traditional ponies. If only that tool hadn't gained so much attention, then perhaps the internet would have been spared the abominations that it generated... Anyhow, this is supposed to be a Lights in the Sky review, not a rant about how much I dislike Pony Creator. On a more positive note, that planetarium looked pretty cool. Take a hint, aspiring fangame developers and artists: if you want your game to look good, please don't use that gradient tool. It may be convenient, but it doesn't look very good in My Little Pony's art style.

 As for the music...it's taken from RPG Maker, but it does the job well enough when it comes to setting the mood. I would have complained about the lack of an original soundtrack, but stock music and sound effects aren't nearly as big of an offense as only using sample sprites. Musicians are harder to come by than artists, after all.


 To be honest with you, I don't think I should really put a score on this. For one I'm not really a visual novel critic (as the above review made clear), and this is more of a promotional game then anything. It's not really great or anything, so it's still worth your time: just don't expect to get much replayability out of it.

 

 

 

Have any feedback of your own? Post them in the comments, or send them directly to the creator at @PeterCJiang. In the meantime, I'll be setting up my new Windows 8 box (and playing Lego Racers at 1080p).

The Adventures of Pinkie Pie

The Adventures of Pinkie Pie 

(Source)

Most of the web games that we receive on Equestria Gaming are Adobe Flash, and although we do get the occasional Unity game I have noticed that HTML5 games are relatively rare. This is probably because of the somewhat steeper learning curve, the lack of full-featured engines (libraries, on the other hand, are in no short suppy), and the fact that usually you need your own web host to make it publicly available. So far this is only the second HTML5 game we have came across on our website, with the first being Pony Wings, and only the former was in a complete state. For indeed, The Adventures of Pinkie Pie is still in alpha and only contains a couple unfinished stages, but it seems rather promising and every game deserves a chance, right?

In case you're interested in following the game's development they have a website over at http://pinkamena.tripod.com/, and our arcade recently added the game if you want to check it out every once in a while and see if there's any new content.

GUESS WHOOOOOO~

AND I'M BACK!
That was an AMAZING WEEK.

But now I have tons of catching up to do.
Like literally.
Tons.
The next few days are going to be kinda crazy here. Woohoo!

Some thoughts on my first big con: Origins 2014

Two weekends ago I attended my first big gaming convention: Origins Game Fair in Columbus Ohio.

My wife and I have been talking about attending a con for years now. Many years. We've always put it off for one reason or another. Our excuse used to be that we didn't have Passports so couldn't cross the border anymore (pre-911 you could get across with a birth certificate). 

This past year we got our passports and no longer had an excuse. My wife gave me the option of going to either Origins or GenCon. Now I know a bunch of you are probably moaning and yelling at your monitors right now telling me I made the wrong choice. I don't think that I did.

In preparation for the trip I asked the awesome Google Plus gaming community what they thought of each con and received a ton of feedback. The consensus was that Origins was much more laid back, relaxed, spaced out and better for just chilling with other gamers and gaming. That was exactly what I wanted. I've heard stories about how awesome GenCon is. How it's The Big Deal. I also heard how busy it was and how much it cost to attend. So we I decided on Origins and I'm glad I did.

Initial thoughts:

Holy cow this thing is big! This is supposed to be the smaller con, isn't it? I wouldn't call this small at all. We were there five days and on the fifth day we were still finding stuff that we didn't even know existed. At one point I wandered into a huge hall that was filled with hundreds of Magic The Gathering Players. One of the busiest halls of the show and we had no idea it was there until our last afternoon when we were trying to find coffee (for some reason getting a coffee after 2pm in Columbus is a damn hard thing to do).

And this is the small con? GenCon is busier? No thanks.

This goes with the last one: there's no way you can do ALL THE THINGS. I wanted to, I really did, but it just didn't happen. I was there for five days and didn't play a single RPG. That was one of the things that was high on my Origins to do list and I never got around to it.

The auction: missed it. Tracey Hickman's World-building seminar: I think I was still in the 2nd row of the Exhibit Hall when that hit. The Munchkin Tavern: didn't even know it was there until I got home and saw other people posting on facebook.

