We’re still hard at work behind the scenes, but to keep you interested and your appetites whetted, I thought we’d release a few teaser screenshots from sections not seen before from case 1. Nothing spoiler-y; we’re still keeping the story itself under wraps to ensure that you aren’t bored when case 1 is released – but, hopefully, these should intrigue you enough for now while we work on getting case 1 completed.

(And no, please don’t ask about release dates – we’ll let you know when we’re prepared to commit to something that won’t result in us working 39-hour days to get things completed. )

Find the screenshots after the break!

Thanks, all! We’ll keep you posted as we complete more stuff on the case!

First, without further ado you can find the demo here:

http://www.equestriandreamers.com/downloads/

And here’s a list of what’s new in this demo:

Code ported to C++ from Java

The first demo was written in Java, which worked for the purpose for which it was chosen – enabling the game to come to all three major OSes – but there were two major problems that people encountered:

1. Software rendering was not supported, which meant that players with lower-end graphics cards couldn’t play the game; and
2. Some pieces of software like WinRAR were associating themselves instead of the Java runtime with JAR files, which made people unable to start the game at all.

To fix both of these issues, we’ve ported the game to C++, and this demo shows the game in that form.

Gameplay mechanics and content

• Twilight now has the ability to run! To run, double-click (or double-click and hold), and she’ll move much faster than walking.
• The game now loads each location’s resources on the fly during gameplay, rather than loading everything at the start. This both makes initial loading much faster and cuts down on RAM and VRAM usage.
• Evidence and profiles are now separated; you can swap between the two by clicking a tab at the top.
• Cursors and mouse-over text have now been implemented to show who Twilight can talk to, what can be examined in the field, and where Twilight can exit the screen.
• Pinkie Pie now teaches new players to the game about MLI’s gameplay mechanics! There will be an option to turn her off in the full game, but that hasn’t been implemented yet.
• A second cutscene in town square has been added.
• Cutscenes have been improved and now have greater functionality.

Visuals and audio

• Screen transitions from one area to the next now feature a fade-to-black instead of just instantly swapping screens.
• Interjections have been added – now, whenever Twilight presents evidence or presses a statement, our version of the objection bubbles appear on screen to accent those moments.
• All of the lines in the demo have been mastered by X-Trav.
• Almost all of the audio has now been implemented; there were several missing lines in the last demo.
• Twilight has a couple of new emotional states since last time.
• The “suspense” theme has now been updated to better reflect of the mood of the scene it plays in.
• A fully animated title screen has been implemented.
• Sound effects have been added to bring town square to life, and hoofstep sounds have been properly synched to animations.

Now that you know what’s up, downloading the game is as simple as before. Just head on over here:

http://www.equestriandreamers.com/downloads/

Please feel free to post feedback on this updated demo on the forums and let us know what you think! The team is gearing up for the final phases of development, so we’re hoping you’ll all continue to remain hyped about case 1. While you wait, we encourage you to help this project out by spreading the word! Our fans’ enthusiasm is and always has been what keeps us motivated to work strong to get this case completed.

That’s all for now! Thanks, all!

We’ve all been hard at work behind the scenes on the first case, and we can’t thank you enough for being patient with us while you wait. A game like My Little Investigations is always a bit tricky to give public exposure, since we can’t show you anything that would give people an inkling regarding the way in which the story goes – but by this time, I think it’s safe to say that we owe you at least a little something to whet your appetites and reassure any of you out there who might be worried that we most certainly are still going strong. So, I’d like to take a little bit to highlight just a few of the things that our wonderful team has been up to. You can find that after the break!

First up, here’s some dialog character sprites from HallowGazer and TehJadeh:

Second, here’s some field character sprites from WarpOut – yes, fans, your prayers have been answered: Twilight can now run in the game!

Third, here’s another background from PonyArtist, showing the inside of town hall:

Fourth, here’s another cutscene background from Rautakoura:

And fifth, here’s another song from Trot Pilgrim, which plays when Twilight has found a crack in her opponent’s argument:

That’s all for now, but only because we don’t want to show you guys the whole case before it’s done – we want you guys to be surprised and delighted, after all! Rest assured that we’ve got plenty more where this came from, which we’ll look forward to showing you in the future. Thanks to all our fans for being totally awesome. We love you all!

GabuEx out.

Before I get to the results, I’d like to thank everyone for such a phenomenal turnout for this contest! In total, we received a total of 501 OCs entered from 370 creators. Those are not small numbers! As such, we’ve taken a little while to ensure everyone gets their fair consideration, so we’d like to thank everyone for their patience. There were all kinds of ponies, and it was an absolute treat to see all of your imaginations at work here. The creativity of this community never ceases to amaze me.

