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Make me a demo game!

Discussion in 'Mobius Engine Project' started by Gen, Apr 17, 2012.

  1. Candescence

    Candescence

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    Huh. Forgot about Black Knight. Oh, well, at least we have an excuse. I'd personally like to remake Sonic and the Black Knight with less on-rails and more like Devil May Cry (which suits Sonic so much better than, say, God of War).
    Oh, now THERE'S an idea.

    Really, now, making english countryside goodness should be pretty easy, as I said before. Hell, we could even put the level editor through its paces, throw all sorts of neat little secrets all over the map. Make it big enough so we can either free-roam, or go on a more linear a-to-b route in either 3D or 2.5D.
     
  2. This may be slightly off-topic, but I couldn't figure out which thread would be best for the idea. Anyways...

    I was bored and browsing YouTube, when I found a video by BlazeHedgehog. It was a Sonic model going through a TrackMania Nations course. This got me thinking for a bit, and I had a bit of an oddly specific request to make. Would there be any possible way we could import tracks from TrackMania Nations into the engine to play through them as Sonic with all the correct physics and everything? If you think about it, this could make a pretty neat demo for the engine. I mean, look at how many tracks there are already that you could just download, import, and play. They're even racetracks, usually designed to be as bat-shit insane as possible, which seem perfectly designed to match up with Sonic.

    If it helps any, this was the video I was watching: Video. I know this track in particular wouldn't work with Sonic physics, but it gets the general idea across.
     
  3. winterhell

    winterhell

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    If someone knows how to convert the TrackMania stages into COLLADA or some other format that we'll support, why not.
     
  4. Candescence

    Candescence

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    Actually, I'd say it's not worth the effort, unless someone takes it upon themselves to create a track exporter for the hell of it. Trackmania's physics, while wacked out and crazy fun, are quite different from Sonic's.

    It's better to create something original that's designed from the ground-up to work with what we're trying to create.
     
  5. Jayextee

    Jayextee

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    I DONE MAKED GAMES.
    Here's a wacked-out idea for y'all -- make Angel Island Zone to show off.

    Not the entire lot, just before it gets torched; albeit the recognisable features stuck in a vaguely-directional 3D playground. As long as the three loops, rope slide, giant hollow tree trunk, underwater spikepit and the beach intro feature in the right order, the rest of the layout can be something of a physics playground with all the spikes, springs and quarter-pipe you want. And it's short enough an element to withstand a few cooks, I think.
     
  6. Candescence

    Candescence

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    Alright, since we have some good ideas, let's buckle down and gather them into more comprehensive summaries of what the demo could be. I'll take the open landscape idea that's been discussed for the last page or so, and...

    What is the theme of the demo level?

    A rolling English countryside, with trees, rocks, and grass as far as the eye can see. Maybe have some odd rock rock formations that look suspiciously like loops here and there. Plenty of space to run around in, and using the natural environment as a physics playground. Possibly even a lake to either run on top of or take a dip in. If the guys doing assets have time, we could put in some houses, farmland, etc. Something large in scale, but at the same time, can be easily designed, modeled and modified.

    Other potential ideas include: the remains of a castle scattered about the landscape that forms some of the more over-the-top structures. Some streams along with the lake, and maybe even have Little Planet in the sky as a Sonic CD reference.

    The main reason for this theme is because creating such a landscape is relatively easy compared to other themes - the terrain is easy enough to create and edit, allowing for a basic environement for Sonic to run around in, and then there's trees, rocks and grass, not that difficult to make. And we can add other things once we have the basic assets created, for additional content.

    What would make the demo look pretty?
    The huge landscape that extends as far as the eye can see, moving clouds, lots of grass, lighting... Large-scale is a good way to make a level look interesting.

    What hardware should it be targeted for?
    Mid-end hardware, with graphics options for higher-end hardware.

    What gameplay style should it follow?
    A large enough environment could accommodate any style, but my personal preference is Classic-based 3D gameplay, which takes full advantage of the landscape. But we can have 'missions' that change the gameplay style to demonstrate what we want.

    Hell, since Black Knight did that whole countryside thing first, we could even include the option to give Sonic a sword and swing it around. Might be a good way to show off how the engine could do even more than just 'classic' and 'modern'. :v:

    How can we showcase specific feature sets with this demo?
    Well, with good level design, basically. Depends on what said feature sets are.
     
  7. Jayextee

    Jayextee

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    No on Angel Island? I thought you guys liked S3K. It likes you.

    At least give it some consideration over a very un-Soniclike sprawling landscape of laziness.
     
  8. Candescence

    Candescence

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    Well, don't get me wrong, Angel Island Zone isn't a bad idea, but we're trying to make a demo level, not make S3&K 3D, I personally think something simpler would be better for an engine demonstration. That being said, we're gonna have to chose which idea to utilize, we have to stop making up ideas at some point and come to a consensus. :v:
     
  9. Jayextee

    Jayextee

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    I DONE MAKED GAMES.
    My standpoint was that the first part is a small enough area to use as a physics playground, yet recognisable enough to show the potential for making Sonic games with a classic flavour. Something about a large expansive English countryside doesn't really yell 'classic Sonic'. I didn't mean to start remaking S3K, but to suggest something tangible enough to discuss the pros and cons of before continuing.
     
