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Fluttershy's Bunny Rescue

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Fluttershy's Bunny Rescue title screen.

 Fluttershy seems to be a fairly uncommon main character for fangames; which is understandable given her gentle demeanour, and when she is a playable main character the game almost always draws attention to her poor flying skills. It's about time that the gal gets her own game, but the fact that it's about rescuing bunnies is somewhat disappointing. Don't forget that this is the same pony that stared down a dragon and redeemed the god of chaos; shame everypony seems to forget those bits.

 Still, a game can still be good even if it's not exactly epic in scope, right? True, but to find out whether that applies to Fluttershy's Bunny Rescue one must continue to read past the break.

 Fluttershy's Bunny Rescue is another perfect example of a game that is summarized by its title. In fact, I'd be surprised if the game had the player do anything other than retrieve rabbits from the supposedly threatening Everfree Forest. About the only thing remotely unique about this game is that Fluttershy is capable of fully-fledged flight, limited only by the invisible boundaries of the level. If at any point Fluttershy has trouble finding one of the stupid mammals she can go back to the beginning of the level to visit Twilight, who is apparently too lazy to actually go out and search for the bunnies. She has a spell that detects lifeforms, and usually only comes in handy towards the end of the game when only one or two more bunnies are left.

 Graphically the game is not that bad, but it's not especially good-looking. As with most other pony fangames it utilizes the infamous yet undeniably useful desktop ponies collection of character sprites, but given the difficulty of animating four-legged animals this is excusable. I was quite pleased with the incorporation of parallax scrolling in the background, although given the scale of the trees it makes the ponies feel almost bug-sized. The tileset is fairly bland, with the notable exception of the grass tiles. As for the music...FlutterWonder isn't a bad song, but it would be annoying if your friend looped it on his MP3 player while you were out in the woods at night, looking for that blasted rabbit of his who escaped from his hutch a couple hours ago.

There isn't much more to the game than this.
 The most important thing that the game lacks is replay value. Since the bunnies are "hidden" in all the same places Fluttershy's Bunny Rescue is only fun for the first time around, after which the game becomes tedious. I'd go so far as to say that this game is inferior to its predecessor, Cupcake Dreams, which actually had a time limit and conditions for failure (falling into the abyss, touching baked bads, etc). Mind you, there is an alternate mode of gameplay in which it is possible to fail, but it can only be activated by playing at a certain time of night.

 According to InfinityDash this game was initially supposed to be far broader in scope, but he decided to make it simpler so he could focus on some other projects of his. I can understand why he would do that, but it's still a shame that the game lacked random level generation to help with the replay value. At least the hidden gameplay mode makes Bunny Rescue into a much more enjoyable experience, but I still cannot give the game a good score. Then again Fluttershy's Bunny Rescue was never supposed to be an exceptional game or anything, so a Bloomberg grade isn't too bad for a game of this type.

5/10


Lyra's List #10

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It's time once again for another Lyra's List. If you're interested in making a pony fangame and don't really know where to start, this is a great place. The deadline for Lyra's List #11 is February 28, 2013. You can find this month's submissions after the break. There are only 3 this time around, so you should definitely check them all out.

GDDS

Ganymede
Spike's Adventure
Action/Adventure Platformer
Long Term
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bzfffw7poU__a2REaWNCdmJlcWM/edit

Apirant
Jump Party
Platformer
Medium Term
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UVa8zYl57NaGB8qvEH72QuZS0Qvi3N-0kAe9UzV-Shw/edit

Game Artists

Laughing Lyric
Musician
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t8PtY96Tb5dOHGj8jO8H-Jk5hALkmjL4Y5xLquUcaS0/edit

That's all for this edition of Lyra's List. If you have a submission idea, be sure to refer to this page for the details. Have a good night, everyone.

Game: Sweet Apple Cider

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Jeez, Applejack, it's about time you took responsibility for cider season. 

Sweet Apple Cider is a ponified remake of Tapper, the classic 1983 arcade game. Playing as Applejack, the player frantically runs back and forth between three tables in a futile attempt to buck enough cider to satisfy the oncoming horde. Gameplay is simple and addictive, and while there's only one level, it should keep you gnashing your teeth for a while.

The game's pixelated charm is evident right from the title screen, which nostalgically proclaims "CREDIT 0, INSERT 2 BITS". The rest of the graphics seem homemade as well, and the game successfully pulls off the retro feel. The chiptune rendition of "Raise This Barn" playing in the background doesn't hurt. 

