Brony Time podcast with Fighting is Magic and Lauren Faust
Source: http://yoka-the-changeling.deviantart.com/art/Fighting-is-Magic-Pinkie-Pie-352458481
Brony Time 50th episode.
This is a podcast hosted by Alpha and Five Iron that has been rolling since Sept 2012. All 50 episodes are downloadable somewhere, I don't see the link but they start the episode mentioning how often the first episode has been downloaded in the past week. It's two people chatting about mlp, news about cons and reports on spoilers and drama. This episode is just over an hour and a half long.
Eight minutes in, guests: people running the development of the game Fighting is Magic. Fighting is Magic started out as a half-serious joke video of Applejack fighting herself. They started out with little to no amateur game development experience, most of them in projects that were never completed. For FIM they started with Fightermaker 2.2 and ended up with the Skull Girls Z-engine. The FIM team is animating in Flash whereas Skull Girls is hand-animated. They promoted the Indigogo for Skull Girls engine, and the brony community helped it reach $829,000. Then they got a C&D (cease and desist) from Hasbro on Feb 2nd 2013. Started contacting Hasbro and looking for help from anyone. Then Lauren Faust happened.
(18 minutes in) Lauren Faust offered original characters. They couldn't believe it. After the C&D, they had two options: continue (in secret) or not. They were 80 to 90% finished, just needing to balance Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and work on flares and effects... it was really close, just fluff left. The C&D was in the name of the developers, not the company name. Creating a new IP is tough. Then Lauren Faust stepped in. The creation process: they need four legged fighters, real animals, not made up stuff. The developers can't give away too much right now, they're saving the surprise. Basically, they're overlaying the moves already made for the game. It should feel the same, but with better movements thanks to the Skull Girls engine. It's like a sequel to Fighting is Magic due to the greater versatility of the game engine, and not just a re-skinning. Lauren Faust has been busy with Disney, her time is limited. She provides the groundwork. So they're working on programming in the meantime. Her prototypes start rough to get an idea of the overall look before polishing the animation. So: patience required. Lauren Faust's output is not owned by Disney or Hasbro. There is the option of selling the game and paying Faust and the developers. Distribution hasn't been worked out yet, that part is secondary to making the game. Level of completion of Fighting is Magic 2.0: very low, waiting for final design. Most of the team are animators, and they can't animate until final design is decided. A lot of the backend stuff is getting worked on now.
(30 minutes) The game's look is going to be adorable. And violent at the same time. Lauren got a kick out of that dichotomy and that it doesn't talk down to kids. Galaxy Girls fighting game? Not on the table.
(33 minutes)The fandom's support was reassuring. GUI guy lives in Mexico and saw an arcade machine that had "NewGen", people were emptying their pockets to play as ponies. (End planned FIM segment)
(35 minutes) Panel discussion time (Winter Wrap Up bumper). Cyril The Wolf gives news of the day (without death metal voice). Robby there as well. Decibelle too (voice&artist) and Calcos (DJ).
(37 minutes) Surprise guest gets added in, requests 'No pony questions': Lauren Faust joins the panel. Everyone is stunned. Talk goes directly to Fighting is Magic. Introductory chatter...
(41 minutes) During the two weeks following the C&D, everyone was depressed, then Lauren's offer. Lauren likes to keep things secret, waiting until the product is fully formed with big bows, not revealing something that's half baked. Back story in FIM is solidifying for the characters, which are animals. The game started with the characters from MLP, so they are trying to preserve the personalities and translate them into new characters. Six species of hoofed mammals, none are ponies. Building beyond Fighting is Magic in concepts and world building. Looking into villains, antagonist characters, to give reasons for the fights. The villains will not necessarily be animals. All this in the last few weeks. [Lauren Faust will put Galaxy Girls in the list of things to do (joke).] Lauren is working on other projects but can't talk about them until they're released. She hasn't watched season three of MLP:FIM. Question: Would you like to develop a season one character more? Answer: Snips and Snails - she would like to have spent more than the one hour on their designs. Only other thing: do more with Twist, and Zecora. Luna too, she would have liked to have had her in season one, but Hasbro was reticent because she isn't brightly coloured and she is associated with the night. Lauren would have liked to have had her at the Gala, and she jumped at the occasion to have her in Season Two when Hasbro wanted a Halloween episode. That Luna's hair should be wavy like her sister's seemed obvious. It didn't occur to anyone in the rush to make the first episode to give her wavy hair. It was obvious that it had to be wavy in the Halloween episode. Just freed from Nightmare Moon, Luna's power level was low, later her hair and power level is back up -- justification for the hair after the fact in Lauren's mind. Luna's personality was built in time for the Halloween episode, it wasn't part of the masterplan, unlike other parts of the show.
(55 minutes) Question: what part of the original concepts you wish were kept. Lauren Faust: wanted Rarity to have a British accent, Tabatha had it at first, but the bosses had her drop the accent. Fluttershy was supposed to sing a lot. Zecora was supposed to be a 2nd mentor to Twilight. Not all the changes were because they got nixed by bosses, some things didn't come to pass because of time constraints, the rush to make the show. The show was meant to be open ended. As they made the show they came up with new ideas. Lauren build paths as she went along. First half of Season Two, Lauren ran the story meetings with Rob, scripts and outlines. After the Christmas episode, she ran story meetings, but stopped reviewing scripts and outlines. But not the story boards as she had in Season One (where she also reviewed the music). It was Lauren's idea that Twilight had a brother. Cadence is different from what Lauren had planned, she wasn't an alicorn.
(1 hr 3 min) Mane six question: music soundtrack? Something cool, hear about it later. The world needs to be built first. The party canon? How does it fit in? They haven't got that far. There's a lot of room for change... Magical world setting? Yes, classical fantasy magic. Question for Lauren: Friendship is Magic as a name for the show, came from where? Answer: Not the greatest name... Lauren wanted it to call it My Little Pony, bosses wanted to call it My Little Pony Adventures. Lauren suggested Friendship is Magic because she wanted magic and Hasbro wanted friendship. Compromise. But Lauren never thought it was an excellent name. Lauren would have preferred My Little Pony or My Little Pony Tales, but MLP Tales was taken (90's series).
(1 hr 12 min) Lauren Faust gets a little bummed out by some children's cartoons, they don't have to be as crappy as they are (Dragon Tails was mentioned as a bad example).
(1 hr 15 min) Mane 6 question: what prompted her to offer to help? Lauren: is a gamer. There are a small number of games that she's played obsessively. FIM is a project she had been following, lurking around pony boards. It looked great, she was impressed that characters fight in character, kept their personalities from the show. Made the game more fun, she was eager to see it finished. Stopped after 2 years of work, that sucked, felt bad for the developers, so she threw it out that she was willing to help. Because she's a fan. Lauren Faust feels they will be delivering something new but with the same flavor as the original. Lauren is happy not to have the restrictions she had on MLP in developing the FIM game, not having to fight arguments that the story line is too complex for little girls. Exit: Lauren (1 hr 23 min).
Updates on Fighting is Magic at: http://www.mane6.com/