[Jof]

Hello all. I have decided to attempt my very own Sonic 1 hack, after deciding my previous "hack", NiGHTS Speed, just wasn't cutting it. The nature of this hack (and title) will become apparent in the future (once I learn some more of this technical juju), but for now, I'd like to present my progress so far.

Basically, at the end of the day, I want this hack to have :

-100% Custom Art
-Ported Music (I'm probably gonna need someone to do this for me : P)
-New Layouts
-And a little bit of ASM

At this moment of time, all I have edited is Sonic's standing, looking up, ducking and waiting sprites, and have created a new layout for GHZ1.

Here's a screenshot for kicks.



And here's the current build's download.

I'd love some feedback : )

This post has been edited by Jof: 08 August 2008 - 08:49 PM

[Shoemanbundy]

Quote

The nature of this hack (and title) will become apparent in the future..

I bet it all it's gonna have something to do with Final Fantasy. I just know it! :D

[SephyUK]

Hmm, 100% custom art. I'm looking forward to this. I'm glad that more people are taking the Art and Layouts more seriously than the music.

I'll be watching this topic for a while I think.

[Jof]

Shoemanbundy, on Aug 8 2008, 08:52 PM, said:

Quote

The nature of this hack (and title) will become apparent in the future..

I bet it all it's gonna have something to do with Final Fantasy. I just know it! :D

Aah, sorry, nope, way off ball there. This is something a little more closer to home ; )

This post has been edited by Jof: 08 August 2008 - 08:59 PM

[SGR]

Interesting art for Sonic. It comes off as a bit "AoStH" to me.

[Soselocke]

I'm guessing the overall theme would be more "Alice in Wonderland"-ish? Personally, I'd actually love to see that, haha. I've always wanted to see a zone based after playing cards and dice...

Otherwise, my only critique right now would be your sprites for Sonic. I fucking love them, they almost look like the perfect amalgamation of the SatAM Sonic and OVA Sonic. They just need some artistic fine-tuning (especially Sonic's crouching sprite), but don't change his look-- it's perfect!

I love the layout so far, the only thing I think would be nice is to replace the platforms with ones that fall after a few seconds. Just to add a touch of difficulty. Overall, I like it so far! Great start!

This post has been edited by Soselocke: 08 August 2008 - 09:22 PM

[MKAmeX]

The few new sprites seem like the orignal sprites, but at different angles. If you can use that effect on all of them, then you're awesome.

[roxahris]

Jof, on Aug 9 2008, 11:29 AM, said:

Shoemanbundy, on Aug 8 2008, 08:52 PM, said:

Quote

The nature of this hack (and title) will become apparent in the future..

I bet it all it's gonna have something to do with Final Fantasy. I just know it! :D

Aah, sorry, nope, way off ball there. This is something a little more closer to home ; )

Welcome to the Fantasy Zone!

[Jof]

Thank you all for the feedback guys

Quote

Welcome to the Fantasy Zone!

And pay no attention to this poster. He talks rubbish. RUBBISH I SAY.

Anyway, I've taken on board the suggestions presented so far, and made a few changes to GHZ1, as well as creating a swanky new layout for GHZ2 and adding a couple more sprites.

Please play and comment, if you will.

[SoNick]

Agh!
Far too many bottomless pits in act 1 of the first level!

Act 2 is much better in that respect, but I didn't spend much time exploring it!


Also, there are tons of minor things you may want to change to make the level look better, such as waterfalls without a top-part, waterfalls that suddenly appear out of solid rock*, and random gaps in the brown blocks.

*this mainly refers to a part of Act 2 that actually looked kind of cool - it gave the illusion of there being some waterfall from a path above that you cannot currently reach.
This effect is ruined when the game only allows you one path - upwards towards the bit of ground that the waterfall is coming out of - and there is nothing at all to hint at why the water should be falling from the ground like that! It's just a standard straight path, with no hint of water!


And one thing that I'm more curious about than anything - why are Sonic's eyes smaller in the new frames than they are in the base-game ones?



All of the above aside, this is a good start!
Just tweak the level layout of GHZ act 1, fix the weird-looking parts of the level layouts in general, and finish the rest of Sonic's sprites in the same style as the frames that you've completed and this hack could be really fun!

[Phos]

The double wide bridge seems to cause some flickering. And looks like of weird without anything holding it up in the middle. Also, you seem to have too much cliff face. I'm eager to see the rest of Sonic's new sheet.

[Jof]

Quote

And one thing that I'm more curious about than anything - why are Sonic's eyes smaller in the new frames than they are in the base-game ones?

That's just simply an art direction choice. I just like smaller eyes (pupils) on characters : P.

So I'm back, but with not much new to show for it. I've replaced the majority of Sonic's sprites, although of questionable quality (I might re-do some). All thats left is the knockback, death, pushing, LZ and the Walk/Run rotations (which are the biggest pain in the arse ever).

I've also ironed out most of the issues raised, and now Act 1 has no bottomless pits, the flickering bridge is gone, as well as a small bunch of comsetic stuff.

Try it out here if you please, though let it be known that Act 3 is no where near finished, and theres alot of things wrong with it. So don't play that one.

My main point of this post is relating to another aspect of this hack. I was wondering if anyone is willing to lend a hand with importing some music ? More specifically, this .midi . I'd love it to replace the GHZ theme, but I havn't the foggiest idea where to start when it comes to this, and a bunch of you fellas seem to be able to do it with your eyes closed.

This post has been edited by Jof: 14 August 2008 - 09:17 PM

[Jof]

Guess that wee request didn't bode too well eh : P.

Anyway, I've been getting to grips with SonMapEd, and have sucessfully managed to edit a few small bits and bobs, which I shall promptly show.



^I think I need to make the SCORE, RINGS, TIME bit stand out a bit more, but I quite like the Life icon.



^New Lampost



^ New Monitors (Broken on right)



^ And finally new signposts

Now that I've done them, the other art doesn't seem quite as intimidating as it once did, so I'll be hard at work trying to change everything. Again, if you want to take a spin at the latest build, be my guest.

This post has been edited by Jof: 20 August 2008 - 07:46 PM

[FraGag]

I'm loving what I'm seeing. I'm not too fond of the lamppost, but the rest is great. Good job!

[MKAmeX]

Wow, I'm loving every bit of this! The monitors are quite original, and the end signs are awesome!