I think the bigger issue there is the fact that you can still die after the boss fight if you stand on a flipping platform and it flips straight into the water. It should have been set so that when the boss was defeated, the platform area stops flipping. I don't think anyone has done that before, but it sounds easy to do.
You know, considering how different Chemical Plant Act 2 is, I wouldn't really mind seeing Labyrinth Zone.
Maybe it could even be an actual labyrinth, this time... Although I'm not sure it worked that well for Amazing Arena.
It's amazing how much more involved the fight with the GHZ2 Death Egg Robot looks compared to the original. Take away the rings and this fight would easily be more challenging. Not to say that the fight looks like it would be extremely difficult even without rings, but that's why it's the first boss. While I'm on the subject, I'd like to also show admiration for Sonic 4's version of the fight. Sure, the music was extremely repetitive, it was a damage sponge, and you instantly die if you don't land the final hit fast enough, but it had a much more complex pattern and was pretty aggressive compared to the original. Something I'd like to see players show off more often is the drop dash. I know I'm very late to the discussion on this one, but I absolutely adore how this player consistently uses it to maintain their flow, rarely having to stop to rev up the spin dash. Should the Adventure or SLW styles ever be revisited, I think the drop dash would complement them wonderfully.
I kind of see what you mean regarding certain areas repeating itself, but so far this is something I have only seen in CPZ2. The higher up loop that brings you down into another loop below seemed to happen five or six times and as I was nearing the end of the video I felt like I had seen it a lot over the course of the stage. If I remember correctly though, weren't those double loops exclusive to Chemical Plant? Other than that (which really isn't even a complaint, just an observation) I have to say I am really digging the style and direction of Act 2, the level gimmicks are brilliant! Can't wait to play through it myself! Also another thing I noticed, in Polygon's play through of Act 1 Sonic and Tails stood on top of the grated area at 0:32 - 0:49. Wasn't that always just a background object in the original so they would pass in front? https://youtu.be/52UGIIIp9WE?t=32s First thoughts are Labyrinth or Mystic Cave, but there could be almost anything after level that boss fight and I'd squeal like a school girl just for the level transitions. One of my favourite parts of Sonic 3K and I am so happy to see these in action again!
Thanks for keeping us in check! I'm still amazes that you guys take the time to still communicate and interact with us. You guys know where we are coming from and I really hope we continue to see more glorious work in the form of future projects! I'm sure after the boss falls through it creates an invisible wall for the player and allows for the intended transition to take place.
Is Slingerland associated with PWG? From what I can tell he's not, and the only other devs listed are CW (Taxman) and HC (Stealth), but he's clearly a Mania dev. If they've brought more fans on board, they should let us know so we can geek out about it some more! I'm curious as to how many people PWG has, and how many people are working on Mania in total. How many artists are there? Are the extra team members Iizuka mentioned from Sonic Team or are they more western devs? I guess the game's credits will answer all my questions, but that's still two months away...
Now wait a minute, what about the "hole" on the other side if you allow it to go that far? Could it be... Spoiler AN ALTERNATE PATH?!?
Pagoda West has about 5 main members, and I believe the ones working on Mania are Jared and Tom, who are both artist and level designers, and Tee of course. Slingerland isn't a part of PagodaWest as far as I can tell, but he is a part of the team as a level designer. The additional members brought in may be Sega of America employees in departments like mobile development, q&a, or testing.
He is; he's one of our level designers, also known as Brad Flick We also have: Hunter Bridges - Project Management / Programming / Sound Design Paul Veer - Artist Kieren Gates - Artist Lucas "Midio" Carvalho - Artist Falk Au Yeong - Music Mixing Jameson Sutton - Sound Design Michael Balm (Picomy)- Level Design You won't have heard much about them so far, but you'll see them in the credits. None of them are associated directly with any of the companies that make up the "core team" and are contracted independently. These people, along with me, Taxman, and Tom, Jared, Taryn, and Tee from PagodaWest make up the team directly responsible for development aspects of the game. There are more people on the biz side, producers, etc that are Sega employees
Even so, I feel like a fairly typical player is well likely to think they can, and go ahead and jump off the other side because as far as they know they're about to lose a life anyway and they might as well do it on their own terms. Kinda like exactly what appears to have happened in the video.
