General Project Thread & Feedback

Okay. I've been silent about this for awhile, just reading how people are reacting to progress. But at this point, I feel I need to say something. An alpha build, by definition is extremely buggy and incomplete. However, a little polish before a release is always nice. They could easily just lock out all the non-working parts and unavailable content. The trailer video proves that there is working code and enough art to make a release.

The other issue I've seen with this project is that there is only ONE programmer. That is a bottleneck of the whole project. In comparison, most video game projects have entire teams (comprising of at least three or four people) working on the engine code alone. This is why I was championing for the open source release of the source code and having it put into a public revision control repository like Subversion (SVN) or Mercurial (Hg). That way, people can tinker and improve the code while the large group of artists could continue doing what they've always done, nitpick at the artwork.

Honestly, I hate the outcome of this. With the wide range of talented people in Sonic Retro, this game project should have been finished a lot more quickly....

 

And you were the only one who cared. Go figure.

 

I understand your frustration, but you also need to consider another perspective—no programmer should ever be forced to release incomplete, shoddy, unpolished code, alpha or otherwise. The Sonic 2 Nick Arcade prototype was an alpha build, just as an example, but they still made sure that the build was playable and didn't contain any major noticable errors before letting people play it. This is not unreasonable. However, what is unreasonable is keeping all of those reasons under wraps and not giving anyone the opportunity to ease their troubles in this particular instance.

Incidentally, I happen to know the reasons for the delay and they're completely reasonable, so no need to worry there. I'd like to think that they're in a position at this point where if they want to reveal those reasons, they can; I won't do it for them. But at least I can offer my support and assure you that it is not for nothing. I'm just of the opinion that in a project where anything can happen to delay a project and when the only deadlines for the project at ones you set for yourself, it doesn't make all that much sense to make promises or promotions that you can't follow up on. It's better to just say nothing because you don't actually know anything. There's no shame in that.

I'm with you in concept, though—the amount of things going on behind closed doors is completely unacceptable in something that is supposed to be a community project. If it is no longer a community project, it doesn't deserve the branding or special treatment of one. Period.

 

Slightly off-topic Tweaker, are you still working on Megamix? I don't need to know when it will be done. I just want to know if you are still working on it or if it is discontinued.

 

Haha, oh man, I fucking called it. I'm dissapointed without a suitable amount of content revealed but in a way I feel the pain; I've failed to make deadlines before but the difference between me and you is that I kept most of mine to myself as to not dissapoint. But I digress, I wait for a playable build in the near future.

Personally I'd agree with Conan on open sourcing the engine. A snail can run faster than S2HD's development rate.

 

Fantastic trailer, looking forward to finally being able to play this damn thing. That Special Stage remix sounds really awesome too.

 

This is just so unfair . It looks at least a million times better than a horrible emulator filter. This has always been the project's direction so I don't understand why people are complaining about it now. You've got Sonic Fan Remix if you want a complete reimagining of the game. I mean fair enough if you don't like the art style. But lets not compare it to "flash drawings" or "emulator filters". It's absolutely nothing of the sort (and that's not even subjective).

I know why - it's because most of them have no idea what they're talking about - you know... not actually being part of the community and all. Honestly, please... enough. I actually do find your generalisations (about a community you should understand better than most) a little offensive.

And that link someone mentioned before:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=418871

How's that? What feedback is more worthwhile do you think?

 

This going from 'open' to 'closed' project, ignoring the community-submitted resources and assets, using developers-made art only, sounded like a big and loud "fuck you" to the community. That teaser and screenshots felt like they threw shit in our faces, and then walked away. What saddens me is, despite the fact it is no longer a community project, it is advertised as such, and still is in the Community Projects section of the board. I guess that the SANiK's S2HD resources repository site doesn't have much point in existing anymore, now, does it?

As far as an alpha-release is concerned, to be honest, I knew nothing was coming out since the point I noticed that no information about an alpha was ever released, even in the private forums of Retro, and, concidering the subdomain and front-page accesses that had been granted, I was expecting an alpha release in the Tech Members Lounge from LOst's part in the least -- of course, days prior to the actuall end of the countdown; but that never happened. That been said, I understand why Tweaker felt left out.

Concidering the circunstances, I doubt they have planned releasing the alpha today, really. Let alone having an playable alpha at all. To me, the "gameplay footage" looks like just an animation, really. And you know how animations are easy to do without actually having a game engine. BlobVanDean proved this point with his Mushroom Hill 3D animation. it looks like the real deal, but it's not a game; it's an animation! I'd love to be proven wrong, though.

 

I think it's the fact that Sonic rotates with the loop and doesn't have his eight different-angled animations from S1-3K. Yes, this is me being merely petty for the sake of being petty, but it feels a bit more natural for Sonic to do the seperate eight different angles, because I wouldn't necessarily think running up and down the loop would make Sonic stick to the walls like that. Maybe it could be optional for Sonic to either/or, like it was in that other fangame (I think it was RetroSonic?).

Either way, the screenshots have left me really happy, because of how beautiful they are. Also, I am a bit disappointed that I had to wait that long for no gameplay, but it doesn't matter to me (I usually stay up until midnight anyways). Can we please have a video of the entire Act 1 though? :3

 

I think the rotation is cool, as it still has Sonic upright on shallow slopes. It's much more intelligent than S4's rotation system.

 

You don't have a clue of what's going on yet, do you?

 

He's better off as he is. Ignorance is bliss.

 

Go to the project's main page, located at http://www.s2hd.sonicretro.org/ and see if there's any complete footage of Emerald Hill act 1.
That is all.

 

Oh man, I'm late to the party. I like what I see, however Eggman's eyes look way too big.

THAT IS ALL.

 

I cant help but notice this:

That shadow can't be there on purpose.