The special stages look a lot easier than the Sonic CD ones but I think that's because there's no water eating your time away. Maybe adding some difficulty would be nice to see. But I think with a few things done graphic wise can make the special stages lovable to more people. At least they're 3D perspective special stages but that doesn't say that Sonic Classics were bad.
Whatever else, this game will benefit so much from having fitting and classic-style music (composed deliberately for it) rather than an assortment of clashing remixes of [being polite:] varying quality (borrowed from Newgrounds)! Will there be per-act variations? And shouldn't the Special Stage BGM stop before the Chaos Emerald jingle plays? How you've implemented the suits looks pretty cool so far. Keeping an eye on this, as always!
You have to understand that this is the first special stage. It's meant to be easy. The other ones gradually add gimmicks and get harder. There are random pits of water that deduct time, and there are other obstacles like spiked balls and rotating blue balls. This is just the first special stage. Yes, there are two versions of the song for act 1 and 2/
Awesome :v: Pretty pumped for this overall. EDIT: Mr Lange's comment on the sig reminded me that I've been meaning to say that for months :P – beaten!
I can't wait to play this. The first level already is beautiful. You know with your whole shield combos and suits thing going on, this could grow into Kirby 64 style power comboing system. I'd like to see something like that, but it would also make a Sonic game like this too complicated. Its already on the edge with what you have in it. By the way, Hez, like, when are you going to update your goddamn sig. Last I checked, Sonic Classic was totally finished and released.
This is what I've mocked up so far....gonna start editing the shit out of it. What do you guys think of the other levels?
The Casino tiles are pretty, but reminds me too much of Sonic 2 Beta Casino Night. I like the ice zone, it reminds me of Quartz Quadrant, but not the sky color and unmatching mountains. The mountains in the ruin level also look resized without being edited. I do like the broken green emerald stand. I would also recommend not using the Marble Garden background, or make anew one based off it. I'm not sure what kind of zone the last one is. Special Stage? Sky zone?
I know this was meant as a joke... but you could do a bouncy/pinball level inside a cave... You could have fungus that Sonic can bounce off of ála Mushroom Hill Zone, and it's not like it can't be done. "Toxic Caves" being from Sonic Spinball and all that. You can have tight and cramped cave areas between large open pinball tables made out of mining equipment, or something like that... It would deffinately be a departure from the classic cave and casino tropes...
The Last stage is the water stage. The underwater parts look sort of like Labyrinth zone, and the top is....that, so yeah its near the sky (flying fortress is the next level in line) EDIT: Colors better?
I like those colors a lot better. Maybe one more color between the lightest shade of purple (not white) though.
I really love this mock up. I would suggest to adding the rest of the symbols to it, you know, the diamonds and clovers, and perhaps changing the colours of the rest of the tiles a bit so it won't look like S2Beta anymore. Just suggesting :v:
Allow this hastily scribbled concept art to help. The basic concept I was going for was kind of an open quarry (think S3K Hidden Palace's background) with the moon shining in and small waterfalls dripping down. The city is half-functioning and worn out, with faded colours and broken lights. The natural threat of rubble and cave-ins would be a hazard as well as malfunctioning casino equipment.
I love that idea! Ooh! When you talked about the city being old and malfunctioning, that gave me an idea! Remember when the lights went out in Carnival Night? And those bars you had to pull down from the ceiling to keep the lights on in Sandopolis? Well, the city could start out dark, and there could be switches that "turn the city on", and as time went on, the city would slowly shut down again. After a minute, a few of the lights on the buildings in the background would turn off, and after another minute, a few more would, and once it's fully shut down, the bumpers/flippers/slots/ect. would stop working, and you would have to find another switch to get it all back up and running again! It'd be a lot of work, and it's kind of crazy, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to share my idea.