  10. Candescence

    Candescence

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    Well, I understand your point, but we're not aiming for a 'classic' thing, after all, this is a general-purpose engine. Sure, a large, english countryside doesn't sound 'classic', but the idea is something simple and general-purpose, something we can easily create to show off the capabilities of the engine, mechanically and visually, and after the basic terrain is created, we can easily create 'missions' with different object placements and whatnot to demonstrate different gameplay styles, be it 'classic' or 'modern', 3D or 2.5D. And we can include more fantastical elements too if people want them.

    Angel Island Zone doesn't seem nearly as 'malleable' to me, personally, it would be more difficult to accommodate more than one gameplay style for the purposes of the demo.
     
  11. English countryside seems alright to me. Expansive enough for free-roaming areas, and 2D areas seem easy enough to make look good, you just need to move the camera to the side. If you want a Modern-style track, you just put in a road with a fence on either side to represent the sides of the track and where you're not allowed to go. The only thing is, other than random rocks that look like loops, how would you add in all the crazy stage design like corkscrews, huge ramps and jumps, etc.?
     
  12. Azu

    Azu

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    I'd go with Angel Island. Or, you can do both.
     
  13. Candescence

    Candescence

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    Well, you could litter the landscape with remains of, say, a castle that used to exist in the area but is now practically in pieces. Relatively easy to model as well, and could add some variety to the level.
     
  14. Aerosol

    Aerosol

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    Sonic (?): Coming summer of 2055...?
    [​IMG]

    I guess we could do Angel Island. But not only am I more interested in see an English countryside, but I'm also concerned that the lush, jungle flora of Angel Island might be too hard to pull off convincingly, defeating the purpose of a demo meant to show off graphical capabilities.

    Which brings me to my next point. I only mentioned suspicious rock formations in order to solidify the demo as being Sonic related. Anything crazier than a loop really isn't all that necessary for a quick demo. And even if we did throw in some of Sonic's crazier obstacles (like corkscrews), why can't they just be suspicious rock formations too?

    Also, hell yea on a lake. Maybe a couple of streams here and there. We could even go one step further and throw Little Planet up in the sky!

    No? Would that be too much?
     
  15. I don't believe so. Just add models.

    Also... all that I've seen for this is the concept, and I already love it. Good luck with this!
     
  16. You mentioned Little Planet being up in the sky, and I instantly thought of a fully explorable, 3D version of the area shown in the intro of Sonic CD. Maybe we could keep the countryside idea, and just throw in a bunch of little references like that, with the looping trees, and running up the side of a cliff.
     
  17. Candescence

    Candescence

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    Oooh, now THAT is an idea! A few neat details, and we suddenly have a Sonic CD homage. *Adds to summary post*
     
  18. TheInvisibleSun

    TheInvisibleSun

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    This would be excellent. And also quite sufficient for a physics-test level.
     
  19. Andrew75

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    Why not make the showcase environment simple?
    Does it necessarily need to be a full themed level with rolling hills and mountains or even Angel island ?!
    I think areas such as these should stay to the main game , and not to a test level.

    You'll be working on it far longer than necessary.
    Perhaps you could have a hill here and there if thats what you wanted to test.

    I think the best thing you guys could do is first make a list of what you want to see in the game,
    than make 1 of each type of play-field asset and lay them out in order so that sonic can easily access each of them quickly for testing and or showcasing.

    Also if you want to test out graphical effects,,
    If it were me, I'd use some simple spheres with the graphical effects applied,
    than place them in a small room, and have sonic run around the room to view them.
    Simple and quick....


    Also have you guys figured out what scales you'll be modeling in ?
    If it were me, id use the default 3DS max units and set the grid spacing to 1.
    than set up the game engine's units to the same size as 1 max unit.
    And I recommend staying away from measurements such as meters ect. As I've seen with GDK , and a few other engines.
    There were no default standard for modeling levels and translating them to the game engine's units system.
    many assets were usually scaled differently, causing more work getting assets to line up in the engine for the guy setting up assets within the engine.

    anyways working with my green hill level here,
    1 Sonic texture pixel = 1 3DS max unit = 1 game engine unit = best advise I can give.
    this will also help keep everything in sync, like sonic's height relative to level props and play-field assets that he plays on.
    as well as jump height and run speed going across the play-field asset like a loop.
    (for those who care about proper playtimes, ( or correct play feeling) if they wanted to recreate an older level and have it feel correct.)
    The scale will also effect the way the physics feal as well. (if your going to do a 2.5D Sonic) scale is more important than you man think.


    [​IMG]
     
  20. Aerosol

    Aerosol

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    Sonic (?): Coming summer of 2055...?
    I'm pretty sure that the demo is supposed to showcase the engine's graphical capabilities. Wasn't that why we were talking about having those rolling hills to begin with? Besides, I think you're overestimating how much work it takes to create that kind of terrain. Grossly, in fact.

    We're not talking about a fully-themed level. We're talking about using a terrain generator to get some hills, filling it with grass with a realistic grass rendering thingy (sorcery), and putting a couple of loops here and there to play with the physics a bit.