It was all very overwhelming. At the same time though it wasn't overbearing. I never felt rushed. I never felt panicked. I never actually felt like I was missing anything. That's because I was finding lots of cool stuff to do, I was gaming and I was having a great time. Sure I didn't get to see it all but what I did see I really liked.

Awesome board games:

The main thing my wife and I did while at Origins was try new games. That was one of my main goals (other than hitting Games on Deman) and one that I feel we accomplished. This was not only a great opportunity to try before I buy for some games I've been on the fence about, but it was also a chance to check out new stuff that isn't even out yet. The best part to me was that there were people all over the place excited to teach you their game. As one of the main 'game teachers' in our local group, this was a relaxing break. 

I think I'm going to do a separate best of Origins post where I get into more details about the best games I saw and played at the event. For now, here's some highlights.

Prototype of Castles of the Mad King Ludwig

The most fun game of the entire weekend was Castles of the Mad King Ludwig from Bezier Games. This is the latest from Ted Alspach who makes my current top game, Suburbia. It was a fantastic game, much quicker and more fun and thematic than Suburbia.

Speaking of Suburbia we also got to try SUBdivision. This one was like Suburbia meets 7-Wonders and was extremely fast while still being very strategic. 

Our first day at origins and our first trip into the Exhibit Hall A. we got grabbed by the designer and told we had to try Star Realms. This was a great two player deck builder that had some obvious Magic the Gathering influences. It's only $15 and became my first official purchase of Origins. Being taught games by the people who designed them was pretty awesome. Leaning a new game is great. Learning a new game from the people that created it is better. Even better is beating them at that game. I had to pick up a copy of Fleet for this reason; I destroyed Matt Riddle in our demo game.

There were games everywhere. Just sitting out by the registration area were copies of Monster Factory. After playing a couple rounds with my wife, we decided to pick up a copy to bring home to the kids (with full intention of borrowing it to play with adults at some later date). 

Gravwell went on my to buy list after doing a demo.

Mayfair games had a huge demo area and we tried out The Witches: A Discworld Game, Caverna, Hot Tin Roof, Star Trek: Catan, Mad City and Station Master. For each game you played you got a banner representing the usual Catan resources. Eventually we collected a full set and I took home a copy of Station Master at half price.

Iello taught us how to play a bunch of kids games like The Hare and the Tortoise, Fun Farm and Three Little Pigs. A great dude from Cryptozoic showed up how Gravwell: Escape from the 9th Dimension works and taught us their unique deck building system through their soon to be released The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Deck-Building Game. 

Even with all of these and some I haven't listed, there was still plenty more I wanted to try and we just didn't get to. There were so many great games!

Really cool miniatures:

Just one of the amazing miniature gaming tables at Origins

There was an entire hall dedicated to miniature gaming. This was a hall I walked through and drooled at the huge amount of tables and wide variety of games. The miniatures were great, the scenery was breathtaking the games looked like a ton of fun. 

Sadly I didn't actually get to try any of them. I had planned to learn Zombiecide, Rivet Wars and maybe even Infinity and I did none of that. I did get some great pictures though :)

Other awesome stuff:

My Haversack

There was a whole ton of other cool stuff to see other than just board games. There were RPGs all over the place. Most major games had entire rooms dedicated to them. There was a Shadowrun room and a Pathfinder Room. There was an entire room dedicated to D6 Star Wars. There was also the Games on Demand room that I expected to spend way more time in. Next year.

There were authors selling their new books. Cosplay booths selling all kinds of different gear (a ton of Steampunk and LARP boffers). There were more dice than I could count and so much lead you could sink a ship.  

Pretty much all the major game companies were there as well as some of the biggest online stores. What I really liked finding through were the smaller independent companies. I found some great deals on some scenery, picked up a potion bottle piece of cosplay, grabbed a bag full of dice for use in Mobile Frame Zero and the last day my wife bought me a Handy Haversack to carry all this stuff in.

