Demo: The Underworld's Cello 2.0

The Underworld's Cello

(Demo 2.0 download)

Note: This game contains a few mature themes, as well as some crude gore.

 Are you enjoying Halloween so far? No? Let's do something about that. Octavia in The Underworld's Cello is a point-and-click adventure game made by Herooftime1000 wherein two ponies get lost in an old mansion. Within, you'll find puzzles, alchemy, and even a few card games. The content present is a lot of fun, and the game seems to take inspiration from old LucasArts point-and-clicks in every aspect of presentation.

 Though the game is unfinished, the current content is more than enough for a good evening of fun and jump scares, as long as you make sure to save often. The puzzles present are great fun, and the mechanics help to add a lot of depth to the gameplay, though occasionally an item seemed to vanish upon pickup with a full inventory.

Octavia in the Underworld's Cello

The Underworld's Cello (fixed)

 So I knew that I was going to be posting about at least one adventure game today, but to be quite honest with you I was rather surprised when I opened up my deviantART notifications and found a demo for a first-person point & click adventure game right before my eyes. It stars Octavia (duh) and Vinyl, as they venture into a dilapidated mansion after following some poorly-written directions to a Nightmare Night party, and yes, it does run splendidly in Wine once you install dsound. Thing is, it is quite a bit darker than your average pony adventure game, although the fact that it's being released so close to Halloween probably explains that.

Heh heh heh...

...this should be fun to review once it comes out.

Cutie Mark Crusade Demo Release

                                                    Download Here! 
Hi everypony!

Development team Manestream Games has unveiled the demo to their new game Cutie Mark Crusade: A Dash of Adventure.  This is a point-and-click game starring-who else-the Cutie Mark Crusaders.  The art style is very detailed and accurate to the show, and the gameplay shows a lot of promise, even at this early stage.  However, this is just a concept demo so it's far from the final product.  If you enjoy it and want to support the team, follow them on Facebook or Twitter.  If you have any critiques, Manestream encourages you to let them know, so post on either of those or send them an email at info@manestreamgames.com.  Check it out now!

Point-and-Click Pony Engine in Progress

Anyone with fond memories of 90's LucasArts adventure games, listen up: Adam "takua108" Rezich is developing a brand new point-and-click engine called PonyQuest.  PonyQuest is designed to allow users to make their own DOS-esque pony adventures that can easily be shared with others.  He's even making the scripting language, which he's dubbed PonyScript, simple to use so even people with no understanding of programming jargon can easily craft their own dialogue and cutscenes.   
 In just 2 weeks, he's made enough progress to release the preview above...




Of course, one pony plus hundreds of  hours of development just doesn't add up.  Right now, Rezich is looking for somepony skilled in pixel art(who's okay with their work being open sourced and accessible for anyone to make sprites and backgrounds with) so the bland shapes in the video can be replaced with some actual ponies.  If you think you can help, email him at adam@rezich.com.  To check out more, visit project site http://ponyquest.net or dev blog http://ponyquestgame.tumblr.com

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!

Review: Canterlot Defender

Play it Here!
Or on the Equestria Gaming Arcade

After the Season 2 finale, it's hard to imagine anyone who hasn't dreamed of defending Canterlot against an incoming swarm of Changelings, preferably using this technique, pioneered by Twilight Sparkle. Well, thanks to Futzi01 on Deviantart, you can do just that. This point and click style game is already on the Equestria Gaming Arcade, but I felt it deserved a proper review. You can read it after the break...

The gameplay here is simple enough. You aim and fire magic bursts with your mouse, shooting down changelings in the process. It is your duty to prevent any changelings from making their way to the side of the screen. You have 10 lives. The longer you live and the more changelings you blast, the higher your score.

There are two more elements to consider, however. The first is your magic bar. You mustn't let it drop down to zero, otherwise you'll experience a long cooldown period which is guaranteed to let at least a few changelings by. As long as you don't click too wildly, you should be fine.

They're no match for my Twilight Sparkle Gatling Gun!

Last but not least, by pressing the numbers 1-5, you can call upon the other elements of harmony to help clear the screen for you with unique animations. If you time it correctly, you should have at least 1 of your friends available at all times.

There exists an easter egg in Canterlot Defender, accessible via the Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, enter). You have to enter this quickly to avoid losing too many lives, but from that point on, you can call upon Derpy in addition by pressing 6.

The atmosphere of this game is greatly enhanced by its music selection - Final Day Area by the wonderful Interrobang Pie. It's an upbeat 8-bit track inspired by This Day Aria, and I must say that it fits in perfectly with this game. All in all, simple as it is, Canterlot Defender is an enjoyable gaming experience.

