OFFICIAL WEBSITE NEW SAGE 2014 TRAILER PLAYABLE CHARCTERS Sonic The Hedgehog Miles "Tails Prower Knuckles The Echidna NON-PLAYABLE CHARACTERS Metal Sonic Mecha Knuckles Tails Android Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik STORY After many a failure and a complete lack of new ideas or schemes, Dr. Robotnik is at the end of his rope. After those events, he has not been seen nor heard from in almost 3 years. Unfortunately for Sonic and the rest, they have no idea what is really going on. While in seclusion, he has built and perfected his newest creation, Darkness Cannon. This machine is used to create artificial black holes in multiple universes, and they can be manipulated to destroy anything he pleases. However, it needs one crucial element to make his creation complete. To have it at full power, he requires the Chaos Emeralds, the Master Emerald, and an undiscovered set of gems. In order to get these elements, he sends out Metal Sonic and Mecha Knuckles. After some contemplation, he resurrects the Tails Doll after being cast aside and untouched for nearly five years, and decides to upgrade him, making him the Tails Android, a complete redesign of his original invention, now being much more destructive and hell bent on destroying Sonic and everything in existence. Sonic gets word of said plans while infiltrating his base just to see what he's been up to. After hearing him go over his plans with the three Mechas, he goes to inform Tails and Knuckles about what's going on, and set out to stop his plans and destroy the Mechas once and for all. GAMEPLAY The way the game is played is based on the classic Sonic Games on the Genesis and Megadrive. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles have their original abilities from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, with one move added from the Adventure titles. All character's will also include unlockable moves. Sonic's abilities include Spin Dash, Super Peelout, and Homing Attack. Tails' abilities are Flying, Spin Dash, and the Tail Attack. Knuckles' abilities include Gliding/Wall Climb, Lifting heavy object and throwing them at enemies, and being able to Break through walls and rocks with ease. The player must travel through the level while destroying enemies and collecting items. The levels will have many platforming areas and speed areas. Many different gimmicks are included in the levels, like Hanging Bars, Crane Lifts, and Speed Tunnels to name a few. The highest section of the level is the Fastest but most dangerous, the middle is neutral, and the bottom section is the slowest but easiest. After 3 acts of the level are completed, there comes a boss stage. The difficulty of the level increases with each level you complete. Certain levels have a twist or challenge to make them harder, like water or lava. When your not in the levels, your in the the stage's specific HUB world or going over the World Map. These HUB worlds while not huge, are big enough to transition from one zone to another. TITLE SCREEN ZONES There is a total of 14 zones in the game. 10 normal zones, 2 single act zones, and 2 secret zones. Shimmering Shores A beautiful sparkling paradise that was once a popular vacation spot, but is now the pinnacle of fear. Don't let the crystal blue ocean, emerald green grass, lush and vibrant foliage, and shining golden sand fool you, this paradise is definitely not heaven on earth. There are many underwater passages cutting through the shore and ocean, boats and ferries with colorful sails to take you to different islands surrounding the beach, and and various sandy areas. This is an actual screenshot. Corrupted Canyon A scorching, decrepit wasteland which was once a thriving ancient empire, which has now been reduced to dust and rubble. Not only that, but Robotnik is in the process of industrializing the desert to be used as an oil refinery to mine for crude fuel for his machines. One moment you'll be blasting across the scolding hot desert sand, to going through a dark and collapsing remains of a pyramid, then suddenly finding yourself walking across heavy machinery and through fragments of the unfinished factory. Watch out for the smoke stacks and oil pits, not to mention quicksand and landslides. Antarctic Amethyst A crystal white frozen tundra located in the mountains high above Mobius. The ground is cold and slippery and the walls are frozen, slick and covered in ice and frost. You can snowboard down and across the mountains while at the same time creating giant snowballs to defeat your enemies. You will also travel through the icy caverns and on the slippery ice, but try your best not to catch hypothermia from the below freezing temperatures. Not only that, but there are also caverns that have underwater passageways, but staying in them too long will cause you to freeze, so be careful! Screen is a mockup. Riverbank Retreat A large temple in the mountains on the edge of a river. The grey rocky ruins stand tall covered in ivy with various plants growing and grass on top of the ruins from years of being untouched. Due to the fact that the ruins are on the water‘s edge, there are water sections, but they're not dangerous and sections with water won't last long. Ride on platforms moving with the various waterfalls that are scattered across the temple, jump across various floating pillars, and watch out for Robotnik's drill machine, who makes appearances multiple times in the zone, but be careful because it may case the ruins to collapse on you. Screen is a mockup. Towering Treetops You find yourslef in a lush and vibrant forest after you fall from the mountains. This forest is full of green foliage, tall tree trunks, and many bright flowers, not to mention the large waterfalls. Even though the forest has pretty much been untouched by Robotnik, there are many robots scattered around to prevent your progress, and there are high trails branching off of the trees to take you through. Long and tall vines take you to other places in the forest and growing mushrooms you can bounce off