Lyra in her LX suit is pretty tough, but she doesn’t start the game with it. As in the video above, the game starts out with Lyra outfitted in a more rudimentary outfit called the proto-suit.
In this way, the game starts out with just the basics. Jumping, shooting, and good old lime pellets. The video below shows later just before Lyra finally gets the LX suit she needs, and that’s when she runs into a hologram that reconnects her to the world she know.
The purple tinted hologram is familiar, as it is the leftover image of Dr. T. Light. You might recognize the name as a play on two names, which is intentional. The creator of the
LX suit, B-0N, and head of ERI
may be gone, but her work will live on through Lyra as she tries to save this damaged world.
In short, Megamare X is a mlp pony fan game being developed by Starlight Studios. The game stars Lyra as the Megamare, saving the world from evil robots!
This blog will be dedicated to posting updates on development and sometimes concept art or screenshots from our talented artists!
This GIF from our Intro Stage is a test that demonstrates just a few things we can do now with cutscenes: it has dialogue, portraits, and scripted character motions. You may note that Lyra is wearing something other than the full LX-suit. It’s a part of the beginning story where Lyra learns the basics before she becomes MegaMare X.
Putting our writing into the game has been a long-term goal for us, as it is the glue that holds the game together and keeps the battle moving forward. There is also a backstory written, should we jump into any side work as a means of exploring it.
Various platforms also make up the dynamic portions of the stages. From our basic falling and patrolling scripts, we’ll be building out more platforming challenges to mix-up Lyra’s battles against the various robot creatures you’ll face-off against.
First up for some fanart, an absolutely amazing humanized version of Lyra with her MegaMare X armor. Pretty spot-on for the details. I can’t wait to reveal the final armour and see what might come of it!
Let’s close out the 2016 year with another development update.
Dear Celestia A.I., there will be some good stuff coming in the 2017. This year has been a bit rough at times, but we’ve made a good steady pace. Once January is underway with the holidays over, we’ll show various features and progress that we’ve only talked about and not shown. Cutscenes, armor, and more will be featured in the new year’s updates as we finish up the remaining work in our 1st major alpha milestone.
What’s all this milestone business? It means we’ve hit all our core gameplay needs, and we’re ready to move on into iterations territory. Our 108th alpha build came out just before the holidays, with save/load game mechanics, various cutscene improvements, bug fixes, and a spiffy, fresh title screen:
The release also caused a few hiccups in the scripting files, and we’re waiting on the last sprite-work for our armor pieces to be in-game before that’s ready to show off.
As for what’s next and underway:
End-of-game script-writing and boss design.
Tileset sketches for completed stages.
New and revised stage layouts.
Weapon power sprite effects.
Cutscene animations and portraits.
Apple-flavored alpha testing.
Updated UI improvements and features.
And that’s just the tip of what we’ve already got started as we continue past the year marker. Meanwhile, the team’s been gaming together, had members return with fixed computers, and are gathering fresh energy. Our newest team recruits have been diving into things and are off to a great start. We’ve got what it takes, and the love to make it great.
Now for the ever-burning question on your snow-sprinkled holiday brains:
When will the game be released?
We don’t know. It’s unlikely in to be in 2017, but if our pace quickens a bit, a beta build in the coming year is possible. And betas mean testing. We’ve received a lot of interest in playtesting, but we haven’t worked out an effective plan for how to approach it. If there’s anything we decide on, we’ll let you know here first.
Keep your asks and comments coming in, we’re always happy to hear from our fans.
TLDR: We have almost reached a milestone, and will be ready to show some stuff in Jan. There’s still lots to do, but the team is getting good at this, so we’re hoping for a 2017 beta.
Continue the cheer and friendship, sprinkle in some hard work, and be on the lookout for some robot-blasting fun in the new year.
After a slow period during the summertime months,
development has picked up following the joining of some new team
members. We’ve welcomed @shinsart and Xujints to our ranks and they’re off to a good start. Shintari, as a sprite/pixel artist, has already begun making tilesets, while Xujints has begun on the dialogue and is helping with game design.
Spurred-on by by these team additions, we have produced three more
alpha versions and are up to 106. These add placements for some missing
items, change the intro boss, fix various gameplay issue, and improve
our scripting capabilities for cutscenes. We just completed recent work
on our underwater stage’s layout, and finished parts of our upgraded
armor sprites, of which half are in-game already. A number of new intro
cutscenes have been added, with more cutscenes in progress for the armor
parts hidden among the stages.
Now that the exciting stuff you wanted to hear about is over, here’s some boring details on the team’s overall status:
Some of the slowness has been due to a lack of availability with the
volunteer nature of the project. So, over the past couple months, we’ve
been working with individual members to reduce the amount of churn.