I’d just like to make one more statement before we get to our winners and runners-up. We had a number of criteria that we judged OCs on, which include their suitability to the Ponyville setting, how interesting we felt they were, how confident we were that we could write an interesting interaction between them and Twilight, and so on. These are all criteria for the OCs’ appropriateness within MLI. These are categorically not judgment calls that should be taken as fundamental statements about the quality or “goodness” of the OCs in a general or objective sense. If one has an OC that contains several cliches, and which doesn’t have a very fleshed-out backstory, but which nonetheless makes that person very happy even so, then that is a good thing, and nothing here should cause that person to consider discarding that OC. At the end of the day, you ought to be your own judge for whether or not you like your OC; if you don’t, then it doesn’t matter how many other people do.

So, without further ado, you may find the winners and the runners up after the break!

The winners

Abby Sprocket
Entrant: Whgoops (http://whgoops.deviantart.com/)

Description
This is Abby Sprocket! She goes by both Abby and Sprocket, which ever you like more. Abby grew up in Canterlot during the Steampunk era in the mid 1800′s. She was always in her workshop creating new gadgets and fixing things around the house. She even made herself new wings after being hit by lightening and her old wings being unsalvageable! Her whole life changed when she created the ultimate invention: a time machine. As she was putting the final touches on it, it went haywire and sent her to present day Ponyville. She fell in love with the ponies and town and decided to stay. Since then, she’s opened a shop to fix and sell some of her gadgets.

Overall, she’s a very open pony and loves meeting new ponies. She’s always there with a helping hoof to a friend in need, even if it means she’ll have to work overtime in her shop. Though she’s known to be a very kind pony, she can, though it’s quite rare, get very annoyed and snippy. That’s only when someone is bugging her about something for days on in. She also has a strange weakness for hay bacon strips…

Eclair
Entrant: ParfaitPichu

Description
Eclair is very sweet and fun, and is very shy around new people, but when she gets to know you she really opens up. She’s creative and quick-thinking and is always there for friends even in tough times. She like to paint, draw and create, but sculpting is her passion.

Eclair is a Unicorn who has lived in Canterlot most of her life. Her family is well-known though out Equestria as the creators of the most prestigious Statues, Sculptures and other artworks. Eclair has also followed in her family’s hoofsteps and has become an upcoming protege in sculpting. Although she is talented, Eclair feels that everything she’s done doesn’t even compare to the all of her family’s creations – so she decided to travel all over Equestria to learn and experience now things in order to inspire her to create a masterpiece that will make her family proud.

Hoover Sweeps
Entrant: Wil “Wil_I_Zin” Risen (http://wilizin.deviantart.com)

Description
His cutie mark is a sweeping broom. Most think this involves a talent with cleaning; however, his true talent lies in that he can clean up anything with a broom, even crime. (But he mostly sticks to floors.)

After spending years of cleaning up other ponies’ messes, Sweeps has become distant from his fellow pony. The job of being a janitor has been a thankless one, so he spends most of his time listening in on all the gossip ponies tend to say when no one is around. And wouldn’t you know it, being a janitor practically makes you invisible. If forced to be sociable, he will be snarky and usually let slip something he heard recently, just to see what it will stir up. Hoover has only one hatred, and that is for a certain weapon of mass partying that seems to make his job harder then it SHOULD be.

Hoover Sweeps is a freelance janitor, with a few contracts in Canterlot, Ponyville, and Fillydelphia. He most noticeably has had the “pleasure” of being on clean up duty for every natural/unnatural/animal/mad-god disaster that has happened in the past few years.

Runners-up (rest of top 10)

Ambient Recluse
Entrant: Sean W.

Master Clockwork
Entrant: Master Clockwork

Mooncreaser
Entrant: Cyberglass

Pixel Perfect
Entrant: ZuTheSkunk (http://zutheskunk.deviantart.com)

Remix
Entrant: mkovic117

Rosetta Stone
Entrant: Tchernobog

Storm Cloud
Entrant: appleHack

Runners-up (rest of top 40)

Ace Blitz
Entrant: Ariel Corao Espinoza (A.C.E.) (majinrabbid)

Bardic Knowledge
Entrant: Joe McCord

Batty Gloom
Entrant: Batty Gloom

Blind Justice
Entrant: Darren J.

