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'{{Infobox video game |title = My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic |image = [[File:Fightingismagiclogo.png|250px]] |caption = The original title/logo of the game. |developer = Mane6 |engine = [[Fighter Maker]]<br/>Z-Engine |version = |platforms = [[Windows]] |released = |genre = [[2D fighting game]]<ref name="Escapist" /> |modes = [[single-player]]<br />[[multiplayer]] |media = [[Download]] |requirements = |designer= Nappy<br />Prominence<br />Jay<ref name="russia" /> |artist= Nappy<br />Leedin<br />Jay<br />Anukan<ref name="russia" /> |composer=DJ Derpy Hooves<br />RainbowCrash88<br />Ken McGill<ref name="russia" /> }} '''''My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic''''' was an upcoming [[Fangame|fan-made]] [[fighting game]] inspired by the animated television series ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/713871/my-little-pony-fighting-is-magic-nugget-from-the-net/|title=My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic -- Nugget From The Net|date=21 July 2011|accessdate=8 August 2011|publisher=G4 Media|work=G4|first=Nikole|last=Zivalich}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.2d-x.com/my-little-pony-gets-a-2d-fighter-bronies-time-to-knuckle-up/|title=My Little Pony gets a 2D fighter: Bronies, time to knuckle up|date=28 July 2011|accessdate=8 August 2011|first=Jason|last=Kuang|work=2d-x.com|publisher=Second Dimension Entertainment}}</ref> It was under development by a team of nine volunteers who call themselves Mane6; these volunteers came from the unexpected adult fanbase of the show, known as [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom|bronies]].<ref name="Escapist" /><ref name="russia">{{cite journal|last= Ченцов |first=Илья |date=28 July 2011 |title=Большие Безобразия маленьких пони |trans_title=Big Hijinks of Little Ponies |journal=Страна Игр |issue=324 |pages=62–70 |location=Russia |publisher=Gameland |language=Russian |format=PDF |id=[[EAN-13]] 4607157100056 |accessdate=8 August 2011 |url=http://mane6.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/gameland-mlp-fighting-is-magic.pdf}}, [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t74tAc6Zhqvl-q-ADHZhpe3kLVZXFNoes0-wLvRGuWI/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1 translation available]</ref> The game was neither licensed nor endorsed by [[Hasbro]]. It had attracted attention of the [[Evolution Championship Series]] due to some of the unique gameplay features centered around four-legged, non-humanoid characters that were atypical of the fighting genre. In February 2013, Hasbro issued a [[Cease and desist|cease and desist]] letter; though Mane6 attempted to negotiate with Hasbro, they complied with the letter, removing all copyrighted and trademarked elements from their website. In the process, two of the team members opted to leave the project.<ref name="cease desist">{{cite web | url = http://www.vg247.com/2013/02/11/my-little-pony-fighting-is-magic-fan-game-shut-down/ | title = My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic fan game shut down | date = 11 February 2013 | accessdate = 3 March 2013 | first = Brenna | last = Hillier | publisher = [[VG247]] }}</ref> Though the game will no longer be developed based on the ''My Little Pony'' characters, the Mane6 team will reuse the core gameplay elements they had devised, with new non-infringing characters to be provided by artist [[Lauren Faust]], the original creative lead on the ''Friendship Is Magic'' series.<ref name="faust team">{{Cite web | url = http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/04/my-little-pony-creator-to-help-resurrect-fighting-is-magic-game/| title = My Little Pony creator to help resurrect Fighting is Magic game | publisher = [[VG247]] | date = 3 March 2013 | accessdate = 3 March 2013 | first = Brenna | last = Hillier }}</ref> Furthermore, the new game will use the Z-Engine developed by Lab Zero Games for their title ''[[Skullgirls]]'', in part from the Mane6's success in drawing brony support for the ''Skullgirls'' crowd-funding mechanism. == Features == [[File:Fighting is Magic Character Selection Screen.png|thumb|left|250px|Character selection screen, in its form at the time of the cease and desist.]] The final version of the game was to feature seventeen playable characters in all with the [[List of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic characters#Main Characters|six major]] characters from the show playable from launch.<ref name="Escapist" /> The game was to be downloadable and free to play. Both [[Local multiplayer#Single-system|local]] and [[Multiplayer video game|online multiplayer]] modes were to be included as well as a story mode.<ref name="GamePro" /> Character specific moves were to be present in-game.