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Platform engines for potential Sonic game

Discussion in 'Fangaming Discussion' started by Skeledroid, Mar 17, 2010.

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  1. Skeledroid

    Skeledroid

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    The only programming language I'm comfortable with (I mean, making a big project) is Visual Basic 6.0. It's kind of a pain in the ass to get a decent platformer engine going with it. I've got one without scrolling already that I made by hand, it's pretty good. However, I'd like to make a Sonic-like game (or possibly a Sonic fan game) -- which would obviously require scrolling. The question is...

    Does anyone know a good platformer engine or "maker" software (not Game Maker, please)? Preferably something with a map/level editor that works in tandem with the engine. I'd just like to go the easy route on this one. Let me know, thanks. :)
     
  2. Jayenkai

    Jayenkai

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    Honestly, I don't think it's a great idea to jump into an entirely new language, and hope you can somehow wrangle a Sonic game out of it.

    I've been stuck to the Blitz line of languages for a heck of a long time, now, and would highly recommend BlitzMax.
    But that's because that's what I use, and no doubt every other option you're about to receive will be similarly biased.

    You use what you use because you're comfortable with it. And if you're not, then you're probably not about to make the next Sonic game.

    5 examples of my recent BlitzMax games
    159 examples of my older BlitzBasic (2D/3D) games
     
  3. Skeledroid

    Skeledroid

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    Right, that's why I wanna know if anyone knows some "maker" software or something like that. Something specifically tailored for making platformers.
     
  4. Overbound

    Overbound

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    Eh why not use MMF and Sonic Worlds engine or Game Maker and Sonic Dash engine. From the sounds of your last post you just want an all inclusive package those two are it.
     
  5. Skeledroid

    Skeledroid

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    Can you provide links to these things?

    Specifically, MMF and Sonic Worlds -- maybe Sonic Dash too.
     
  6. MarkeyJester

    MarkeyJester

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    It's a long shot, and I know you are looking into fangames specifically, but I'll ask anyway.

    Why not simply try modifying a normal sonic rom disassembly? They are the "original" sonic engines (let along "a" sonic engine), and SonED being an application to help modify the levels more easily. OK yeah, again for the more advanced stuff, it will require you to learn MC68000 (and maybe Zilog-80, VDP and the sound chips, depending on how far you wanna go) and there are limitations, but it's still worth looking at.

    As for fangame engines for the more advanced consoles and machines such as PCs, I'm afraid I don't have the experience in that department to give you a better insite.
     
  7. Overbound

    Overbound

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    Sonic Time Twisted Creator
    Sonic Worlds
    MMF
    I think its around 100$ for MMF



    Sonic Dash
    Game Maker Website
    Game Maker is like 25 bucks or something like that.

    Both of these there are "other options" for getting the applications needed.

    My game Sonic Time Twisted is made with the Sonic Dash engine so you can kinda tell what Dash and Game Maker are capable of.
    Some of the older builds of Sonic Nexus and Hez's Sonic Classic were made with Sonic Worlds and MMF so you can checkout those for that.

    Either way both these are capable of making a decent Sonic game. You can contact via Aim or MSN if you choose Game Maker I can help some.
     
  8. Skeledroid

    Skeledroid

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    D:

    P.S. Thanks for the fast responses. :)
     
  9. Overbound

    Overbound

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    These are both game makers of sorts your first post says not game makers but then your post below says maker so I'm not sure what you want lol.

    If you come from a programing background you might like Game Maker better it has a easy to learn scripting language called GML which is very powerful especially since there are 100s of expansion DLLs for it too. I know Game Maker is better with collision detection too because you can create your own collision engine which is not possible in MMF. I am bias though I use Game Maker.
     
  10. Skeledroid

    Skeledroid

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    Yeah, I didn't really like Game Maker when I tried it out before -- so I wouldn't want to create a Sonic engine from the ground up. However, I didn't know this "Sonic Dash" existed, so I'll probably try it out and see how it goes. :)
     
  11. Overbound

    Overbound

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  12. Skeledroid

    Skeledroid

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    That Sonic Dash is really slow (at least on my computer). I think I may end up just making a hack or crappy VB6 engine.
     
  13. Conan Kudo

    Conan Kudo

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    I've heard that REALbasic (now REAL Studio) is a great modern environment for VB6 users to make programs, especially cross platform game engines...

    And if you are writing open source code, I think you can get a free license to it...
     
  14. It's only tangentially related, but have you checked out Microsoft's XNA Game Studio? It's free to use if you're making PC games, and $100 bucks nets you the license to put it on Xbox Live. Most importantly for you, the entire thing rests on top of Visual Studio and is written in VBasic.

    There's also a very large community around it that you can use for troubleshooting, assets, etc.
     
  15. Conan Kudo

    Conan Kudo

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    The only large downside of the XNA Game Studio is portability.... All it runs on are Windows and Xbox 360...
     
  16. ... and Zune.

    But yes, it's not very portable. However, if this guy can code in VB, this is a sure bet, at least for now.
     
  17. Conan Kudo

    Conan Kudo

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    VB6 is way different from VB.net, don't mislead him like that. VB.NET is much closer to C# in style and syntax because the two are supposed to be easily convertible between each other...

    If he is a VB6 user, he'll want to work with a VB6 style environment, like KBasic or REAL Studio.
     
  18. Skeledroid

    Skeledroid

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    This.

    I'm a very experience programmer, just mostly in VB6. I've been programming since about 1998 or 1999. I'm just looking for an easy setup for a platformer.
     
  19. Conan Kudo

    Conan Kudo

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    Depends on what level of "easy" do you want? Do you want to write code to set up your platformer engine? Or do you want to do it all by drag and drop stuffs?

    Most drag-n-drop stuffs are not portable, so you lose the ability to have your game work on platforms other than the one the software was written for. For code, you have flexibility and sometimes portability, but at the cost of time and work. It takes more time and work to set up, but generally the game can be made more responsive through code tuning if needed. Whereas a drag-n-drop stuff thingy doesn't offer that, usually...
     
  20. Skeledroid

    Skeledroid

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    Not worried about portability, drag and drop would be awesome.
     
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