BronyMike
Entrant: BronyMike (http://youtube.com/bronymike)

Buck Ryder
Entrant: Tyrannus Paleo/The Zoologist Colt

Cherri Melody
Entrant: Court Pless

Citrus Fizz
Entrant: oegiap

Cogsworth
Entrant: Coin-Trip39

Daring Peaches
Entrant: Kdogfour

Fanny Pack
Entrant: Rebecca Skinner (http://14dreamer.deviantart.com/)

Farafra
Entrant: Kim A. (Adlivun)

Forrest Crooner
Entrant: Justin Patterson

Frank the Pony
Entrant: Hunter B.

Glowball
Entrant: Mythee

Hollow Calculator
Entrant: Potato_Guy

Honeybloom
Entrant: Diddgery

Hoodwink
Entrant: GLARGH

Inky Ribbon
Entrant: MalkyTop

Kickbolt
Entrant: Diexna (http://www.fimfiction.net/story/5345/Perquisition)

Northern Crescent
Entrant: Nanook

Professor Renaldo Eduardo Search
Entrant: Croswynd (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/12/story-unmarked.html?m=1)

Reverie
Entrant: Dubzy

Shake
Entrant: Juan M.

Silver Lining
Entrant: Balderdash999 (http://balderdash999.deviantart.com)

Sol Skyfly
Entrant: Cotton

Specter Lionheart
Entrant: Calcos

Velvet Sky
Entrant: Fuzzlepuzzle

Wishy Washy
Entrant: Clex Yoshi

Wob Niar
Entrant: NeoArtimus (http://www.youtube.com/user/PWaaMLPfim)

(If you don’t get it, then go watch Turnabout Storm right now!)

The first new member is Pony Tim. He is our new Field Character Artist/Animator and is currently WarpOut’s apprentice. Our second new member is Abion47. He is our new Dialogue Character Artist and will focus on helping the vectoring process along with TehJadeh.

We are super excited to have more power on the artistic front. This will greatly aid in speeding up development time for this case and beyond, as well as keep stress levels to a minimum. So, please join me in giving them a warm welcome to Equestrian Dreamers!

We look forward to releasing more info pertaining to MLI soon. So, please continue to be patient!

Thanks, everypony!

GIF Created by: WarpOut

Hey everypony, Equestrian Dreamers needs your assistance once again! That is why we have decided to recruit for another field character artist for the team to help WarpOut. So, check out all of the details you need to apply on the recruitment page at this link.

http://www.equestriandreamers.com/recruitment/visual-artists/

Recruitment will close on September 23rd at 12 AM PST! Please feel free to ask any questions as necessary. We will be happy to answer them as soon as we can. Good luck everypony and we look forward to your submissions!

All Credit for Nyx Goes to: Pen Stroke

Hey everypony! So, are you feeling that Town Square still is empty? Want to get involved in the project? Well, now is your chance! Today, we will give you the chance to have one of your OC’s (Original Character) be put into My Little Investigations! So, before I get this ball rolling, let’s lay down some ground rules for this contest.

1. Each entry must have a name, picture, and brief background description of the original character. By brief, I mean keep it under a couple of paragraphs. No novels please. The character must be a pony from either the earth, pegasi, or unicorn race. No alicorns or non-ponies allowed here since we want to keep the game as show accurate as possible.

1a. You may submit as many OC’s to us as you want. You may put multiple OC’s in your entry instead of making one for each one. However, rest assured that there will only be ONE winning OC per winner. And remember, quality will always beat out quantity. We want to see your best!

2. You will have one month to submit your entries from today. All entries will be accepted up till September 19th, 12 AM PST. We will select the best three entries from the list.

3. Absolutely NO grim-dark, rule 34, inappropriate/controversial (for example, using a religious symbol for a cutie mark) OC ponies will be considered.

4. You are certainly allowed to ponify any member of the team if you so wish. However, doing so will not gain you extra consideration. We will consider every entry equally.

5. If you are one of the three winners, you will be allowed to write a short joke (That WILL be voiced by our voice actors) involving the OC pony and Twilight. However, Equestrian Dreamers has the right to modify or write another joke if we find it necessary.

6. Post your entries to either the official topic on the forums at this link http://www.equestriandreamers.com/forum/index.php?topic=1111.0 or at this email contact@equestriandreamers.com.

Also, on another note, our panel from Everfree NW has been posted on YouTube. Click the link below and check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3iKFovD7Zk&feature=player_embedded

And that’s pretty much it! We look forward to seeing your entries very soon! Have fun and even if your OC character doesn’t make it in this time… it is likely we will continue doing these contests for future cases. Good luck everypony!

Thanks to everyone who came out; it was a great time, and we’re happy that it looks to have been a success.

I’m happy to announce that this Sunday, August 12, we’ll be hosting a Livestream at 3 PM PDT, 6 PM EDT, 12 AM CET. Full details here:

Hope to see you there!