[Afr0Blu3]

I've decided to try and make a Sonic RPG in my spare time. No, I've got gone crazy! I figure if BioWare can do it, what's to stop one of us? The game is in it's very early stages at the moment, but I thought I would gauge people's reactions to the idea, even at this early point., as such, I present...


Sonic, Knuckles and Tails in a test screen from the Green Hill Zone

Gameplay Elements
The game would play like a traditional SNES RPG. Think Final Fantasy VI and you're pretty much there. Some of Sonic's famous gimmicks will be included though to give the game the right flavour. This does mean turn based battles, but I honestly think I can make this work. Enemies such as the freezing rays in Ice Cap will cause Frozen status effects, bosses will have defined patterns with set strategies etc.

The weapons will also reflect each individual character, for example, Sonic's weapon upgrades concern his shoes, Knuckles' concerns his gloves, etc.

Plot Synopsis
Without giving too much away, this game occurs after Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Knuckles Chaotix and the gang are familiar with Nack/ Fang. The plot involves The Chaotix, Silver Sonic, Metal Sonic and Mecha Sonic (known as Metal Sonic Proto, Metal Sonic Mk I and Metal Sonic Mk II in the game), Emperor Metallix from the Fleetway comics, and Project Chaotix (who some people seem to call Metal Sonic Kai - I'll stick with Project Chaotix), as well as, of course, Robotnik.

The plot will also include characters from Sonic the Fighters, SegaSonic Arcade and potentially other spin off titles, however, this game should be considered to exist within it's own canon as opposed to official canon and may borrow elements from Fleetway's Sonic the Comic, and Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics. (I promise there will be no Sally, Bunnie, Antoine or Rotor though)

That's as much as I'm willing to say at the moment.

Playable Characters
The following playable characters are confirmed. Each will fill a specific role in the party, essentially you'll be Team Sonic and Team Chaotix throughout the majority of the game.
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Miles "Tails" Prower
- Knuckles the Echidna
- Espio the Chameleon
- Mighty the Armadillo
- Charmy Bee
- Vector the Crocodile

I am considering making other Sega characters cameo as Summons, including Ristar, The Bonanza Bros and Sketch Turner but I'll see if it interferes too much with the game.

Locations
At this point in time I can confirm the following locations will be present in the game. Expect more to be announced!
- Green Hill Zone
- Marble Garden Zone
- Chemical Plant Zone
- Aquatic Ruin Zone
- Mystic Cave Zone
- Angel Island Zone
- Ice Cap Zone
- Hidden Palace Zone
- Sky Sanctuary Zone
- Death Egg Zone
- Special Zone
- Newtrogic High Zone

Graphics
I'd love to pretend these aren't the most important thing to some people, but I would be fooling myself. Naturally, for battle backgrounds and in battle sprites there are a plethora of rips available, some of which I am slightly editing or reworking.

Metal Sonic's sprites have all been edited as seen above

For the overworld, where most of the game will take place, I am using Zach "Zin" Furr's overworld sprites (although so far I can only find the front facing for most characters, I've only tracked down side and walking poses for Sonic, Knuckles and Tails at the time of writing this), which I am revamping by recolouring with game accurate colours and reshading.

An example of what I am doing with Zach's sprites, his originals are the top row, my edits are the bottom

For the maps, I am making the graphics from scratch, heavily referencing rips from the actual zones.

A sample of the Green Hill tiles I have made so far, you can see how they look when put together in the screenshot at the start of this post

So, why should you care?
Well, I'm trying to make a fun, interesting and engaging game for fans of the blue blur in a different genre, one that Sonic is supposedly incompatible with. If that doesn't tickle the fancies of at least some of you, something is seriously wrong!

This post has been edited by Afr0Blu3: 05 July 2011 - 06:09 PM

[MegaDash]

Cool. That's two fan-RPGs in the works. You'll be competing with the other one styled after Earthbound.

My recommendations? Do something about the two-color grass texture pattern. It's painful to look at and a little bland. Consider darkening it or coming up with a different pattern. It seems to me like an overhead-perspective RPG looks and lends itself much better to darker colors with some contrast, but not a lot, citing my examples from, well, Final Fantasy games and Breath of Fire among others. The Sonic games are super-bright and colorful, so that will be a very interesting translation. I don't mind if the game is bright or anything, but it should be well-balanced and not repetitive or excessive.