<ref name="GamePro">{{cite web|url=http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/220703/my-little-pony-gets-a-street-fighter-style-fighting-game/|title=My Little Pony Gets a Street Fighter Style Fighting Game |first=McKinley |last=Noble |date=23 June 2011 |work=GamePro |publisher=GamePro Media |location=USA |accessdate=8 August 2011 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/220703/my-little-pony-gets-a-street-fighter-style-fighting-game/&date=2011-11-30+19:04:09|archivedate=2011-12-01}}</ref> ''My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic'' was to feature various stages that represent places from [[Equestria]], the setting of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]''. == Development == The ''My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'' series, while aimed for young girls and their parents, has drawn a large number of adult fans from 16-35, typically male, who go by the name [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom|bronies]]; these fans were drawn in by the creativity of [[Lauren Faust]] and her team, who wrote the show to appeal to cross-generations. The show's characters, [[Adobe Flash|Flash]] animations, adventure-themed stories, and occassional pop cultural references are considered other draws for the older audience.<ref name="wired brony">{{cite web | url = http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/bronies-my-little-ponys/ | title = My Little Pony Corrals Unlikely Fanboys Known as ‘Bronies’ | first = Angela | last = Wattercutter | date = 2011-06-09 | accessdate = 2013-01-14 | work = [[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] }}</ref> Many of the brony fandom are technology-savvy,<ref name="wired brony"/> and one activity in the fandom would be to create images of the show's ponies, parodying other commercial works including video games. ''Fighting Is Magic'' grew out of a set of images for a hypothetical "Marevel vs. Clopcom" game, parodying the ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom (series)|Marvel vs. Capcom]]'' fighting game series, created by Anukan, who would later become one of the Mane6 developers.<ref name="gamespot">{{Cite web | url = http://www.gamespot.com/features/the-most-unlikely-fighter-youve-never-heard-of-6402004/?page=1 | title = The Most Unlikely Fighter You've Never Heard Of | first = Maxwell | last = McGee | date = 4 January 2013 | accessdate = 5 January 2013 | publisher = [[Gamespot]] }}</ref> Anukan didn't expect anything out these images, but found that at discussion boards, fans were postulating how the various pony characters would translate into fighting games, such as what sorts of moves that they would use. One of these users, Nappy, recognized the potential in realizing a complete game, and began the formation of Mane6, including Anukan, Jay Wright, Lucas Ellinghaus, James Workman, and Prominence.<ref name="gamespot"/> The team decided on using the ''[[Fighter Maker|Fighter Maker 2D]]'' game engine, despite having no knowledge of working with it before.<ref name="gamespot"/> After getting in the basics of having characters hit one another, they discovered that they could get the engine to include wall bounces - the rebounding of a character from walls at the edges of the screen - which according to Ellinghaus, show "the potential for both the game and the team".<ref name="gamespot"/> Much of the development work was spent in trying to achieve certain effects within the ''Fighter Maker'' engine, said by the team to be "taming" the engine.<ref name="gamespot"/> The Mane6 focused on a three button-based fighter, allowing to remain simple to be picked up by players but still offering a variety of combinations of moves, while also considering the amount of effort needed to animate the various moves for all characters. The three buttons were designed to mimic the light, medium, and heavy attacks of the ''Marvel vs. Capcom'' series.<ref name="gamespot"/> However, they also wanted to include an EX system, as seen in ''[[Street Fighter IV]]'' where by pressing two attack buttons at the same time would execute a special move. Within ''Fighter Maker'', the game would only register two simultaneous button presses if they were within the same processing time frame, an impractical solution for players. To work around this, the team designed a fourth button, a "magic" button as described by Mane6, used to have the character remain still while doing a specific activity that would build up an EX meter, such as Twilight Sparkle reading a book. With a full EX meter, the player would then be able to execute special moves with any of the other three buttons.<ref name="gamespot"/> Mane6 focused initial efforts to build up the six main characters from the show as the initial fighters, but have stated that an expanded roster of up to seventeen characters will be in their planned final version.<ref name="gamespot"/> The individual move sets for each character are based not only on how they are represented in the show, but also considering other characters in fighting games to fill out their fighting style.<ref name="gamespot"/> Twilight Sparkle, in the show, is a unicorn with powerful magic abilities, which the Mane6 matched with [[Akuma (Street Fighter)|Akuma]] from the ''Street Fighter'' series, while Rainbow Dash, an aggressive pegasus, was compared with [[Magneto (comics)|Magneto]]'s playstay in the ''Marvel vs. Capcom'' series.