• Member Since 12th Mar, 2012
  • offline last seen Jul 31st, 2016

Gremlin Grenade


More Blog Posts27

Jul
2nd
2013

My Little Pony: Shattered Kingdom · 12:44am Jul 2nd, 2013

Let me tell you a little story about a game. A game about ponies.

For some of you, this has been the moment you've been waiting for. Others of you may have no idea what I'm talking about. But Fiesta Equestria! is over, and I can finally tell you all about this bloody game.

My Little Pony: Shattered Kingdom (aka just "Shattered Kingdom," to give us some legal protection) is a turn-based tactical role playing game in development by my own studio, Alicorn Games. Players take the role of an influential officer in Equestria's military at the present point in the canon (or the closest we can manage at the time). Between the rise of Princess Twilight Sparkle and the changeling invasion (the first true invasion of Equestria in a millennium), political balance in the nation is beginning to grow tenuous. After an attack on the Grand Galloping Gala nearly puts Princess Luna's life in danger, she makes a call to arms across the nation, asking every willing and able pony to form an organized militia and strengthen Equestria's borders. Princess Celestia, having protected her nation for over a thousand years without the need of military force, dissents against this notion, not wishing her nation to become a bloodthirsty empire. Political tensions rise, and eventually Luna flees to the Crystal Empire to form the New Lunar Republic, slowly but surely plunging Equestria into civil war...

Gameplay-wise, the game takes cues from titles such as Fire Emblem, Valkyria Chronicles, and Final Fantasy Tactics, with a heavy emphasis on story. The player's fate will be decided not through clear, binary choices, but through a natural and realistic progression of tough, real decisions. With a versatile cast of colorful characters (literally) on either side whose lives will be affected by your every choice, both sides will have the possibility of multiple endings, as well as some alternate paths that don't confine to either side at all (you can even change sides partway through the game if you play your cards right).

Putting this masterpiece together is a hand-picked team of some of the most talented ponies I could find in this fandom. Right now, our lineup includes SilFoe in charge of the art department, and acting as my right-hoof mare as associate producer, with Aurarrius doing concept art for some of the characters. We also have Huussii (aka the Finnish Magnificent Bastard), who will have to depart from our company for the next several months due to conscripted service but has already produced some incredible environment art. Seventh Element is the lead sound designer, ahead of a team consisting of, Radiarc, Radix, and Captian Fluffatun, who have been building the game's absolutely beautiful soundtrack. Writing the game's story line (aka the architect of that amazing stuff just a couple paragraphs ago) is a man who needs no introduction, but deserves one anyways; Pen Stroke. Sully (aka Sulliman) has stayed with us for a very long time as an upcoming designer and junior producer. And lastly is myself, acting as the game's producer, creative director, and lead designer. Seriously each and every one of these guys are amazing, you should all go and check them out immediately.

So if any of you have any questions about the game, let's hear 'em! I can't promise I'm at liberty to answer all of them, but I'll do my best! You can also follow us at our blog!

By the way, here's the panel we presented at Fiesta Equestria!

(Be warned, it's a bit spoilerey at 23:37... because I forget you guys don't know these things :twilightsheepish:)

On a more personal note, the con itself was amazing. Not only did the panel itself go brilliantly, but we got to meet the team of Legends of Equestria, and they were awesome (you know what, go check them out too). For such a large and influential team, they were very humble, and just fun all around (Shattered Kingdom X Legends of Equestria OTP!). Very rarely do I get to have so many things work out well for me at once, and even more rarely do I have so much fun when they do.

Thanks for playing!

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Comments ( 28 )

Excellent! I love the concept and how the story is set up!

When will the game be available and where would I be able to get it? :pinkiehappy:

Silver out!

1182185
Sorry, I need to ask that the question "when will it be done?" doesn't come up, it's kind of a sin among game developers, especially indie developers and even more especially unpaid fan developers. We have no idea when we'll be done, though I can say it won't be for quite a while. These can take years sometimes and we've only just hit the first milestone.
:applejackunsure:

Although I'm glad you like it! The story setup took a couple drafts but I'm really happy with it now too! :twilightsmile:

1182702

Its looks like a real project and it shows a lot of promise! Good luck and keep me posted on it!

Silver out!

Really looks interesting. :pinkiehappy: But what happened to your "teamshadowbolts" blog thingy?


Speculation/s (no need to answer to any and doubt you can ):
Being that Luna "hijacks" the Crystal Empire i assume Shining Armor and Cadence will be prisoners and you get to rescue them or maybe manage to run to Equestria.


Question/s

Why "New" Lunar Republic, in the fandom i know its "New" since the "Old" one went to hell when a forum closed down so they made a new one.
Here it will be new because it will be the second Civil war Luna started?

From whats presented here i guess there will be more then two "sides" playable,either from the start or "opened" later? (dont expect names, a yes, no or maybe is good enough )

Will Equestria be renamed to "Solar Empire" *_* ? ( although it would be cool if after conquering several kingdoms, if more then just two sides exists, that it can happen).

Do you guys have a blog or something such where one can track progress?