Review: My Little Investigations - True Blue Scootaloo

My Little Investigations - True Blue Scootaloo

After a long time in development, with almost no word on progress from the team until recently, Equestrian Dreamers finally released the first case in their point-and-click adventure game, My Little Investigations, titled True Blue Scootaloo. While the game has received its fair share of attention and hype, does the first substantial fruit of the team's labor live up to expectations? Well, that's what this post is for. Check out some rambling opinions on the game across the break.

Note: This review contains spoilers for the case. Read on with caution if you want to experience the game blind.


The game opens up on a simple premise; Rarity's cat and prized jewel have gone missing, and it's up to Twilight Sparkle to find who's responsible before the unnamed bumbling investigation team from Canterlot arrives to take over the case. The first issue the game falls into is the classic whodunnit trap of giving away the culprit to players in the very intro; this takes away much of the entertainment value of finding out who did it, and turns the game into a simple matter of finding out what the player already knows. While it doesn't ruin the overall story, it does blow the opportunity for a wonderful plot twist that would have added so much more to the case.

I feel ya, Twilight.

In terms of character writing, the game does well; nobody acts particularly out-of-character, or does anything that wouldn't be expected out of them in a canon universe. Dynamics between characters are also well-explored, with characters reacting off of each other in ways that feel remarkably similar to an episode of the show. However, Pinkie Pie's integration as an obnoxious, fourth-wall-breaking tutorial does little except to annoy the player, and in my playthrough was quickly disabled after the first few appearances. The only OCs present also served absolutely no function except as some half-hearted attempt at world-building, and are safely ignored within the game. I appreciate making any interactions with them unnecessary, but it leads to them serving only as dead space to please a few contest winners.

The game has a few issues with ambiguous evidence leading to player confusion. One example was during Scootaloo's confrontation; when the player is expected to give a reason for her to crash through Rarity's window as she rides her scooter around it, my first inclination was to present the hair, which was clearly marked as "probably the cause of the rider's swerve". Instead, the solution was to parrot back the fact that she was practicing a trick, and let Twilight automatically connect the hair to the conversation. Giving the player evidence which has the sole purpose of being immediately thrown back into the conversation feels obtuse and arbitrary in a game that's supposed to be about the player putting the pieces together.

In other situations, the game has a bit of a hand holding problem. While some of that is to be expected in a first case, the game goes rather overboard with it; even after I disabled the tutorials (which seemed to go overboard in explaining things that really didn't need explanations), the writing has a bad habit of making the next step incredibly obvious. This becomes especially apparent once Rarity starts tagging along; the player is consistently directed to their next move from then until acquiring the search warrant.

When the game isn't suffering from those issues, though, the writing is superb. The whole Diamond Dog search scene through the end of the case stands out in particular as a fantastically put-together bit of gameplay, giving the player just enough guidance to keep them from being hopelessly lost without giving away the answer, having logical connections just ingenious enough to make the player feel clever for discovering them, and serving as a wonderful sendoff for the case. The game's story is well-executed overall; the few flaws present, however, hold it back from greatness.

As for the vehicle that drives the story - the gameplay - there are a few interface issues that detract from the experience. The lack of ability to skip through text the first time you see it, in particular, is an inconvenience for quick readers who don't want to sit through a slowly-ticking text box before continuing; I often found myself multitasking with other things while listening to a conversation, since the game was having trouble holding my interest at those times. Edit: The developers have added this functionality into the game through the 1.0.1 update. The lack of any method of keyboard control is also inconvenient; while the game was obviously designed for a mouse, and benefits from it, having an option for keyboard control would be very handy for those who prefer such a setup. At the very least, having keyboard shortcuts for the evidence screen and active partner abilities would be a huge convenience.

The game also seemed to have performance issues on my laptop. Even with the pre-loading present (which brings the game's RAM usage up to astronomical levels for a game of this complexity), the game would often stutter for a few seconds at a time loading a particular voice clip. There was also the occasional issue of the background for an area simply not loading, which happened to me once or twice during my playthrough, and some people I know have reported softlocks, though I never encountered any myself. These issues are fairly minor, and certainly don't detract from my overall enjoyment of the game, but they are issues that need to be fixed.

Whoops.

Graphically, the game is very inconsistent; show-modeled overworld and conversation sprites (that sometimes have a habit of going off-model) mix with cutscene graphics that have a rather unappealing style, at least to me. Overworld graphics are very well-animated, while the single animated pose present in conversations (Twilight's accusatory point) feels very stiff and unprofessional. The interface is also rather plain, with nothing to give it character aside from... black boxes. The graphics certainly do their job adequately, and they don't look bad by any means (the opening and title screen in particular have a very professional quality to them), but they could be so much better.