My other recommendation is to start someplace other than GHZ, as that's painfully predictable and already too much like Sonic Chronicles (ugh). You know how Super Mario RPG started in Bowser's Castle and then went to Mario's house? Something like that. To go with that, I'd recommend setting specific places within the zones that have something special about them and warrant an unique name. Perhaps you could delegate each zone as a sub-world map with unique locations to visit, like somebody's house or Robotnik's base or a spooky cave or something. I'd also like to see some special side-quest zones or areas like Toxic Caves or Sky Sanctuary with a really awesome set of secret bosses. Cool RPG shit like that.

With all that, best of luck to you man. I've always wanted a great Sonic RPG to match up to the likes of SMRPG or Final Fantasy, so maybe I'll find its made by the fans if not by SEGA.

This post has been edited by MegaDash: 05 July 2011 - 06:39 PM

[Neo Hazard]

I've seen tons of Sonic fan RPGs sprout up and never really make it outside of the first demo or too. That being said, it looks like you've given this some thought, which is more than what can be said for a lot of people that jump into RPG Maker. Echoing the above post, I like the sprites except for the grass. It's killer on the eyes, although I can't really recommend how to change it other than using darker colors.

I can't really comment on much else, but I hope to see more from this soon. Best of luck to you!

This post has been edited by Neo Hazard: 05 July 2011 - 07:35 PM

[snow toilet]

These RPG ideas should be used more.
Let's face it, we haven't seen an excellent Sonic based RPG (action or turn based) yet and these are becoming to be something to take inspiration from.

However, how many more times do we need to see GHZ?
What about Emerald Hill or Emerald Coast?
Even Isolated Island?
Maybe an original.

Still, I'm looking forward to Sonic based RPG's to come.

[Afr0Blu3]

It's good to know there's a strong interest in this! I honestly was expecting a "Oh great, ANOTHER Sonic RPG in RPG Maker, kill me now" attitude, so that's certainly refreshing =)

On the subject of the Green Hill Zone, the game starts on South Island and you later gain access to West Side Island, the Floating Island etc, the actual first area where the game opens is a derelict Scrap Brain Zone as Sonic and Tails investigate a recent influx of badniks. As it's been abandoned for quite some time, there are fewer badniks and many of the traps no longer work etc so it would make a decent introductory area. After this they return to the Green Hill Zone.

I'm making Green Hill first simply because it has the iconic Sonic look, everyone recognises it and I felt it would be the most effective way to say "Hey guys, the game should look something like this".

Speaking of which, I've now done the sprites for the flowers, trees and water. (As far as the grass goes, I realise I need to do something with it, but I'm struggling to decide what that something is, all the colours in the map are taken directly from rips of the actual zone, so it's as accurate a palette as it can be. Got to break it up and give it volume without sacrificing that or the simplicity of the map graphics)

[MegaDash]

Much nicer screenshot, what with the water being present. And the premise sounds good too.

This screenshot does however remind me of something else I noticed: there's some weird perspective-illusion shenanigans in the layout. That vertical path looks like it should be a cliffside with a ladder, for instance. Making actual bridges from that angled top-down perspective look convincing might be tricky.

[Mykonos]

I almost want to suggest that you insert checkered patches among the ground a la Sonic Generations to help break up the monotony, but it could become easy for a player to confuse that with a cliffside. Maybe make the checkers smaller if that route were to be taken? You could help make the ground more than two lines of grass while still being faithful to GHZ that way.

Regardless, I'm always excited for Sonic RPGs, if only because I think it's a great concept that's never been explored enough, and I like what you're going for here.

[True Dude]

This looks cool, but I've never been a fan of turn-based RPG's. Still hoping for someone to make a game that plays like LoZ and Crusader of Centy. (Yes there's Sonic MADventure, but that's more of a parody than an actual game)

[Dark Sonic]

This looks cool, but I've never been a fan of turn-based RPG's. Still hoping for someone to make a game that plays like LoZ and Crusader of Centy. (Yes there's Sonic MADventure, but that's more of a parody than an actual game)

Sonic MADventure is a wonderful title XD And yes besides some perspective mind fucks all looks well.

