Feels like every day now I'm discovering some new and better way of doing things. The project is crawling towards a point where all systems exist and are easy to tweak. So good news is I can both feel and see myself becoming a better game developer. Bad news: I'm already a week behind schedule. Again. That won't fly. Time to crunch up and catch up. 

Finally figured out this window, cleaned it up, and

made my game project that much easier to understand.

Found a nifty pathfinding tool. Too bad I don't think it'll mesh well with the grid framework I've got going on.

I can totally use it to make attack animations though.

Just draw lines instead of coming up with trajectory formulas.

   Completed:

• MLGD Forums Restored! (I added a bunch of missed devlogs to the BGP thread)
• Icons for Travel Moves Cut, Rock, and Surf
• Written Tons of Ideas for Polish
• Revamped Energy Bar Code
• Finally Figured Out How UIElement Database Works
• Reorganized GameObjects in Unity Hierarchy
• Renamed Scripts to Be More Clear
• Deleted Redundant/Useless Scripts
• Separated Repeated Code Into Their Own Scripts
• More Overambitious Ideas Pushed to Sequel Notes
• Bookmarked Simple Waypoint System (using it to animate moves instead of hardcoding various projectile patterns)

• Programming Tasks can really get out of control. Whenever I want to make a quick script for a menu or something, I end up spending hours coding little side scripts and tools to make the main script as streamlined as I want it to be.
• Sometimes thinking up the perfect algorithm to most efficiently do something once is way more time consuming than hardcoding it. I should just get it done the long way instead of stopping in my tracks. 
• But when hardcoding it still needs to be super neat/readable/organized/clear so I can make adjustments to it later if needed.

I really gotta step up my game. This project's FAQ page and Twitter look amazing.

       This fan game called Pokemon: Phoenix Rising is coming out with its first demo this month. It's one of the games that inspired Battle Gem Ponies years back. It's looking SUPER polished and chances are, it's gonna be the next Pokemon Uranium viral hit. I'm super excited to check it out myself (if the Mac version follows soon) and I know there's a lot I can learn from it in terms of design, polish, and pixel art. 

     I just hope it doesn't overshadow BGP later on. Like, this is a fan project, out for free, made by a competent team over many years, and BGP is made by one guy over 4 years, isn't even really about Pokemon, and is charging $5.

     If I do somehow get my project in front of millions of eyes it'd suck pretty hard to be considered some inferior ripoff right out the gate. That's why I need to keep polishing and adding that special Yotes sauce to the mix. Battle Gem Ponies needs to stand out because I made it. It needs to have graphics that can at least keep up with this fan game to get attention, then have genuine heart, clever writing, and attention to detail that only my mind could come up with. That's what'll make it stick.