Happy 5th anniversary, 'Pepsi in Sonic 1' Spoiler: about 'among the others' and 'pepsi in sonic 1' NOTE: the following only matters to people who might care about me and my work. you don't have to read about it if you don't want to. also i did not proof-read this so there is probably spelling errors and it probably doesn't even make sense LOL !!! i am very tired i want to take a big, long nap today, as of writing this, is november 6. tomorrow marks the day the rom hack that i made, 'pepsi in sonic 1', turns 5 years old. i like to joke about it sometimes, i think its really funny to dm random people if theyve heard of 'pepsi in sonic 1'. im just dumb like that. despite everything, i've grown fond of the game. it hasn't exactly aged the greatest, and i wouldn't say it's really fun to replay, but out of most of my projects from back then it was the one i was most passionate about. i really did put a lot of work into that game which never really got appreciated much. i think i'm proud of it. i wasn't always proud of it though. i think this is where i talk about my other game, 'among the others'. 'among the others' was supposed to be my last fan project before i moved onto working on my major indie projects. it had a strange development, with it intended on being a sort of swan song to all my previous projects. by the end of it though, i kind of resented working on it. working on rom hacks is a very time consuming process, much more than programming for a normal game engine. and (without getting too deep into crazy Internet Drama) i'd grown tired of the sonic rom hacking community. i decided on rushing development on the game, along with adding a long wall of text at the end of it complaining about the community and forever abandoning rom hacking forever. while i still stand by some issues i've had with the community, i can't say i don't regret making that ending. it was incredibly petty and it only made things worse for me, knowing i'd basically burned every bridge and confused people who didn't even know anything about the community (also i wasn't exactly the best person back then either). as a result of all this, it's been hard to look back at the game. knowing i spent all that time into working on it only to be left with a bitter taste. it kind of hurts. it hurts to think that something you've worked on is just ruined forever because of drama. it's hard to look back at this game or even recommend it to others, especially with the dumb wall of text that's at the end of it. so, i've decided on rereleasing the game. it originally was just going to be a few minor changes along with the removal of the dumb wall of text, but (thanks to inspiration from vadapega) i decided to add a whole new zone based off an old game i worked on. it isn't too much, but i felt it was a nice inclusion and i'm surprised how well the zone turned out (i really pushed to get as much detail in it as i could). i also figured it'd be nice to commission John Tay to do arrangements of a few songs (he did a really good job especially completely out of nowhere lol. i literally just DMed him one night and he was like "alright". he is cool). i think i've done this rerelease more for myself than anything. there are aspects about this game that i still like; you can even see where a lot of my concepts would end up in my newer projects. i feel like this game deserved so much more than to just be forgotten the way it has been. i also think it's good for people who did enjoy it initially and were inspired by it (which has been hard for me to believe for a long time. this game really messed up my perception of my own work that it's hard for me to think that people actually like my weird work). a part of me wishes things weren't the way they were. a part of me wishes i didn't work on this game and instead worked on something more important (or alternatively, i actually worked to make this game way better than it could ever be), and that i wasn't such an ass to people back in the day. however, if it weren't for this game, i probably wouldn't have made 'UNITRES', and i wouldn't have been able to meet all the new friends i've made over the years. still, though, i wish my relationship with the rom hacking community could've been better. i still think rom hacking is capable of crazy things, it's just that it's hard for newcomers to do anything and for old members to have the time for such a niche hobby. maybe the guide i posted earlier could help some people and maybe even inspire others to make more guides to help others. i don't know. i don't think i'm going to be coming back to rom hacking, as i have all sorts of other projects that i'm much more interested in, but i really hope things can get better for the community. one last thing i'll talk about regarding 'among the others'. i've decided to release the source code on github for anyone to use. it isn't much (especially as a lot of the game is very messy), but i think making things like fan games and rom hacks open source could really help people. even if it leads to some people copy+pasting things, making a game open source helps things more than you'd think. i can't convince everyone to open source their work (even i'm a bit hesitant on open sourcing my original games, which btw i might do someday but not anytime soon), but i hope me releasing the source to this game can encourage others to release the sources to their own. (oh and btw, if u end up using the "curvegrip" object from the source, make sure to credit Stealth as he was the one who gave me the code for that object. he is really cool) that is all i have to say i think (maybe, idk. maybe i'm forgetting stuff oh well lol !!). after this is out, i'm going to be focusing on my new cool projects. i just hope that with this release, whether they're from the community or have never even heard of this game before, that more people can appreciate the work i've put into this game. if not, that is fine, i've always got something crazy i'm gonna be working on. happy 5th birthday, pepsi in sonic 1. what a weird video game. Spoiler: Screenshots Download Source Code Changes since Initial Release (2018): - New zone added in level select (accessible on title screen using the Sonic 1 level select code) - Encore Mode fully completed (accessed by entering 81, 82, 80, 80 in sound test - New arrangements by John Tay - Various minor changes - Removed some text. Credits Insane Developer Unlimited Trees Music Arrangements Joenick A-S-H Crash Ozaleto Jubbalub Painto Biggobend2 BGVC John Tay Programming Help Stealth TheStoneBanana Novedicus Special Thanks VAdaPEGA SpectraS02 LooneyDude LakeFeperd JamoART LuigiXHero (p.s. i wanted to format this to be aligned to the center but da editor is being weird and im too lazy to deal with it so im just gonna leave it all aligned to da left lol !!!)
today is now pepsi in sonic 1's anniversary, crazy just how much can happen in only a few years! i've decided to release the source to that game aswell. i might release more of my source code for my other projects, but for now consider this a bonus Pepsi in Sonic 1 (2016) Source Code i dare everyone else 2 release their source code to their fangames.. u have nothing to lose !
