[Chaos Fusion]

Update:
SAGE demo has being released.

Yes, another attempt at a Sonic RPG fangame except this time, its an action RPG instead of a turn based rpg, its being made with Gamemaker using the good old(Overused) Sonic Revival engine and its not one of those sprite change single level youtube projects that die quickly.
Well now, to sum it all up, If you hang around on SFGHQ, there's a possibility you would have noticed my project.
Sonic Light and Darkness is pretty much my attempt at making a Sonic RPG with the good old sidescroller gameplay with modern elements and a mix of over world maps to create a good balance of story and gameplay.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

For the story, practically, Dr Eggman (He refers to himself as Robotnik) managed to split the world up into numerous dimensions bubbles separated by a void. Sonic and Friend have to restore each individual bubble before it gets sucked into the void. Due to the condition of the world, Sonic also gets corrupted by the voids power which leads to his new form "Dark Supersonic".

Gameplay is exactly as I mentioned above as it handle like a momentum based Sonic game with modern elements like homing attack(Bubble chains are extremely rare), light dash, boost(nerfed so its not too overpowered) and combo moves when dealing with tougher enemies.
Since this is an RPG, I'm going to include exploration which includes a World Map, Dungeon stages(Hybrid stages) and towns. Towns provide you with shops, your standard Inn to restore your status and side missions which result in more levels and better items to equip as a reward. 1 feature that I've added is Dark Supersonic form which acts as a penalty for abusing Superform during the course of the game. Darkform practically gives you the same benefits as Supersonic except:
1. You have an unstable Ring consumption
2. You can't exit the form
3. Dark form acts as a form of insanity and chaos which means that it will act on its own
4. You gain half EXP and are affected by status ailments unlike Supersonic's resistance.

Dungeon stages are a mix of overworld maps and action stages. Basically, parts of it are action stage which get the player to explore the stage from the sidescroller perspective like how Sonic CD gets you to find objects and the overworld parts allow the player to explore a wider area while solving puzzles which could affect the other parts of the dungeon.
Other Ideas I'm throwing around include:

Spoiler

• Advanced Enemies that have intelligence (Higher your strength, easier to destroy them)
• World Map (Similar to Kingdom Hearts 2 world map)
• 2 Player Co-op(Unlikely) and Versus mode
• Better Dark form sprites
• Dialogue Choices
• Updated HUD and Interface
• Special Stages
• Unlockable characters to play as (Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy, Cream, Rouge) No Superforms for them
• Minigames like the tornado from SA1 (except not repetitive)
• Multiple Endings (Hero, Good, Neutral, Bad, Corrupted)
• Level Select & Chapter Select for those who wish to replay the game from the beginning and try and get a different ending or play their favourite level
• Style System like DMC and Sonic Heroes. Switch between Speed moves and fighting moves.
• More Attacks
• Upgrade Perks

So yeah, thats all I've got to say about now. The engine is almost finished, I've got a good idea of what needs to be done next and I'm open to feedback as I'm willing to hear what people like and don't like. Also below are links to the latest version online and videos of whats being done.
Video Playlist:
http://www.youtube.c...376381AF85F5F34

Download Links:
YoYo Games Link:v2.1 http://sandbox.yoyog...ht-and-darkness
Mediafire:v2.1 http://www.mediafire...pjmn90r5emcfpd5

Press F1 for controls and the credits.

This post has been edited by Chaos Fusion: 10 August 2012 - 08:04 PM

[Kharen]

Well, I've watched some of the playlist, and have a few questions about what you're trying to do.

First off, what exactly are you trying to do when you say "RPG Elements"? Seeing the gameplay, I get the idea of it being like a normal 2D Sonic game, but I'm not really seeing how the RPG elements come in. Do you earn EXP for defeating enemies and level up? If so, what exactly does that affect? I didn't really see anything that showed off what the RPG bits bring to the table. Using my imagination, I'm thinking that you'd start with only the normal moves like in Sonic 1, and leveling up would eventually grant the different abilities Sonic uses. (Level 3 = Spindash, Level 5 = Air Dash, Level 8 = Stomp Attack, etc.) I don't want to assume too much, in case I'm wrong and you plan on doing it differently.

