#Pinkie Pie's Perilous Platforms!

[perilousplatforms]

An Update and a Final Farewell

Wow, I haven’t touched this blog in years... hello to anyone who still follows this! It’s been a very, VERY long time since I’ve worked on this project in any capacity, and by now, it’s a relic of years gone by — just about 10 years, if my memory serves me well.

So, to commemorate that anniversary (which is probably not today), I wanted to properly share something to this long-forgotten blog: a project I did in early 2021 as a “final farewell” to this long-forgotten passion project.

[ RECREATING PERILOUS PLATFORMS ] is a recreation of all the levels from various complete(-ish) builds and demos of my old MLP Gen 4 fangame, Pinkie Pie’s Perilous Platforms - designed with the level-creation suite of Nintendo’s Super Mario Maker 2 video game. If you own SMM2, you can find the course world via my maker ID (DDH-165-L5G) or you can click the link to access its portfolio page that lists every individual level’s ID, a short explanation of my process, and a full playlist of my livestreams documenting the process to replay, recreate, and redesign the levels I made very long ago. Quality notwithstanding, I had a great time working on this. It felt very good to analyze younger-me and their level design philosophy at the time, and to critique my video game developer “debut” of sorts. Probably not a home run by any stretch, but a good first start. Depends, really. https://cargocollective.com/sylversedge/Recreating-Perilous-Platforms

I felt it was fair that I make this update to tell folks (or at least anyone remaining) that a lot has happened since I stopped updating the blog. That teaser from 3-4 years ago (this weird bit) was for another idea I had to finally bookend the development journey, but the RPP project ended being a much better sendoff than whatever I had planned years prior. Through random nostalgia flare-ups, storytelling of my personal lore on my Twitch streams, and tons of self-indulgent Internet searches, I’ve come to discover that a good handful of people have played Perilous Platforms in some capacity — via my itch.io page or the old DeviantArt page link, via downloads on Equestria Gaming’s Arcade, features on Equestria Daily, and other specific sites, via BlueMaxima’s Flashpoint app where it’s been properly archived, and by other means that even I’ve yet to uncover. 

Let’s Play videos, written reviews, entries on fan-related MLP wikis, re-uploads on seedy websites, you name it. Thank you so much for playing!

I felt really proud that the game was able to be experienced despite the constant unfinished/unpolished state that it was in, and I just wanted to personally thank everyone for indulging a young rookie game developer that just wanted to contribute so much to a fandom that helped spark their creativity even further, and to also humbly thank everyone for their patronage and support over the years. The last thing I intend to do besides this blog update is to archive the most “complete” version of the game on Flashpoint for everyone to play - at least one that isn’t horribly broken or unplayable. After that, I likely won’t update the blog any further as I don’t use Tumblr in any capacity these days, I’ve long since “left the fandom”, and this is how I’ll finally move forward as a creator. But at the very least, I owe everyone at least a little bit of nostalgia to remember these golden times by. Thank you, and may your lives be filled with as much laughter as Pinkie Pie would’ve wanted. Take care of yourselves. - Sylver P.S. You can watch the entire process of the recreation on my Twitch channel! https://www.twitch.tv/collections/Sn41hVNYehbjTA

[mylittleponygames]

Previously kept in the dark, the special BronyCon 2014 demo of Pinkie Pie's Perilous Platforms is out for the world to play! Image Source: http://ift.tt/2rkAjQy ~ Follow My Little Pony Games for new games, fan art and memes daily!

[perilousplatforms]

Return of the Pie (1.15.13)

I posted on the 28th last month of great things happening behind the scenes.

There were quite a lot of things going on over the weeks, in terms of the future of the game, acquiring new members to the team and also any word on future demos or anything of the sort. I even hosted a panel on a special 24 hour charity broadcast (the New Lunar BroNEcast, which featured guys like myself, Solrac, Jeff Burgess, DustyKatt and more).

I still read over a lot of the comments on the deviantArt page of the demo (over 3,000+ downloads!), as I do take in the thoughts of other players as they sing their praises and air their grievances. As to how I'll be able to work in those with the ongoing development of the game, it's fairly simple in some terms - work on better ways to address these issues and continue fine-tuning as I go along.

As for the game on a whole, it was (and still is) meant to be a small game - I cannot deny that the scale of the game has grown larger, but at heart, it's meant to be a small, simple game. That is the general direction in which the game is expected to go towards - any bigger and it'll be another instance of me overselling things yet again, which is not good in the long run. The last thing I'd want to do is try to sell this as a "Fighting is Magic"-type - I'd rather the proverbial hype train generate on its own merits.

But are there good things in store? Absolutely.

Recently, I've been working almost non-stop in getting back all the assets I lost in the purge and also fixing up old behaviors so that it wouldn't need multiple versions to do the same thing (pretty much bringing everything into one whole fully functional behavior).

I've also experimented with things that I've been suggested to take on (which I didn't get a move on until later), and that deals with falling and moving platforms - a key staple in many platformers today. They are currently being worked on, and with the test levels I've came up with, I think that this is definitely going to work out in the later levels of the game.

Another aspect of the game that I've been looking to get a move on is the story - after learning so much about fanfiction and becoming a fan of a few stories over on FIMFiction, the ups and downs that go along with fanfiction will be paid attention to when creating the story of Pinkie Pie's Perilous Platforms. I have people who can act as editors and prereaders, as I've learned in my own fanfic attempt that you'll probably need a few people to help you in places that you may stumble at.

In closing, I've learned quite a lot in the recent weeks and I'm looking to express what I've learnt through this game - whether it's proper game design, how overhype can set people up for disappointment or simply how making a game comes with a lot of obstacles to overcome and is meant to cater to what the players want.

Is Pinkie Pie's Perilous Platforms going to be a better game? To me, it is, now that I'm in higher spirits.

To you folks, it'll be decided eventually. Take care!

[perilousplatforms]

Trotting Hooves to Pon-E3! (7.11.12)

We here at Sylver's Edge are very, very happy to announce that "Pinkie Pie's Perilous Platforms!" will be one of the many games showcased at Equestria Gaming's Pon-E3 event!

There is a new trailer in the works that will show off many differences of the in-game footage compared to what was show in the first trailer, as well as a nice little shoutout at the end to the very special folks working with me on the game!

As if the blog post wasn't enough, I also made a small video teaser here, pretty much touching base of the things I've said here. Just note that the audio is somewhat relevant to the story.

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As for what I may do on the days of Pon-E3, I'm looking into actually setting aside some time for people to ask me questions on my VYou account (which is for video responses to text-based questions) - ask me anything, really!

Well, almost anything. There are a few things that will be kept secret for the time being.

Let's wish for everyone to do their best at Pon-E3!