MLP fangame idea? · 6:35pm Jan 6th, 2016
So first off, yes the Conversion Bureau story has been abandoned. Why? Because I'm terrible at writing, or at least terrible at not procrastinating. And also, I got a 2ds, which now eats up all my time. Sorry. I still want to come back to it, but if ever I do it'll take a backseat to the story of a friendly, medically inclined filly who earns her cutie mark by subduing some criminals that wanted to make a quick buck taking her hostage. Through murder. Y'know, focus on themes regarding fate, ostracism of one's peers, the rights of the few vs the needs of the many, that sort of thing. So bland and generic it's not even funny, but my friends (also, holy shit I finally made irl friends that like MLP) are interested so that's a thing.
But that's not what I want to blog about. What I want to blog about is an idea for a short-ish MLP fangame that I will never make because I cannot make video games. I want it put into writing, hopefully so that someone can take this and make it real, or at least to inspire the few people that come to my blog. Quick note, I'm not proof-reading this. I just wanted to get this out in the open.
Let's set the scene. The player, henceforth referred to as you, are a human child, is standing outside Twilight's Castle in a final-fantasy esque graphical style. Twilight explains the situation: You have been, very sadly and very unfortunately, been trapped in the Pony World. Fortunately, Pinkie Pie and the other ponies of Ponyville will make you feel welcome! Feel free to go down the path and go to Sugarcube corner!
But wait! Pinkie needs ingredients for cake! Sugar (In the store-room/basement - it has creepy music playing, and it's too dark to examine anything you bump into as you look for the sugar but if you find the light switch it's revealed to be just a nice, colorful little storeroom with all sorts of whacky supplies), some Strawberries (In the market - Berry Punch wants some cider, so you ought to go down to Sweet Apple Orchards and buck down some apples for Applejack in order to get some) and some Eggs (Just talk to Fluttershy!). Gather them all up and give them to Pinkie, and she'll start making cake!
There's a knife on the kitchen table. It's too dangerous to play with knives, or so says the message box when you try interacting with it.
Pinkie Pie insists on having you leave, so that she can set up this perfect surprise party for you! So go ahead and leave Sugarcube corner so she can prepa-Oh look! There's a party just outside, and everypony you've met is there! Fade to black, game ends. This shouldn't take five minutes.
You start again. The music is pitched lower. If you try to pick up the knife, Pinkie Pie pops up behind you and tells you it's dangerous to play with knives. Nothing else seems to change.
You start again. Try talking to Twilight - she'll exclaim: "No, you cannot go back!" You talk again "I'm sorry, but it's not possible! Again. "You-you just can't! Alright?" Again. "I... I... Fine, I'll show you." Twilight enters the castle, leaving her post just outside it. You enter the unlocked door.
A portal, glowing blue, shines, and she explains: "This is where you entered from; we know what happens when you enter from one way, but we don't know what will happen if you try leaving through it. We need to know what happens before you risk yourself!" Trying to enter it wil prompt Twilight to stop you - she doesn't want you to go, please don't go, we can make you happy here. If you try to enter again, she sighs, resigned, and says that this is your last warning. Don't enter the portal.
She won't ask again. The game fades to black.
You start again. The landscape seems more... barren, now. Grass, once green, is now brown, and everypony seems thinner than they had been before. Twilight will not let you enter the castle anymore - she just refuses. There aren't as many ponies for you to interact with - notably, Berry Punch is absent, leaving the strawberries wide open for you to take to Pinkie Pie.
You can take the knife now. You can use the knife now. "Are you sure you want to escape?" the game asks? You answer yes. Pinkie Pie appears just behind you. The game cuts to black.
You start again. The sky is red, and the ponies that were once so friendly and happy are now pure black entities. Twilght Sparkle is absent from her post, and there is no expository introduction. Pinkie Pie stands, the only colorful thing in this now-barren world, oblivious to the changes, smiling and asking for every ingredient she had previously asked for. In Fluttershy's cottage, only two things exist - a stationary black figure that you can't interact with, and a solitary egg. Nopony in the market responds to your interactions - they are simply black silhouettes. You take the strawberries from Berry Punch's stall.
The light switch in the basement doesn't work.
Using the knife doesn't change anything. There are two things you can do now - enter the castle, and help Pinkie.
You enter the castle. The portal is unattended - trying to use it results in one message box - Please, don't leave us... Use it again - the screen cuts to black.