My second question, which ties rather closely to my first, is about the items in the first video of the playlist. A couple of them seemed fairly straightforward, the Dark Suppressors to prevent the Dark Super Sonic form from occuring (which sounds similar to Dark MegaMan from MMBN 4-6. Inspiration?), and items to refill the Boost Gauge. The thing is, what are the other things, such as the food items, for? I initially thought that they were for some sort of HP system, but when I saw the actual levels, it appeared that you're still using the normal "Rings = life" style of gameplay that the Sonic series normally uses. Not to mention the things such as "AP Boost", what are they all intended for?

Initial questions out of the way, I'd like to bring up my opinions on what I saw. First off, the overworld you have set up. I don't mind that you're recycling graphics from other games such as Chrono Trigger, but your Sonic sprite is far too small for the rest of the graphics. If you're going to use graphics from other games, maybe you could use graphics from Sonic Chronicles or Sonic CD? I mean, they'd still clash with the CT graphics, but they'd at least be the correct size, or closer to the correct size, at any rate. (I toyed with the idea of a Sonic-themed RPG, myself, and have a bit of graphic drawings left over. If you'd like, I could share them with you and see if they'd fit your needs. They're designed for RPG Maker 2003 sized sprites, though, so you'd still need a larger Sonic. I just wanted to see how the classic graphics would look from a different perspective.)

The actual levels themselves looked rather nice, graphically. You've used the Sonic Advance sprites fairly well, but zipped through the levels so quickly that I couldn't give a decent opinion on some of the enemies. The ones I did see, I didn't recognize from an existing source. Did you draw them yourself, or borrow them from a fangame or something? Personally, I'm rather nit-picky about graphics, and fairly demanding on how well the styles match, so feel free to take my advice with a grain of salt. Anyways, if I were in your position, I would start with enemies from the Sonic Advance games as placeholder graphics, and study them to see how the they were drawn, style-wise. Again, I'm rather strict on graphics, so feel free to turn down my suggestions on this part if they seem overly-demanding. (I originally hung out a lot at SMWCentral, and they're fairly strict on things like that as well, so that's probably where I got it from)

Now, layout-wise, I wasn't a major fan. I didn't dislike them, but they're rather different than the other Sonic games. I guess they feel more like Sonic Rush or something, not in a "Hold Right to Win" way, but more of a "Look how cool this is" show-off-y way. I mean, there were long stretches of time where it was just watching Sonic run around structures without really doing much other than running. I had the same issue with "Before the Sequel", how there were enough platforming bits to be entertaining, but they were spread out between long stretches of just running. The Genesis games allowed a good amount of speed, but there was always something to do at any moment other than run. If you could kind of pull the platforming bits closer together, it would seem a lot better, in my opinion.

Anyways, I like the idea you've got going, and I'm actually rather curious as to how this turns out. I'm looking forward to another update on this.

This post has been edited by Kharen: 31 May 2012 - 02:44 AM

[Perfect Chaos Zero]

You need to tweak your engine. It's way more "skatey" than it should be and the ring-magnet feature of the elec-shield is horrendously fucked up. Your levels, design wise, would benefit from a wee bit of clean up and more "doo dads", gimmicks and such, to add more flavor to what you got going there. Also, the Sonic Advanced sprites are so terribly over used. Maybe get something better?

Also if your set on this having an RPG, you definitely need to add more RPG elements to it, as Kharen said. Personally I think you need to worry less about the story line and more about the game itself. Also if you hadn't mentioned Kingdom Hearts, I wouldn't have even made the connection. So maybe next time just don't mention it. KH is not the first story, video game, etc. to use the idea of multiple universes/worlds you know. That said, try to get it polished up before SAGE, it's coming up soon! You got a lot of work to put in and not a lot of time!

