MLI now supports localization!

Posted on April 17, 2016 by GabuEx

(Note: The following requires that players install MLI v1.1 using an installer; the in-process updater won’t work properly. You can get the v1.1 installer here.)

We’ve been in contact with some Russian bronies from Tolma4 Team who were interested in localizing My Little Investigations to Russian, and I’m pleased to announce that that effort has come to fruition – MLI v1.1 has now been released, which supports localization, and which also includes the Russian localization that created the need for these changes. You can grab the new version here! (As above, you’ll need to download the installer; the updater will fail to apply the changes.)

This means that the game is also open for anyone else who might want to localize it into their native language! If you’d like to help out with that process, I’ve put together a how-to here, which I’d encourage anyone interested to check out. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at the address at that page – I’m happy to offer whatever assistance I can!

Thanks to AlexFCS, Alex_Shy, kaze_no_saga, KornyPony, ltybcs, Mad Mix, makc_ar, nogard, Own3df1x, pashok6798, pifon, Skuzl, and Tails Doll for making this possible! It’s super awesome to see our labor of love become accessible to even more bronies than before!

Lastly, this version does also include with it a few other improvements that I put in place since it already required a new installer:

– The updater has been improved to update using a script instead of updating in the executable, which has the benefit of now being able to update everything, including the updater itself and SDL. (This may mean that there may be new bugs to be sorted out, of course – please let me know if you find any!)

– The OS X version now houses everything it needs inside the .app file itself, instead of installing content to /Library/Application Support/, and the DMG file is now just a simple drag-and-drop install instead of a .pkg file installer. (Thanks go to MaddTheSane here for helping me better understand best practices in OS X – I was coming from a Windows background, and my initial implementation of the OS X installation experience put that fact on display.)

(Oh, and yes, we’re still working on case 2, so don’t worry! This is just another thing that we’ve been working on in parallel. We’ll have another interview post with a case 2 character fairly soon.)

Meet the characters: Royal Ribbon

Posted on March 10, 2016 by GabuEx

Hey, everyone! No, we’re not dead – we’re still very much alive and coming along. I’m really sorry that we haven’t been posting much on the front page – I take full responsibility for that; work on the game has still been chugging along, but after coming home from my job, working on case 2… creating more work for myself is never high on my list of things that I actively want to do, so I never really want to do another post right now, but then today becomes tomorrow, and a week goes by, and… well, yeah. I’m sorry, everyone – I know it sucks to not hear anything about something you care about. So! Let’s try to break that silence. And get back to our characters.

You ready, interviewer?

Ready!

All right, well, today, we’ve got the bubbly Royal Ribbon. Take it away!

Continue reading →

Welcome our new team members!

Posted on October 15, 2015 by GabuEx

Hey all!

Sorry for this post being as late as it was – we got a lot of great vector artist applications – thanks to each and every one of you for applying – but we didn’t get any animator applications, so we had to look for other means of recruiting an animator. Fortunately, we have one now, so it’s my pleasure to introduce

Arken and Yanoda

as our newest vector artists, and

Erick Osborne (Mr. Phoenix)

as our newest animator. We’re looking forward to working with them to bring you the best second case we can!

Now that we’ve wrapped up recruitment, we’ll be getting back to our “Meet the Characters” series in the future. Watch this space!

Recruitment deadline extended for animators

Posted on September 12, 2015 by GabuEx

Hey everypony,

We’ve gotten a number of great applicants for the position of vector artist, but due to a dearth of applicants for the role of animator, we’re extending the deadline for animator applications until September 27 to give people some more time. If you were considering applying but didn’t think you’d make the bar, I’d highly recommend you get your application in! We’d love to hear from you, and we don’t bite!

Thanks!

We’re recruiting artists!

Posted on August 21, 2015 by GabuEx

Hello, everypony!

As the title suggests, we’re looking to bring a couple new artists on board! We’ve got a lot to get done for case 2, and as a result, we’ve been feeling like it’d be best to recruit another vector artist and an animator in order to lighten the load on our current artists. To that end, we’re opening recruitment for those positions, starting from now until the end of Sunday, September 13 (27 for animators). You can visit this page for all the details, including how to apply and where to apply. I encourage anyone interested to apply, even if you’re not sure – you never know!

We look forward to your applications!

