Sonic Melponterations

And I wished it was Kingdom Valley. Oh wow, now I'm sad.
I mean, you did smart decisions at the first two eras, can't wait to see Ice Cap. But Oil Desert... :C


Also, downloading.

 

He said each era would have a stage from a game not already represented, and Sonic 06 was.
Things like this really make me wish I had the PC version of the game, damn not having a job!

 

But Ice Cap was in Sonic Adventure! :P

Oh what the hell everyone and their moms want Ice Cap anyway.

 

No, we're basing Ice Cap off of Sonic Drift 2 which sadly was not represented in Generations.

 

Fuck, I laughed.

That does bring up a good point, will Act 2 have more to do with the SA1 version like many thought up prior to the level leaks Melpontro, or will it still be based mainly off of the Sonic 3 version?

 

Are you adding more background elements to the Sky Troops level once you finish the actual level part of it? It looks fun and everything, but seems very empty compared to the vanilla Generations levels. Also, how did you pick the levels to add? I mean, Generations didn't have an ice-themed level, or a desert-themed level, so those seem like natural picks. Sky Troops, as a sky/aerial-themed level seems like it's just filling in the same niche that Sky Sanctuary did.

Not that I'm complaining, I've been following all the videos you've been posting of this level, and I like it a lot. I'm just curious what made you pick the levels you did, other than the fact that they're from un-homaged (Is that a word? Spell check is complaining) games

 

Whatever, Oil Desert is still the gayest pick of the three. Altought it would be kind of nice to see the water slide from Chemical Plant beeing used up once again.

Ohhhh you.
Altought I would like to see Angel Island as much as Ice Cap, have to admit that you're right. I still don't get how Sky Sanctuary was chosen over Ice Cap, probably due the Death Egg boss coming right after it, but the last two bosses shout "fuck it" to this logic... So... Yeah, no excuses, I guess.

For some reason I imagined the Seaside Hill kart thing beeing used up in a section of the stage, just like in the Holoska from the original Unleashed.

 

Yes, we'll be adding more background elements to the level for sure. As for your latter question:

How Sky Troops was picked is a bit of a story. We didn't intend Sonic Melponterations to end up blooming into the package we now are making yet, we were just going to do a single stage. We decided to do it from a game that wasn't represented already. So then, we decided to get smartassy about it, and chose to do a stage from Shadow the Hedgehog. Sky Troops ended up being our level choice because, as a bunch of floating islands with re-usable pieces, it'd be one of the easier stages to create as our first stage ever. When we realized that it fills the same level trope as Sky Sanctuary, we decided since it was already somewhat of a troll anyway, it'd be fine. But then, the reception was far more positive than either of us anticipated, which is when we changed gears slightly to make it "legit" and the idea to do the one-more-game's-stage-per-era "expansion pack" format came about.

Ice Cap was chosen because Sonic 3 is the most obvious hole in the game representation line-up. Even though it's kinda-sorta the same game as Sonic and Knuckles, Sega themselves never ever count it as a single game, so we didn't either. From those stages, we feel Ice Cap is the stage the most people would have liked. In addition, most of the other stages from Sonic 3 occupy niches already filled by Generations levels.

Oil Desert was picked because from the modern era, all else we had to choose from on consoles was the Storybook series, which, to be frank, don't exactly have inspirationally interesting levels for the most part. Sonic 4 Episode 1 is all rehash levels. Out of Sonic 4 Episode 2, we wouldn't want to do Sky Fortress because we already have a level that will feature flying Eggman ships. We'd have done White Park if we weren't already doing Ice Cap. And between Oil Desert and Sylvania Castle, Oil Desert seems like the obvious choice. Plus I do think it's a legitimately interesting level.

For starters, I'd like to mention that there was no "leaking" done. We released the information ourselves because we felt like it.

Anyway, it's mostly going to be based off Sonic 3, though there will be minor influence from the SA1 stage in both acts. That, and at the end of Modern Sonic's stage, he'll get on a snowboard and the music will change to "Be Cool, Be Wild, and Be Groovy". :v:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdd6_ZxX8c

 

I uh...

http://steamcommunit...012051050279734

Yeah. Not sure how that happened.