You start again. Not even silhouettes remain - only Pinkie Pie, cheerful and smiling as ever, even if she seems thin, remains.
Pinkie Pie asks you to leave, when you give her the ingredients. You do so, and nothing happens outside. If you enter Sugarcube Corner, she, smiling and colorful in the red-and-black fascimile of Sugarcube corner, and hands you a slice of cake. It is pink and white. The game does not fade to black - Pinkie simply smiles and asks if you like the cake. You can only go to the portal and leave. The game cuts to black.
You start again.
Even Pinkie Pie is gone. Only the knife remains.
You use it. Pinkie Pie appears, except she's not Pinkie Pie. It's a Changeling, black with a jagged horn and fluttery wings, but it's still smiling, and pinkie Pie's icon is used when she speaks. "Please, " it says, "We need you." It changes into Pinkie Pie. "Don't you love us, the Elements of Harmony? Us ponies of Ponyville?" She changes back. "We just wanted to live, on that love. Why did you have to keep running from it? Did you hate us so much, that you'd go through such lengths to escape? Just... Let me make cake for you. Please. I need ingredients. Would you please get them for me?"
You can only use the knife or leave - making the cake leaves you with a slice of cake and nothing else.
Leaving restarts the game, with a Changeling in Sugarcube corner the only entity that remains in this hellish landscape. Killing yourself - or killing Pinkie, if you prefer to imagine this instead - results in a black screen. You cannot start again.
TLDR: A game in which you're a human being exploited by changelings for your love of MLP, and when you realize what's going on and try to escape, the changelings become hungry and desparate, forcing you to remain and memory-wiping you after each itration to milk out as much love as possible. Eventually, they just abandon the project (or perhaps they starved from your lack of love). Only one changeling remained, staying, begging you to keep her alive with whatever love remained. Your only escape is a knife on the kitchen counter - what you do with it is up to your imagination.
Ah, sorry the story fell through. Congratulations on the friends, though. :)
Hm. Interesting. Research on the mirror was indeed ongoing, then?
3668646 Admittedly, I haven't actually seen the Equestria Girls movie series, or any of the latest season (I generally watch the series more for context for my favorite stories rather than for any genuine love for the show. It's weird, I know, but there are just so many good writers on this site). So if that was a reference to one of those things, I sadly don't actually know how to respond.
Maybe go with yes? If that makes my idea make more sense? I was awake at 2:30 in the morning ath the time, so I wasn't considering coherency. In my head, the game would have been my own take on Story Of the Blanks, or Supper Filly Adventure thingy (No I can't remember the actual name), or another of those 'terrifying' MLP games without any gore or explicit death. It was also an experiment on replaying video games, and getting multiple endings (you start again), with what I'd hope to be a surprising, tragic twist. I wasn't really considering canonity so much s tone and stuff.
3669292
Oh, I've not seen the movies either, though I have seen the latest season. Fortunately, though, it wasn't a reference, just a deduction. Why would-- Oh, ought I to put spoilers on this? I shall, just in case. Why would the changelings be spending so much time on this one person, and starving, if they had the entire Earth to work with? Since I expect the answer is "they wouldn't", it logically follows that they don't have the entire Earth to work with and that therefore they're still working on the mirror.
"In my head, the game would have been my own take on Story Of the Blanks, or Supper Filly Adventure thingy (No I can't remember the actual name), or another of those 'terrifying' MLP games without any gore or explicit death."
Aye, I got that. :)
"It was also an experiment on replaying video games, and getting multiple endings (you start again), with what I'd hope to be a surprising, tragic twist. I wasn't really considering canonity so much s tone and stuff."
Well, I think it worked pretty well.
3670071 Well I can't really test it for sure without making the game, and as of yet I can't code worth a damn. For now it's just a theoretical experiment. Coming up with hypothetical test results feels like, what's it called? Privelidging the hypothesis? Whatever the case, it feels like cheating until someone actually makes this a reality.
Also, while I didn't actually end up deciding, when I first imagined the game I'd thought that the protagonist's entry was truly an accident, and noling knows how to replicate it - thus, they must exploit only his love, and he can never escape even when he tries to leave theough the portal. Which does fall under your theory, I guess.
3670110
Test how well it works, do you mean?
Ah, yes, I think it would, if they already gave up on the experimenting.