That will be enough for now, maybe ill come up with something else later. :pinkiesmile:

1183023
First of all, thank you for reminding me about the blog! The post above has been edited to incorporate it now! It's very bare-bones at the moment, but please just bear with it for the time being.

Team Shadowbolt was a different team for a different game that crashed rather dramatically only a few months after it began. This game was born of it's ashes.

Being that Luna "hijacks" the Crystal Empire i assume Shining Armor and Cadence will be prisoners and you get to rescue them or maybe manage to run to Equestria.

I suppose I should clarify something here. When all of this political tension is going on, Cadence openly supports Luna's new militia (and later the New Lunar Republic) and basically invites Luna to use the Crystal Empire as her new base. Having been captured and replaced by Chrysalis at her own wedding, Cadence sees the changelings as a very real threat.

The New Lunar Republic is being called as such because that's what everyone knows it as. I mean, yes, essentially it's called that because Luna is starting a second civil war, but we've honestly had a hard time justifying that name at all (since it's not really a republic at all). The reason behind the Solar Empire's name hasn't been discussed too much, but I like to think that it's just the Equestrian army taking advantage of some negative propaganda and making it advantageous (the same way American revolutionaries adopted "Yankee Doodle Dandy" as a patriotic song).

Please let me know if you do have any more questions!

1183092

All that sounds pretty awesome.

I asked about the Crystal Empire being hijacked since while i can imagine Cadence not liking Changelings, i cant imagine her supporting open civil war.
But that opens a new question, can characters (i imagine the more important ones will be some form of "heroes", i mean them) and provinces switch sides depends on your actions? (ie. some loyalty system existing that determines it?)

As for the Solar Empire, well if its called Solar Empire then they more then just incoropare things to their advantage, they overall change their identity. (i imagine it like the Union calling itself Yankeeland or such xD )
But like said, it would be cool if it started out simply as the Principality of Equestria and can be changed later (maybe the same with the Crystal Empire later being able to change into the Lunar Republic instead of right away it being that way?)


Of course in the end it all depends on how you do it., regardless of little details im sure it will be awesome and it will be a long time until it is finished, im sure a lot of things will change from now to then.

Wish i had some skills that could be usefull to help you guys out but oh well. Good luck with it.

1183212
Well, let me answer your question this way; torn between his precious sister and his beloved wife, Shining Armor has some trouble deciding where his allegiances lie. While most of the Mane 6 have joined up with one side or another, Fluttershy can't bear to pick sides. Some characters are loyal to their faction to the death, and some a are a little more wary. And, even in the midst of civil war, friendship is still magic...

That's as clear about it as I'm going to be, both because of how early along we are and for the sake of spoilers. :rainbowkiss:

Yes.... just, yes. Can't wait.

1183307

Awesome, well im not asking about the story itself but about the "features" of the game.
But as you say its still early, im sure once your ready you guys will present some list of that kind. :pinkiehappy:


The idea itself is awesome, and unlike the SE vs NLR fanfics i actually like how this sounds.

Do you know how much I love video games?! DO YOU!? Is it coming for consoles? :fluttercry:

1252715
I'm afraid for the time being a console port is out of our technological and legal limitations. It will be free for the PC, though, and a small enough file size that the machine you're browsing with right now is probably good enough to handle it.

1252822
I'm using an iPad. It's the best I got. :ajsleepy:

1252863
Oh darn (I kinda had a feeling, actually). Well, if you get your hands on a PC (or a mac with boot camp installed), it'll be free to play forever!

1252911
I plan to get a laptop sooner or later, preferably an Alienware. Good for gaming. Send me a shout if/when the game is up for Alpha play, 'kay?

1252928
Sure thing! I'm always happy to keep folks posted! :twilightsmile:

1252936
I like your avatar pic, by the way. I chose mine because I wuv Woona. :pinkiehappy:

1252950
Thanks! :twilightsmile: Mine's my ponysona/OC, that I'm using in a tumblr I'm doing with some friends.

Wow, this sounds really cool.

Knock off some socks, Gremmy!

This is sounding really good and defentitly something if I started to see some results I would put money behind to help it along.

Also what's the easiest way to stay up to date with what's happening? Im hoping you've got some sort of blog or something.

1182702 u important man with handsome hat!!

What platforms would this be for?

2321878
Currently we'll only be able to export to PC, for both technological and legal reasons. :applejackunsure:
It should be something low-end enough that almost any machine can run it, though, including any Macs or Linux machines running Windows.

2322941
That's... KIND of important. You should add that up there.

OK, enough professionalism... *AHEM*

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. HYYYYYYYPE

2324857
There'll be another post like this one with updated information after Bronycon, I'l just add it then.

Also GET HYPE :pinkiehappy:

...sooo how many more months till we get to see the new presentation of the game?.....

2477748
I have no idea. Whenever Bronycon decides they want to upload them, if they decide that they want to upload them. At this point I'm considering that they lost all of the footage or something and just didn't bother covering it up, but it's on them either way.

2480967 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO............

when is this game coming out and if its already out can i get a link?
also... FOR THE NEW LUNAR REPUBLIC!

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