My only complaint is that Sonic's jumping animation has its light source from down below, while the rest of the frames have it from above. I think I played a demo of this last year or the year before and I must say this has certainly improved, nice job!
Camera is much better, but now it exposes how bad the walk cycle is. The head is in the exact same position for the entire animation, no shift in height and it just looks incredibly stiff. Take a look at Sonic 2's walk cycle and compare it to yours and you'll see night and day.
<div align='center'></div> So the Sage Demo's out guys did you try it? I know its not as accurate or and bug free as some rom hacks but I still think its a fair representation of classic Sonic game play. Anyway I'd like to know what you thought was the level design good, were there any bugs I should know about, did you like the time travel. I want to thank every one who helped me get this demo up and running. Mainly Damizean, LarkSS, and MFZB they all worked really hard and made some great contributions to the game this year that really make it shine. Time Attack Anyone Can you beat my time? Zone One: 1:21 Zone Two: 1:12 Website Download YoYoGames Page
I gave it a run just a few minutes ago, and I was extremely pleased with what I played! The level design is very open and varied with multiple paths, great use of the time travel gimmick, and little feel of entrapment, the physics are very tolerable, the camera is spot-on, and even the music isn't too shabby! Your forte is definitely level design this year as opposed to last, which I had quite a few problems getting along with properly. You've definitely managed to shine as one of the best of the show this year, though! Overall, this is a pretty solid demo and I'm pretty eager for more! Looking forward to future progress.
Graphics are nice and the level design is much, much better than the previous STT demos I've tried. The game has improved a lot since the last demo so I'm very confident about the progress of this game.
OMG I had no idea! :P Seriously its fine with me if you want to point out every single little thing that's wrong. But you could at least say something else too something with a bit more substance even if its not positive maybe something that isn't blatantly obvious. Tweaker and Icewarrior - Thanks that means a lot coming from people in this forum. It seems harder to please people around here compared to SFGHQ.
1:15. Could definitely do much better but I'm here for reviewing, not time attacking! (Also, if you silly people must insist issuing time attack challenges, at least have a time attack option.) This is the second SAGE game I've tried so far and I must say, I'm quite impressed, however this game still has a few issues that stop it from achieving more than just "good". Visual wise, the game looks nice, however this is mostly thanks to the large amount of borrowed art. The original art is nice, but if you're going to put some original work in there, I suggest you put the quality up to par with the rest of the artwork you're using otherwise you just have this awful mash up. The Sonic sprite is a big criminal here. He just stands out way too much from the rest of the game thanks to all that shine you slapped on him. The animations are also a bit off. I don't know how you manage to mess up a walk cycle that was already done for you. Sonic walks with an incredible stiffness in him like he did in Sonic CD, and the enemies have some very basic animations. (Is the Rhino thing just one frame entirely? It would be nice if it had a turning animation.) The level design in this is brilliant. It's a very nice blend of platforming and speed. The speed comes from the player figuring out the best route and using Sonic's abilities to his advantage (Spin-Dashing to get a quick boost, Peel-Out to build enough momentum to make a large enough jump and to skip an obstacle entirely, rolling down to get some speed.) The game I've tried before this depended on loops and a speed burst ability to get the sensation going, but you cleverly design the levels that it's up to the player's ability entirely to obtain it. Great job, I applaud this and hope that the rest of the levels follow the same design. Music is pretty good. I don't know if these are original tracks or not, but they're quite catchy and memorable, exactly like they should be. Sound effects are mainly borrowed from other games so I won't comment on those. There are a couple of things that urked me in the demo. One of them being the inability to influence Sonic's jump after taking off. It made some sections that would be a cinch in the previous games a pain in the neck as you could not slow down his momentum by holding the opposite direction, so you had to be VERY precise on when and how high you jump. It's really quite annoying and I hope you take a look at it. The time traveling system is even more annoying than in Sonic CD. In Sonic CD, you still maintain control of Sonic after passing a signpost and you can easily cancel out of a time travel. In Time Twisted, you pass a post, you get shot ahead like a speed panel and you only have a second to react. I don't know what you have in plan for the time traveling gimmick in the future, but at the moment it seems awfully useless, as all it does is swap the way levels look. Layout, for the most part seems exactly the same and there's really no reason to travel through time, so why are there like a million signpost throughout the stage? It breaks up the brilliant fluid level design with these annoying pauses rather than benefit the game. So far, the game shows promise, especially if the rest of the levels are as fun as these were. But the jumping mechanics, and the time traveling system is holding it back from being a truly great game. But that's why these early demos are for right? Get early impressions and tried to fix complaints! Good luck on your development and I hope to see more.
