I learnt fairly recently that at least one of the devs reads these recap posts. How embarrassing. It's a bit like goofing off with your friends and then realizing that your mum has been watching you through the crack in the door for the last who-knows-how-long. I'm going to assume the devs don't read every post we make on this forum, they just expect us to self-govern. So cool, that means they're here by choice. Thanks for tuning in, I hope you enjoy.
...
Unless they DO read every post on the forum, in which case I'd like to apologize on behalf of everyone for making you sit through all that cringey roleplay. Not that we're going to stop or anything.
MANE6 WORK STREAM #14 - JAN 20
PART 1
0:00 - We are greeted by a pixel reindeer who has clearly detected a few holes in your story. You better fess up the truth or she'll keep staring at you like that.
2:02 - Jay explains how the story mode NPCs are being created. Basically they have a bunch of interchangeable body parts that can be swapped around to make dozens of different characters. They will of course come in different colours in the final version too. Boy do I wish Google Chrome would stop trying to correct "colours" to "colors." Americans. They don't like U.
3:09 - Crazy-eyed reindeer.
4:26 - Reindeer dude is a stud.
4:38 - This pixel stuff is what they plan on doing for all the different races. These parts will likely also be used as templates for the backer characters. Progress on backer stuff is on hold because they want to get "the game stuff proper done first."
6:40 - The team is encouraging Lauren to write the story for this game as if it were a long TV episode or mini-series or something. They say they're going to translate it to fit into the game as best they can. We will be getting a bit of every playable character, and visiting each of their homes at least once. So cool, this game is basically going to be like playing a Lauren Faust cartoon.
8:08 - Advice for anyone trying to find glitches in any game... run into EVERY corner (repeatedly), abuse the heck out of any value you can change, stand where you aren't expected to stand during scripted events, and try using the pause menu to interrupt set pieces. Looking at how speed-runners break stuff is a great way to learn how to break it yourself.
9:16 - Jay gives us a teaser of something we're going to see later in part 3. It's the basic building blocks for a level that will be in the story mode.
10:56 - Jay has been working on Paprika expressions, including wide-eye Paprika, flirty Paprika, and... drunk Paprika? I dunno, but they look cool.
12:14 - Jay makes the Paprika heads sway. It's pretty cute.
15:57 - PERSONAL NOTE: Why do I think Paprika's last name is "Peppercorn?" I swear I heard someone call her Paprika Peppercorn before but I've looked and I can't find it. I don't even use the word "Peppercorn" so I doubt I came up with it myself. How did this happen? I mean the name fits, paprika and pepper are both spices, so clearly SOME thought went into it. Have I gone crazy? Please, help me solve this mystery, it's all I ask of you. (Oh, and make that her canon last name too because I actually do really like it).
16:14 - Scary, bouncy Paprika makes a comeback.
18:00 - "You must finish your work, Carl..."
19:19 - Big silly alpaca kissy faces.
22:23 - Pineapple has been working on steam integration. The pipeline is running, and Jay even managed to download the game off steam himself. Things are getting real here guys.
24:20 - You heard the man. Don't screenshot this picture of the tree from Oleander's pixel lobby stage. It's super secret.
PART 2
0:00 - Hey, didn't I used to put colons after every "Part #?" Why did I stop doing that? ...Anyway, the stream switched to Lindsay, and in the background we can see her sketching out a prop for Tianhuo's stage. It's a statue that looks like the honoured father horse. (Yes, Google Chrome, I know Americans spell it "honored," get off my back about it).
0:05 - I was in the chat for this stream, and I can assure you Lindsay that we were not asking you to say "baa" into the microphone. I'm very happy that you did though. It was a top notch baa.
0:24 - Tianhuo's stage! Dark, filled with magma and cool as all get out.
0:47 - ...And slightly animated! The polish draws ever nearer!
0:55 - And some cool shadows crossing over the characters!
2:42 - After getting the game working on steam, Jay was able to play against Nappy and it seemed to work okay. Great, that confirms that I'll be able to get owned by all you American folk once the game releases!