Overall? This is one of the best minigames I've played in a while. Go give it a try!

Updates: Pony Tactics/A Chaotic Crisis/MLP: Revenants of Chaos

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Time for another round of updates! I'm in the mood for brevity today, so - below the break!


Pony Tactics

Pony Tactics has just released the first of many updates on their new blog! This one contains an overview of the structure of the game as well as designs for a totally new race of intelligent Equestrian creatures. They're also looking for some more skilled artists and animators to live up to some impressive concept art!

Pony Tactics Update One Post

A Chaotic Crisis

The Chaotic Crisis project has released a screenshot of several more playable ponies, along with promises of even more (see header image). More importantly, they've announced an improved beta in a week or so!


MLP: Revenants of Chaos (formerly Project Dash)

The Revenants of Chaos team recently released their latest game update, featuring swimming controls as well as impressive advances in sound and graphical design. If you've got experience with moderating or spriting, the team is also looking for help with the GUI and getting their budding forum off the ground. Contact them via the forum link below.

MLP: Revenants of Chaos Forums
Gameplay Trailer

Budding Friendship Hiatus + Source Code Release

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 While listening to Budding Friendships' soundtrack it suddenly occurred to me that we hadn't heard from the developers since October, so I decided to look at their website. Turns out that their dev team kicked the bucket a couple days ago, but their programmer was nice enough to actually release the source code on GitHub before they made the announcement. If anypony wants to contribute to the program they most certainly can, although I somehow doubt that it will get much further.

 Anyhow, if you really want to you can compile and play the game for yourself over at the GitHub project page. As of now the project is Windows-only and in an incomplete state (obviously), but somepony might be able to port the game to OS X or Linux if they wanted. Come to think of it that would be an excellent way of attracting more contributors...

BREAKING NEWS: Fighting is Magic Receives Cease & Desist from Hasbro

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 For the longest time Fighting is Magic has been the flagship Brony fangame, and has received much attention from the media. Unfortunately this fame has come at a cost, and Mane 6 has recently been on the receiving end of a cease and desist notification from Hasbro. From the announcement it seems that negotiations with Hasbro have been unsuccessful, so we can effectively flush all hopes of playing Fighting is Magic down the toilet.

 Quite frankly, I am quite upset with the whole situation. Recently Hasbro seems to have been cracking down on fan works, and their original tolerance of it that was so highly praised has been abandoned. Thankfully we still have Super Smash Ponies, but I doubt that it will ever rise to the heights that Fighting is Magic had achieved.

A Chaotic Crisis Teaser Poster

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 Seems that A Chaotic Crisis game we originally posted about a couple weeks ago has evolved from an adventure game into a sidescroller, and as much as I like old-school point & click adventure games I think that this game would be much better as a sidescroller. From what the creator told me the game is now going to split into six parts: the first of which stars Twilight Sparkle. I still think that the game would look much better if WaltzBrony didn't bother adding gradients to the environment, but in the end it's the gameplay that matters most, right?

 Also, is it just me or is that Fighter Maker 2002's logo in the top right corner of that poster?

Adventure In Ponyville 0.1

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It's been a tumultuous week for the fandom, huh? Not to worry - I'm sure you guys can create games faster than Hasbro can type up C&D notices. Today, we've got an old-fashioned, point n' click exploration of Ponyville that has all the innocence of season 1.

Story-wise, Adventure in Ponyville seems to be pretty run of the mill. As a new arrival in town, you spend your time meeting ponies, playing minigames, and earning "friendship points." Hopefully, we'll see a plot in later installations.

Don't let the lack of story turn you off immediately, however. Adventure in Ponyville's graphics are close to show-accurate and entirely original: certainly a sight for sore eyes. In a couple of scenes (most noticeably Pinkie's minigame) they're not yet finished, but the majority of the game looks great. 

Finally, don't forget to click around a bit - innocuous books, mushrooms, and flights of stairs yield themselves readily to your wit. Enjoy!

TEMNO: Testing Da Magikz

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TEMNO

 Lexo Astonov recently released another video preview of his upcoming game, TEMNO, and I'm quite impressed with how much progress he has made since he released the first few screenshots of his pet project. The video seems to be mainly showcasing the improved grass and "physics"; although in my opinion the one thing TEMNO could use the most is some decent level backgrounds. Sure, it has a couple hills here and there, but some trees, rocks and whatnot would really make the game feel much less static than it does in its current state.

