Project AXSX Side team!

Hey Andrew, I think Hydro Garden may work since Aqua has been kinda overused a bit.

I suggest that you could go for a Misty Lake without ruins and mist feel for that stage. Fields and pools by the side, maybe that'd make way for good 3D underwater platforming? :D though that'd make it quite flat. Do play around :D

 

I think the hardest part is blending the batshit nature of the level design and visuals of a potential Sonic X-treme with a story. Like in the cutscenes is the world normal or is it set in the crazy gravity fisheye style? Is there a story reason for how wacky and alien the levels are compared to more grounded Sonics before it? I personally like the direction.

I would avoid the "date" idea, the planetary death egg idea, and scrap the part about Eggman blowing up the master emerald because Chaos happens in Adventure. I feel it would be fun to connect the "6 mysterious figures" from the emerald plot with the Zeti and Lost Hex somehow, completing the circle of speculation when we first saw how X-treme Lost World was looking at the first reveal. The VR and poison ideas are a bit silly, but VR would make sense of the world and poison could make Sonic hallucinate the nature of the worlds like a bad acid trip only to right itself in the end.

Though it's not like Robotnik hasn't blown the planet into chunks, distorted reality, or messed with space time before. Maybe he toys with gravity in this one, just not with a Jupiter sized Death Egg.

 

That would be super easy! Metal Sonic is already in there, but I could definitely slip Nack in as well. Maybe he was in one of Eggman's ships that shoots down Sonic at the beginning, and acts as a guard at Gazebo's home guarding the remaining Rings of Order.

The final say in the story is entirely up to you. I'm more than willing to figure out a way to incorporate your previous story elements! I just want to make sure we don't run the risk of putting too much minutia into the plot that makes it move into convoluted territory.

The risk with adhering to vanilla ideas of STI's story concepts are that most of them were just bad... but I think if elements of your ideas and their ideas were combined together, a nice, simple, fun story can come out without leaning too far into AoStH territory, or conversely, Sonic '06 territory on the opposite side of the spectrum. Brevity and simplicity are the keys to efficiency

 

As long as your team says Metal Sonic, Nack, and Tiara are part of the story I'm interested in whichever direction you choose. Having her as an NPC in your game will make it that much easier to make her own game using her scrapped playable character mode as a prequel or sequel spinoff.

 

So everyone knows I'm probably going to be involved in this as an animator. I'm planning on Saturn style cgi fmv cutscenes.

 

Andrew's given me the opportunity to manage the day-to-day operations of the Story Team so he can focus on the game design. I'll be going to him to make sure we're moving in the direction that he has envisioned for the project, but in terms of organization and figuring out what needs done on the story end of things, I'll be the one who will be keeping track of progress for you guys, so feel free to PM me with any questions

I'll be setting up a system of communication for the team and documents that everyone will be able to access so that way everyone will be on the same page, and so we can keep confusion and frustration to a minimum. Team Members can expect PM's with the information early next week.

Speaking of team members, We're needing storyboard artists! Andrew and I will be establishing the plot over the next week or so, and afterwards will be working on writing the individual scenes. While that is taking place, storyboard artists, feel free to either post your interest here (preferably with links to your portfolio for reference) or PM me with that information.

While it's awesome for tons of people to join, we're going to try and focus only on volunteers who will be able to help on a consistent basis, and be counted on to deliver quality work (and not disappear on us). Don't worry, I know life can get busy and schedules can get hectic, so we won't be having any harsh deadlines of any kind, but we're looking for people that can produce a consistent amount of work about every month. That's flexible, though, so if you think that you can produce quality work on any timeframe, get a hold of me, we'll work something out. This way we can keep the momentum going. We're going to get the plot as airtight as possible so there's no guesswork, and y'all can do your thing.

Other non-storyboard artist peeps looking to get in on the action, same goes for you! We're gonna be needing a lot of creative people for this project, so if you have something, anything to contribute, just let me know, and we'll find out what we might need your help on

That's awesome to hear :D I'm currently working with Andrew to get a concrete story down, hopefully by Friday we can have something solid. We'll be needing to handle finalizing the plot and getting storyboards started first, and from there we can begin discussing animation I was wanting to ask you, but I wasn't sure how busy you'd be. Glad to have you aboard

 

Hi guys, big fan of what you have all been doing here (and of course all the amazing progress Andrew75 has made on the main parts of the game). Been following Project AXSX for a long time, but never bothered to sign up on the forums here until now.

