Firstly, I want to say that I'm starting this thread, because I don't wanna hijack someone's existing thread with my abundance of material. So, without further ado. Alright, I'll start with the title screen Once you press start, you come to the character select... of course, in the final version the tornado and clouds should be animated After you select your character(s), the screen will pan, and present the level select. Like S3&K though, you can only select levels visited. once you select one, the tornadow with your previously selected characters will fly to that zone Now, here's where it gets a bit off from 16bit sonic... there's two paths (kinda like original starfox). If you've noticed in the animated GIF above, there's a top series of levels, and a bottom series of levels (the last two occur in both series). But before I continue on that. let me give a bit of a backstory on the game itself. STORY: After the events in S&K, robotnik has revisited Angel Island and finds it to be prime real estate. The once serene floating island, is now littered with construction, budding cities, and robotniks laboratories, and badniks on the lookout. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles have hidden the emeralds even deeper within the island... but robotnik is on a mission to find them, while he pushes out all the wildlife off the island (as well as Knuckles' home). Level 1: Endangered Island - Act 1: Mostly forest (similar to S3 - AIZ) - Act 2: Forrest, but with an occasional building and under-construction highways - Boss A: Robotnik Crane (I will post pics later) - Boss B: Robotnik Drill Dropper (I will post pics later) If you approach Boss A, you will go the top route If you approach Boss B, you will go the bottom route TOP ROUTE: Level 2: Cement City Zone - Act 1: Construction theme (like OOZ but much more yellow, orange, black and gray) - Act 2: Same (slight alterations - more indoor) - Boss: Cement Mixer (I have sketches of the boss layout and mechanics... mock-up comming soon) Level 3: Topside cliffs Zone - Act 1: moutain theme (vertically mirrored version of Underside Cliff Zone) Level 4: Waterfall Mines Zone - Act 1: A vertically biased zone. Sonic is traveling DOWN a mineshaft - Boss: Robotnik Excavator (pic below) Some explanation on this one. Drills pop out on both sides (mostly facing up) when one drills down below sonic has the opportunity to hit one of the drills. The giant orbs you see are from S3&Ks bonus round, and act similarly here. Sonic can travel up the Waterfall by pressing "jump" similar to Sandopolis Zone in S&K. Each drill has 2 hit-points. Once all drills are destroyed, Robotnik zooms down... where the level transitions to Emerald Archive (Read past "Bottom Route") BOTTOM ROUTE: Level 2: Medical Mecha Zone - Act 1: Lab setting (similar to Metropolis Zone) The background needs some more work. Anyway, there's a theme in this zone. In the picture you see, it's a machine that's largely unavoidable. when you enter it, it charges up and sonic has "something extracted" and it shoots him off onto another path (similar to the tubes in Metropolis Zone, but more complex). These devices play into this Zone's boss (read on). - Act 2: Deeper into the lab's bowels... more machinery in the background. - Boss: Gene Sequencer (animated mock-up coming soon) You can see the obviously-DNA looking thing. Robotnik places dark orbs in place of the blue ones, and every time sonic hits a dark orb, it turns blue. the gravity is oriented sideways (similar to the large machine in S&K - Death Egg Zone). There's no specific hit points required, and there's no way to take damage as sonic. However, if the DNA orbs become all dark, Sonic dies. If the orbs become all blue, sonic defeats robotnik. Colors of orbs change depending on character (knuckles, red. Tails, orange Level 3: Underside Cliffs Zone - Act 1: Vertically Mirrored level layout from Topside Cliff Zone (although minor adjustments made so the level is playable) Now, I know you're thinking, "Fuck that... that's an entire level of bottomless pits!" Not so much. a majority of the level will take place alongside the tops and inside the upside-down mountain things. only the VERY bottom of the course is a bottomless pit. Level 4: Flooding Mines Zone - Act 1: Similar in function of Waterfall Mines only this level is a race to the top. Robotnik caps the naturally draining bottom of the mineshaft and the water level constantly rises. You get to the top by a combination of regular springs and platforms and the "Chaos Colliders" (I guess that's what I'm calling those orbs), which are from S3&K's bonus level, and act simialr in function. Once you reach the top, robotnik awaits. - Boss: Robotnik Excavator Water level stops rising. Robotnik drills up, causing platforms to fall from the ceiling. So far, I'm debating on other hazards that may fall as well. Here You can see the machine with some of the drills destroyed and some platforms dropped. The platforms float in the water, but only for one or two seconds and drop down. Each drill has 2 Hit-points, and once all drills are destroyed, Robotnik zooms upward. A warp (like those from S&K - Sky Sanctuary) beams sonic up to Emerald Archive Zone. Level 5: Emerald Archive - Act 1 This screen shot is pretty much the whole level. it's also where you warp to when you enter a giant ring (without robotnik's excavator, of course). This "level" is pretty much a cut-scene of robotnik stealing all the emeralds. Danger Run-Way Zone (working title) - Act 1: Airport terminal theme - Act 2: Runway theme. Lots of straighways with enemies to hit, air battle background in-game cutscenes... the game's revving up for it's ending. Sky Bridge Zone - 45 degree upward biased level. Sonic generally must fight gravity as he travels up robotnik's skybridge (a death egg zone themed space-elevator structure). there are flat areas. and the level is not completely running upward at 45 degrees. but it is BIASED upwards, that's the general direction sonic will be heading. Orbital Trash Yard (Final Boss, if all emeralds are collected) - First few segments have Sonic/tails/knuckles collecting plenty of abundant rings.... This level is set in space, and there's many "broken" badniks and other space trash, falling vertically up or down between platforms. there's also gaps where rings float up or down in place of the space trash. once enough rings are collected (at least 50) the final battle between robotnik and sonic begins. The final boss is very similar to the Doomsday Zone... only in addition to meteors, there's badniks and other space trash (and rings) orbiting as well. THE END I know it's a long post... comments, suggestions, flammings, reactions?
