Mega Pony - Like Mega Man, but with ponies

BTB

Edit history:

BTB: 2015-02-01 08:43:02 am

BTB: 2015-02-01 08:41:10 am

2015-02-01 08:38:37 am

First of all, hi everybody. I'm new here and still trying to find my way around, so please bear with me. I'm very eager/excited to join this community and hope that I can contribute to it in a meaningful way.

Anyhow, I've been playing a fan-made game called Mega Pony over the last year and started becoming obsessed with the idea of speedrunning it after seeing Mega Man Unlimited - a game to which it is very similar - run at this year's AGDQ. It's also similar to Mega Man Powered Up in that you are able to play through as any of the Mane Six (the robot master stand-ins) after beating the game, thus making for a lot of replay value due to how different they all handle. I feel that this is a game that is overlooked and/or simply unheard of by many due to the subject nature (i.e. ponies), which is a shame because it is a solid game by any metric that I feel easily stands up to any of the classic Mega Man games. The upside to this is that its relative obscurity does give me a chance to bring something fresh to the table without someone like zoast or duckfist reminding me how much I suck Smiley

Obviously, I have some questions, many of which I am sure are probably answered in various FAQs on this site and so I apologize in advance if I'm asking something that's been answered a dozen times before. First of all, I presume the "fangame" status of Mega Pony does lead to some legitimacy concerns regarding whether or not a run would be accepted. There is precedent in games like I Wanna Be The Guy and Mega Man Unlimited, it's just that this game is a little bit more obscure. Second, I've been streaming my runs on Twitch (something else to which I am still very new) and have been waiting until I got my run time to sub-30 before actually recording one of my runs for submission to the site. Reading the FAQ indicated that I should probably stop here and ask before going about doing any recording or submitting of videos, and so here I am.

As far as technical details go, the game has a built-in timer that you can choose to have display on-screen during the game, which is mighty convenient. It counts down during the stage and while in the menu, but not during the "weapon get" cutscenes, while shopping, or on the stage select screen. There are also no glitches/bugs that I am aware of, and so my time relies entirely on optimizing gameplay - utilizing the subweapons is a major part of this thanks to the "quick weapon" switch (i.e. Mega Man 9/10/Unlimited) making it a viable strategy. I am unaware of anybody else running this game seriously, but my current time (30:02) is well under that of all the speedrun videos I've seen posted to Youtube.

I suppose a link to the game itself would also be prudent here:

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/11/megapony-final-release-now-available.html

That's all I can think of for now. Thanks for taking the time to read this and please let me know if I've said anything stupid/wrong Tongue

-BTB

Thread title:

First of all, hi everybody. I'm new here and still trying to find my way around, so please bear with me. I'm very eager/excited to join this community and hope that I can contribute to it in a meaningful way.

Anyhow, I've been playing a fan-made game called Mega Pony over the last year and started becoming obsessed with the idea of speedrunning it after seeing Mega Man Unlimited - a game to which it is very similar - run at this year's AGDQ. It's also similar to Mega Man Powered Up in that you are able to play through as any of the Mane Six (the robot master stand-ins) after beating the game, thus making for a lot of replay value due to how different they all handle. I feel that this is a game that is overlooked and/or simply unheard of by many due to the subject nature (i.e. ponies), which is a shame because it is a solid game by any metric that I feel easily stands up to any of the classic Mega Man games. The upside to this is that its relative obscurity does give me a chance to bring something fresh to the table without someone like zoast or duckfist reminding me how much I suck :)

Obviously, I have some questions, many of which I am sure are probably answered in various FAQs on this site and so I apologize in advance if I'm asking something that's been answered a dozen times before. First of all, I presume the "fangame" status of Mega Pony does lead to some legitimacy concerns regarding whether or not a run would be accepted. There is precedent in games like I Wanna Be The Guy and Mega Man Unlimited, it's just that this game is a little bit more obscure. Second, I've been streaming my runs on Twitch (something else to which I am still very new) and have been waiting until I got my run time to sub-30 before actually recording one of my runs for submission to the site. Reading the FAQ indicated that I should probably stop here and ask before going about doing any recording or submitting of videos, and so here I am.

As far as technical details go, the game has a built-in timer that you can choose to have display on-screen during the game, which is mighty convenient. It counts down during the stage and while in the menu, but not during the "weapon get" cutscenes, while shopping, or on the stage select screen. There are also no glitches/bugs that I am aware of, and so my time relies entirely on optimizing gameplay - utilizing the subweapons is a major part of this thanks to the "quick weapon" switch (i.e. Mega Man 9/10/Unlimited) making it a viable strategy. I am unaware of anybody else running this game seriously, but my current time (30:02) is well under that of all the speedrun videos I've seen posted to Youtube.