<ref name="gamespot"/> Fluttershy, a timid character within the show, does not fight directly, but instead her animal companions fight for her, creating a playstyle similar to Eddie from ''[[Guilty Gear XX]]'' or [[Phoenix Wright (character)|Phoenix Wright]] in ''[[Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]''.<ref name="gamespot"/> In another case, Pinkie Pie, a hyperactive pony who is shown to have some [[fourth wall]] reality-warping powers in the show, allowed the team to experiment with a wide range of haphazard moves. They had designed one move where Pinkie would use her "party cannon" to launch a present at the opponent, and then she would then pop out of the present at close range. As they were developing the game, ''[[Persona 4 Arena]]'' was released, in which the character of Teddy had a similar move. They realized they were thinking along the same lines as the professional developers and continues to work more of Pinkie's moves based on Teddy's set.<ref name="gamespot"/> While these other characters helped to inspire additional moves, the Mane6 team made sure to stay true to the characterization on the show and not introduce moves that would be outside of this, such as Fluttershy herself making an aggressive attack.<ref name="gamespot"/> After each character's move set was tested and refined based on testing feedback, the team then began to animate each character, first by creating Flash-based animations and then transforming this to sprites needed for ''Fighter Maker''.<ref name="gamespot"/> The team noted that the pony shape of the characters proved an additional challenge both visually and for the engine. With most fighting game, players can easily identify heads, arms, and legs, and know where to watch for attacks, but the same was not true for the ponies. They proceeded to add effects like sparks on the attacking character and opponent responses to help players to recognize attacks.<ref name="gamespot"/> In terms of the engine, the [[hitbox]]es for the ponies were more horizontal than vertical as would be the case with humanoid fighter characters, and they had to work around this in the engine to accurately model attacks.<ref name="gamespot"/> ===Release=== The team had released early [[pre-alpha]] gameplay footage as they added the main six characters to the game.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.joystiq.com/2011/11/05/twilight-sparkle-is-a-my-little-pony-to-be-reckoned-with-in-figh/ |title=Twilight Sparkle is a My Little Pony to be reckoned with in Fighting is Magic |first=Jessica |last=Conduit |date=5 November 2011 |work=Joystiq |publisher=|accessdate=8 August 2011}}</ref><ref name="Escapist">{{cite web|url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111190-My-Little-Ponies-Throw-Down-in-Fan-Made-Fighter |title=My Little Ponies Throw Down in Fan-Made Fighter |first=John |last=Funk |date=21 July 2010 |work=The Escapist Magazine |publisher=Themis Group, Inc|accessdate=8 August 2011}}</ref> Though the team had expected the game to be popular within the brony community, through these videos, the game has been noticed by other fighting game players, and the team was invited to demonstrate their game at the July 2012 [[Evolution Championship Series]] by one of its founders, Joey "MrWizard" Cuellar, as part of other [[independent game development|indie]] fighting games.<ref name="gamespot"/> For the 2013 Evolution series, the game was one of seventeen nominees for the "Player's Choice" slot in the main competition.<ref>{{Cite web | url = http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-09-fan-made-my-little-pony-fighting-game-in-with-a-chance-of-making-it-to-evo-2013 | title = Fan-made My Little Pony fighting game in with a chance of making it to Evo 2013 | first = Wesley | last = Yin-Poole | date = 2013-01-09 | accessdate = 2013-01-09 | publisher = [[Eurogamer]] }}</ref> Though an unlicensed work from Hasbro, the holders of the ''My Little Pony'' franchise intellectual property, the Mane6 team did not received any [[cease and desist]] notices from the company until February 8, 2013. Like much of the rest of the Internet phenomenon surrounding ''Friendship is Magic'', Hasbro had allowed episodes of the show along with parodies and mashups of the works to be redistributed freely across the Internet, helping to create a participatory culture that has drawn a broader audience to the show, even going as far as to say they have no intentions of ever filing takedown notices as they see this as "Free Advertising and spreading".<ref name="wired uk">{{cite news | work = [[Wired UK]] | date = 2011-08-15 | first = Daniel Nye | last = Griffiths | title = Colt Success | url = http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/09/play/colt-success | accessdate= 2011-10-10 | }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118040411 | title = Brands frown on fair use | work = [[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] | first = Andrew | last = Wallenstein | date = 2011-07-26 | accessdate = 2011-07-26 }}</ref> The Mane6 had taken no monetary donations for their work and planned to keep the game as a free release.