4:26 - Longma live in birdhouses. This is canon. Longma are horse-dragon-bird-snakes. They are truly the most magical of races
6:23 - Velvet's stage now has a bit of snow.
6:54 - Like Skullgirls, they plan on having things move and fall down during really big hits. The functionality is there, they just need to be animated.
7:50 - Little animation extras like Tian's fire melting the snow on Velvet's stage are all things that have been considered, but are unlikely. They'll keep thinking of them though.
9:29 - Paprika Peppercorn's stage has also had some work done. Those rock columns in the background are looking pretty swish.
12:19 - 3D Fred book model. They explain how they plan on animating the book in the game. It's explained later that it'll be a 2D model eventually.
13:18 - Fred's whole design is basically the first pass Jay did that they never changed. The runes are made up, and they hope it doesn't mean "butt hole" or something in an obscure language.
14:10 - In case you missed the news from that other thread, the team has a new voice director. Cristina Vee, voice of Cerebella in Skullgirls and Shantae in a few Shantae games, is now on board with the team.
14:52 - Jay explains the process of finding VAs for the game. Tangentially related, I haven't heard anyone call Velvet "Smugdeer" in a while. We need to bring that back, methinks.
16:32 - Lindsay decides that Honoured Father is not thicc enough, so she corrects her grievous mistake.
19:04 - The team would love accents for the characters, especially Kiwi Pom, but the issue is that getting people physically in the studio with you is so much easier, so it may be hard to find an actress that has/can do the accent in America. Jay says that he knows of a few New Zealand characters. Perhaps I just haven't been looking hard enough, but the only New Zealand characters in games I can think of are the villagers from Far Cry 3 (who seem to be Māori, but were likely born on the island where the game takes place, so... not New Zealanders) and the Sniper from Team Fortress 2 (who is just a walking Australian stereotype). Oh, and presumably Ivy the Kiwi from "Ivy the Kiwi."
20:56 - Pom's dogs may have voice actors or they may be edited stock sounds. The team seems to not know yet.
22:22 - In terms of who will be voiced, there will be 6 main characters, an announcer and Fred. By the sounds of it, the story mode will not be voiced, all the voices will be saved for the fights (including intro/outro dialogue).
23:06 - The horse was definitely the father. Having a dragon father and a horse mother would be... painful.
PART 3
0:53 - Other than the level 3 supers, all the fighting moves seem to be in and functioning, they just need to be balanced a little bit. As has been explained before, the level 3 supers are just flashy, fun things that deal a bunch of damage but are overall less efficient than just using level 1 and 2 supers. They aren't as important to how the fighting game actually plays as the other moves, so they're firmly in the "polish" section.
4:40 - Velvet's means of gaining magic meter will be looked at in the future. Long story short it's not really working out as it is now so Nappy is looking for fixes.
6:48 - The team plans on adding a visual and audio cue for when you gain a pip of magic meter to make it easier to "read" what's going on.
7:49 - They're working on the new Ole idle! Bask in the wiggle of the old idle while you can, because next stream it may no longer be there.
8:11 - Regarding Oleander, a few things carried over from the last game that have lost relevance have been removed, such as the tiny "safe zone" at the very front of her level 1 super.
12:14 - Scrunch face is best face. Scrunch face will be included for all the characters.
13:27 - The opponent will no longer be able to hit Paprika's gifts. Paprika can hit her own gifts, and the opponent can hit Paprika to make her drop the gift harmlessly, but they will not be able to counter-hit Paprika with her own gift.
15:42 - Paprika's ridiculous cartwheel now goes a shorter distance and is active for a much shorter period of time. Same with the flowers.
16:38 - The team has a new QA. Pro fighting game player SonicFox. He comes along, he wrecks it, Nappy fixes it, all is well.
18:41 - Pom's level 2 summons the big daddy dog and gets them to follow the opponent, combo-ing alongside the mama dog. Nappy assures us that it'll look a lot less cluttered once the actual models are in instead of the cardboard cutouts. Maybe he could help me clear out all the cardboard cutouts of models that I have lying around
my place!
Hahaha god I need a girlfriend...