[BlackHole]

Damn it, another RPG. Note-to-Self: make projects public earlier...

[Afr0Blu3]

This screenshot does however remind me of something else I noticed: there's some weird perspective-illusion shenanigans in the layout. That vertical path looks like it should be a cliffside with a ladder, for instance.

Ah yes, what I've done (though it can't be seen in that screenshot) to combat this is to add shadows around the bottom of the slope to try and give an illusion of depth, as can be seen below. You also can't walk off the sides of the slopes until you're at the bottom.

I almost want to suggest that you insert checkered patches among the ground a la Sonic Generations to help break up the monotony, but it could become easy for a player to confuse that with a cliffside. Maybe make the checkers smaller if that route were to be taken? You could help make the ground more than two lines of grass while still being faithful to GHZ that way.

This is something I have considered, however, I felt that the maps should look rather simple and approachable. I've seen a lot of amateur RPGs that suffer from what I call 'tile vomit' in an attempt to look detailed, when really they just look cluttered. I also think such tiles would give the player a path to follow and discourage exploration.

This looks cool, but I've never been a fan of turn-based RPG's. Still hoping for someone to make a game that plays like LoZ and Crusader of Centy.

There's a simple reason why this isn't that. I've tried that before, it was pretty nasty! XD My degree was in Games Art & Design, not Programming. I feel most comfortable working with drag and drop engines such as RPG Maker. Also, my familiarity with RM2k3 means I can make it dance to pretty much any tune I want, having done a fully functional Pac Man and a short top down shooter/ horror called Fenrir in the engine.

There's also the issue that, if I were to go that route, I'd just be making a top down Sonic which isn't my goal here.

Damn it, another RPG. Note-to-Self: make projects public earlier...

Y'know what they say, competition is healthy! I did take a look through your topic, really nice stuff! Seems to be RMXP, really like the dual worlds idea and the plot reminds me of a one shot story from Sonic the Comic where they went to an alternate universe with a King Sonic dictating the people. If I remember right, they beat him by figuring if their Super Sonic made Sonic evil, then this alternate universe's Super Sonic should be good. Lemme browse my scans, see if I can find it... Here we are! This guy!



Story was called Mirror Image and was in issue... It was near the end of the run... Issue 168!

I was going to post a full reply in your topic, but the last post was May, I think, and I didn't want to be potentially necro-bumping so soon after arriving! (Not that I plan to necro-bump in the future, but hey)

[BlackHole]

Damn it, another RPG. Note-to-Self: make projects public earlier...

Y'know what they say, competition is healthy! I did take a look through your topic, really nice stuff! Seems to be RMXP, really like the dual worlds idea and the plot reminds me of a one shot story from Sonic the Comic where they went to an alternate universe with a King Sonic dictating the people. If I remember right, they beat him by figuring if their Super Sonic made Sonic evil, then this alternate universe's Super Sonic should be good. Lemme browse my scans, see if I can find it... Here we are! This guy!



Story was called Mirror Image and was in issue... It was near the end of the run... Issue 168!

I was going to post a full reply in your topic, but the last post was May, I think, and I didn't want to be potentially necro-bumping so soon after arriving! (Not that I plan to necro-bump in the future, but hey)

...It seems you've got me mixed up entirely |3 I say private because I've only shown a couple of concept ideas in Doodles. That RPG is a different game.

[Steven M]

Ah yes, what I've done (though it can't be seen in that screenshot) to combat this is to add shadows around the bottom of the slope to try and give an illusion of depth, as can be seen below. You also can't walk off the sides of the slopes until you're at the bottom.

The wall on the right is darker toned to give the impression it's in the shade. With that and the shadow-toned grass it seems odd that the other walls still use the brighter palette. I think if those other three walls were also darker toned it would greatly help the illusion of depth in your picture.

[Afr0Blu3]

Oh sorry, I thought you were the guy behind the Earthbound-like Sonic RPG!

Well, this is embarrassing... Sorry! ^^;