Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board: Overbound - Viewing Profile - Sonic and Sega Retro Message Board

I've decided to start a video series on tools found in Photoshop for creating pixel art and level graphics. These videos will be similar to the panels I have done on my techniques for creating level tiles at the past few SAGExpos. This new format should allow me to be more concise and hopefully fan gamers will find them more useful. The video series will be specifically aimed at Sonic fan games but general enough that anyone could find use of the videos.

Below are the first two videos in the series. I plan on releasing them at a rate of about one per week. My hope is that the videos will help cut down the time it takes to make attractive looking tilesets for all our fan games. Feel free to ask me questions here too if you have them.

Sage Expo is now Live http://sagexpo.org/

Proto Dan from Sonic United/SFGHQ was kind enough to make a trailer for the Sonic Amature Games Expo 2014 Act 2.



There are over 30 games registered for this SAGExpo which puts this SAGExpo roughly five games ahead of the prior in February. Arts and Entertainment pages are also coming back and based on what I've seen there will be a lot of fun to be had. SAGExpo 2014 Act 2 will take place between August 3 and August 9.



List of Games in the Trailer:

Sonic Souls
Tails Nightmare 3
Bingo the Multiva
Sonic the Hedgehog 3D
Spark the Electric Jester
Sonic Edge of Darkness
Sonic World
Sonic Overture
Sonic the Hedgehog Dynamo
Sonic Mega Drive
Sonic Generations Fan Game
Sonic Game Land
Sonic: The Blue Blur
Sonic vs Darkness
Sega Brawlers Megami
BlackShore Meltdown
Sonic Quick Step Challenge
Josef the Hedgehog
Sonic Lost Adventure: Havok Harbor
Sonic Speedfighters 2
Sonic Time Twisted

Hello Retro! This is pretty much a copy/page job from Sonic United/SFGHQ's forums. Just wanted to let everyone know what was going on with SAGE.

SAGE 2014 Act 1 is only 38 days away! As such now is the time to begin preparing your game and entertainment pages. As previously mentioned game and entertainment pages will be hosted onsite this year. You must register to gain access. Today I have started handing out usernames and passwords to access and edit booth pages for registered users. Registration instructions are as follows:

Once you've registered an email will be sent with information to login and start editing your SAGE Page(s).

Remember this year SAGE isn't just for games we're accepting all kinds of creative content through entertainment pages. Music, illustrations, videos, and more are also acceptable content and will be listed separately from the games on an entertainment page.

Game creators please also keep in mind that while we are allowing you to upload small files such as images to the SAGE server please host your game downloads elsewhere to save us bandwidth. We recommend Mediafire.com as downloading files is straightforward and Mediafire.com does not have a 20 second wait to start a download.


Original Announcement:



It's no small secret that SAGE has struggled the past few years. But thanks to many dedicated individuals SAGE has always been pulled off. Despite a lot of effort that didn't quite happen in 2013. Deranged Soma owner of SonicUnited.org and myself have are taking steps to ensure the success of SAGE for years to come. By building a website that can be easily reskinned for SAGE year after year no longer will we have to create the SAGE experience every year. From now on SAGE will be ready to go twice a year with all the features you've come to expect from past SAGE events. With that I'd like to announce SAGE 2014 Act 1.

Features:

SAGE Chat – As is the norm a SAGE chatroom will be accessible via the SAGE website or you can join using your favorite IRC client.

Game Pages – Using the popular CMS Wordpress Strong Gust and I have built a site to allow game authors to edit their game pages in real time on the SAGE sever. No more looking for a host or poorly designed booths. Game creators will be able to add verbiage and upload images directly to the SAGE website. We ask that you please host your demos and videos elsewhere but they can be linked easily from your SAGE page. We will have a list of recommended file hosts soon.

Entertainment Pages – Similar to game pages artists and content creators will be able to upload their works to their very own page on the SAGE website. Uploads can include music and images. You are also welcome to embed youtube videos or link to offsite files to download. If you are unsure you content qualifies contact us!
All pages will allow for commenting so that contributors can get feedback on their works.

To Register for Page(s) send the following to: [email protected]
Booth banner: 200 x 96
Desired Username and an email address for setting up an account to access your SAGE Page(s).
A description of the page(s) you'd like to contribute.
We will make the final decision on how many pages your submissions require. Games will get their own pages. For other submissions we might ask you to put your fan art and music on a single page. We will look at each situation individually.

Registrations are due by February 15th

SAGE Promo Video – We will be releasing a SAGE promo video in the weeks following up to SAGE. Submit your game to [email protected] by February 1st to have your game included.