Then there was the food. Such good food. I took some time to write about that over on my food blog: Big Dude Likes Food so I won't get into details here. I do have one tip: leave the convention center and cross the street. It's amazing how much awesome is right there within a block.

Some lessons learned:

I already mentioned the main one: you can't do everything. So don't worry about it. One of the good discussions I had with one of the people demoing games was about how to handle Origins. His suggestion stuck with me and is the way we ended up going about things and the way I will do things in the future:

I will never buy one of these again.

Get the guides and event listings and figure out the one thing you must do. The thing that to gets you to say: "I went to Origins and got to do X" schedule your weekend around that. Buy an advance pass, schedule it and make sure you do it. Then make a list of the one thing you want to do each day you are there. Try to do that for sure. Plan to spend one day in the Exhibit hall shopping and buying games and nothing else. It will take you a whole day. Other than that, go with the flow.

The biggest mistake my wife and I made was buying badges for the Board Room. This was a complete and total waste of $40. We didn't play a single game in the Board Room. Not one. We were there five days and never used those badges once. There was no reason to. Why would I go to an area where I have to borrow a game and find people to play it with? As well as likely have to teach myself the game before I can play it. This had no appeal to me. 

I get that for some people this is an awesome chance to play games with new people, to actually get games they love to the table or whatever. For me though, I do that almost every weekend through Windsor Gaming Resource Events. I can play with strangers at least twice a month. I didn't need to go to Origins to do this.

Final thoughts:

I loved it. I really loved it. I had a way better time then I ever thought I would. It was just so much fun. There was so much to do and I didn't do half of what I wanted to do. It was one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. I will be going back. Origins totally gets a: Thumbs Up!

Huge Pathfinder sale at DriveThruRPG 40% off 1000s of PDFs

Quick special announcement. This week and this week only all Pathfinder stuff is on sale 40% off at DriveThruRPG! That's over 1000 PDFs on sale!

If you follow this link, you actually support the Windsor Gaming Resource as well as getting a great deal on Pathfinder stuff:
  http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/rpg_pathfinder.php

July 5th - Brimstone Board Games Night - Featuring Fleet!

The Windsor Gaming resource returns to Brimstone Games on Saturday July 5th. This officially marks the official start of the bi-monthly Brimstone Board Games Nights.

The 1st and 3rd Saturday of every month will be Brimstone Board Games Night running from 5pm to 10pm.

Brimstone is working to become Windsor's premier board game shop. They've got a great selection of the hottest games and tons of gaming space to play them. Not only that but all board games are currently 30% off!

Win a Board Game! 

Every Board Game Night at 8pm we will draw 1 ticket and the winner will receive a free board game!

Players will earn 1 ticket for playing a game, limit of 1 ticket per night. Earn 1 ticket for purchasing a snack or drink, limit 1 ticket per night. Earn 1 ticket for bringing 1 or more board games for people to play. Earn 5 tickets for each board game purchased. First time players will receive 5 additional tickets.

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 that Brimstone used to be located in McGregor. This is no longer the case, they moved into Windsor just over a year ago.

Featured Game: Fleet

The featured game of the night will be Fleet by Ben Pinchback and Matt Riddle put out by Eagle-Griffon Games.

This is one of the tightest engine building resource management games I've ever played. I got to demo it at Origins and bought a copy right after.

It's quick to learn, easy to teach but so very difficult to master. We will be running demos of this awesome game all night. In addition the nightly give away will feature a copy of Fleet (and just maybe the expansion: Arctic Waters as well). 

2,000,000 Pageviews

Earlier today, Equestria Gaming reached a major milestone - 2,000,000 pageviews! In an event of huge coincidence, we hit 2 million within 24 hours of Equestria Daily hitting 200 million, and FimFiction hitting 100 million. If that isn't spooky, I don't know what is! Anyway, we'd like to extend our sincere thanks to all those who follow EqG. This site wouldn't be where it is today without you guys. Here's to 3 million and beyond!

