Original Project Discussion Thread Initial concepts, contributions, and material
#61
Posted 18 July 2008 - 10:18 PM
If anything, when it comes to Sonic, Speed is the game of Sonic, thus Time-Attacks are more accepted rather than a Score Attack, which is more within Mario's Realm. If the idea of a Time-Attack is offered for this idea, I'm sure it would be well accepted since its within the concept of Sonic itself. Yes, score attack would added replay ability, but if the point of a Sonic game is to go fast, and you need to seek and combo multiple enemies, then you basically cut out the speed factor since you need to look around for enemies to combo on. Its a concept that isn't for Sonic, which is a speeding platforming character.
#62
Posted 18 July 2008 - 10:22 PM
Yeah, getting top ranks was a lot more difficult than the 50 ring or "X time to complete" challenges. I think that a challenge to destroy as many badniks as possible a la Shadow in Heroes isn't too bad though, but in the newer games since death means "Good bye A-rank" there's a lot of annoying right there (especially because of the occasional cheap death).
#66
Posted 19 July 2008 - 02:38 AM
#67
Posted 19 July 2008 - 02:40 AM
Basically, I have now successfully demonstrated TWICE how an idea can be shot down for "Not being Sonic" when (a) it is and (b) in actuality it wouldn't change the core gameplay one bit; it would just be an extra for those who would like that sort of thing. 
Whatever.
Whatever.
#68
Posted 19 July 2008 - 02:43 AM
Tweaker, on Jul 19 2008, 02:38 AM, said:
How much leadership do you think any other community project will have? And short of leading it yourself (if I'm not mistaken, you are still working on Megamix revision 4), how do you honestly feel about the current people who are suggesting it running this show?
#69
Posted 19 July 2008 - 02:45 AM
QUOTE (Phoebius @ Jul 18 2008, 11:23 AM) [post="208056"]
Background originally made in a great hoax from "I don't remember the name sorry".
Everything was from some games.
2:

What I did, in 95% from scratch. It has the same feeling, the sonic spirit, but it is totally original.
[/quote]Reminds me of an old background I did. :P

Anyway, if anything can be done, I'll help.

Background originally made in a great hoax from "I don't remember the name sorry".
Everything was from some games.
2:

What I did, in 95% from scratch. It has the same feeling, the sonic spirit, but it is totally original.
[/quote]Reminds me of an old background I did. :P