of. Screen is a mockup. Roulette Roadway A bustling and high-speed metropolis filled with tall buildings, bright neon lights, and rolling streets will have your head spinning the whole time through. With many pinball and slot gimmicks along the way, you'll have the time of your life, but don't get distracted by all the glimmering sights. Running across the rooftops of the many colorful and bright light covered buildings and finding yourself on the high roads under the stars along with high speed transport systems, you'll feel sick by the end of the city. Screen is a mockup. Flooded Foundation A deep and confusing aquarium- like fortress that's filled to the brim with spikes and other traps. Various plants encased in Glass and bright blue water tubes are all over the place. The biggest threat in this zone isn't the various traps and machines layed by Robotnik, but rather the water. Due to Sonic and Knuckles inability to swim, you can only be submerged for so long before you run out of breath. Tails can swim, but that still won't be enough to survive. There are many random currents that propel through the stage, water tubes, and high- pressure windows that may not live up to their name... Screen is a mockup. Malicious Mineshaft A dark and dank grotto covered with rock and various red glowing crystals that are scattered all over the place. While inside the cavern, you'll run across the metal tracks that are above the redish- brown rocks underneath. There are batbots and all sorts of cave critters that inhabit the area. Not only that, but also mine carts are in various places, an the player can utilize them in order to progress with the level. While some rocks are easily breakable, some walls are unbreakable but are strapped with bombs, and the player must set off a switch to detinate the bombs and get on with the level. Not only that, but Robotnik can set off bombs that cause certain rocks to collapse on you, so be careful! Vehement Volcano As heat begins to make you sweat while the temperatures reach above 1000 degrees, you find yourself inside the core of a large amount of towering volcanoes. Speeding outside of the volcano on the hot rock, then to find yourself inside the largest volcano. Rivers of molten rock and bubbling lava pits running through the blackened landscape. Not only that, but fire- geysers, collapsing rock trails, burning rain, and poisonous sulfuric air will make this zone a living nightmare. Progression requires the use of luminous pink crystals in the rock when in the volcano, and using magma tubes to progress throughout the level and escape the sweltering heat. Screen is a mockup. Hurricane Heights You realize that the volcano is actually a hidden launch base for Robotnik, and once you escape from the volcano, you see hundreds of airships coming from the vents of the volcanoes. You get picked up by the Tornado and now you're chasing after Robotnik's many airships. While you're chasing the ships, you must destroy enemies by either jumping on them with the character that's riding, or shoot enemies with the character that's driving the plane, while avoiding other airborne obstacles in your way. Levitated Leviathan After you've chased down Robotnik's ships, you land the Tornado and take off in pursuit or Robotnik and the Three Mechas to end this madness. You now are blasting through Robotnik's armada of heavily- armed battleships flying through the stratosphere. Hopping from one airship to another and avoiding cannons and airships dropping bombs. You can also use floor fans to propel yourself upwards to higher places. Supernova Satellite After flying across the many airships, the sky gets darker and the oxygen leaves from the atmosphere. You see a dark satellite in the far distance. Robotnik's entire fleets of ships are docking in the satellite. You realize that's where Robotnik is hiding. Robotnik is really now screwing around this time, setting up switches that shift the gravity of the fortress, hologram bridges that disappear after a period of time, and falling meteors while outside of the ship while running outside of the vessel. Be careful, the enemies are far more deadly than what you're used to, so caution is a must. Armageddon Angel B.L.A.C.K. CREDITS PROJECT LEADER Delta Hedgehog GRAPHICS Delta Hedgehog Caleb BlazefireLP The Mystical Forest Zone Act: 4 Various People Who Uploaded Content to the SFGHQ website Gsuki Phoebius Gamernerd Advance Overbound Gardow Techokami Chronic SEGA Vic Tokai PROGRAMMING SuperBlizHedgehog Overbound Damizean RogueYoshi Anyone who has helped in the Fangaming Assistance Thread MUSIC General Offensive! StereoPixel SEGA
You're using Game Maker? I'm curious, are you using a pre-built engine, or programming the physics in yourself? I'm trying to learn GML, and making a practice game (MegaMan fangame). Once I feel I've learned enough to be capable, I'm planning on digging into the physics guide here and trying to build an accurate physics engine in Game Maker. How exactly do you have things like the loops set up? But I digress, back to the main point. I have a couple questions about the game's design. First off, you claim Robotnik needs the Chaos Emeralds, Master Emerald, and another set of gems to power his weapon. What does this mean you'll be using the Special Stages for, if you have any? I mean, if Robotnik has the Emeralds already, then you're not going to be finding them anywhere. You have two secret/hidden stages marked for the end of the game. Are these going to be something like having one for Super Sonic, and one for Hyper Sonic? Finally, is the Death Egg in the background of your desert level significant in any way? If not, you may want to consider replacing it with something else, like a recolor of the Oil Ocean background or some other fitting industrial look. It's just that the Death Egg has been Robotnik's ultimate weapon in how many Sonic games? The player is naturally going to see it and assume there's going to be a huge battle in the Death Egg again, and might be disappointed if they find out it isn't so.