I suppose a link to the game itself would also be prudent here:

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/11/megapony-final-release-now-available.html

That's all I can think of for now. Thanks for taking the time to read this and please let me know if I've said anything stupid/wrong :P

-BTB

BTB

2015-05-24 06:17:11 pm

So, it's been awhile, but I finally have a run that I'm happy with. It's a PB, and by virtue of being completely uncontested (as far as I know) also a world record. I don't know how submissions or anything like that work, but this is the highlight on Twitch if somebody could give me some advice on where I should go from here:

http://www.twitch.tv/billytbum/c/6738591

Asteron

Edit history:

Asteron: 2015-05-27 07:57:39 am

2015-05-27 07:05:34 am

Nice job. That run looks pretty clean. The game itself does a surprisingly good job of shoving ponies into a solid megaman game. I haven't been much into the show recently but enjoyed some of references and the music, especially that meld of the "This Day Aria" and the MM2 Wily Castle Theme. The designer really dropped the ball on the applejack boss though. How does it make sense to have Applejack pilot a mech? Just have her do some bucking and lassoing.

The ingame time for your run is 29:00 which would be the SDA preferred timing when available.

HoboWithaShotgun

Edit history:

HoboWithaShotgun: 2015-05-28 08:46:14 pm

2015-05-28 08:45:25 pm

Wake up and be awesome

Just looking at the run, I have a few questions

Is it a standalone game, or like a mod? If it's standalone, then a submission is fine, but if not, then it wound't count for a submission

Do you have a raw file of the run? If your submitting just the twitch stream version, then it'll get rejected VERY quickly

Other than that, everything looks good. I'd suggest going to the tech area of the forums for submission help.

Edit: Dang, was really hoping for the rainbow dash picture for my post. Would've worked well

BTB

Edit history:

BTB: 2015-05-29 12:17:27 am

BTB: 2015-05-29 12:15:58 am

BTB: 2015-05-29 12:14:54 am

2015-05-29 12:14:25 am

Applejack in a mech is one of the few oddities of the game that isn't a reference - I think the creator just thought it would be funny/cool (sort of like the Sweetie-Bot). Applejack as a whole feels kind of "meh", though, in that she's by far the hardest character to run as, IMO.

So, SDA would take the IGT, despite the fact that it doesn't count during certain parts? That's kind of comforting, I guess. So it doesn't count against me if I take a second too long while shopping for W-tanks? That's... kinda odd, really.

Mega Pony is a completely stand-alone game built in Game Maker 7, not a mod. I think that's a big argument in its case.

I actually do not have a raw file of the run beyond the Twitch broadcast. My intention was to get a run on Twitch good enough to show here before working seriously toward a WR submission. Can I just use OBS to output a video file and use that? (I'll post this question in the tech area as you suggested, as well. Thank you for the response!)

EDIT: oh, and my run is on Youtube now, too:

Applejack in a mech is one of the few oddities of the game that isn't a reference - I think the creator just thought it would be funny/cool (sort of like the Sweetie-Bot). Applejack as a whole feels kind of "meh", though, in that she's by far the hardest character to run as, IMO.

So, SDA would take the IGT, despite the fact that it doesn't count during certain parts? That's kind of comforting, I guess. So it doesn't count against me if I take a second too long while shopping for W-tanks? That's... kinda odd, really.

Mega Pony is a completely stand-alone game built in Game Maker 7, not a mod. I think that's a big argument in its case.

I actually do not have a raw file of the run beyond the Twitch broadcast. My intention was to get a run on Twitch good enough to show here before working seriously toward a WR submission. Can I just use OBS to output a video file and use that? (I'll post this question in the tech area as you suggested, as well. Thank you for the response!)

EDIT: oh, and my run is on Youtube now, too: [spoiler]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyk7fSgd_iQ[/spoiler]

HoboWithaShotgun

2015-05-29 07:16:26 am

Wake up and be awesome

Regarding igt, I forgot why SDA does this, but it's something they've been doing for years now. On certain games they can make exceptions like mega man 9 (look up the mm9 SDA page for more info) but for the most part yeah. That's why runs like assassins creed brotherhood are under 3 hours, even though the actual play time throughout is over 3. It's weird, but hey, at least your runs much shorter now Smiley

The game maker thing, that should work. However just to be on the safe side, I'd also ask that question in tech (I'm no admin so yeah)

I'm not gonna lie, OBS is not my friend, so I can't help you there, but the tech people are nice and will be more the willing to help you

Also, I never rally noticed just how much effort was put into this game. I might as well get it, and see of I can throw my hand into the running mix. Never actually ran a mega man game before

presjpolk

2015-05-29 08:30:00 am

HELLO!

SDA these days will use whatever the community uses. If the community moves to realtime, they'll accept realtime runs.

BTB

Edit history:

BTB: 2015-05-29 04:32:12 pm

2015-05-29 03:09:09 pm

Quote from HoboWithaShotgun:

Also, I never rally noticed just how much effort was put into this game. I might as well get it, and see of I can throw my hand into the running mix. Never actually ran a mega man game before

It's a very well-made game and it does right by both franchises that it's putting together.

On another note, I'm not done improving my runs by a long shot. I've been running some drills of the final stages and just came up with some new strats that shave a shitload of time off of my final score (granted, most of it is me discovering that the Stare does, in fact work against the Dragon even though I swear to Baby Jesus I tried it once before and it did nothing).

HoboWithaShotgun

2015-05-29 07:57:22 pm

Wake up and be awesome

BTW, did you ever see this video?

