Well, something ought to get thrown in there, in any case; I'd love some form of a border in the style of the Super GB games.
My quick concept of how side borders could look. Note that this is a quick-and-dirty concept that came to mind when I was reading the latest posts. Of course it would need a lot of work before it could be used. EDIT: Meh. Looks like I screwed up the resolution. Started with 1280x768 when I should have started with 1600x900. Sorry about that.
Interesting stuff here. IceKnight's idea of the title card-esque borders intrigues me. Really could some up with summat sexy there. Maybe a hybrid of something like that and kcowolf's design which again, looks workable to me.
Hm.. Playing 16:9 all the level, going to the boss and something patches up the screen to revert it at 4:3? To me it looks weird. I'm all for adding one more set of taller totems, which would prevent Sonic to go outside that area until Eggman has been defeated. Anyway on 16:10 resolution monitors, ICEknight's idea would work perfectly! (to optionally fill the black borders) We have wonderful artists that can produce simple or advanced tilecards images for this purpose ^^
More power to you scanline. If you could whip up a few concepts for this that would be great. I'm not sure how well contrasting colors would work for the borders, but who knows.
I think it might be neat if it was all original art. The left border shows Sonic overcoming a difficult challenge in the zone, and the right border shows Eggman and his machine looming menacingly. When the boss is defeated, the right border shatters like a pane of glass and the left border remains. When Sonic walks to the right, the left border is left behind and the camera locks to prevent you from looking at it again.
That doesn't sound too appealing to me. I think it should be something simple and functional, so the player doesn't get distracted from the game.
Borders ruin the experience. Just add some sort of visual wall that comes down during the boss fight. Like the Taller Totems idea.
My original totem idea is something like this: Easy, and quick. (Other kinds of pillars could be added, but they can ruin the "totems coming up" Eggman's plan.)
@Vincent: That concept is what I was originally working on, but I found it to be pretty ugly Solution: I put those stationary pillars there, so you'd get more of a feeling of: "Hey, 2 narrowly placed pillars! The boss fight must be here!" And BANG, Robotnik tricks you like Wile E. Coyote would. :specialed:
<!--quoteo(post=269069:date=Jan 17 2009, 08:17 AM:name=Polygon Jim)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Polygon Jim @ Jan 17 2009, 08:17 AM) I don't like seeing more of the boss area than normal.[/quote] I was basically thinking this, but in black—I think using bright primary colors like that is a bit distracting to the eye.
<!--quoteo(post=269086:date=Jan 17 2009, 09:11 AM:name=Scarred Sun)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Scarred Sun @ Jan 17 2009, 09:11 AM) I don't like seeing more of the boss area than normal.[/quote] I was basically thinking this, but in black—I think using bright primary colors like that is a bit distracting to the eye. [/quote] I like the idea of it in black, but perhaps with Sonic and Eggman on each side faded out in gray inside. Kinda like an embossing on the black area, only embossing gray. Sonic could be looking up and determined, and Eggman could look down evilly or something...
An alternate hue to those statues, or just a different / similar pillar-kind could be made to look prettier. (we have no graphic limits for those) But again being suddenly forced to play it at 4:3 would personally compromise the widescreen experience, and I feel it will be the same for lots of new and old gamers. The only efficient way of putting tilecard on boss areas I see, is on 16:10 resolutions, or special menu screens after the pause button is pressed.
I've just thought that, instead of making up something different for each level, we could just use the something from the Wing Fortress boss: one vertical "beam wall" on each side. I guess that would be the more "official" way to do it, since it's been used to keep Sonic inside that boss area since '92, after all.
Don't forget that all the boss arenas should feature such a border. CPZ, OOZ, ARZ, DEZ metal sonic, MCZ, and MZ, have a locked screen, and this is obvious. But also for EHZ, CNZ, HTZ, WFZ, and DEZ final boss, which don't have a locked screen, I'd recommend to enforce a 4:3 aspect ratio, to keep the boss fight closer to the original experience. A larger screen size for EHZ boss for example would allow you to see beforehand when he's going to come back from the side, for example. And while it wouldn't be a big deal in CNZ, HTZ, and WFZ, I'd add borders to all the bosses to keep a certain degree of consistency. Perhaps the borders can contain the name of the boss?
<!--quoteo(post=269090:date=Jan 17 2009, 04:30 PM:name=King InuYasha)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (King InuYasha @ Jan 17 2009, 04:30 PM) I don't like seeing more of the boss area than normal.[/quote] I was basically thinking this, but in black—I think using bright primary colors like that is a bit distracting to the eye. [/quote] I like the idea of it in black, but perhaps with Sonic and Eggman on each side faded out in gray inside. Kinda like an embossing on the black area, only embossing gray. Sonic could be looking up and determined, and Eggman could look down evilly or something... [/quote] Though I'm more in favor of adding obstacles, you mean like this?
<!--quoteo(post=269106:date=Jan 17 2009, 10:30 AM:name=test-object)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (test-object @ Jan 17 2009, 10:30 AM) I don't like seeing more of the boss area than normal.[/quote] I was basically thinking this, but in black—I think using bright primary colors like that is a bit distracting to the eye. [/quote] I like the idea of it in black, but perhaps with Sonic and Eggman on each side faded out in gray inside. Kinda like an embossing on the black area, only embossing gray. Sonic could be looking up and determined, and Eggman could look down evilly or something... [/quote] Though I'm more in favor of adding obstacles, you mean like this? [/quote] Yeah, quite similar to that.