A few extra details I want to add. In the Medical Mecha Zone Boss, I was thinking it would be cool if sonic had a pallet change from dark sonic/shadow to his regular form as he fights the boss. If you look in the background there's a picture of sonic with %DNA. It'd be cool if the pallet change was proportional to the orbs converted in color. the levels after Danger Run-way are still being worked out in my head (and in my sketchpad). More mock-up screens are on the way. EDIT: similarly, I want to emphasize the character selection screen. Although, it's kinda screwed up at the moment. The character in the cockpit would be the main character, whereas the one on the wings is the follower. this way, there's a distinction with more subtle possibilites (Knuckles following Sonic Vs Sonic following Knuckles). that would be a cool aesthetic feature.
Speaking of colors, these mock-ups were done in photoshop... so I'm aware of palette issues (some "screens" were saved in 16bit color, but they turned out crappy) If this were to actually become a reality, palettes would be pretty key to replicate the quality of these mock-ups for Gen hardware (unless this were to be a 32x hack). I've been doodling mock-sonic-levels since '06, and only since I've found this site and forum have I been hauling ass creating pixel art versions of these bosses/concepts.
This looks really cool, I wish you luck with it. The zones aren't your normal Sonic cliche's (in design, or in order of presentation) which is refreshing. Having some of them with "mirror images" later on is an interesting idea, too. I especially like the Underside Cliffs, I've wanted to see a zone like this since the floating continents in the OVA (and Glacia in Skies of Arcadia). The title screen / level menu concept is also good work.
I'm in love with the level select mock up. Sounds like good ideas for fangame (and, why not, a hack - would be VERY hard, but I don't think it should be unachieveable, only maybe for color limits, but I don't know about pallet stuff). Good luck implementing them.
Why are there 12 emeralds? Looks pretty sweet though. I'll give it a whirl when you release something.
So uh, what progress has been done besides mock-ups and concepts? It really does sound like you have some fantastic ideas, matey. But do change the name. What you have now is terrible.
The ideas are exceptional, and unique. I really, really hope you do turn this into a fan game because it seems to have a lot of potential.
I want to clarify that these are Ideas/Concepts. Seriously, steal them. I say this because while I have no Rom hacking experience, I would like to take stabs at it... unfortunately, I'm running on a mac (kinda regret it these days), and there are close to nill utilities that run on OS X. I've looked at, and tried to study the rom hacking guides, but without some utilities to get some hands-on experience... I'm really powerless as to what I can achieve hacking wise. Also, I wouldn't know where to start with any other languages... since, my programming skills are pretty weak. But seriously, I put these out for everyone here because if I cannot contribute here with hacking skills or music composing, then I'd like contribute with my strong points: Ideas, direction, and artistic skills. So if you're mega-inspired by what you see of mine, cherry pick from it and put them in your own hacks. I struggled over the name for a while. I can't call it "sonic 4" that's too arrogant. Similarly, names like, "Sonic: The Final Fight", "Sonic & Knuckles & Tails", "Sonic: Hates Eggman" are just tacky (obviously my examples are). Also, single word titles and random letters after the title... those are also over used "Sonic 2: expanded plus DXZY (shadow edition)" So, I'm open to different titles... but I just kept it simple with what I've temporarily chosen Maybe, knuckles found some more.
Probably because CHARACTER can't pick you up and carry you around like TAILS can, that's what I'm betting. Sonic/Knuckles as a partner wouldn't really be all that beneficial.
I really like how you used "Allies" instead of "Friends" in your title. E02 has a Windows port (it was DOS, remember), Mac port, Wii port, and PSP port.
Yeah E06 does have a mac port... I played around with it for a total of 5 minutes, but I kinda forgot about the program... Currently, Mercury and I are collaborating, and working out the kinks of the game design and looking to make a finished game. As always, updates will occur over time. Also, the title has been changed to simply "Sonic Allies" EDIT: I would assume that once this project gets out of the concept stage... there will be a new thread posted in the reverse engineering board