Damn 1:15 isn't bad at all. Anyway thank you Chimpo I do so love it when people take the time to really analyze a demo, its one of the main reasons I'm getting better and better at making this game. The Rino is 2 frames but its just the wheel spining your right about the turning animation consider it on the to do list. As for the Sonic sprite I fell in love with that sprite which is not mine some time ago and there is little anyone could say to convince me to change it. I do appreciate you pointing out its flaws though. Very cool I'm really glad you like the level design and you description of it makes me like it even more. I've always felt that level design is what I am best and the old Time Twisted taught me a few valuable lessons: death pits suck, and get rid of the blockieness. As far as the same level design I don't know about that entirely. I find that each Sonic zone requires a different style of level design for instance my water zone will be much more blocky than the rest and will not have any loops. In the end though I think it will be to your liking. LarkSS made me the original music he's going to make me a whole soundtrack isn't he the best? But I have to say my favorite piece he's made me I haven't even had a chance to use yet Perplex Puzzle Future Music Your talking about the trouble of jumping over two spikes aren't you? You know I never thought about it being a jumping problem or not I always thought of it as a flaw in level design which I debated about taking out. Duh I should have thought of that a long time ago thanks. There are several different paths you can take that don't appear in both time periods. But your right the time travel is kinda worthless right now, the only function it serves right now is for story really there are two cut scenes in the game the first zone you have to be in the past to view it, and the second zone you have to be in the future to view it. Its a way to encourage users to use the time travel and exploration and hopefully make the story a little more interesting. In the final game the robotizisors will be back and when you destroy them in the past there will be no badniks in the future. That and of course its one way to get the good ending. Now as far as the function goes, I get complaints no matter what I do honestly. When I had it the other way I was told Sonic CD's time travel is lame come up with a new way to do it. This is what I discussed and decided upon with the help of the SFGHQ community. Now that I have it this way I'm getting complaints about it too not just from you. I can only conclude while I love the time travel and the more exploration options it gives the player there are people that just don't like it. I want and will keep it but here's what I will do: I will get rid of some of the redundant posts in the level, and maybe... maybe when I make the final product I will make an option for turning time travel off completely. You are correct sir and I will work on the stuff you said. Thanks for the more or less review you don't know how much I appreciate it.
Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that you should replace the sprite entirely. It can definitely be improved to go well with the other artwork. And by keeping up the level design, I meant it in terms of keeping the same level of quality. Because this is some really great stuff. I'd love to see you do a Labyrinth Zone or a Marble Zone type levels with you behind the wheel as I can only expect something great. By jumping, go ahead and do a spin-dash or peel out, jump, and hold the opposite direction of where you're going. Normally, Sonic's momentum will begin to slow down. This doesn't happened in the demo. He'll keep going at the same speed. It makes for some of the precise platforming at a faster pace become a little difficult. As for Time Travel, I suggest you keep it the way it was in Sonic CD. While I absolutely hated Sonic CD's time traveling gimmick, a large part of it was because of loading times and terrible level design. The way you have it set up here here could work much better. I also suggest you do a little fade in and a second or two before Sonic reappears like in Sonic CD. Time Traveling in this gets confusing since the re-entry is instant and doesn't give me the ample time to readjust to the environment.
So it sounds like your talking about a spin dash now not a jump? Sonic slows down when spin dashing by a factor of 0.125 per step or frame when the opposite direction is pressed.
No, I'm talking about the jump. If you get any decent speed going and jump, pressing the opposite direction doesn't slow you down, you just keep going at the same speed. I'm just suggesting to try it out with a spin-dash so you can see it.
First post updated for SAGE 2010 ^_^. I've also updated the demo with a few fixes so if it wouldn't run before try it again.
Just wanted to echo everyone else's praise about the level design and also say that I actually prefer the way you did time travel here to Sonic CD's system because it's instantaneous. I always hated in Sonic CD whenever I was building up speed but then slowed down for whatever reason, lost the ability to time travel, and had to find another post. It just seems more streamlined with your system. However, I do have one major complaint: the title screen is terrible. I know it doesn't affect the gameplay but that doesn't mean it isn't important. It's the first thing people see and first impressions are critical. Potential players are likely to dismiss it because if the title graphic is bad then there's a good chance other aspects of the game are lackluster as well. This isn't the case for Time Twisted, but in most instances it's indicative of poor overall quality. I know this criticism sounds harsh, but you're really doing yourself a disservice by misrepresenting a quality game.
This. I guess I'm more refering myself to the big sonic, I don't like the look of him. And the timetwiested tex needs fixing/editing.
I rather like the Titlescreen myself. In fact I love it. MFZB made me that Sonic art its not 100% classic Sonic looking but that doesn't deminish the quality of it. I'd imagine that's the real issue rather than a problem with quality. The instant time travel change was Chimpo's idea and it was a great one. Thanks again Chimpo! The time travel is quite different than how it works in CD there are a lot fewer time travel posts in STT (this demo anyway) and when you see one its always best to use it because where ever there's a time post there's a "better" path in the other timezone. Eventually the post will also lead you to Sonic 3 style big rings and maybe some other suprises.
You know, maybe you could make it so Sonic spins around more than once, THEN you go to the timezone stated on the sign? It'd give people the chance to stay in the time zone they're in if they accidentally hit it by jumping off before they finish spinning around it without removing the "instant 88mph" time travel method you have right now.
After seeing the videos of this fangame, now I want a full map of the demo level so I can study water level layouts XD. (Really)