The audio is a mixed bag. The voices are generally okay impressions, but they vary in microphone quality a lot, even through the same character, and they start to grate after a while. Turning off voices does little to help, as the chirping noise that replaces them is rather grating after a short time. However, the music production is superb, with a number of wonderful tracks that do a great job of setting a mood and sounding pleasing to the ears overall. The music that goes with Rainbow Dash explaining how she gave Scootaloo her ribbon stood out to me as a particular highlight. (That might just be my affinity for the CMC theme from the show, though.)

Overall, the game will be highly entertaining to those who enjoy the type of gameplay it offers, and an interesting curiosity at the least to anyone else. Production values are shaky at times, and it's not a very long game, seeing as it's only a single case, but it uses the time well to create a fun experience.

The MLI engine has certainly shown a lot of potential with this game; it'll be interesting to see what happens if and when a case designer is released into the wild for others to make their own custom cases with.

ihavedonenothingproductiveallday.gif

My Little Investigations Case 1 Released

 My Little Investigations

 That's right. After almost three years in development, My Little Investigations - the fandom's premier Phoenix Wright-inspired adventure game, from Equestrian Dreamers - has finally released its first case, True Blue Scootaloo. They also have the soundtrack, as well as the source code for both the current version and the previous Java-based version, available for download.

 This case has been a long time coming, and I could go on about how excited I've been, but I think I'll save that for a review. For now, I'm just going to point you guys over to their Downloads page to get it for yourself. See their announcement below the break. (Or just read it on their site...)

That’s right! After almost three years in development, the first case in My Little Investigations is finally ready to be released to the public!

I’m sure the first thing that you’re looking for is a download link, so you can find that here:

http://www.equestriandreamers.com/downloads/

At that link, you can find four things:

1. The game executable itself plus case 1
2. The soundtrack to case 1, composed by Trot Pilgrim
3. Source code for the game executable
4. Source code for the (now-defunct) Java case compiler (+ game implementation)

If you just want to play the game, the first item is what you want. Highly recommended is the second option, as Trot Pilgrim did an awfully fine job scoring the game. If you’re interested in exactly how the game works or are interested in any specific functionality therein, the third option will give you that. And if you’re academically curious, the fourth option contains the source code both for the initial Java demo of the game, and of the case compiler in Java that I’ve been using to compile the first case. It’s very bare-bones and is really not very good, and is entirely unsupported – now that case 1 is released, work on a proper case creator is underway in earnest – so only the most curious and adventurous will find anything there. Still, we included it for the sake of completeness.

If you’d like to discuss the game, don’t forget to check out our forum! Talk about MLI, about MLP:FiM in general, or about general things with other fans is all welcome!

Finally, I’d like to mention that we also now have a Twitter account, @EqDreamers! We’ll be using that account both to alert fans to new posts here, news about MLI, or just general communication with others. So, following us is definitely encouraged.

We’ll have more to post about in the coming days, but that’s probably more than enough for right now. Enjoy!

 Stay tuned for our review in the coming days. I'm off to give the game a spin!

Review: Click the Twilight Sparkle (April Fools)

Download it Here!

Please note that this article was an April Fools day joke and is not meant to be taken seriously.

Let me just start this review by saying that this game is quite possibly the best pony game we've seen to date. The concept is simple, yet elegant: you must click Twilight Sparkle, and as you do, you earn points. The author behind this game is anonymous, and after months of work, he or she has finally completed this masterpiece of a game. If it were up to me, this game would get a Game of the Year award, hands down. Read more after the break...

You start the game with a score of zero. This is a very humbling move by the creator, as starting with zero means you've accomplished nothing thusfar. This is soon to be remedied, though. With your trusty mouse or trackpad in hand, you mouse over Twilight Sparkle, and left click. The score advances by one. You click once again. You now have two points. Your goal is now clear: to get as many points as possible.

All aspects of this game are very well done. The minimalistic graphics truly capture this game's spirit. The music, according to the author, is completely original. The tune is very catchy, and might I add, the voiced bit at the beginning mimics the voice acting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders perfectly. This is the type of song which could easily be found in the show itself.

High Score!

The mechanics are flawless - Twilight Sparkle's hitbox is completely precise - click on her, and you get a point, but click one pixel away from her, and get no points. This type of professionalism I found very refreshing in this day and age. The game's engine was written specifically for the game, too. The anonymous author calls it "Game Maker." Maybe the author can be convinced to share that engine with everyone else, as it seems quite versatile.