This post has been edited by Perfect Chaos Zero: 31 May 2012 - 03:31 AM

[Chaos Fusion]

Thanks for you're feedback. To answer those questions and concerns:

@Kharen
RPG elements in the current version I've got determine how long the boost can last, how much damage you attacks do on the more advanced/tougher enemies depending on your strength and equipment, defense determines how many rings you lose and how much health you lose after taking a hit with no rings(Being developed) and luck for how often you perform criticals. Speed will increase you top running speed slightly and determine if enemy attacks make contact or not.
The other Items that you saw (curry, strawberry milk, etc) cure certain status ailments, which handicap Sonic in action stages and on the world map. Status ailments I have at the moment are Sleep which freezes you for a few seconds, poison which slowly kills you over time, curse, prevents spin dash and homing attack, slow which halves you acceleration, sprain which weakens how high you can jump and your top speed (Prevents you from sprinting on the overworld as well) and Hunger which prevents Super Transformation.
For the abilities, you were close. As you level up, you gain more attack and acrobatic abilities which range from new abilities such as wall jumping and jump canceling on enemies to new combo attacks which could be used to destroy tougher enemies with ease.

AP boost practically allows you set the different abilities you can use and it allows you to summon Party Members to the level to assist you like the friend missions from Sonic Generations. 1 party member will appear on the map and you can change them on the fly.
To finish off with the RPG, other RPG features I'm thinking of include dialogue choices and a morality system which will determine the ending you'll get.
Graphics wise, yeah I'm aware that the graphics may stand out as non fitting or too small but graphics aren't my specialty since I'm mostly working on engine functionality at the moment. I have to remember though that Sonic is shorter than humans so that's one of the reasons the overworld maps appear a bit oversized. Besides, the castle from Chrono trigger won't be in the finished game as its only there so I could link the levels together. Also, I'm using the current sprites style mainly because there are character sprites that exist for the other characters which helps me create custom animations for them on the field.

Enemies that I've used in the videos include the standard advance and rush enemies with some Sonic 2006 enemies for intelligent ones. I will expand the variety of enemies once everything works perfectly. Enemies that are in the videos include the: Monkey from SA2, Spinner from SA3, Egg flyer from Sonic Colours DS and custom 06 enemies from MFZ(Working on their AI at the moment to be either aggressive or careful). I will take on board your suggestion of observing the types of advance enemies though as I can't keep using official graphics for the entire game.
Layout wise, I try to create as many paths as possible when I make my levels because Sonic games are known for having lots of paths towards the goal. The long stretch you saw in the latest video is mainly for a chase section and in the forest video, the level was inspired by the long trails from chemical plant along with the idea of running down the tree trunk down to the forest floor but I agree that the layout should have the speed and platforming closer together though some sections will be there for the whole ”Look how cool this is” but not all the time.
Also regarding the sprites offering, I'm not to fussed about graphics at the moment but maybe in the future. Thanks for the offer though.

Also @ Perfect Chaos Zero
If you are referring to the Current Demo:
I've changed the level design of the first level from the current demo(or are you referring to the latest video?) because it was too empty and someone from SFGHQ pointed out how blank it was. If it was the current version, the magnetic ring ring attraction has being fixed along with other bugs. Also, what do you mean by skatey? Do you mean that you decelerate to slowly or is it movement in general?
I mentioned the RPG elements above in the first few lines so no need for me to retype them.
As for Sonic Advance sprites, it was mainly a personal choice and it is a bit too late to change everything due to the amount of animation properties I'll have to change.(I'll have to change the superform sprites as well and create a new set of Dark form Sprites)
I'll remove the Kingdom hearts thing then. Thanks for pointing out those issues and yes indeed, Sage isn't too far off so I will have to work overtime to get everything functional with study life conflicting with development.

This post has been edited by Chaos Fusion: 31 May 2012 - 04:10 AM

[Chaos Fusion]

The SAGE demo has being released.
This demo includes:
Custom key bindings support, a redesigned Egg Dome which is more prettier and less bad along with 5 other playable levels, more abilities, Prettier RPG menus, new gimmicks, a redesigned HUD, more RPG elements and other features that I forgot about.

YoYo Games Link:v2.1 http://sandbox.yoyog...ht-and-darkness
Mediafire:v2.1 http://www.mediafire...pjmn90r5emcfpd5