Arctides, on 22 April 2012 - 07:24 PM, said:
So, forgive the TL;DR I'm about to post, but this has been on my mind for a while and I've been reluctant to post it. Mostly because I was a little worried that it might come across as me tearing down Project AXSX, which isn't my overall intention.
I think it goes without saying that you've impressed a lot of people in this community with your abilities, not just to program, but also to create your own 3D models. Your remake of X-Treme is looking incredibly authentic – which says a great deal as the community's had only a few screenshots, poor quality gameplay videos, and one obscure demo to go on when it comes to even having an idea of what the game would play like.
However, given the capabilities of the engine you're working with and your capabilities as a designer/programmer, is an exact duplicate of the BEST end product you'd want out of this project? I mean, let's be honest.. The Sonic X-Treme concept – although it's been the piece of vaporware that haunts the dreams of most older Sonic fans – wasn't exactly solid. From the what was presented, the levels didn't exactly look fun to play. The rotational physics according to where Sonic was standing and the reflex lens were interesting ideas, although I don't think the team at STI executed them very well (I can't be too rough on them because I know the Saturn was hard as hell to program for).
You've duplicated that to a T. You're using the original sprites, lo-res textures, and the geometric level layouts. However, you're replicating an unpolished and otherwise unfun concept. The winter demo you released was beautifully put together, but it plays exactly like the poorly programmed SEGA Saturn game it was in 1995. I played it back during the release, and found it frustrating to play (although that may be because of my overbearing need to climb to the highest point in the level). Collecting rings was rather difficult, considering that if Sonic wasn't walking EXACTLY lined up with them, they wouldn't come in contact with them (which was something I noticed in the video footage from the 90s, as well). The narrow geometric paths also made exploring the higher regions of the maps a bit tedious as well.
As I said before, my issue is not with the game you've put together, but rather with the concept you're trying to emulate. Give what you've made from scratch for your 2.5D Sonic CD remake, wouldn't it make more sense to merely take inspiration from the version of Sonic X-Treme presented in 1995 rather than attempting to duplicate what was at most an incomplete game? Why not simply use an actual 3D model for Sonic, higher resolution textures, and redo the structure of levels in a way that makes them seem.. more organic? I'm not trying to order you about, or tear down what you've worked on so far. It just seems that with your resources.. well. Why not? Food for thought, I guess.
First I'd like to say. No problem, as I really appreciate creative constructive posts such as this.
In fact I've got the same feelings for many of the points you've made about the gameplay and limitations of the original concepts of Xtreme.
The X-mas demo was made as an example to please hardcore Xtreme fans by giving them a treat using customized Jade gully textures and layout based on the E3 96 video.
Sure I will be re-creating many areas seen in video's and Magazine screens, but these areas will be very small and probably nested in-between areas with a more Sonic like level flow.
Also since the game runs in UDK, it would be very easy to do modern a high quality Sonic Xtreme.
shhhhh,,,this is a secret......but...
....
..
.
I've already done some work recreating some of the Badnick sprites as 3D models for an HQ AXSX)
Already many aspects of xtreme have been fixed ( by my Programing partner Xak of Sonic GDK fame.)
Sonics speed for example has been slowed down to that of the classic Genesis games.
Also Id like to say thanks for the praise, I'll accept all of it,:P
except the part which should go to Xak as I'm not really that great of a programmer.
I'm good when it comes to Project planning, problem-salving, shaders, modeling, texture work, and Most of UDK's tools, but outside of that,
(if I were to program a characters movement for example, than I'd be shit out of luck)
However I'm familiar with many limitations of what can and cant be done with programming gathered from the previous 6 years on the project.
which helps with work-around and problem salving issues that come up, as I like to think outside the box.
With so much work going on with my two projects, its very overwhelming!
So, I hope to open AXSX this as a community project when it gets a little further along.
But if that happens many ground rules would need to be laid out.
So that it wouldn't get as crazy with everyone fighting over something like a single texture for 20 pages.
( Sonic 2 HD, hint hint)
This post has been edited by Andrew75: 22 April 2012 - 09:38 PM
