PoniPoni Visual Novel Creator

PoniPoni

 In an attempt to encourage the creation of more pony visual novels, Taivastiuku decided to create a web-based tool for that purpose and called it PoniPoni. It's still in a fairly early state, mind you, and the average person probably won't give this more than a passing glance at the moment, but I get the impression that if this ever gets anywhere it could become a rather useful tool for folks wanting to whip together a quick VN. Perhaps more developers would be attracted to the project if the source code were to be released on GitHub or something, I dunno.

...In memory of theabriged.com being taken down some time ago and the loss of my epic work of interactive fiction, "The Drakening of the Moon", I give you this illustration.

My Little Game Dev Re-Opens

My Little Game Dev

(Forums)

 After spending several months in a more or less inaccessible state, the My Little Game Dev community has finally relaunched its main site and forums to the general public. The forums (along with their quirky Cloudsdale group) are still the main draw for MLGD, of course, while the main site will apparently post articles on pony game development and whatnot. The latter I find to be an especially interesting idea if they manage pull it off well enough, as it's something I've always wanted to do myself once I actually manage to finish one of my own games. After all, articles on game development written by people who've never actually tried it tend to go horribly wrong, as The Round Stable unwittingly demonstrated for us back in August.

If you're interested, you can check out their forums at http://mylittlegamedev.com/forums.

Press Release: Equestrian Robotics

Equestrian Robotics

(Megamare X)

 The Equestrian Robotics Initiative is proud to unveil its face to the world-wide internet. We are now announcing our brand-new site, which can be found at EquestrianRobotics.org. This site, we hope, will provide answers about our many upcoming projects and products to make the speedy recovery of our world smoother for all.

 As always, questions and comments can bseasoned via our twitter account, @EQRobotics. We appreciate all feedback we receive regardless of any profanity-laced responses that come from Jay’s desk. Please don’t sue.

– From the desk of Dr. Atelier.


 The indefatigable minds at Starlight Studios have created some new content concerning popular retirement simulator/action game for reprogrammable computers, Megamare-X. The site has been a project of theirs since the events of BronyCon 2013, and will be updated with in-universe, in-character game info concerning the rich world of Equestria 21XX. As the game draws closer to its completion, the blog will become more and more relevent to the events of the game, and will eventually serve as a direct portal for download and support as well.

My Little Game Dev + Creepypasta Contest!

  Sometimes I have found myself wishing that there was a forum for My Little Pony fangame developers, but a couple days ago some folks from My Little Game Jam started discussing this idea amongst themselves. Usually this kind of talk doesn't get anywhere, but a bloke going by the username Wishdream took it upon himself to create the My Little Game Dev forums: a place where developers could come together, share their knowledge and just hang out. Sounds fun? Then join via this link.

  In other news the site's founder has set up a creepypasta contest for the users to participate in, and there's a little over 2 days left. The prizes? Free art from Wishdream and exKira, along with a position on the devteam of a super secret fangame. It's not much, but at least it's a good excuse for some more creepypasta, eh?

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.

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!

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

Presenting Equestria Gaming's Online Arcade!

At Equestria Gaming we pride ourselves on being the #1 source for My Little Pony fangames (at least, we hope so!). But as you might have noticed, lately we've slowed down somewhat (not in speed, we're highly optimized when it comes to speed and SEO). Was the current generation of authors going the way of Strawberry Spice? Nope! We've just been preparing something really awesome that we hope you all enjoy.

Introducting the Equestria Gaming Arcade, a place where you can access all of your favourite online MLP fangames in one easy website, with even more on the way! We have classics such as Story of the Blanks, Super Filly Adventure, along with enjoyable minigames like Catch the Scootaloos, Derpy Hooves sweet dreams, and the ultimate cure for boredom, Waiting is Magic! Pretty much any browser-based game is supported, so if you have any Adobe Flash, HTML5, Javascript or Unity3D games then feel free to submit them to us.

Anyhow, the arcade is located at http://arcade.equestriagaming.com/, and currently features 8 games (more are in the pipeline!). The features are not completely final yet either, we plan on adding a ratings system in the near future and maybe some extra eyecandy for those with modren browsers. Enjoy!

Changes to our Theme

Lately we have been making many changes to Equestria Gaming. Most of them were behind the scenes such as performance optimizations and while those were quite useful we always had it in the back of our minds to make visible improvements to our site. So as you've probably noticed, we've currently themed our site around Queen Chrysalis to celebrate the season finale and the reveal of a new villain, along with an entire race of emotion-eating monsters. This theme will probably not be permanent and is not yet complete, we would appreciate it if you leave some feedback in the comments.

Background and title vector by Gig Mendecil.