<ref name="gamespot"/> Further, while a fighting game, they did not show any characters getting wounded or cut, or show any signs of blood, as to keep with the theme of the show.<ref name="gamespot"/> Even if the project is shut down, the Mane6 have stated that they have learned much from the effort to apply towards their next project with original characters, which they are already planning.<ref name="gamespot"/> An unfinished version of the game was leaked to [[4chan]]'s /mlp/ board on August 2, 2012. Mane6 responded by terminating their [[quality assurance|QA]] program and pushing the project into a closed development cycle.<ref>{{Cite web | url = http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/8/3/3217537/my-little-pony-fighting-is-magic-fan-game-suffers-unfinished-code-leak | title = 'My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic' fan game suffers unfinished code leak | first = Alexa Ray | last = Corriea | date = 2012-08-03 | accessdate = 2012-08-03 | publisher = [[The Verge (website)|The Verge]] }}</ref> ===Legal issues and new game=== In February 2013, shortly after the 2013 EVO voting selection, Hasbro's lawyers sent a [[Cease and desist|cease and desist]] letter to the Mane6 team, resulting in production being halted and all assets taken off their website, while Mane6 attempted to enter legal negotiations with Hasbro. Artist Elosande resigned from the team.<ref name="cease desist"/> Mane6 were unable to come to agreements with Hasbro and have since started to redo the game using new artwork assets.<ref name="faust team"/> Faust has offered to provide original character designs for Mane6 for any future endeavors,<ref name="forbes">{{cite web | url = http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnyegriffiths/2013/02/11/youtube-vatican-timberlake-apple-my-little-pony/2/ | title = First World Problems: YouTube At The Vatican, Justin Timberlake, Apple Dividends And My Little Pony | first = Daniel Nye | last = Griffith | work = [[Forbes]] | date = 2013-02-11 | accessdate = 2013-02-14 }}</ref> and her official involvement with the project was announced at the end of February.<ref name="faust team"/> According to Faust, she was happy to provide "my little part to help Mane6 finish up this game in a way that stays true to the spirit of the original - but in a way that can freely be shared".<ref>{{Cite web | url = http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122494-Fighting-is-Magic-Rebounds-Thanks-To-MLP-Producer | title = Fighting is Magic Rebounds Thanks To MLP Producer | first = Ian | last = Davis | date = 2013-03-04 | accessdate = 2013-03-27 | publisher = [[Escapist (magazine)|Escapist]] }}</ref> Teaser images released by the Mane6 team showed a trio of four-legged characters as preliminary designs for the new game. The Mane6 also gained contributions from Lab Zero Games, developers of ''[[Skullgirls]]''. Lab Zero had developed a fighting game engine, named Z-Engine, from scratch for their own title. Lab Zero used an [[Indiegogo]] crowd-sourcing effort to gain development funds, and having readily cleared their initial target of $150,000 and with additional stretch goals of new characters and content for their game, included a $725,000 target that would allow Mane6 to use and distribute the Z-Engine for free as part of their new game, and challenged the brony community to help towards that.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-18-skullgirls-dev-offers-its-engine-to-my-little-pony-fighting-is-magic-dev-for-free | title = Skullgirls dev offers its engine to My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic dev for free | first = Wesley | last = Yin-Poole | date = 2013-03-18 | accessdate = 2013-03-18 | publisher = [[Eurogamer]] }}</ref> The goal was met on the final day of the funding campaign, which was on March 27, 2013.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/28/4156020/fighting-is-magic-gets-skullgirls-engine-skullgirls-campaign-ends | title = Fighting is Magic gets Skullgirls engine; Skullgirls campaign ends with five DLC fighters | first = Jenna | last = Pitcher | date = 2013-03-28 | accessdate = 2013-03-28 | publisher = [[Polygon (website)|Polygon]] }}</ref> == References == {{Reflist|3}} == External links == *{{Official website|1=http://www.mane6.com/|name=Mane6 Official Website}} *{{YouTube|channel=ManeSixDev|Mane6 Official Youtube Channel}} *{{twitter|ManeSix|Mane6}} {{MLP FiM}} {{DEFAULTSORT:My Little Pony Fighting Is Magic}} [[Category:Multiplayer online games]] [[Category:Cancelled PC games]] [[Category:Indie video games]] [[Category:My Little Pony]] [[Category:Fighting games]] [[Category:Fangames]] [[Category:Video games based on toys]] [[Category:Windows games]] [[Category:My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]] [[Category:Video games based on animated television series]] [[Category:Cancelled Windows games]] [[Category:Works based on Hasbro toys]]'