So one of the admins of Sonic Cage Dome wanted to do some cross-site festivities with the site I help admin, The Sonic Center, and those festivities eventually became a tourney with offline and online elements. The online Sonic 2 tourney was today, and I informed the participants that I'd prepared a ROM with the speedcap and roll-to-jump behavior removed for smoother online playing, the title screen options all redirecting to 2 Player Vs. to prevent any cases of "oops, I hit the wrong option, restart the game", and the SEGA logo removed because in no way does SEGA endorse this. Of course, I modded more than that and didn't tell them for the sake of surprise. Here is the ROM given to the competitors. A complete list of changes... + - Emerald Hill: Act 1 was extended past the usual end point. Act 2 had a palette and music change, but did not have a layout change in the hopes of playing off the paranoia induced by Act 1's extension. Mystic Cave: Act 1 was extended, and Act 2 received a music change. Same concept as Emerald Hill's changes, except without a new palette for Act 2. Casino Night: Act 1 was given a complete music, art, palette, and layout overhaul. Act 2 uses the object layout from 1 Player mode. Special Stage: Special Stage 2 was replaced with the Special Stage from Sonic 2 Retro Remix. The only known issue is lag due to objects. Of course, this is Sonic 2's versus mode, so it's nigh impossible to work around that.
Well, I've been working on something recently. I thought about a game, where you have to find and destroy the the "S"-Monitor to beat the level. The levels are supposed to be giantic and you have to find that monitor there.. hidden somewhere. Here's the romlink, BUT read below first Actually, you shouldn't care about the layouts right now. They were rushed. Just run to the end of the level and open the S-Monitor. GHZ1 will be a shorter level. The future levels will be giantic and labyrinth-like. So yeah, I just want critique and opinions.
Ignoring the very awful layouts and the fact you constantly have speed shoes, pretty neat concept! The only thing I have to critizise, when you destroy the S-Monitor, you hear the signpost spinning sound, which is odd in my eyes. Either remove the sound playing part from there or pick a sound that fits. =P
Fixed. Actually, that was the normal speed, so the game would be practially a rush'n'search game. And for the monitor, I forgot to pick another sound. Will be fixed later.
So...I got a PM from a user (Hanoch) that he tried my old Labyrinth Zone layout and said that I could win three hacking contest trophies from that level alone. Now, I really haven't done any more layouts per say since then, mainly learning asm and importing art, and posting what I have done here. Should I focus more on making actual layouts? Now my style isn't impossible troll hard it is just...long and using all available space. Would you want to see layouts like that?
I gave it a try and with speed-up I wasn't fast enough to get to level select and saw GHZ's demo. I was like "WTF horrible colour". =P But then I tried LZ3 and to be honest, now it's seriously a maze. And not just a maze, some spots seemed to be a dead end (it's a good thing I use save-states). That said, fuck yeah, more plzz. BUT: Don't do MZ or GHZ please. These are just to raped overused and not fun anymore. Any of the others would be awesome. =)
If done correctly like Sonic 1 Alt's marble zone, it could turn out just fine. Edit: @SonicVaan: I just tried your hack, pretty cool. There are many neat concepts people are doing for hacks these days like that blocks hack by qiuu (by the way that hack inspired me to create something as well, so except to see a ROM really soon)<<DISREGARD THAT I SUCK AT ASM.
I'm gonna say, add more content to the levels. I was so horrifically bored by the eight minute mark when I cleared it :< That aside, yus, make more.
IT WAS MY TEST HACK. ONE FROM LONG AGO. I WENT OVER THIS. Again, the reason GHZ was like that back then was to see if I could import palette from another game, it was NEVER going to be for GHZ. Now when I make levels I get rid of everything entirely (chunks, blocks, tiles) and add from there. And when I say importing art, I mean stuff like this: I was/am going to use this to show how a vertical level could work. When I wanted to make a "jump for your life!" sky level. That, and I REALLY REALLY wanted to use this art. Some of those clouds are scrolling in the background.
My comment was more of a 'for future reference' thing. Also, very cool. I am intrigued as to how that develops.
And that sir, is why I love your work. That last one feels so dynamic and strange, all you need is some sort of illusional background, and that would be completely trippin' =P
The first two was art imported from other games, which is why the third one has that disclaimer. Anyway you guys want something unusual and trippy in the background? That gave me yet another idea. How would you feel if Labyrinth Zone wasn't filled with water, but + - "Tang" and have a certain towering something in the background producing it...but with a Sonic character's face on it? If you know what I am getting at.
http://rapidshare.com/files/378685423/S1BUILT.BIN I've finally completed a level I'm willing to share. GHZ act 1. There are quite a few bugs. Due to the level chunk arrangement the trees were awkwardly scattered in bits and pieces, so I creatively lazily cut them down to look like stumps. Any tips? Tell me what you think.
You don't say. I know you guys are all "GT! DON'T DO GHZ!" however let me give my take on what should be done. For one, edit the art to suit your needs. Your layout (and all GHZs hack layouts that try it) need a celing. You can either do something simple that's straight horizontal and plain...or maybe my approach and create a fancy isometric celing, similar to how Scrap Brain Zone does it. Heck, someone can take that idea even further and <a href="http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=rock+overhang&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&start=0" target="_blank">go realistic with it.</a> You should also make the layout the least chunk blocky as possible. No celings are one thing, but you can clearly see where the chunks stop everywhere. Speaking of which, avoid falling through in places Sonic SHOULDN'T GO. Mainly falling into from above curvey spin tubes and the "break through wall tunnel" chunk. I see these EVERYWHERE in hacks. It is a big no no. Not to mention gaps in the walls on some chunks. There IS an object that helps with that you know. I guess I am ranting about GHZ layouts in general there. That all said, I am currently using level select to see if you did any more layouts. I currently found that Labyrinth Zone Act 1 was changed and started to play. After running for my life underwater with no air bubbles (or any other objects) in sight I finally find an airbubble pocket and keep heading right...only to be hit with a door with the switch on the OTHER SIDE. And people call ME a confusing troll layout designer. Luckily I doubled back and worked my way around, only stopping to write this post.
This is an issue I was planning to tackle much later. I wanted to test out a complete level layout first, and worry about how fucked up the whole thing looked later. Yes, the unbreakable wall. I didn't realize that there were still areas that needed them. Yeah, I'm still not finished with the other levels that I've begun to edit. I really was going for frustratingly difficult design for that one, so I guess it worked out. :v: Though still not finished yet, Marble Act 3 is also changed a bit, if you want to check that out.