For a beta though it's really good! The level design in the spiral section is a little confusing though, and also because the spline is so blocky it causes collission issues where diagonal-down spring near the top will sometimes send me off course and possibly off the stage, plus it's kinda jarring to look at too.

You must teach me your custom enemy importing magic! I can't seem to work it out.


As for Ice Cap and Oil Desert. I don't know about you guys, but I think those are absolutely excellent choices.

 

Quick question about Oil Desert, how are you getting the badnik models for it? Last I knew all S4 E2 models were un-ripped (This statement doesn't cover episode Metal)

 

Not entirely sure. If we have to do some custom models we will. We'll be ripping Bubbles from Sonic 4: Episode 1 with the iPad textures.

 

Ignore Hinchy because he's an idiot. We are just going to be normal human beings and rip the correct bubbles model/textures from Episode 2.

 

Well, it's goofy and immature in presentation, but it's fun, and to me, that's what's important.

Good job, guys.

 

Am I really the only one who would have wanted Carnival Night Zone for Sonic 3? Don't get me wrong... Gameplay wise, there is SO much you can do with ICE CAP, but... visually... an HD Carnival Night Zone would be orgasm inducing for the eyes. The lights, the water, the sounds, and you already have the balloons anyway.

Looking forward to a S3 IceCap, SA IceCap, SU Holoska amalgamation though. Makes me want to get a new laptop that can run Generations faster...

 

I'd agree with you but we don't have any of the rest of the gimmicks, and I wouldn't want to do a gimmick-heavy stage like that as a result. If we could make our own gimmicks I would have forced Melpontro at gunpoint to agree with me on Carnival Night from the beginning.

 

I don't know why you seem to think that you can't do the rest of the gimmicks... you have the balloons, the water, the bumpers from the Crisis City Classic Vector mission and the circular rolling platforms from City Escape's 2D Missions. Sure, you don't have the spinning vertical platforms, the suction funnels or the barrels, but if you have a bit of imagination and remodeling skills you can use the barrels from Charmy's Rooftop Run Mission as replacements- barrels rolling down inclines as things to avoid, and the water jets as vertical methods to get to new locations. In addition, you could use remodeled Sky Sanctuary platforms as horizontal circular rolling platforms for 3D segments, and the Seaside Hill cannons as the suction funnel replacements. The Four-Way Cannons look like they'd fit right in as well.

The only thing I can think of from Icecap are the Skateboard from Classic City Escape modeled as a snowboard, the Green Hill zone bridges and the Speed Highway scoops remodeled as those ice swings. I'm not even sure if there's any code left in the game for frictionless surfaces. I'm not sure why you think a gimmick heavy zone missing a few of its gimmicks is worse than a zone that doesn't look like it would have any meaningful gimmicks at all.

Anyways Classic zone suggestions aside I really love what you guys are doing! You've got your work cut out for you but from what I'm seeing it looks like you're more than up for the challenge.

 

I can see you are going for a 'Prison Island' Tails Music style with Oil Desert, like Sonic Advance 2. The lead sounds like it. It should have some Jun Senoue-style rock.

 

I was watching the original Sky Troops, and well... Besides all the decorative objects that are lacking in this remake there is something else that's giving me this idea of blank, "empty". Right now it almost looks like that there are only two textures, rocks and sand.

So, over watching the original stage I've noticed that the level had a lot of green (toned down, because of the "dark" theme of the game).

I know this is still a work in progress, and trust me, I also know how annoying it is when people start saying "add this and add that" in such a earlier stage of development. But just keep in mind that some grass and moss will create some variation and help a little to tone down this feeling of emptyiness watching/playing the Sky Troops level.

And as I said on a previous post, I believe in the Generations Hacking topic... Perhaps changing the waterfall textures, from the Green Hill Zone will do the trick of the falling sand.



But whatever, just really wanted to comment on the vegetation subject, since I was rewatching the release trailer and got this feeling that something important was missing on the artistic subject.

 

Yeah, the full art-pass is still a long way off right now, but considering nobody's really said anything about it I think your concern is justified.