 Also, I'm kind of surprised that since the game takes place in Pinkamena's mind it isn't a little more, you know, crazy? I'd expect to see fewer mysterious stallions standing silently in the distance and more axe-crazy unhappy birthday cakes. Then again, Astonov isn't exactly making an Earthbound fangame so...

Parasprite Panic

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Fluttershy may be undisputed best pony, but she's seriously messed things up this time. Ponyville's at the mercy of a massive parasprite swarm, and it's up to you to save the villagers! If you don't get it together quickly enough, the town and perhaps all of Equestria may fall to the pests.

Now, new board games are always a treat, but Parasprite Panic is certainly one of the most impressive we've seen in a while! More... after the break!

First, have some copypasta from the rules:

Parasprite Panic is a cooperative game. The players are on the same team and win or lose together. To win, the players must find and rescue the injured ponies of Ponyville and carry them to the Hospital. This will not be easy, as every turn the Parasprite swarm will grow larger and more dangerous. The game ends in defeat for all players if the Parasprite swarm becomes too large, too many townsfolk are lost, or Ponyville is destroyed.


At first glance, Parasprite Panic is reminiscent of the cooperative, Lovecraftian survival board game Arkham Horror. The game features an open-ended game board, which the players must traverse to heal and rescue villagers as the streets of Ponyville slowly become choked with parasprites and rubble. Mayor Mare dispenses leads from the town hall square, which direct players to injured ponies that must then be dragged to the hospital. 

For an added sense of urgency, parasprites spawn randomly around the map by dice-roll. If two like-colored parasprites spawn on a space, a Pandemic-style outbreak is triggered, and even more parasprites overflow to adjacent squares.

The game features a variety of mechanics to keep turns from getting repetitive. Each player plays as a member of the mane six and has their own unique abilities to help with the rescue effort. Players can catch parasprites, carry unconscious villagers or allies around the map, or heal them (if you're feeling generous). To make things harder, add parasprite hives to the map; for a boost, tow Spike along in your wake.

Overall, Parasprite Panic's cute, slick, show-accurate art and comprehensive rules feel enticingly professional. The game is fairly complicated - more than a step up from Monopoly - so if you don't play many board games, be prepared to spend a little longer than you're used to learning the ropes. Don't let that dissuade you, though: failing miserably can be part of the fun, too. Enjoy!

Parasprite Panic Rules
Parasprite Panic Board
Parasprite Panic Tokens, Cards, and Game Pieces

Another TEMNO Trailer

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TEMNO

 Getting sick of TEMNO yet? Well too bad, because some random guy decided to make a trailer for the game. Granted, most of this trailer's content was already featured in last week's post, but it seems that this one features a cutscene from the game and has various small improvements littered across the map. Then again, it might be because the video is unusually dark and probably covering up any flaws that would otherwise be quite obvious...

Welcome to Ponyville (Lite)

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 If you've been reading the comments on our website you might have noticed a certain fellow discussing a planned Welcome to Ponyville Flash port, and despite my infamously negative review of the original I encouraged him to go ahead with it. By cutting all the fat sound effects and using indexed colours BlitzProg was able to make the game 200x smaller, and if you want your audio back don't fret because he is almost finished making a bigger version of the game with your music and whatnot (compressed, of course).

So...yeah. This port is not endorsed by FillyGamez in any way, and apparently they are pretty unhappy that it exists. Still, at least if you want to play Welcome to Ponyville it won't be taking up 1GB of valuable hard disk space, eh?

Farewell to Filly Gamez

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Filly Gamez

 Today some nasty hackers broke in and deleted 90% of their assets. Thankfully the team had external backups of their game data, so this shutdown will probably only be temporary. The team confirmed that this had nothing to do with my negative feedback on their first game or Blitz releasing his Flash port of Act 1 earlier today (even if it is somewhat of a strange coincidence), but I extend my sympathies towards the team and hope that they will be able to find some way of recovering their lost work (after all, you can recover data if it hasn't been written over after being deleted). I may not have been very fond of their first game, but I was quite positive that it would have been a major improvement over Act 1.

Goodbye, Filly Gamez. It's a shame to see you go, even if you did blacklist my email from your forums and block my Twitter account for not liking your first game.

