That 3D Sonic fangame [Idea thread]

Would it be possible in the level design to incorporate both? I mean, in sonic games, there was an upper route, which was where you could generally get the best speed, the bottom, for speed interspersed with obstacles, and the middle route, which was platform heavy but avoided most of the dangers. Perhaps to could add this kind of multiple pathing into this game.

 

Hey, a stable-ish Sonic '06 level? I can't complain!

 

This project already has an engine and at least one programmer, and that's more than most 3D fangames get at all.

I'm guessing the plan is to follow the surreal style of the Genesis games as well, am I correct?
What abilities should Sonic have?
How are these levels going to look? And by that I mean from a layout perspective, it seems to me like there are only a few times where newer levels have had much in common with the older levels.

One issue in particular is bottomless pits. They form an effective level boundary, but seem out of place in a Sonic game, especially in the amounts that we've seen in the past. This problem can be solved by making the levels essentially valleys, but we can't do that the whole game. Emerald Coast's fences helped keep the player from running to their death, so that's an option.

 

The only thing I have to say if you ever start your new 3D game is please don't make it so you have to control the camera with the mouse, I hate when 3D Sonic fan games do that. -.-"

 

^Good god that sounds like a nightmare to control for a Sonic game. D:

If you can make a 3D Sonic where momentum has to be built up via level design and or spindash, and not by simply running long enough in a straight line, I can die happy.

You've already got the right idea with no insta-kill water. I've (and I'm sure many, many others) been saying this for years, let Sonic drown properly and give the player a chance to redeem his or herself.

 

Here's a novel idea: what if any levels with lots of edge pits are build like half-pipes? If you run off the edge, you can easily reenter the stage.

Alternatively, design stages vertically, without real edges- if you were to walk off a bridge, you land in an earlier section of level. This wouldn't work everywhere, but it might be good for many otherwise troublesome areas.


Also: do you want me to do some textures? I can't do high detail, but I can create nicely surreal things that would work in a classic environment. PNGs, so if you use a specific texture format, you have to convert them yourself.

 

Example textures. They're PNGs, so you WILL need to convert them to the texture format you're using.

Tropical Island cliché:


Ground.


Soil.


Sand.


Beach towels, etc.


Wood.

 

Uh.. Gradients, and solid colors are not textures.

You need to get some detail in there, regardless if your going for classic style. This game will have better graphics than Sonic 06 by far, and solid colors just don't do it.

Here's a good example. It keeps the classic feel, while giving it a next gen look that's very pleasing to the eyes.




Edit, fixed link.

 

Take two at two of them:


Fuzzy towels


Grassy... grass.

Also, I need help on the wood:

 

If you need some quick textures, here's a donation of my older work:

 

Working with what you gave me. Fairly easy to do if you have Photoshop. Just adding noise to it and then motion blurring it vertically. Tweaked the color a bit.

Bing, bang, boom. :P Also this might not be a bad idea to check out, for future reference.

 

Thank you. I'll be getting to work on the others in a bit.

Also, what are people's opinions of the fixed grass/towels?

 

Mm, I dunno, the towels could use some more pronounced....fuzziness. Try adding a bit more noise to it, and then blur it. You should come out with a more fuzzy look.

The grass looks fine, but you may want to add more 'grassy-ness' to it. (Honestly, I like Jeztac's grass texture. Looks kinda like astro turf, which I think fits Sonic's levels just fine.)

But if you want my advice: I'd say find a nice, solid base pic of grass (google images how I love thee) to work from, and then create a pattern by resizing it, copying, pasting, tweak the color to a shade that's darker/lighter, then paste again until you have a nice checkered pattern going on. Afterwords, it's a good idea to use a slight blurring effect, to blend it together.

There's also a couple of brushes built-in that look like grass, so try both of those and see what you like better.



Google is your friend, if all else fails. There's some great tutorials out there that can explain this shit a lot more coherently that I can.

Good luck.

 

Soil- Take Two


New concept for grass. Maintains surrealism without being as played-out as the checkerboard.


Sand- Take Two


Towel- Take Three

 

<!--quoteo(post=269000:date=Jan 17 2009, 02:42 AM:name=Insanity)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Insanity @ Jan 17 2009, 02:42 AM)
New concept for grass. Maintains surrealism without being as played-out as the checkerboard.[/quote]
It's interesting, I like it, but unfortunately I think we should have something a little less... wild.

 

<!--quoteo(post=269000:date=Jan 17 2009, 07:42 AM:name=Insanity)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Insanity @ Jan 17 2009, 07:42 AM)
New concept for grass. Maintains surrealism without being as played-out as the checkerboard.[/quote]

That looks very busy, even just as a flat texture. It'd probably look quite messy when attached tp a model.

 

<!--quoteo(post=269019:date=Jan 17 2009, 04:26 AM:name=87th)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (87th @ Jan 17 2009, 04:26 AM)
New concept for grass. Maintains surrealism without being as played-out as the checkerboard.[/quote]

That looks very busy, even just as a flat texture. It'd probably look quite messy when attached tp a model.
[/quote]
Maybe we could use it as some sort of fancily-trimmed grass.