Brohoof Summer Sun Celebration 2012

Brohoof.com is hosting yet another Minecraft event, and you know what that means! Tons of partying, tournaments, quests, etc, and if their past events have been any indicator there might be a hostile invasion or two. It started at 12:00 PM and should last for about 3 hours, although chances are the event might go far over the petty limit if enough people attend and stick around for long enough, as the limit is somewhat flexible. There's also a post over at their forums with far more detailed info as to what you can expect, which can be found here.

Why not go on and be a part of the fun, eh? If I recall correctly the server IP is mc.brohoof.com (and if that doesn't work there is always 38.108.185.195 as a backup), so if you own Minecraft then you really have no excuse for not attending.

Gaming in Windsor in July

July 6th Cards & Comics at Hugin & Munin

July 6th we head over to long time FLGS Hugin & Munin for a night of cards and caffeine. The event will run from 5pm until 11pm. Through the entirety of the event all Tassimo coffee will be half off.

Now I know the event is called Cards & Coffee but you don't have to stick to card games. Feel free to bring and play what you want. In the past we've had a majority of card games but also some other games. This is an all ages event so feel free to bring some young gamers out as well.

Hugin & Munin is located at 1664 Tecumseh RD. E. in Windsor Ontario. Parking in back or on side roads and free out front after 6pm.

July 12th Games & Grub at the Green Bean Downtown 

The Green Bean on the West End by the University has proven to be our most popular gaming venue. Unfortunately due to relying on the University for business they close early on Fridays for the Summer. This summer is a bit different though as the Green Bean has just opened up a new 2nd location!

The new Green Bean is located right Downtown Windsor, in the 300 block of Ouelette in the new Windsor Star Building, which used to be the Palace Theater. The actual address is 300 Ouellette Ave - 3rd floor.

You can expect the same great food and atmosphere we grew to love at the West end location just with a new view. There's no theme for this event, just bring whatever you feel like playing. If you don't have very many games don't worry the regulars always bring lots of great stuff and all of us are willing to teach the games we bring. 

This all ages event runs from 6pm until 11pm on Friday July the 12th.

July 20th Bits & Boards @ Brimstone

We just wrapped up a great Brimstone event last night at Windsor's newest FLGS. 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 another open, themeless 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. Now that the construction has moved to the other side of Walker it's a bit easier to get to Brimstone. Parking is available on the south side of the building and on the street around back. This is another all ages event and it runs from 6pm until Midnight on Saturday July the 20th.

July 25th Boardgames Are Really Fun at Villains

Villians Beastro is one of the coolest bars to open here in Windsor. The theme is movie and TV Villains throughout the ages. The places is set up like a secret lair. What a perfect place for some gaming. 

B.A.R.F. events are themed events and we try to bring games that fit the theme. The theme for July is The Need for Speed. We will be looking for quick games or games with a racing theme. I'm looking forward to seeing Formula D, Thunder Road and maybe even Beat the Clock. Note, we're not going to bash you for not sticking to the theme, if you have a game you really want to play, feel free to bring it.

The event starts at 6 pm on July 25th and goes until close. Most gamers usually pack it in around midnight though as the place starts to fill with the downtown drinking crowd at about that time. Note also that since our event is on a Thursday that it's also SWAMP night and Steam Whistle beer and all Paninis are on sale.

Note this is not an all ages venue: Villains is a bar and serves alcohol so no kids for this one. 

MLP Windows Phone 7 Portal

My Little Pony Windows Phone 7 Portal (Download)

A while ago this bloke named ReignOfComputer offered to include Equestria Gaming on an app for Windows Phone 7. He claimed that the app would act as a central pony hub for all WP7 users, making life easier for the lot of 'em and giving him some recognition among the fanbase in the process. Well now that the app is available for public use, does it live up to his claims? We have no idea, as we have no way to test it at the moment, but if you have a Windows Phone 7 then you can give it a spin. Just follow the link above and follow any instructions that you might get, mkay?

Oh, right. There's also a press release after the break, and if you like that kind of stuff...well, it's there in case you want it. It gives a more detailed summary as to what the app actually is, and what you'll find within it.