I'd love to offer my services to helping on the side team, it's essentially the main reason I signed up. I'm not much of a technical guy, but I think I could help with plot, storyboards, and dialogue, if there is any dialogue. To that end, and with all due respect to the idea TheKazeblade has already put together, I've taken the liberty of drawing up a rough plot. I've done my best to merge all the different stories and use most elements from all of them (except the VR one because it had very little material in the first place, and very little to do with anything else in the other plots or the series overall, except SatAM and the comics). While all these plots seem to have been rejected by Sega, I still think it would be best to try to stick to them as closely as possible, rather than incorporate new elements. I think it really helps the idea that this is finishing what they started, that it will be a mostly accurate recreation, rather than a new project simply inspired by it (though excuse me if this isn't how some of you interpret it). I've made sure that the only time I introduced "new" elements, they were actually just references to the other games (which don't even have to be made very explicit in the actual cutscenes), and that was done to solve the problem of many of the elements from these stories clearly being reused in other games (like ChaosDoom obviously becoming Chaos). At the same time, I think what I have could be expressed without dialogue if that's what you thought was best (I agree with Andrew75's initial notion that it probably would be best). There are a few things about the story I have here that could be easily switched around to be simplified, and to incorporate specific levels and bosses (as of right now I'm not sure exactly how many Zones/Acts there are going to be in the finished game), but I've tried to make it flexible so you guys could shift pieces around but still keep other elements of the story. I can expand on some specific ideas about that later if you want.

Another idea I think might be fun, and I don't know if anyone here has thought of it before, would be to create an instruction manual for the game, one that tries to look and feel like an actual manual for a Saturn game. It could then be packaged in a PDF file or something along with the game. It could help the story be more like the old games (since they had a lot of details that weren't expressed in the visuals of the games themselves), plus, it would probably just be a whole lot of fun and really make the whole thing feel more authentic. Of course, this would probably only be done very close to the end of development, but if you guys were interested, I think that would be a thing I could put together for the project (with input from everyone and following Andrew75's directions, of course).

One other thought I had relates to the storyboard posted on the first page of this topic. Has anyone thought about it perhaps not being part of the opening cutscene? In my idea, it would be closer to the end (I would certainly want to incorporate it, as I think it would be good to use as much of the original material as possible). This could be rearranged, sure, but just something to think about.

But this is my first post here and I'm probably just rambling, so without further ado, here's my basic plot idea.

Spoiler

Sonic is running late for a date with Tiara Boobowski. He eventually finds her, but she has been kidnapped by Robotnik. She is tied up with the Master Emerald above her, releasing a strange vapor onto her. Sonic saves her only to find out both he and Tiara have been infected with the Doom Virus.

Later, Tiara's father, Professor Gazebo Boobowski, explains that he thinks he can cure them with the power of the six Rings of Order, the mystic counterparts to the six Chaos Rings. He and Tiara are experts on Ring Smithing, and he has been studying the Rings of Order and believes he has zeroed in on their approximate locations, a series of small celestial bodies, not unlike Little Planet. Tails, who has come to help his friend, says that he's been working on a teleporter that should be able to zap Sonic to and from the planets, at least once he incorporates the Professor's research and makes some alterations. They retreat to the Professor's lab and soon enough have the teleporter working and ready. It requires both of them to run it, though, so Sonic is sent off by himself on this adventure.

Sonic is zapped to the first planet, but once there, makes a terrifying discovery. Gravity has gone wild, and the planet's inhabitants, called Mips (perhaps rabbit-like creatures in a Mario 64 reference), have been captured by Robotnik and used to power his robots. Sonic looks up to see that Robotnik has rebuilt the Death Egg, larger than ever. Like in Sonic the Fighters, it has planets in its grip, only this time it is simply the Death Egg's huge gravity pulling them into its orbit. Sonic is hardly phased by this, and swiftly begins his quest.

Occasionally, however, Sonic will run into Fang, who has been chasing him in his vehicle, The Marvelous Queen. Fang wants the Rings of Order to sell to the highest bidder, at least as far as Sonic knows.

