Amazing to see that Nitemare is still working hard on this. So glad the project's still alive. If I was in a financial position to help him I would. Just don't have the disposable income at the moment. I tried to help anyway by submitting the story to The Super Sonic Zone (is that word still filtered on here?) in the hopes that a news post from them will potentially direct some people to his GoFundMe page. They're usually pretty good with covering fangames. They've covered Sonic XG multiple times before so a news post from them should hopefully go up later tonight. Sonic XG is pretty popular over there so maybe some of the readers who are more financially capable than me can help the guy out. If I get any more money in the near future I'll be sure to send some his way. Anything to help this guy get the game completed and finished. Really excited to play it. Still though. Sonic XG is still alive and progressing well. Amazing news.
Super fantastic. I played that demo so many freaking times hoping it would one day get completed. Glad to hear it's not dead. My only question is whether or not he getting supported for this kind of thing would put him in the crosshairs of copyright infringement. I love fan games, but when money starts changing hands for them, I start to get a little nervous.
Wow his GoFundMe page really is an amazing place to get updates about the game. He has eight updates posted and they're all super interesting. For example in one of the updates he announces he's ditched Golden Gate zone and replaced it with a spiritual successor to Genocide City zone called Cyber City. And it looks amazing: Many more updates in addition to that. Everything from iterating existing zones to loads of detail on the bonus stages (which are now all complete). For anyone who is even remotely interested the game I highly recommend giving his posts a read. It's very fascinating and indicates he's progressing phenomenally well. The project's not just still alive. It's steaming ahead to completion. Sounds like there's still work to be done but it looks like development's going really well.
Oh awesome, I love that this still exists. Jesus it's been a long and confusing ride but I can't wait to see the end result. The combination of many of the pioneering Sonic fan games will truly be a sight to behold.
While a part of me is a little bit on the "ehhhhh" side for a funding request to make a fangame at this point, I assume it'd be a case of completing this and then going on to their own original ideas after. Nice to see updates on this, however, all the same.
Although ya I was kind of thinking, the gofundme seems to be potentially treading on some shaky legal ground...
I think what's so awesome about this is that it's the ultimate Sonic dream fangame. You have zones like: Final Fall: Imagining what the literal zone after the end of Sonic 3 and Knuckles would be like Word Works: Evolution of Wood Zone from the Sonic 2 Beta Cyber City: Evolution of Genocity City Zone from the Sonic 2 Beta Then you have Peak Panic which is heavily inspired by Ice Cap Zone along with Sunken Star (providing that's still in the game; it was in the initial plans for Sonic XG but who knows whether Joe is going to include it). It really is the best outcome for the game with one of the original creators finishing up the project. A miraculous scenario really. His donations are static so I'm going to make the effort to donate some money. Might message him to tell him a donation is coming. EDIT: Just read back through this thread and apparently Sunken Star is still in the game. Awesome.
Sonic: eXtremely Good! The amount of uplifting nostalgia I got out of it the first time playing it can be described as heart warming. Especially love the Eggman Level, which I played from Retro Sonic Sonic Nexus, again is extremely nostalgic and can't wait to play it.
Excited for the game too! Do you mean Egg Garden Zone? The one with the lovely music and statues of Eggman in a green-purple environment? As far as I remember that was the level featured in the Retro Sonic demo back in day developed by Taxman back when he was still producing fangames. Taxman noted a few pages back he sent some graphical assets to Nitemare so presumably (in the chaos of all these game mergers over the years) Egg Garden is a remnant of both Retro Sonic and Retro Sonic XG so is back in the game but this time running on the MMF engine instead of Taxman's Retro one. Man this is all so confusing! Confusing in a good way because Sonic XG essentially represents the synthesis of the best Sonic fangames released over the years in to one super fantastic game. I'm going to support this game however best I can. I was thinking of maybe asking Nitemare for some screenshots and posting a thread on NeoGAF to give him some attention. Not doing that without his approval though (and I'm kind of hesitant to do that in a way; Sega is usually pretty flexible when it comes to Sonic fangames never having actually ever shut one down; but then you look at the Streets of Rage remake getting the legal hammer meaning anything could happen). A thought just occurred to me. The Streets of Rage remake was specifically shut down by Sega because they added a Paypal donation button to their page. Effectively they asked for money and that forced Sega's hand. On that note Nitemare might want to be careful here. The game could get the brunt of Sega's legal department because of the GoFundMe page. Might forget the thread on NeoGAF actually. It might be better to keep this off Sega's radar. Just a little worried because of what happened to the Streets of Rage remake.