“My Little Pony Portal” is now available on the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, and will be an exclusive app to the WP7 mobile platform. Best of all, it’s FREE.   My Little Pony Portal, or MLP Portal, is a feature-rich application that combines several functions and services related to My Little Pony. MLP Portal acts as a gateway, providing easy access to several prominent news and services including:-

·         Equestria Daily

·         Equestria Gaming

·         Ponyleaks

·         Pony Mix Central

·         My Little Pony News

·         Derpy Hooves News

·         The Round Stable

·         The Daily Oat

·         Bronies for Good

·         Twitter

·         YouTube

·         Cloudsdale.org

·         PonySquare

·         EverFree Radio

·         Celestia Radio

 

It also allows quick access to My Little Pony’s FanFiction.net, Memebase, Reddit, and Wikia sites.

Don’t forget style – that should be considered. MLP Portal is based off the Metro UI, making it beautiful to look at and use.

Regular updates have been planned in advance to bring new features such as the integration of Bronyville Podcasts among others. Improvements to YouTube and Twitter to include more profiles are also coming soon. With all the features currently available, the reality of this app is sure to make this... The Best App Ever!

My Little Pony Portal is available globally on all Windows Phone 7 devices, and may take up to 24 hours to appear in your marketplace.

So what do you say then bronies, care to step into the modern world and put My Little Pony Portal to the test!  

For more information, including a full credits list, please visit http://mlp.reignofcomputer.com/

Download the app here: http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=00ccb084-c9dc-4019-ab7b-eb0ace1e3a5c

MLP: Online Gearing up for Bronycon Release

MLP: Online

The creators of MLP: Online, a very anticipated project that's been in the works for over a year, are working in overdrive to get MLP: Online Single Player Episode 1 ready by it's release at this summer's BronyCon, on June 30th, a little over 9 days from now. You can find a countdown clock on their website.

It's important to note that this is the Single Player version being released, which hopefully will provide a strong focus on story and combat. The Multiplayer version is to be released later, which will add a social aspect absent from any current MLP fangames. You can watch a dated developer snapshot video and an even more dated, but still awesome visualization of the project progression after the break...

Single Player Episode 1 will receive a full review as soon as it's released. Have a good evening, everyone.

My Little Game Dev Marathon Reviews: Pink Pone Action / The Unknown / Luna Wander

Time for another dive into the My Little Game Dev Marathon submissions! Again, they've been reviewed and graded relative to the other games in the competition.

Find Pink Pone Action, The Unknown, and Luna Wander below the break!

Download Pink Pone Action

This one's a bit of a head-scratcher. Playing as the long-nosed, unintelligible Pinkepone, the player must traverse a candy-coated level that looks like Super Mario meets Sugar Rush.

However, things are not as they seem. A la Cat Mario (perhaps its closest relative) and other unfair platformers, the world of Pinke Pone Action will kill you by any means necessary. As you fall before inexplicably exploding turtles, collapsing ceilings, and invisible blocks, your amount of lives remaining dips into the negative numbers.

Like many of its counterparts, Pink Pone Action appears to be a demo for a full-length game - and worlds of frustration - to come. I'll look forward to it.

Grade: 7/10

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Download The Unknown

I'm not sure exactly what to make of this creepy little survival-horror game. The player awakens in the middle of a darkened, snowy, evergreen forest with nothing but his wits and a few flares for protection. Unfortunately, you're quickly surrounded by strange stone ponies with glowing red eyes.

The Unknown takes advantage of the first person medium to add creepiness to your mysterious assailants - they only advance when the player turns away, freezing  the instant you sweep your view back to them. Luckily, they're vulnerable to your dwindling supply of flares.

The object of the game appears to be to survive for as long as possible, limited to the resources you can scavenge from the ground. Until it gets a plot, The Unknown is certainly good for a scare, but not much else.

Grade: 5/10

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Download Luna Wander (Win x32) | (Win x64)

Among the submissions, Luna Wander takes the cake for world size and perhaps also hours of gameplay (although the latter is tricky to measure). While neither of these can guarantee a game's success, those of you into open-world sandbox games will find a lot to love here.