Anyway, if anything can be done, I'll help.
This post has been edited by Sparks: 19 July 2008 - 02:47 AM
#70
Posted 19 July 2008 - 02:49 AM
DimensionWarped, on Jul 19 2008, 03:43 AM, said:
Tweaker, on Jul 19 2008, 02:38 AM, said:
How much leadership do you think any other community project will have? And short of leading it yourself (if I'm not mistaken, you are still working on Megamix revision 4), how do you honestly feel about the current people who are suggesting it running this show?
The leadership depends on the community project. The bulk of this project will be split into two main stages—one half will be studying design and laying down concepts, and the other half will be bringing it to life. All it takes is someone willing to be firm and establish those concepts to the point where they're more or less set in stone.
As for people who are suggesting leading, we talked in IRC, and I would be very comfortable with Hivebrain and Jayextee leading the project. Both are knowledgable of Sonic formulas and concepts; one from the technical side, and one from the design side. Their skills would complement each other nicely in determining how things should be laid out. Other suggestions would, of course, be considered from the outside, but for the most part they'd concretely decide what stays and what goes.
As for myself, yes, I'm focusing on Megamix 4, but that won't stop me from being interested in this idea as well.
#71
Posted 19 July 2008 - 02:50 AM
I'm all in favor for this fangame to be created, but there are a few things I'd like to specify on what I believe would have to be done in order to make a game that would follow S3K. First of all, not only are you going to need the basic things like spindash and such, but you will need new things as well. Usually with every fangame, it just takes things from the other games and doesn't create many new things. Jenna has a good idea with the ice sheild. It sort of follows the advancing of the Sonic games.
Also, this game will have to be coded in a much more complex way than I believe people expect. If you notice, for example, the progression of the way bosses are coded. In Sonic 1, the bosses followed simple routines, moving in simple patterns, a lot of the time across the screen. In Sonic 2, things got more complicated, giving the bosses more complicated routines, which made them more difficult, fun, and overall better in my opinion. In Sonic Three and Knuckles, the bosses were very complex. Think about it, in Marble Garden Zone, the boss would fly across the screen (if you were Sonic) and Tails would have to catch you. Right before that, the ground had to disappear, and before that there was a section where the whole level changed, all by changing the chunk mappings on the fly with uncompressed ones. See how it's getting more complicated?
Also, each game finds a better way to code the objects and their routines. For example, in the bosses of S3K, there is a test to check if the boss was hit in it's main and primary routine. Just another way of advancing everything.
I'm posting this just to let you know you're going to have to be, not only extremely smart with the sonic coding, but very original as well.
Also, this game will have to be coded in a much more complex way than I believe people expect. If you notice, for example, the progression of the way bosses are coded. In Sonic 1, the bosses followed simple routines, moving in simple patterns, a lot of the time across the screen. In Sonic 2, things got more complicated, giving the bosses more complicated routines, which made them more difficult, fun, and overall better in my opinion. In Sonic Three and Knuckles, the bosses were very complex. Think about it, in Marble Garden Zone, the boss would fly across the screen (if you were Sonic) and Tails would have to catch you. Right before that, the ground had to disappear, and before that there was a section where the whole level changed, all by changing the chunk mappings on the fly with uncompressed ones. See how it's getting more complicated?
Also, each game finds a better way to code the objects and their routines. For example, in the bosses of S3K, there is a test to check if the boss was hit in it's main and primary routine. Just another way of advancing everything.
I'm posting this just to let you know you're going to have to be, not only extremely smart with the sonic coding, but very original as well.
#72
Posted 19 July 2008 - 02:54 AM
Tweaker, on Jul 19 2008, 02:49 AM, said:
DimensionWarped, on Jul 19 2008, 03:43 AM, said:
Tweaker, on Jul 19 2008, 02:38 AM, said:
How much leadership do you think any other community project will have? And short of leading it yourself (if I'm not mistaken, you are still working on Megamix revision 4), how do you honestly feel about the current people who are suggesting it running this show?
The leadership depends on the community project. The bulk of this project will be split into two main stages—one half will be studying design and laying down concepts, and the other half will be bringing it to life. All it takes is someone willing to be firm and establish those concepts to the point where they're more or less set in stone.
As for people who are suggesting leading, we talked in IRC, and I would be very comfortable with Hivebrain and Jayextee leading the project. Both are knowledgable of Sonic formulas and concepts; one from the technical side, and one from the design side. Their skills would complement each other nicely in determining how things should be laid out. Other suggestions would, of course, be considered from the outside, but for the most part they'd concretely decide what stays and what goes.
As for myself, yes, I'm focusing on Megamix 4, but that won't stop me from being interested in this idea as well.
If you say so Tweaker, but suffice to say I'll believe it when I see it.
#73
Posted 19 July 2008 - 03:01 AM
Tweaker, on Jul 19 2008, 03:38 AM, said:
Ouch! Guess I'm falling out of favor around here (If I'm one of those three people implied).
#74
Posted 19 July 2008 - 03:05 AM
I first suggest that we have a leader as well as a few "creative minds" underneath them to shuffle through the shitstorm of ideas we'll no doubt accumulate to sift out the gold.
#75
Posted 19 July 2008 - 03:15 AM
Tweaker, on Jul 19 2008, 08:49 AM, said:
As for people who are suggesting leading, we talked in IRC, and I would be very comfortable with Hivebrain and Jayextee leading the project. Both are knowledgable of Sonic formulas and concepts; one from the technical side, and one from the design side. Their skills would complement each other nicely in determining how things should be laid out. Other suggestions would, of course, be considered from the outside, but for the most part they'd concretely decide what stays and what goes.
Well I would be up to the challenge, despite being vocal about my opting out on IRC.
My main point of contestation though, is the fact that everybody who wishes to become involved in such a project are all coming at it as Sonic fans, many of which entered the series at different points. Ergo, there are a lot of different perceptions as to what a Sonic game "is" and these should be left right at the door from the outset; this has to be approached with an open mind, and to look at the entire series (Or, if it is agreed upon, just the 16-bit era or whatever; though I would advise against this narrow view as a fair few subsequent Sonic games have done things well) from "outside the box".
As a result, research must be done; understanding the key themes which define Sonic is one of the most important things. After all, what good is a car without
Of course, I fully anticipate some wag piping up: "We don't have to re-invent the wheel..." -- Oh, but we do. Sonic isn't merely about a cartoon rodent who runs fast, otherwise the formula would have been easy as fuck to imitate, and you can't tell me how Speedy Gonzales or Plok! rocked the gaming scene and knocked Sonic off the top spot, because they didn't (Although Plok! was a decent game, it simply wasn't Sonic).
If this is to be done properly, it is to be done properly.

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