Although we are still lacking some of the needed talents for the amount
of pixel art the game requires, we hope speed of work will pick-up
gradually and be more reliable for continued development. There is also
some hold-up with game-design decisions for latter parts of the game
that are only roughly written out. So iterations are now in-progress on
finalizing details to move those forward.
TLDR: We’re still at it, but nothing looks good in screenshots yet. But it will soon with our new team members!
August brings with it a development update! And it’s a special one, because it’s been almost exactly 3 years since MegaMare X made its debut at BronyCon 2013. So it’s a tech-demo anniversary update.
But first to the development at hand. Summertime for most of our team members, with its sunshine and baking temperatures, has brought with it an unusual set of personal situations. July was especially slow due to this, which, while not good for making progress, doesn’t mean that we’re at a standstill.
We have another alpha update, our 103rd, and a related second in the pipeline for additional bugs, fixes, and scripting support. Our present goal continues toward building out some small pieces of the content for the main portion of the game, and then we are moving on to further design and content milestones. These next milestones to reach will delve into the final stages, their bosses, and the unfolding plot therein. While some decisions need to still be made, the coming months will have some answers and a rough completion of the alpha.
We’ve come so far, and there’s more to do, but let’s go back 3 years to August 2013 to when our tech demo first hit the public!
Our team decided to get together and setup all we had on a table at BronyCon. MegaMare X had only been in development since the end of 2012 – but we were able to make a somewhat rushed (and often buggy) tech demo that made us realize just how much people enjoyed what we had created.
It was at a peak time during the fandom, and among other activities around us, we held down a table for the full three days over in the Salt Block Lounge. Helping everyone get a turn, listening and recording your feedback, and discussing where things might go.
It may have been a small table, but it often drew a crowd.
This was an exhilarating part of our early development that the team remembers fondly. Not only did it bring us together, but we had an overwhelmingly positive response to the demo, which encouraged us to dive into making the full game.
Looking back over the 3 years since, we’ve continued to have wonderful interactions with our fans. You guys help us keep this project going, and we couldn’t be more thankful for your support.
Ka-ZAP, Ka-ZAP! Kra-KOOM! We earlier released a preview of our lightning-themed weapon, the Lightning Bit.
Now it’s a usable in-game weapon following a few builds of adjustments to
the effect and tweaks for the sprite. Lyra picks it up after an
electrical encounter with our maverick take on Nightmare Moon.
April brings another update and a return to convention season. Another internal alpha is in our hands, and we have been working on new changes since. This one is our 99th, meaning the next marks our 100th alpha! We’re not sure what to do in celebration, but it certainly means something special.
Following our regular alpha playtesting and review, we’ve made some steady progress as a team towards improving our level design. As mentioned in our prior update, we are seeking to make fun and challenging stages. So, over the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring different things we can do in them. Part of this has been trying techniques for using the camera and effective enemy placements, but we’ve also gone into further explore our icy and water terrains. Mostly, these have been focused around specific *encounters* with enemies, which involve a specific combination of mechanics and enemies in a small area. Lately we’ve added some scripted platforms to these encounters, and will have those included in our upcoming build.
Meanwhile, we got feedback on that 99th alpha from a lucky playtester, who provided comments regarding difficulty, secrets, and visual cues. It’s always pleasant to get some hands-on playtesting where we can actually sit down and see what we miss. As expert players and the creators we have a skewed perception and always know what’s coming. In terms of challenge, we want it to be tough but fair, and accessible to a wide range of players and ages.
Over the next few months, the conventions are coming, but we aren’t making any official appearances. However, if you keep an eye out and catch the updates, you still might catch a chance to play. We’ll be sure to post where we’re headed and what to look for.
TL;DR: Almost at the 100th alpha mark, making fun challenges through stage encounters, and we aim to have the game interesting for experienced and new players alike.
The last day of May brings a late update, but with more to come! Over the next few days, we’ve got some follow-up posts for various improvements you have been hearing about from our alpha builds. There’s also some artwork to show off as part of them that we’re excited to share.
This month we’ve had not just our 100th alpha build, but our 101st in quick succession. In addition to some fixes to the bosses, one of our weapons is now complete, and we have platforms that fit many of the designs we’ve been working on in the stages. Enemies will get some changes over the month of June, since there are many spots we need to fill throughout.
Lastly and most excitingly, these two alphas bring us the ability to write our cutscenes and script the events that unfold throughout the game. We’re thankful to have a new writer make a review of our dialogue and are now putting our first draft of writing into the game.
Our follow-up posts will be coming soon, so check back over the next round few days!