Playing as the recently exiled Princess Luna, the player must traverse the vast three-dimensional surface of the moon and find enough food and water to survive. These demands are met easily enough (especially if one plays in creative mode,) so what's left to do? Check out the mysterious objects scattered far and wide, that's what.

Located sparsely across the moon's surface are power-ups to help your exploration, materials with which to build crude shelters, and many other strange objects (which I won't spoil.) Even if you cheat using the included map, exploration will take a very long time - so play if you're ready to submerge yourself in the meditative world of the game for a while.

This one's a little hard to grade. At times, I felt lost in the wasteland with little sense of direction and few to no reference points - but I get the feeling that was part of the intended experience. It's not the right game for everyone, but what Luna Wander attempted, it confidently achieves.

Grade: 8/10

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Update: seems like we've overtaxed MLGD's Dropbox. Here are alternate download links for Luna Wander and The Unknown - Thanks, Jach Marsdonpone!

Lights in the Sky: A Brony Fan Fair Visual Novel

Brony Fan Fair

 Texas' very own Brony Fan Fair might be over two months away, but in a surprise move the organizers have decided to release a promotional visual novel starring Rising Star and Heartland, two of the convention's mascots. The first portion of the game will be released on the 25th of June, so you can expect our review of it sometime around then. Thankfully the team avoids the mistake that Filly Gamez made with Welcome to Ponyville and utilizes the Ren'Py engine, which means that it have Mac/Linux support for those of us who refuse to use Microsoft's abominable operating system.

 Below the break you can find the original press release, which has some more detailed info on the game's story and a good word put in for it by one of Deus Ex's writers.

 Hey everypony! We've got a treat for you. An upcoming fan-made visual novel is in the works starring the pony mascots Rising Star and Heartland. Both characters are representatives of Brony Fan Fair, an upcoming convention in Austin, TX on September 13th-15th at the Holiday Inn Austin Midtown.

Lights in the Sky is the story of Rising Star’s journey to find her cutie mark. As a farm filly, Rising Star tries hard to fulfill the responsibilities given to her by her older sister, Heartland. But an opportunity arises where she finds that her heart’s desire may rest outside the boundaries of the Star Fields family farm. Rising Star will be put to the test as she is forced to decide between adherence to her sister’s wishes or the yearning to follow her own dreams.

 The first part of the novel will be available on June 25th, 2013 on the Brony Fan Fair website. Players will be able to play Rising Star’s exploration of the Manehatten Astronomical Society building, the first leg of her journey.

 Lights in the Sky is a short-and-sweet creation of Peter Jiang, Chairman for Brony Fan Fair. The visual novel was a final project for the "Writing and Narration for Video Games" spring semester class at the University of Texas at Austin taught by Sheldon Pacotti (writer on Deus Ex) and is being developed for younger audiences. Pacotti comments: "...[A]s a work of interactive fiction -- from what I've seen -- it succeeds on every level. There is conflict, exploration, a sense of adventure, and the writing always stays safely in the established My Little Pony universe."

Robin Steele the Waifu Thief

Robin Steele the Waifu Thief

 Created in 48 hours for the Crystal Games Challenge (which either nobody told us about or we lost in our email inbox somewhere), Robin Steele the Waifu Thief is a small game by Pix3M about a villainous Original Character Donut Steel™ barging into Canterlot Castle and claiming Twilight Sparkle as his waifu, whoever he has to take down to get there. Naturally, you play as the villain. Randomly generated floors and a massive difficulty help to somewhat increase the playability of this rather short game, and it's definitely worth a couple plays for the beautiful sprite work, but once you've experienced the ending, there isn't much to come back to.

Waiting is Magic Goes Mobile

Update 9/28/14: The game is no longer available on the App Store.

 You read the title right, Waiting is Magic has arrived on the app store! After almost two months of extensive testing this highly addictive Flash game has been deemed ready, so if you happen to own an iPhone or iPod Touch I would highly recommend that you give it a spin. Shame that all those iPad and Android users won't be able to enjoy it yet...ah well, hopefully Penta Studios will consider giving them a chance to play the game as well in the nearby future. The Arcade version was also updated, although I have no idea as to what it contains...

