What’s better than a lime-blasting power suit? An ultimate-upgraded power suit, of course! This upgraded suit, codenamed LXU, comes in parts that upgrade various capabilities to aid in Lyra’s robot-blasting goals. Air-dash maneuverability, a new charge level, and and damage-resistant plating are just some of the upgrades Lyra can discover hidden in the leftover LXU test sites among the stages.
A mix of concept art and the sprite rendering to be used in-game. The last screenshot shows some partial upgrades in-game. Since the upgrades are found in parts, you’ll slowly upgrade overtop of the regular LX suit.
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!
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!
From our latest Alpha, we now have the full LXU suit usable in-game for our alphas, built from individual parts to be layered as they are acquired. This ultimate-upgraded power suit provides a variety of abilities, which we’ll detail and show off in upcoming posts.
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.
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.
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 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!