Flankbook Relaunched, BronyNet Updated

Flankbook & BronyNet

 Since almost everypony likes social networking sites it was a given that the talented Brony fandom would produce some of their own, and indeed it has no shortage of them. If I recall correctly Flankbook was one of the original websites created for this purpose, although after a couple months it was shut down for various reasons. In the meantime several other fairly prominent websites have arisen such as the RainbowDash Network, BronyNet, BronySquare and Cloudsdale (the latter of which is more of an instant messaging client and also features mobile apps), but Flankbook's developers talked of remaking their website and launching it again for the world to use. Their minimalistic, Boostrap-based website entered open beta today, with more features on the way shortly.

 On a related note, rival website BronyNet has recently released a massive update to their custom NewsTime software, which means that it now features realtime updating, profile headers and other fancy stuff like that. It currently offers a lot more than Flankbook and has a less-cluttered interface than BronySquare, but since the former is still in open beta things could change quickly. We also have a BronyNet page at http://bronynet.com/main.php#!/profile-3175, in case you are interested in following us over there for site updates and whatnot.

Equestria Gaming is Now 1 Year Old!

Equestria Gaming is now one year old. Since I had to do something for a commemoration post (and I had no idea what else to do), have some Flintstones singing. I have something else to post later that might be a tad more interesting then this, but don't count on much.

New Friendship Brigade Website

Recently the operators of the Friendship Brigade released a new and improved version of their website,  and from what I hear it's a really great place. If you like gaming and want to socialize with your fellow Bronies, Friendship Brigade is THE place for it, and you can find it at http://friendshipbrigade.net/forum/index.php.

After the break you can find a copy pasta from the Friendship Brigade's creators that describes their site in more detail.

"Hello everypony! Are you a gamer who just can't seem to find any pony to play with? Trying to get together with other bronies to play games like Halo Reach, Uncharted, or any other game? Or, are you looking to simply discuss a wide variety of topics with your fellow gaming bronies? Well, look no further! Introducing the new and improved Friendship Brigade! With our new forum site, you can come together and meet other bronies gamers like yourself. We have combined elements from Facebook and Twitter and rolled them all up into a fancy forum site. You can also check out the main site (which can be found by pressing the HOME tab) and find various game dates and other events that the Brigade will be doing. We are also looking for people to host servers for the community as well, if you would like to host a server for us let an admin know on the forums. So come on down and join one of the largest growing brony gaming communities out there. We promise it will be one heck of a ride."

Sound interesting? Then go on over to their website at http://friendshipbrigade.net/forum/index.php and sign up for an account at their forums.

Xtux, out!

Equestria Jukebox's Alpha is Released

Equestria Jukebox

 In January I wrote about Equestria Jukebox, the unusual pony creation utility/chat app successor to the Pony Avatar Creator, and its alpha client came out on this Monday. It looks pretty neat so far, although there's a distinct lack of manes and accessories for users to pick from and I was unable to save my abominations to the server, leading me to believe that they have gained sentience and are actively discriminating against ugly original characters. Do note that the userbase is fairly small at the moment, so if you do make a chat group it'll probably take quite a while to grow (unless the service undergoes a sudden growth in popularity).

There's always Lunasync as an alternative, of course, although nobody seems to use it ;~;

EqJ needs a Deadhead room.

Equestria Jukebox

 Despite the infamous Pony Creator utility being the most commonly-used of, well, pony creators, there are still a fair amount of people who prefer the Pony Avatar Creator demo for various reasons (even if its pony model looks a bit off, and it doesn't have a really wide variety of manes or accessories). The creator could have kept it in its current state and simply added more stuff, but it seems he has other plans for it and is in the process of transforming it into a full-fledged web service called Equestria Jukebox, with chat rooms and whatnot.

 Will this take off? We'll see once the open alpha comes out, but in the meantime you can find an exclusive sneak peak of the service below the break.

 

 From what I've gathered, the pony creation service will be available to all, although users will have to sign up to have access to some of the more advanced features such as joining/creating chatrooms.

 Upon signing up users will be given a quick tutorial on the site's usage or something. The Youtube player from the original app has been carried over to this new version, allowing the owner to cycle through music tracks and whatnot while people chat about stuff. User avatars will also be automatically generated from the OCs that they create with the site, which is pretty neat I guess.

...Come to think of it, this is a lot like Lunasync but with OCs instead of Luna.

 The homepage has a list of currently active, password-free rooms. In the future Lexuzieel is planning on implementing playlist voting so rooms may still be active while the group's owner is away. Yep, there's totally no way this can go horribly wrong...

 And now we've come to the feature everybody cares about the most: the pony editor. Users of the service's predecessor should feel right at home, and will probably be quite pleased once more manes/accessories are added. This time around the Lexuzieel apparently has some people to help him make these, so hopefully the project won't stagnate in quite the way that the Pony Avatar Creator did.

 In a way I almost wonder if Equestria Jukebox really needs to be this big, frankensteinian web service instead of just a pony creation utility, or exactly how Lexuzieel plans on getting the money for hosting this, but we'll get to that once the open alpha has been out for a while. Lex is also looking for translators or something so the site will be accessible to a wider audience, so if you're interested you could contact him via his steam account (Lexuzieel) or his Skype account, alexrurm.