Servant of Discord Beta Demo

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Servant of Discord is a pretty little Zelda-esque game set in a forest temple - and that's the extent of the story for now. Although this beta is rough around the edges, with bumpy collision and a little lag in the online version (at least in my case) it shows a lot of promise, with nice sprite work, mechanics, and soundtrack.

Playing as Twilight, slash enemies to bits with a magic sword or fire spells at them from a distance. Locate the keys and blast your way through to the boss. Good luck!

Meloetta: Melody of Discord

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This game has been on the reviewing table for nearly forever, and it's about time somebody posted about it. Meloetta: Melody of Discord is a crossover game by DialgaBrite (developer of Innocent Luna Game) featuring elements of pokemon and ponies, as well as a bunch of other stuff. The game is pretty extensive, with several stages and varied gameplay. In addition to its website, the game also has a facebook page, which you can find here.

Mane6 C&D Megapost

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Mane6 C&D Megapost
As many of you know, earlier this month, Mane6's highly anticipated project, Fighting is Magic was shut down by a Cease and Desist demand from Hasbro. In this megapost, you'll find the devteam's reactions to the events of the past few weeks, a massive FAQ section, as well as some insight into the future of Mane6. It's definitely worth a read.

Flash Games: Pinkie's Balloon Patrol/Pony Puzzles/FLUTTERSHY NAVIGATE

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Happy Sunday! May yours be lazy and sweet.

Development on major projects has been slow this week, but we've got loads of creative pony flash games to fill the void! Today, we've got puzzles, a pixelated Pinkie Pie balloon catcher, and a mind-bending little game based on Keep Calm and Flutter On. You know where to click!


Play Pinkie's Balloon Patrol

Pinkie's balloons have been swept away by a rogue gust of wind on the eve of a party, and via traditional Pinkie Pie logic, you must take to the skies to rescue them!

The first thing that jumps out about this game is the bouncy, charming 8-bit graphics, which compensate for some initially tedious gameplay. By controlling Pinkie, the player must collect various types of balloons, some of which change speeds and altitude unexpectedly. Avoid the strafing seagulls if there are balloons nearby: while not a huge threat, they'll stun you for long enough to miss a couple. 

At the end of the game, the amount of balloons you've recaptured determines your rank and one of the game's three endings. While far from frantic, Pinkie's Balloon Patrol is polished, pretty, and fun.


Play Pony Puzzles

Puzzles? Yep. Ponies? Yep. Select from a library of screenshots and fandom art, slice your choice into pieces of a certain size, and puzzle it out! As a jigsaw puzzle game, it's mechanics and presentation are solid, and it would blossom with an wider selection of pictures and perhaps a campaign mode with organized levels.

The high-score board adds challenge to an otherwise mellow game, keeping track of your best times on puzzles of various sizes. In 10x10 mode, even the simpler pictures will take you a while.


Play FLUTTERSHY NAVIGATE

Discord's trapped Fluttershy inside the tilting maze of her own house, and it's up to you to find him and sort him out! I'm a little ashamed to admit how long this game took me on my first time through.

With a spiraling, abstract background and brain-bending music from the illustrious cyriak, FLUTTERSHY NAVIGATE creates a sense of discord simply and effectively. Once you've completed the maze once, creative use of the rotation feature offers you a multitude of ways to better your time. 

Pressing up rotates each room Fluttershy passes through 180 degrees, and though I'd prefer a more intuitive control choice (up arrow key to jump, space to rotate, rather than vice versa), FLUTTERSHY NAVIGATE remained fresh throughout. That's all for today - enjoy!

Edit: IntenseDebate's gone a little screwy - seems like it happens more and more often nowadays. Symptoms usually include spam and comments getting deleted, but both are usually resolved in a couple of days.

The Sparklepeep Season 3 Minigame Compilation

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Several months ago, Sparklepeep over on DeviantArt resolved to make a minigame for every episode of season 3. As the season flashed past, the games just kept coming, and finally, the set is (almost) complete! Find them all below the break!

Episodes 1 and 2:
Flight of the Crystal Princess
Or play on the Equestria Gaming Arcade

In Flight of the Crystal Princess, avoid spikes, collect crystal hearts, and generally try to stay airborne until Ride of the Valkyries wraps up. Surviving may be tricky, but overall this game's not the most engaging or inventive of the bunch.

Episode 3:
Pinkie Pie Population Perforation Project
Or play on the EQG Arcade

Man, I'd forgotten some of the crazy stuff that went down at the beginning of this season. Forget the hiatus, I have some re-watching to do!