Meet the Voice Actors 2 + Philo Reed’s Theme

Posted on July 11, 2015 by GabuEx

Hello, everypony! We’ve got some more stuff for you that you might like. At times when they weren’t busy with Case 2-related matters, our team has been working on putting together a sequel to our Meet the Voice Actors video from case 1. As before, we’ve put our new characters in a situation that lets each of them in turn have a spot where their voice actor gets to whet your appetite for case 2. And as a special bonus, we’ve also released the second piece of background music from case 2, that being Philo Reed’s theme, which is featured in the Meet the Voice Actors 2 video.

Enjoy!

Meet the characters: Philo Reed

Posted on June 20, 2015 by GabuEx

Hello again, everypony! Our previous post introduced everyone to case 2 in general, but today, we’d like to go a bit more in-depth by beginning to get people acquainted a bit more with the characters that you’ll be encountering in case 2 who weren’t seen in case 1. We’ll start with Philo Reed, detective at large, and work our way through the roster from there, one character at a time. In case 2, Philo will be making Twilight’s life troublesome, but for right now, we’re just talking to him, pony-to-pony. But before that, everypony say hello to the lovely interviewer whom we’ve enlisted to help us with this!

Hello, everypony! Pleased to make your acquaintance.

Well, Philo’s all ready for you. Take it away, interviewer.

Continue reading →

Case 2: Twilight’s case notes

Posted on April 24, 2015 by GabuEx

Hello, everypony! It’s been a while. A, uh, long while.

As development on case 2 got underway, we kind of fell out of the habit of posting here, until not posting became its own habit. We’re sorry about that. A lot of you have asked whether this project is still ongoing. The answer is most assuredly yes! We haven’t been saying anything, but we’ve still been working on the second case at a steady, if slow, pace. With this post, we’re hoping to break that cycle and start posting again more often. So, without further ado, have some preliminary info about case 2 after the break. More to come later.

Continue reading →

Equestrian Dreamers: The Classified Files Part 5

Posted on August 27, 2014 by zeusassassin

At long last, it’s time to honor another one of the team’s alumni. This is Rautakoura’s final message to the fans of MLI, so I hope you are ready to hear some more insight from the team! I have nothing but praise for his incredible work in the cutscene art, setting the bar high for his successor. As he ventures off to more time in college, I and the rest of the team wish him the best of luck in his endeavors.

The floor is yours, Rautakoura.

Continue reading →

New team members + MLI turns 3!

Posted on July 19, 2014 by GabuEx

Hello, everyone! It’s been a while! I’m happy to report that we’re finally done processing all of the applications we’ve received for case 2 recruitment. We’ve made final decisions, meaning that if an applicant hasn’t heard from us yet on a position that they applied for, then unfortunately, that means that they did not get that position. Sorry! We had a ton of very talented applicants, and we wish them all the very best, even if we weren’t able to give them a position on our team.

Before we get to that, though, we have a second announcement, as well: as of July 16, My Little Investigations is now three years old! July 16, 2011 marks the day on which I initially created the project file that ultimately ended up starting this whole project, though at the time I had thought that it was just going to be a week-long side project just for my amusement. Amazing how things sometimes just happen like that in life – the initial example post got put on Equestria Daily, I kept working on it, then ZeusAssassin contacted me in August, dawnmew contacted me in November, and we had our first recruitment in December. None of that was planned, but I sure as heck am happy that it all happened as it did. I wouldn’t have traded those three years for anything. To commemorate that anniversary, we’d like to give you just a little sneak peek at some of the stuff we’re working on for case 2, which will be at the bottom of this post.

Before that, however, I’d like to present the full roster of new team members. Please join me in giving them a very warm welcome!

Visual Artists

Vector Artist – Pirill
Animator – Megamanhxh
Cutscene Artist – Poppun

Music & Sound Design

Audio Engineer – ShadTK

Voice Actors

Applejack – Heather Feathersong
Sapphire Shores – Heather Feathersong
Trixie – Heather Feathersong
Lyrica Lilac – Cerridwen
Royal Ribbon – GloryOfTheRainWings

Fluttershy – Carmen
Princess Celestia – AnnaChloeM
Aunt Orange – Icyfire888
Masquerade – Carmen
Jenny Juniper – PrincessRil

Spike – GloryOfTheRainWings

Philo Reed – ThatCanadianDude

Uncle Orange – Mickwhitefire28
Gustave le Grand – DaWillstanator
Caesar – DaWillstanator
Dim Delite – TheHeroOfMobius

And to give you a treat for having read this far, here’s a very early glimpse at some of the stuff we’re working on already for case 2. 🙂

Character art!

Animation!

Backgrounds!

Music!

That’s all we got for you so far. We look forward to working together with all of these awesome new team members, and we’re looking forward to bringing you an awesome second case!