Yeah, that's the one. It was the Retro Sonic demo by Taxman, and man it was awesome />/>/>/>/>/> First time playing it, blew my mind. Shame what happened to Streets of Rage remake though. About him funding. Looking to the funding page, It's actually to get Multimedia Fusion 2.5, iOS exporter and Android exporter and not for money in his pocket/money for the Sonic games. And if Sega complains, he could show the receipt that all money had gone into getting these tools for fan-gaming purposes, though I hope SEGA doesn't misinterpret this and assume he's stealing the trademark. Speaking of recreated Sonic 2 Beta levels, that'll be awesome if there's a rock zone. Prehistoric, some foliage as art, some caves you can enter with indoor areas that are dark with light. That'll be a great place for the dinosaur robots originally found in Hidden Palace Zone , and maybe monkey bots that throw clubs, Armadillo bots, Beetle-type bot that gathers dirt and throws it - much like the beetles from Bugs Life, the pink dino from Hill Top Zone in lava and as a miniboss (More weaponized version that flies and shoots missiles and lazer beams out of it's eyes), Bat bots from Mystic Cave Zone - for underground passage, bird bots and that's pretty much it. The boss can be Eggman riding an Onyx-type robot that can curl up and spin mid-air, which summons rocks and he can be stunned with water, since there's a puddle of water in the boss area. Something like this, but grey stone color and background having jungle, volcanoes, and hill mountains with a waterfall. This picture is from Sonic Lost Worlds hack: I'd love to help him with this, even though it's been too long since I picked up Multimedia Fusion 2.
Hmm, wasn't the Eggman level in Retro Sonic by Taxman? Sonic Nexus only had Sunset Shores, Cosmic Chaos and Pristine Palisade.
Ya Egg Garden was in Retro Sonic. Although both Nexus and Retro I believed folded into XG at some point. I'm glad they were all combined into a finished product though, it would have been a shame to lose some of the older gems.
I'll be honest, I think his GoFund me account is a really bad idea. Sure, it's for buying stuff for future projects, but he slapped on a bunch of Sonic XG stuff all over the page. If someone at Sega found this, it could be a disaster. I would not share this anywhere.
Yes, the paypal button on the download page of Streets of Rage Remake was specifically for the site hosting cost. However it's only a mere assumption that that's what drove SEGA to shut down the fangame, there could another factor or many ones. However yes, why it's cool to have updates on Sonix XG, putting them on a GoFundMe page might not be a good idea still.
He should be putting those updates somewhere else and try to minimize talk about the fangame on GoFundMe as much as he can without wrecking his message. Last thing the Sonic fangaming scene needs is a developer getting a C&D because of a GoFundMe page.
There was a thread on NeoGAF about it. One of the users contacted Bombergames' lead developer and was told that the C&D was specifically because they asked for donations. Site hosting costs or not they asked for money in return for developing the game which crosses legal ground that Sega couldn't legally ignore. Hence the C&D. NeoGAF could be incorrect of course but I'd say that's highly unlikely. The guy on there sounded honest and legit. It also makes complete sense as Sega usually leaves fangames alone. You wrote a good post but from what I've read it's not an assumption. Asking for donations caused the C&D. W.A.C's sentiment is right on the mark. Nitemare could have evaded potentially breaking the law had he just hosted the updates on Sonic XG elsewhere and made the GoFundMe page about his original game ambitions or whatever. Had he kept those two things separate he'd be completely immune from any potential legal action from Sega. Even if the GoFundMe page is sincere and honest (about funding a software purchase) the problem is Sonic XG and thus Sega's IP is plastered all over the page and the page heavily indicates his funding efforts revolve around Sonic XG and Sonic XG alone. This is where he's potentially shadowing the Streets of Rage remake precedent. Sega is famous for leaving Sonic fangames alone. However every other Sonic fangame were quite clear, direct and honest (some even providing disclaimers at the start of the game) that the games were not for profit and money would never be involved. And this is ultimately why Sega left them alone. I'm hoping for the best but he is wading in to potential legal territory here. Hopefully this remains under the radar and Sega either never hears of it or lets it slide.
This could become the first Sonic fangame in the history of the franchise to get a C&D all because of the GoFundMe page...for a game that has been in development for an insanely long time. I'm thinking about sending him a message later today about my concerns. If others do as well, perhaps it'll convince him how he's currently going about the page is a bad idea.
Excellent idea. I would strongly support your intention to contact him. Sonic XG is arguably the most promising Sonic fangame ever created; an amalgamation of the work of the best Sonic fangame developers all concentrated in to one immensely promsing and precious project. The current incarnation represents over a decade of work from not just Nitemare but the likes of Euan and Taxman also. It represents a dream project to a certain extent and it would be a profound shame if the project was legally torpedoed because of an honest mistake. Indicate to Nitemare in the message that our intentions are to help him and protect his game. He seems like a super nice guy so he'd probably welcome your message. Please do update us here when you hear back from him.