The engine that we are using the the Sonic DASH engine made by Damizean and RogueYoshi. As for the last two secret stages, think in terms of Sonic Adventure 2. I'll leave it at that. I'll probably end up having on Sonic getting the Chaos Emerald, and Tails getting the other emeralds. Knuckles will get the Master Emerald at the end. Again, like I said, this concept is probably gonna be changed. Like I said at the beginning of the post, all the graphics are either being upgraded or changed. The background for Corrupted Canyon isn't final. I am using a combination of the Launch Base construction machines with the Oil Ocean background.
Double post. I have made some better concepts for certain zones. Comments? Suggestions? In order from left to right: Shimmering Shores, Roulette Roadway, Flooded Foundation, Corrupted Canyon, Supernova Satellite, Riverbank Retreat/
This game looks gorgeous and I really hope it goes somewhere. I want a demo soon ok? Don't change the grass in Shimmering Shores. It looks great already. Corrupted Canyon could use some changes to separate it from being recognizable as Metropolis Zone tiles. Supernova Satellite looks good but its begging for detail. Its too dull, not what it needs to be for a Sonic game that already has graphics this good. For one thing the solid black borders around the red dashes are pretty harsh. The rest is great so far and can stand on its own without any significant changes.
Thanks a lot for the comment! As for a demo, we're working hard on making a demo for this year's SAGE. We've gotten a title card working and all that. I need to try and get up with StereoPixel to get the music, otherwise we'll have to use normal game music. I'm probably gonna keep most of the zones the same, only instead chnage certain sprites, and probably change the rocks for Malicious Mineshaft and Vehement Volcano, plus edit Riverbank Ruins.
Where did you find the Sonic DASH engine? I'd like to see how it works, I've been wanting to make a Sonic engine myself, to practice GML (I've been trying to teach myself. I can read basic coding fairly well, and have been making a Mega Man game as simple practice, but would like to try something a bit more complex, as well as experiment with different types of platforming engines). I only have the Lite version of Game Maker 8.1, though. Would that be alright, or do I need to upgrade to Pro? As for your images, I'm not entirely sure I like the grass for Shimmering Shores, and I don't see much of a difference in the Flooded Foundation graphics. The graphics I can tell the difference with, I rather like. So far, my favorites are Roulette Roadway and Riverbed Retreat. Is Supernova Satellite just unfinished? There's a lot of blank space there, so I'm not sure if it's just unfinished or if it's to show off the background.
Supernova Satellite is unfinished. As for the DASH engine, there should be a thread around here that Overbound made giving download links to the DASH and other engines. You can find it on SFGHQ too be going to the fangaming assistance section of the forum. And thanks!
I like what I see, keep up the good work! Very nice looking zones, and the choices with having some Modern Sonic moves (Like the homing attack) keeps things interesting, good luck.
This is really shaping up to be quite good! The zone designs are superb, the colour schemes are really appealing to the eye, and I can really tell there's been a lot of care put into the details. In short, keep up the good work!
Ugh, where has the foreground contrast? I don't suppose you'd mind bringing out the highlights of the rocks a bit more, and darkening the shadows a touch? If at all possible, highlight the rocks slightly in yellow and complement them with slightly-blue shadows?
Seems like an odd combination of colors for a place that's supposed to be a land made up of igneous rock. I can understand the orange but the blue is somewhat out of left field. Maybe you know something I don't but I'm just saying.
I was curious how yellow and blue would look on this, cause it sounded strange to me, so I threw together a quick mockup using the color eraser on Paint. I got this... Probably not the exact shades he had in mind, but this is what came out of it. EDIT: On a second look, I think I get the general idea. A very dark blue is a common color for shadows, and the yellow would be the light from all the lava, right?
Blue is the opposite colour to orange so you'll get a blue shadow cast when you shine an orange light (from the lava).
Yes, amber/yellow lighting and bluer shadows would look much better. Why would I suggest such a thing? And It's how light works. Could go further and take into account colour temperature (around warmer lights, grey or white objects will appear to have a blue tint to them, et cetera) but since the sprites won't reflect this, it'll look odd to do it with the scenery alone. Ergo, the best you're going to be able to do is slightly-blue shadows with a yellowish highlight to bring this out. Kharen's mockup is instantly an improvement in my eyes. If you go for something a little different, don't take it too much further than that, it all still looks grey there.
Huh. Came for a fan-game I'm interested in, and got a lesson in color theory thrown in as a bonus. Cool! (I like reading art-type stuff) Honestly didn't know about orange light creating blue shadows. I'll have to play around with that. (Trying to make my own graphics for an overhead game.)
I can't believe how much I'm learning right now. Now that I look at it, it makes perfect sense actually. Thanks for all of your help. I'll be sure to update the mockup soon enough.
DP, should I give the grass more of a shape, or leave it as is. I've been working on replacing a lot of stuff with original works, and this is one of them.