At some point, Sonic realizes the robots, particularly the bosses, aren't quite acting in Eggman's style, and finds spirits, known as The ChaosDoom, have taken control of all those Eggman's robots. (He can see the fragments of spirits possessing/escaping the robots, particularly bosses, because larger robots take more of their spirit to control or something. It's all visual anyway.) Each member of the ChaosDoom is related to a different element, Fire, Wood, Water, Metal, Lightning, and Stone. Each one is the boss of the level that most relates to their element, and each of the Rings seems to correspond to these elements as well. As he fights each boss, he learns more information about them, as each time they leave the robot, a large flash happens and Sonic is shown a flashback (think Sonic Adventure).

The flashbacks, in multiple parts, tell the story of the ChaosDoom, six monks from the ancient society from which Knuckles descends. Long ago the tribe abused the power of the Chaos Emeralds and unleashed their power, angering the gods and nearly destroying the world. The survivors of the tribe dedicated themselves to Order, the opposite of Chaos, and created the Rings of Order to embody it. Six survivors opposed this, though, they saw the power of Chaos and still wanted to harness it. To this end, they created the Chaos Rings, which could tap into some of the chaos power. They stole the Rings of Order and used the power of the Chaos Rings to scatter them across space, but they were captured and punished. The Chaos Rings were hidden, and their creators, now dubbed the ChaosDoom, were locked inside the Master Emerald with the very chaos they wished to control. The final flashback(s) show them locked in the emerald, which has warped their bodies and granted them powers. They are now spirits, and though it will take them time to escape with the Emerald only slightly damaged, they can spread their influence in the form of the Doom Virus, as well as indirectly take control of non-living beings, robots.

Eventually, Sonic is bringing the final Ring of Order to Professor Boobowski, but something seems off. Tails and Tiara are nowhere to be seen, and the Professor is acting strangely. Sonic figures out it's Eggman! But it's too late, Eggman takes the Ring and springs his trap, a Space Balloon, which captures Sonic and, piloted by Eggman, brings him to the Death Egg. On the way, Eggman shows that he is infected like Sonic and Tiara, and a flashback ensues...

Flashback: Fang delivers the Emerald to Robotnik. Eggman pays him with a big bag with a dollar (or possibly Yen) sign on it, and immediately starts experimenting on the emerald. But in his meddling, he cracks the emerald, and a strange vapor begins to seep out from it. Both Robotnik and Fang are infected with the Doom Virus. Robotnik tells Fang that he has a plan to use Sonic to get a cure, but Fang has had enough of Eggman's plans, and heads off on his own.

Once on board the Death Egg, Robotnik plans to keep Sonic imprisoned so he cannot interfere while he finishes the cure, and so he can watch Sonic slowly suffer the effects of the Doom Virus, as he never intended to share the cure with Sonic or Tiara. As they approach the space station, though, Sonic spindashes the heck out of the computer controlling the Space Balloon, and lands on the Death Egg, but not imprisoned. He'll need to make it across the Death Egg to Eggman's inner fortress.

As Sonic faces off against Eggman in the final battle, he finds it's too late, The ChaosDoom has escaped, and together they all possess and take control of the final boss robot (Eggman either works with them, or they simply overpower him). Sonic defeats them, though, frees his friends, and gives Professor Boobowski the Rings of Order. He performs a short ritual and their power radiates, destroying ChaosDoom, curing everyone of the Doom Virus, and resealing the Master Emerald.

Also, in relation to the bosses being extra large, that can be explained as an effect of ChaosDoom possession. The way I have it described above implies they couldn't possess Fang, but we can shift that around to make it work. Most of that info would only be in a manual anyway, and not in the actual cutscenes, which would just have visuals implying things like possession and the Doom Virus.

So I don't know how far you guys are in developing this specific area, and maybe it's too late to incorporate anything I've said here, but just in case it's not, here are some ideas you can use. I'm very excited for this project, and I'll be sticking around to offer my help in whatever areas I think I might have the skills for (assuming I make it past being a Trial Member).

 

Mind if I ask what needs doing with the story team? I just noticed in the main AXSX topic that apparently it's not very active right now, and here you've mentioned a few things that need doing. I don't know how much I could help with 3D modelling, but things like storyboarding + - (and scripting, as you can see from my very long and far too eager post above)   are very much up my alley. I don't know exactly what you guys are planning for what the story is or how it's to be presented, but from an art standpoint, I think I could lend a hand. I've got the free time right now, anyway.

 

I've sent my story idea in a PM, also, I support the idea of Faseeh helping with music, he's got talent.