BTB

2015-05-29 09:03:25 pm

I've seen the Rainbow Dash speedrun, yes. She's the only other character that can compete with Mega Pony in terms of speed (and I actually wasn't aware that her IGT was, in fact, lower than mine).

Running as Dash is, for all intents and purposes, a completely different game. A Mega Pony run gets all of the time savings from playing well in the stages, whereas Rainbow Dash can bypass most of the stages and has to keep time by performing well in boss fights.

And yes, I will acknowledge that playing as Rainbow Dash is much, *much* harder IMO.

HoboWithaShotgun

2015-05-30 05:48:26 pm

Wake up and be awesome

Started playing the game last night

VERY slowly making progress, beat Rainbow Dash and Pinkie and made it to Twilight's boss. Holy shit that's hard

So yeah, I guess I might as well run this game, already invested enough time into it

I was thinking that the sonic boom you get from Rainbow might be useful for glitching through walls, as I've seen MANY games were runners are able to exploit either dash or teleport ablities. Just a thought

BTB

Edit history:

BTB: 2015-05-30 06:50:37 pm

BTB: 2015-05-30 06:46:07 pm

2015-05-30 06:40:30 pm

There are no "clip through walls" glitches that I am aware of, which I actually prefer - I'd much rather have to play through the stages for a record.

That said, the Sonic Rainboom (a sonic boom and a rainbow that occur at the same time) and The Stare are the two most important weapons for gaining speed, and I honestly don't feel like I'm currently using either one to their fullest potential. Ideally, you should use your entire charge of both in every stage, because you're (probably) losing time otherwise. My newer strats for the Discord stages use both more significantly.

Also, yes, most of the boss fights in this game are very hard without exploiting weaknesses. Twilight and Dash (i.e. Elec Man on steroids) are probably two of the worst.

Really, though, the biggest problem this game has for speedrunning is the dev's love of insta-kill spikes. There's a grand total of one stage in the entire game that isn't loaded with them, and it's just a brutal gauntlet of enemies instead.

BTB

Edit history:

BTB: 2015-08-02 08:15:32 pm

2015-08-02 04:03:32 pm

So, after a few months of being lazy and only playing off and on, watching SGDQ has renewed my resolve to really nail this down and get this run into AGDQ next year.

I'm thinking it would be kind of fun to organize a race of some sort, if there was anybody interested in going up against me?

Also, I have a new record with better strats:

HoboWithaShotgun

2015-08-03 01:48:31 am

Wake up and be awesome

I'd like to run you, but to be honest, I haven't even played this game in months (not that it's a bad game, I'm just more of a console gamer, so most of the time, I actually forget that I have PC games Tongue

) So yeah, if I can learn the route soon, it'd be nice to do a run.

BTB

2015-08-03 07:31:51 pm

Awesome, glad you have you!

The best route to my knowledge is the one in my run right up there. I won't profess to know absolutely everything, so it can very likely be built upon and made better.

Let me know.

BTB

2015-08-08 05:55:48 pm

So, I just discovered that it is indeed faster - to the tune of about 15 seconds - to take the left path at the fork int he first Discord stage rather than the right one. This does skip the E-tank (the entire reason I took the right path in the first place), but I thankfully just figured out a reliable strat to take out final Discord without the safety E-tank I usually end up having to use.

I've also found a few minor optimizations in Fluttershy's stage (~1-2 seconds), meaning that I should pretty easily be able to come up with another best run sometime in the next week or so.

HoboWithaShotgun

2015-08-09 01:47:42 am

Wake up and be awesome

Cool, still learning the Rarity route. I also need to download a suitable recording software to record my runs, so once I do that, I'll start post some of my practice runs

BTB

2016-03-04 02:42:09 pm

So, I've been a little out of practice for the last few months since I've been working on another project (a Final Fantasy VI mod called Brave New World), but I see that submissions are going up soon and I've figured it prudent to perhaps record something of an audition practice run later tonight. Most of last year, my goal was to get my PB down as far as possible and so I did a lot of resetting for small mistakes. My goal now is going to be showing that my times can still be fairly consistent even if I do eat a death or two.

So, here's to hoping that all goes well. Wish me luck, I suppose? (Advice is also welcome)

BTB

2016-03-06 07:27:01 pm

Holy shit. I recorded a quick practice run just as a sort of audition to SGDQ... ended up setting a new PB.

http://www.twitch.tv/billytbum/v/52868291

BTB

2016-03-26 02:19:19 pm

https://www.twitch.tv/billytbum/v/56826230

Been practicing in hopes of getting into GDQ and ended up beating my old time by a few seconds due to some key optimizations I've been working on. Not really happy with this one since I had a nice can of Diet Choke near the end and died, costing me a good 15 seconds. I guess the upshot is that I've improved to the tune of about 20 seconds since I initially submitted the run.

BTB

Edit history:

BTB: 2018-02-14 04:41:03 pm

2018-02-14 04:34:14 pm

New world record, only improves on my old time by 8 seconds but that's with a death near the end - there's about 40 seconds of timesaves and optimizations in the earlier run, and aside from the choke at the end I'm really happy with it.