20:57 - The dad dog also has his own version of the counter-attack, but unlike the mama dog, his will go off whether he is hit while blocking or not. The attack will stumble the opponent across the screen.
21:14 - The dad may also get more charges than the mum, but they'll play around with that. They're also planning on having some way of displaying how many charges the dogs have left with a UI element or something.
24:00 - Like Velvet, Tian is also getting some refinements to her magic system.
26:54 - Tian's forward dash has been replaced with
THE SLITHER! It doesn't cross up anymore but it does go low enough to go under pretty much any projectile.
27:22 - Tian no longer has a height restriction on her flight, but she does have a heavier time restriction. She can't fly for as long before dropping back down. You also only get one movement option per jump (flight or dash) unless you use firecracker magic.
31:55 - The juggle decay has had a few bonus features added. Before it would just increase gravity and prevent standing infinites, now it also turns all hard knockdowns into soft knockdowns once it's filled. What this means is you can no longer end a destructive combo with a hard knockdown that lets you set up for the same combo again.
33:05 - They're still playing around with this, but if you fill more than half of the opponent's juggle decay and then knock them down, it'll reset to half before draining rather than just completely disappearing instantly. This is to just help prevent people spamming really quick, short combos that end with hard knockdowns over and over. Creates more of a back-and-forth.
37:21 - Apparently F6 toggles blue mode.
41:40 - How rude! You're going to make poor Velvet self-conscious if you point out how fat she gets using hit sparks and colour changes!
42:51 - Players will not be able to tag in and out other characters. That's not what this game has been built for.
43:45 - There will not be more than 1 level 1 super per character. Any additional supers will come post-release.
45:43 - The game is on track for an April release. It may not be the final release with everything they want included, but it'll likely be something.
49:17 - For those of you not in the backer forum, one of the stages is going to have fush. Jay is explaining that fush is just fish with a New Zealand accent. I'm surprised I didn't figure this out myself to be honest.
49:47 - The stuff in the Book of Lore is subject to change, some of it has already been changed, and some of it won't be directly referenced in the game. So feel free to fill in the gaps with headcanon. Like what the character's last names might be or something. Y'know, just as a
crazy example...
51:26 - Nappy shows off the early stages of the story mode level teased earlier. It's a museum in Rein. A little bare bones right now, but it'll be filled up soon enough, and it even has some intractables and some delightful plinky-plonky music playing in the background. I would just watch this whole bit if I were you, I'm not going to be pinpointing every joke. Just most of them.
51:52 - Bathroom jokes. I am more than okay with this.
52:10 - Smart jokes. I am also okay with this.
52:24 - Just... jokes. This game is looking better and better.
53:28 - Nice to see Mane 6 is making good on their promise to not buy a golden reindeer statue.
55:27 - Placeholder Velvet NPC gets aggressively touchy-feely with Arizona. Foenum is a scary place it seems.
56:18 - I can't tell if the joke is that the reasons are
not in fact obvious or if they're making some odd joke about crotch/breast stuffing. I'm going to assume the former, but now you all know where my mind is at.
56:53 - The logic behind the story mode is that if you're going to have lore, you may as well have a good amount of it. Having a tiny amount of lore will just leave people unsatisfied. If someone doesn't care about the lore, they'll just skip it anyway, so it's not like you really have to worry about having
too much lore. No half measures.
57:57 - You can affect things using magic in the story mode lobby. This can even trigger (subtly racist) unique dialogue from NPCs.
58:50 - "Item Get" jingle! And it seems the story mode with have some minor puzzles. Cool.
1:00:53 - More predator stuff to come (next stream perhaps?)
1:01:36 - "Rein" is pronounced "rain." Jay is just pronouncing it wrong because of some German lessons he took. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
1:04:19 - Hey, watch it Jay,
I'm supposed to be the recap guy here.
I was serious about the "Paprika Peppercorn" thing. I don't know where I got it from. Maybe it was offhandedly mentioned in a stream, or it was the filename of an image uploaded to the Mane 6 website or something. Please, if you know, end my suffering.
Hey, Oleander is a black unicorn. Does that make her a Peppercorn?