Events

Panels – panels are returning this SAGE using Ustream. Panel hosts will be able to access the live video stream using Ustream tools to stream their computer screens or cameras.

What is a Panel? Next to the fan games, panels are the main event at SAGE. We'll be hosting panels via Ustream which will be embedded on the interactive page alongside the chatroom as in years past. Panels can be anything ranging from a music show, game creation tutorials, skits, fan fic readings, game review shows, live gameplay, or anything else you can think up.
If you would like to run a panel write a short pitch and send it to [email protected]

Announced Panels –

Overbound's Photoshop for Pixel Art and Level Art Panel
Spark's Level Design Panel
Best in Show Awards!

Teaser Video by SonicYoda of www.SegaDriven.com


Sonic Amatuer Games Expo 2014 Act 1 Game Trailer

Just copy pasted my SFGHQ topic. Maybe these should go on the wiki eventually.
Since it seems near impossible to find the good Game Maker Sonic engines I've made this post and hosted many of the engines on my own site to provide easy access to anyone looking for engines.

Sonic Dash/Xmas Engine

The best engine for GM period. Very smooth and lots of features.

Dash/Xmas was created by Damizean & RougeYoshi and are provided free for use.

Sonic Dash Current(Recommended)

This is the most current form of the Dash includes monitors, shields, parallax, dipping bridges, rings, springs, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails with S3&K moves and following partner.


Xmas Gift Engine

Similar to the the above engine only less advanced. This engine includes: rings, monitors, parallax, shields, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails with S3&K moves and following partner.

Sonic Dash Old Engine

This is a very old version of Sonic Dash which has some bugs. I recommend not using this version. That said there are many gimmicks included in this version which can be ported to a newer version without to much trouble. I won't mention them all because there are a lot but its enough to say that it consists of a whole zone which can be played through so everything one would need to do so can be found here even a boss.

Sonic Revival Engine

Sonic Revival Engine Thread

The Sonic Revival Engine 2.0 (Mirror)

This engine was made on top of one of Dami's older engines and is created by Chaos Rush. It has shields, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails and a few other things. Its less advanced then Dash but some may say its easier to use if you don't understand states machines.

Kain's Sonic Engines


Kain's Online Showcase Engines Page

S3&K GM Engine (Mirror)


This is Kain's attempt at a Sonic 3 engine there's a lot of stuff here including spikes, monitors, shields, rings, badniks, and more defiantly worth a look.

cGM Engine (Mirror)

Kain's newest attempt at a Sonic engine has spikes, monitors, rings, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails, and more. However it is missing a few things such as jump through platforms.


I made mirrors to a few things without permission and if anyone get's mad I'll take them down. I have done this because engines have been known to go MIA and I do not want that to happen anymore. Thanks to everyone that made these great engines. Thanks to DMAshura and RougeYoshi for helping me get all these engines.

Sonic REX Engine

Sonic REX Engine Thread

The Sonic Revival Engine 2.0 (Mirror)

This engine was made on top of one of Dami's older engines similar to the Sonic Revival Engine and is created by Sponick. It probably has more features than any of the other engines including, zoom tubes, swings, moving platforms, Sonic and Tails with Sonic 3 moves, spikes, shields (sonic 3), springs, star posts, 8 way and rotating direction both, and some stuff I'm probably missing. Its really quite a complete engine.


Grid Spatia Indexing (GSI)

GSI is a system made by Damizean that allows you to take objects delete them when they off screen and not in use. GSI is similar to the built in GameMaker deactivation but is much more efficient and can increase performance of your game much more than using GameMaker's deactivation alone. You will find that using GSI is a necessity as levels get bigger and full of more objects that they slow down your game on even some reasonably powered machines. I've included the latest version of GSI along with a example on how to use it below. If you have any questions feel free to ask me (Overbound) as using GSI can be a bit tricky. Keep in mind are if you are using GSI on an object be sure you are not also deactivating it with GameMaker's built in deactivation feature. Second only use GSI on objects that do not move as it detects objects by their coordinates and moving an object makes GSI think it needs to create a new one. Third as GSI deletes objects and then creates them as the come on screen release that the creation code will run again and any variables set before the deactivation will not be saved.

Grid Spatial Indexing 0.15

At the very least you should consider using GSI I know from personal experience that it can increase game speeds by more than 20 FPS.

Damizeans Hydrocity Style 3D Water Example

Just what the title says its a really neat effect. Thanks Dami!

Damizean 3D Water Example

Is there an SNES emulator with sprite layer options? I'd like to rip some backgrounds from The Adventures of Batman and Robin.

Edit: It appears ZSNES does sorry for waisting your time. =P