The final point of merit for this game is the use of Twilight Sparkle, the show's best pony. The author expects spinoffs to be made for every character, but wanted the original game to star everyone's favorite purple unicorn. Several months of work have obviously paid off with "Click the Twilight Sparkle," and I expect fanart, perhaps even a fanfic or two, to be rolling off the presses really soon.

This marks the first time that Equestria Gaming has brought out "The Celestia Grade." This game is indistinguishable from a professional one, and for this reason, I dub it the best pony game in history. Have fun playing, and be sure to post your high scores in the comments (pics or it didn't happen).

(April Fools) Review: Click the Twilight Sparkle RELOADED

Play it Here

This article was written for April Fools 2013 and is not meant to be taken seriously.

After a long year's wait, the sequel to the most popular game of 2012, Click the Twlight Sparkle has finally arrived. Click the Twilight Sparkle RELOADED is here for you to enjoy. Experience all the thrillz, chillz, and nonstop fast-paced mouse-clicking action that made the original so famous, and much much more. For more info on this fantastic display of game-designing prowess, check after the break...

Click the Twilight Sparkle RELOADED features amazing gameplay which provides a subtle infusion of retro charm, and has tremendous replay value, to be sure. The clicks feel satisfying as ever, and add to that stunning revamped visuals, and you have a true award-caliber game.

I know what you're all thinking - "Enigma, this game sounds fantastic, but how much will it cost me?" The answer, friends, is not a cent. You see, we're providing this game free of charge so you can see how great it is before purchasing the Click the Twilight Sparkle RELOADED: Alicorn Expansion Pack. This DLC will come at a fair cost of $59.99 and will add a whole new dimension of gameplay with the addition of wings.

Just look at those gradients!

Everything about the gamefeel is truly refreshing - the music fits the action perfectly, and everything from the menu design to the font choice exemplifies pure class.

The creator of this game, a mysterious genius known only as "Enigma Sage" has stated that he intends for the game to be published on Steam for better distribution, but in a statement released yeterday, Enigma said "Gabe Newell won't return any of my phone calls." Fingers crossed on that front.

Obviously Click the Twilight Sparkle RELOADED is destined for award-level greatness. Game of the Year is a perfectly viable goal for a game of this magnitude. The best we can do here at EqG is a perfect 10/10. If we had an 11/10, this would be the game for it.

What are you still doing reading this article. You should all be playing Click the Twilight Sparkle RELOADED right now. You won't regret it.

Cutie Mark Crusade Teaser #2

I swear, this game just gets more and more amazing as it's revealed. Take a look at the trailer and gaze in awe at the sheer awesomeness!

Also, don't let your jaw hit the floor too hard, or you'll have to visit the nearest hospital.

Where's Derpy? 2

Play Where's Derpy? 2

In honor of Derpy Day, pepperpunk has released Where's Derpy 2, the sequel to the original point-and-click Derpy-finding adventure. The mechanics are almost exactly the same as the first time around - in each panel, find Derpy, 3 muffins, and Lyra (if she appears). However, there are a few more achievements this time around. Have at it!

Cutie Mark Crusade Unofficial Mac Port

A couple days ago I created an unofficial Mac OS X port of the Cutie Mark Crusade Demo, and I decided that I might as well post it up here. For those of you who are tired of running the game through the command line and just want to launch it by clicking on an app, here you go!

Download (For Mac OS X): http://www.mediafire.com/?3zhjg7o8yoo2kub

Please note that this port is somewhat unstable, and I have no idea if it works for ponies other then me. Please leave feedback on stability in the comments.

Adventure In Ponyville 0.1

Play Adventure in Ponyville 0.1

It's been a tumultuous week for the fandom, huh? Not to worry - I'm sure you guys can create games faster than Hasbro can type up C&D notices. Today, we've got an old-fashioned, point n' click exploration of Ponyville that has all the innocence of season 1.

Story-wise, Adventure in Ponyville seems to be pretty run of the mill. As a new arrival in town, you spend your time meeting ponies, playing minigames, and earning "friendship points." Hopefully, we'll see a plot in later installations.

Don't let the lack of story turn you off immediately, however. Adventure in Ponyville's graphics are close to show-accurate and entirely original: certainly a sight for sore eyes. In a couple of scenes (most noticeably Pinkie's minigame) they're not yet finished, but the majority of the game looks great. 

Finally, don't forget to click around a bit - innocuous books, mushrooms, and flights of stairs yield themselves readily to your wit. Enjoy!

Cutie Mark Crusade Video Preview

Cutie Mark Crusade:A Dash of Adventure

The fellows at Manestream Games have released a video update of their upcoming project, Cutie Mark Crusade:A Dash of Adventure. This update showcases Fluttershy's Cottage, as well as the music that will play inside it. It's not much, but I thought it'd be worth posting.

XTUX, out!