This is actually one of my favorite minigames in the series: it's inventive, skill-based, and has a catchy soundtrack. Blast the duplicate Pinkies with the twibeam, but don't hit the real one!

Episode 4:
Ye Old Time Foal Slap Simulator
Or play on the EQG Arcade

By this time, any anger and frustration you might have towards Babs Seed has probably subsided. However, if her undefinable manehattan accent still makes you want to smack her silly, this is the game for you. Knock Babs up in the air, aiming for combos and height records - my personal best is 29.65 Scootameters.

Episode 5:
Thrack It Trixie
Or play on the EQG Arcade

This one earns a medal both for addictiveness and sheer random hilarity. Playing as the Great and Powerful Trixie, teleport around the Pies' rock farm, harvesting the valuable crop to save up for the Alicorn Amulet. Unfortunately, the farm is under attack from an army of untrustworthy wheels.

Episodes (6 and?) 7:
Pit Ponies

Breaking the trend of earlier minigames, Pit Ponies is a short text adventure starring you and one Rainbow Dash. Injured and stuck at the bottom of a pit, you must dream up a way to escape. Spoiler alert: hugging Dash results in your eventual death from blood loss.

Episode 8:
Applejack Episode
Or play on the EQG Arcade

Heh heh, Applejack episode. This game could have been made before the episode aired. Anyhow, Applejack's finally earned her 22 minutes of screen time and character development! Click the background ponies away before they steal the spotlight!

Episode 9:
Pinkie Pie Has a Mustache
Or play on the EQG Arcade

Just the right mustache is the quickest way to peg a character as a dastardly villain. Pinkie's conspired to blast Applejack out of a cannon into a hornet's nest, and it's up to Spike to stop her! At lower levels, this game boils down to a lot of tedious spacebar-holding, but after you've caught Applejack several times the difficulty improves.

Episode 10:
Catch Fluttershy's Beaver
Or play on the EQG Arcade

Seems Applejack's had just about enough of the beavers mucking around in her orchard. A simpler re-skin of the Friendship is Witchcraft-inspired game Raincloud Defense. Catch the beavers!

Episodes 11 and 12:
Games Ponies Don't Play

Two (well, sort of three) games in one for one episode in two! Playing as Angel Bunny or Applejack, press keys in quick succession to escape from Spike and Sheriff Silverstar on top of a speeding train. If you manage to survive 60 seconds in either game, you unlock a secret third minigame. I won't spoil it here, but if you fail to unlock it, you're not missing much.


Bonus:
Raincloud Defense 2: Moonbounce

Our hero Raincloud returns again, in the sequel to his self-sacrificing game of cherry bomb defense. Keep the moon up in the air for as long as possible to save Equestria!

Pony Civil War

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Pony Civil War

 Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games have always been the bane of my existance, because no matter how hard I try I always end up screwing up and ruining the game for everybody else. Even if I'm not very good at MOBAs I know that many other Bronies are quite passionate about them, and I'm sure that you will all be happy to know that a pony MOBA named "Pony Civil War" is currently under development. It still lacks animations and appears to have only one hero (Twilight Sparkle), but I think that it looks fairly promising and could turn into something pretty big.

Also, I haven't been able to find anything about the game's engine, so I'm not sure if it'll work for Linux users like me. If the game is based off of Unity 3 as I suspect it should probably work for all of you Mac fanboys, but hopefully the developer has upgraded to Unity 4...

Update: a sharp-eyed reader confirmed that the game is based off of the Esenthel engine. This means that the game will probably work on OS X, but no Linux support.

If you want more information on Pony Civil War you can head on over to their blog, which has a bunch of screenshots and whatnot.

Questria Unponified (Sort of)

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 After I posted about Pony Civil War earlier today it occurred to me that we hadn't heard from Questria's development team for quite some time, and I decided to visit their website. Turns out that after Fighting is Magic went kaput the devteam was rather shaken (as were many other fangame developers), and today they announced that Questria would no longer be a My Little Pony fangame, but take place within its own universe. As to whether or not Questria will still have ponies remains to be seen, but I hope that they do decide to stick with ponies. Hasbro can't exactly sue everything that contains ponies, right? That's like Mattel suing Matchbox because both of them make die cast toy cars.

 So...yeah. If Questria abandons ponies entirely, you won't be hearing anything more about their game from this website. Hopefully that is not the case, but until the developers make things clear we'll just have to sit around and speculate.
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