Never liked the way Advanced 3 and by extension Generations dealt with hub-worlds. Maps are much more classy to me, and that island is gorgeous! I'm all for it
You said that the ideas behind the music and power ups were that you were trying to 'Mario-up' Sonic, right? First of all, that's an amazing idea and I'm gonna love seeing how it plays out. It also means that I'm totally for a map-style hubworld where you can move back and forth and more of the path will open up as you beat stages. ..can I also hope for branching paths? That was a fun part of the system in SMB3, SMW and NSMB. ..not that I'd really ever skip levels, but I like the option for seeing how fast I can beat the last level from the start of the games.
As always, I say I'm not going to do this, but I do anyways.... Mock up of Drill Base. As you guessed, its a chemical plant rip off. But hey, I liked chemical plant :3
Pretty amazing there Hez. Definitely some colour and style there. It needs a pumping electro soundtrack to go with it. What are the chances of seeing a demo of the first level to try out the game's new mechanics? If there's any chance of this create a new thread with screenshots. You could get an early injection of feedback to help along the game's development? Plus I would love to play a level of this. I'm sure everyone else feels the same. Good work thus far.
I like the color scheme there Hez. Though the top and bottom halves of the background seem oddly different but also the same, like the bottom is a more lit up version of the top half somehow (it's slightly visually jarring, as there seems to be no visual transition between the two shades imo). Looking awesome though nonetheless . Also, how do the chutes work? They seem to lead to multiple different paths depending on the direction you push a la Death Egg Zone Act 2 (S3&K).
I like the style here; it has a cold, dark feeling about it which works well with the zone's theme (as it's called Drill Base, I'm guessing it's some sort of underground foundry). While I like the cool purple shades you're using for the buildings in the background, I don't think the purples you've chosen for the mechanical props in the foreground are as effective. Concerning the magenta and gold tubes, magenta doesn't work well in the overall level theme; the way it's used here, the tubes look more like they'd fit in a lighter factory environment (think Wacky Workbench GF). I would either choose gray or maybe even a dark bluish-purple. The lavender in the Chemical Plant tube also suffers from being too light of a choice for the level; I'd probably work on making it more brassy or metallic than colorful; a color from the cooler side of the spectrum could help, perhaps a dull blue. What would be even better is if you changed the tube so that it was completely metallic -- for example, if you replaced that solid lavender inside the tube with the ridged gold pattern from those pipes you have in the level, it might look good that way. Those two nitpicks aside, I am liking the overall arrangement, and it looks like it'll turn out great.
Blue liquid in the tubs looks good, but I didn't want to completely copy chemical plant. As for the gold tubes, they look decent in game play. I may change them to a darker gold though, as this is a mock up. Rustic rock has semi-changed drastically as well.
Oh no, no, I wasn't talking about the gold pipes; those are fine the way they are. I was referring to those short magenta tubes with the gold rings at the end -- the ones attached to that big red orb at the top of the screen. I just thought the bright magenta looked off compared to the rest of the level. As for the lavender tube, you don't have to add blue to it. Like I said before, you can even take the solid lavender color out of the tube completely and replace it with the ridged gold pipe. [EDIT] Something like this: See, it doesn't look too bad like this.
If there's any sections of decay you could always have the gold pipes inside burst and the lavender goo coming out.
Awesome to hear you're working on Classic 2, the first one was easily the best Sonic gaming experience I've had outside of the Megadrive/Gensis games. It's what everyone says, I know, but it's still true. That first level is looking gorgeous, too. I actually really like the Sonic sprite, and the whole thing has a slightly Ristar-ish feel to it, which is great!
I think I might have to +1 that gold tube. Derf's idea is worth a try, too. I'm already pumped for this, and I still haven't played the first one properly due to Mac, WINE, etc.!