 Speaking of Flash games, it's been a while since we've added anything to that Arcade. I'm still in the process of porting it to Rails, which enables us to more easily add new features such as a rating system, improved organization and Cloudsdale integration (among other such things).

My Little Game Dev Marathon Reviews: Pinkie or Not Pinkie / Primaeval Threat / The Moon

After playing several games from the recent My Little Game Dev Marathon, I realized that I couldn't review them in our standard format. For one thing, it would be unfair to hold a game created in two weeks to the standards I'd expect from a larger project. For another, it would be impossible to do them all justice!

Instead, I tackled three of my favorites at once and graded them against their peers. Find Pinkie or Not Pinkie, Primaeval Threat, and The Moon below the break!

Download Pinkie or Not Pinkie

I know I'm not the only one who wondered if Twilight accidentally left the wrong Pinkie Pie standing after the chaos of s3e03. Now, you can relive the sinking feeling that you've just blasted one of your friends into oblivion... over and over and over again.

The premise of the game is simple enough - playing as Twilight Sparkle, blast away at a horde of Pinkie Pies until there's only one left. At the end of the game, you'll be informed whether you made the right clicks along the way. Fortunately, the player has a "distraction button" to help weed out the fakes - the Pinkies who succumb to the diversion can be safely eliminated.

I ended up playing through the game several times, coming irritatingly close to victory. It may be simple, but Pinkie or Not Pinkie gets points for originality and fun.

Grade: 6/10

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Play Primaeval Threat Online

Set in a space-age version of the ponyverse, Primaeval Threat is a step up from your average choose-your-own adventure game. Techna is a World Custodian, a member of a dwindling organization tasked with protecting ponykind. As such, when a pony ventures into the prison of an ancient evil, it is Techna's duty to track her down and bring her back.

With 118 slides and multiple endings, Primaeval Threat has perhaps more content and gameplay time than any other game entered in the Marathon. The game avoids railroading smoothly - at every juncture, the player is presented with a several options based on the chosen skills of their character. 

Primaeval Threat's engaging storyline and decent replay value certainly don't hurt its appeal. Bonus points for adding to my headcanon!

Grade: 8/10

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Download The Moon

Best princess on the moon? (Almost) always a recipe for success. I'm not sure I've ever played a ponified escape the room game before, but this one was certainly a treat.

The version of The Moon submitted to the My Little Game Dev Marathon is only the first chapter of what will hopefully blossom into a much larger project. However, in its current form, the game already hints at a complex storyline, stylish character portraits, and frustrating puzzles to come. Trapped in a mysterious throne room, Princess Luna interacts with two separate, conflicting manifestations of Nightmare Moon - thus setting up a unique take on her backstory.

I'm notoriously bad at escape the room games, but I was able to solve the throne room puzzle (despite, at several points, being convinced that it was impossible.) Hopefully, we'll see more content soon in the form of a second installment!

Grade: 8/10

Pony Touhou

Pony Touhou

Well, I don't  have very much time. I'm about to leave on my trip, so this will likely be my last post for a week. I'll re-do this properly when I get back!

http://www.mediafire.com/?mfnqurjuy87aaqg


To ask any questions, go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZndB83Umrz0

It's a neato Touhou and MLP crossover,  TO PLAY YOU NEED THESE TWO SOFTWARE THINGIES:

Microsoft .NET 4.0

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17851

Microsoft XNA

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=20914

The creator is currently looking for a few specific things:

If possible, I would like to also advertise my dire need of sound clips of each pony saying their own name so I can put that into my game for when you change ponies,
I also am looking for good quality pictures of applejack faceplanting, looking displeased, or otherwise upset (but still consistent with the artwork of the show)
I'd also love as much feedback as possible from everypony, and I mean everypony!

So there you have it. Check out the game, it looks awesome! Sorry for the incomplete post, and the distinct lack of a review. But I'm really in a hurry!
I'm leaving the site to you Cheddah! Good luck!