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QUOTE (RubyEclipse)
(Btw, Slingerland - awesome meeting you too!)
No love for me? ;_;
Anyways, here's my little report. I know all you guys care about is the Sonic 4 session, so I'll skip straight to it:
If you've read Sammy's post, you'll know that it was one of the shorter parts of the night at about a half hour long. I honestly didn't find a problem with that, as we managed to cover a number of subjects. Though a lot of people had something to say, it was Slingerland, Sammy and myself doing most of the talking.
The first thing Ruby wrote down on the board was - you guessed it - physics. We had collectively reached the agreement that the physics need to be the exact same - or as close as can possibly be - to the classics. One of the key issues with the physics was momentum - or in this case, the lackthereof - being a major part of Sonic 4's flaws. It was pointed out that even though games before Sonic 1 had momentum physics, Sonic was the game to take full advantage of them, and that's what needs to be done for Sonic 4.
The next major point of discussion was level design. First off let me say that we covered speed boosters, but we only really discussed it while talking about the physics. Besides, if the level design and physics are fixed, there won't be a need for boosters in the first place.
We brought up how all of the levels feel too similar in playstyle, and that more strides should be made towards making each level feel unique. Slingerland brought up how Angel Island is this open space where you can explore, and Hyrocity - though being a water level - had very little of in favor of a lot of high speed sections. I chimed in and mentioned how even after that, Marble Garden starts you off immediately with steep slopes not seen in AIZ or HCZ. For Sonic 4, there were too many running segments, more importantly in the later levels, making everything feel the same.
One of my main complaints was not only the abundance of bottomless pits, but how Dimps pretty much always places one or two(!) at the very end of a level. I pointed out that it's one of Dimps' traditions that really needs to go. Another part of that was the fact that it takes away the sense of exploration and immersion in the game, and that it's also an issue with the trust factor between the player and developer.
Another part of the level design was the factor of having Act-specific gimmicks. While it was agreed that it was good that they went and made each Act feel unique, a first set of gimmicks should be put in the first Act and have new gimmicks introduced alongside them in the next. For example:
Sandopolis Act 1: Rope swinging, sandfalls, sand slides, pushing stones to ride on.
Sandopolis Act 2: All of the above, but now with rising sand, timed switches, the ghost/light mechanic.
There is only one instance of this in Sonic 4. In Mad Gear Zone Act 3, there is a section where you run on a gear like the ones in Act 2. I explained how it would be a good move to do more of that.
To go along with level design, it was also mentioned how there wasn't an effort to make the levels feel like their own. A comparison between Green Hill, Emerald Hill and Angel Island was used to explain that though they're all similar, they all have something that sets them apart from each other. On the other hand we have Splash Hill, which was considered to be basically Green Hill 2.0.
After that, somebody had brought up the music. The general feeling was that the melodies were fine, but the instruments were terrible and blended together into a big mess. Sammy had actually brought up a really good point: Why take a step forward to give Sonic 4 this HD look and then take a step backwards with the music? The Genesis games attempted to emulate real instruments, so Sonic 4, being a step forward, should use real instruments (or authentic instrument synths) for the soundtrack. This would really help with the consistency.
Other smaller issues were brought up throughout. Slingerland had mentioned how the code inside the game is a mess, and how making larger tiles for levels requires the game to load more data. Regarding storytelling, Ruby had asked us if we preferred the Sonic 3&K method, or would we want to have voice acting and cutscenes. I'm sure you guys know what we all picked. One guy, to make a long story short, said he thought Knuckles has a goofy voice.
So towards the end, Ruby had thanked us and explained how they've been looking at our feedback on the internet, and that the session basically echoed what's been said. They've been contacting the other SEGA teams and telling them what we've been saying, and that hopefully it will help make Episode II better. We then proceeded to the raffle.
I won a fucking figurine.
A figurine housed in a beautiful box.
I'll definitely put it in my closet, safe.
Anyway, yeah. That was it.
That's all I can remember at the moment. If there's anything I forgot to mention, I'm sure Slingerland or Sammy can account for it.
This post has been edited by Moonshadow Caz: 14 November 2010 - 07:20 AM
