Original Project Discussion Thread

I also would love to work on this project. I would prefer to do level layout, like Quexinos and concept art, and well anything else that would need to be done that I am able to do.

 

<!--quoteo(post=209026:date=Jul 21 2008, 03:22 AM:name=Phoebius)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Phoebius @ Jul 21 2008, 03:22 AM)

I think we should think of what support this game could/should be? PC, DC, MD, PSP...
And... sorry for my lack of knowledge, but what's E02?[/quote]
For ref from earlier on in the topic. I could also do sketches for the art team

 

They're all thinking about the public DASH sprites, which were meant to be more flat and cartoony. I made an entirely different sheet that I never released and I don't plan on giving away.

 

A big reason I would love to see this for the Genesis is that we would have the same limitations as the original game. Also, we could eventually produce carts and everything and play it on the same hardware as the originals. Plus, it would be playable on any system that has a Genesis emulator.

Though that's just me being an old fart, I know that this is most likley going to be a PC game. Though I would love to play it on a TV, I hate playing games on computers.

 

I'd like to play it on my PSP :3

 

Do you guys want to make Sonic 4 or fulfill your damn Genesis dreams?

 

I have a question. Would this game wind up being PC-only, or could it be ported to other things? I know there are a decent number of Mac/Linux users out there, and (although more farfetched) it would be monumentally cool to be able to play this on a PSP, DS, or (probably impossible) the Genesis itself.

 

Both? :P

That's why I hack and not make a fangame, anyway I know it's just a dream.

 

PSP, DS, DC, and Wii could all easyly get a port(see Rika, go buy a DC to play on a TV). Not sure about mac or linux, as I never fucked with either, but C can be ported to pretty much everything.

 

So, a few ideas I had..

People are already wanting Metal Sonic in the game. If he's a boss, they'll want him playable. So, what I was thinking is you have him as an unlockable.. Say.. Sonic/Tails together unlocks time attack, Tails alone unlocks Knuckles, Sonic unlocks Metal Sonic. Then, I think depending on how deep people wanna go, replayability should be in mind.. So.. Metal Sonic could have his own kinda game. I mean.. We could have him just be a simple "skin change" or we could change it up.. Instead of defeating badniks, you're.. Capturing the animals that become badniks.. Instead of a signpost at the end, you hit a machine (ala Sonic 1/2) to end the act which would deposit the animals and morph them. Eggman could be replaced by an Eggrobo during boss fights. Stuff like that, you know?

 

...Thing is, it could be played in any system that can run Genesis emulators. =|

 

But you'd be purposely limiting yourself and it's unlikely Sonic 4 would have been released on that format, but most likely the Saturn.

Fix'd.

 

It was Sonic 3D Blast

 

I agree with this. It's nothing more than novelty, people wanting to put their 1337 skills to use. My biggest issue is the same reason I hate people going nuts over Megaman 9, we need to move forwards not backwards.

I think we should go with saxman's Creative Advanced Construction Toolkit for Ultimate Sonic games engine.

Personally I don't think having absolute set teams is going to work. Some dev teams like Naughty Dog tends to mix things up a bit.

For instance I could help with developing a non-faggy plot(sorry but most fangames end up having these :|) , sprite work, conceptual work, and music. Of course, I couldn't do ALL of that, just a bit of each, ut I'm not going to choose, so you'd have other people doing a bit of each of that.

Linux has WINE. I've never had troubles with MMF games running on it, except Direct X being ticked causing slowdown. The best thing to do is not build it on Direct X, that way it'd be easy to port.

 

me too.


I also agree with not having totally fixed teams, as some people have ore than one specialty.

But I'd probably join in Conceptualizing characters, badnicks, and bosses.

 

I suppose another thing about porting to systems instead of using a Megadrive emulator is that you can take advantage of the hardware better and get past restrictions on the emulator for less powerfull systems.

Look at the DS, the best MD emu currently has no support for ROMs larger then 3MB, will slow down to anything between 55-59fps when playing Sonic 3 (It may be more, I haven't played S3 in a while and I'm guessing off the fact the latest update improves the framerate), the sound isn't perfect and the resolution of a DS screen is much less of the MD and cannot perform horizontal scaling in hardware.

 

A few more ideas I had since I can't sleep

-An arcade level to fill the the casino niche including
—Pachinko
—Bastardised Super Break Out

-Different Shoe Items
—There was a mention of an ice shield to prevent slipping. This could be done as shoes with cleets
—There was also a spike shield idea. This could be done as metal shoes. They slow sonic done, but he can stand on spikes and walk on magnetic surfaces

The beauty of those is they would only be placed in the levels they need to be in. We could take from Chaotix and have the item appear at the bottom of the screen so extra sprites/effects aren't needed just for shoes.

-The ability to switch between Sonic and Tails when playing as both

Come on, you know it'd be useful. Press C or something and you switch characters. Think DKC. This could be useful for puzzles or just getting around. This could be more fleshed out, though keep in mind the aspects that people don't like in Chaotix/SAdv3 as to not repeat those mistakes.

As for a simple story that could be told in the manual:

"Eggman's at it again! After chasing his arch nemesis, Sonic The Hedgehog and his pal Miles "Tails" Prower have ended up on an island where the two of them are quickly unwanted. Eggman's influence has quickly spread over the island and many of its inhabitants are now badniks! Worst yet, Eggman has rebuilt his deadly creation 'Metal Sonic' to match Sonic at every turn. Now its a race against time as Sonic & Tails attempt to clear their names and rescue the inhabitants of the island from the grip of Dr. Eggman!"

 

That sounds good. However Metal Sonic could still run past the sign post, however he'd run past a Sonic sign and it could turn into either Robotnik or Metal Sonic (Although the machine thing would work for act 3). I think that Tails should be the boss sometimes however, seeing as how he's supposed to be some techy freak anyways. Although Eggrobo works too.

 

While making the game for a console would be really nice because it'd feel more authentic, I don't think it's as easily feasable, especially on the 32X and Saturn. Both those consoles are a nightmare to program, I know that with the saturn getting the timings right for everything to work together is really difficult. The 32X wouldn't be a great thing to run it on, because like the Angry Video Game Nerd said, it's a Genesis on life support.

I think PC is our safest bet for now, though strict rules have to be in place, such as keeping everything on an 8x8 tile grid and so on.

 

If theres anything I detest more on hearing about a new sonic game its the hundred of people afterwards who start going on about "unlockables". This is something I've come to despise about the newer sonic games in the sense that everything is "locked" away to add some sort of forced incentive to replay the game countless times.

Compared to the older games where you could do everything right off the bat. You didn't need to play as Sonic X times through the game to play as tails and then some to play knuckles. Nope you either could or you couldn't. The furthest this concept ever went was with the emeralds by giving access to the doomsday and the actual good ending in SK3, and even then you did that all within one character, and were in no way forced to.

The crux of the gameplay lost its appeal when it went from optional to forced replay. If you want metal sonic to be a playable character then make him playable from the very very start and if people want to play his mode, they will. An alternative substitute perhaps would be the Sonic Advance method whereby encountering the character in Sonic's main game opens their character on the selection screen, but personally I'd oppose the whole "complete game with x to open y" method for the given reasons.

Also, I'd try against the whole, "all characters = new ending" "last story" thing. The appeal of the genesis games was that the adventure was a self contained story, but the effects live on. e.g. Sonic 2 is its own game, its effects live into SK3. Sonic's/Tails' story in SK3 is self contained but lives on for Knuckles own self contained story.

Just my point of view ofc