Sonic the Hedgehog: Discovery is a (as of writing, very barebones) hack of Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit). join Sonic the Hedgehog on a new adventure through the Inagi Islands! known issues (latest build, Demo1): - the title screen and Ice Island do not have a background - Ice Island's music is missing DAC and some PSG channels (may not be fixed without some help) - of Ice Island's 3 acts, only 2 are fully playable. act 3 cuts off to a "thanks for playing" screen at the very end so as to not expose the yet-unfinished boss - work on other zones have not been started yet - Special Stage rings have been removed as Special Stage concepts are being created planned features: - more zones - all-new Special Stages - Spindash/other moves for Sonic - other characters(?) - save system (this demo does not save your progress yet! it's too short for that.) - main menu images:
So far so good for your first hack! I'm decently impressed by the custom end screen, and the ice pole gimmick is interesting, if a little awkward. That said, I've got plenty of criticism though, just to help you improve things. The grass/snow is difficult to look at, you'll definitely want to add some shading there, but I'm sure you had intentions of this. The level design is quite flat, especially towards the start of act 1. The level design overall is disjointed. Sonic 1's chunks were specifically designed with the level layouts already in mind, and so they do not work well in much other orientations. Consider drawing out maps on grid paper, and build the chunks around that. Rings are placed far too close together, reaching 200 rings in every act should not be normal or this easy. Maybe place a max of 6 rings in any given trail. Enemies are placed in the middle of the player's path, often in chains of 3 or 4 Motobugs. Try and keep enemies in areas where the player will be doing platforming and already on alert, throwing them on a runway is what we call a dick move. Monitors are placed directly in the path of the player, bringing them to a halt, this is annoying. This applies to invincibility and speed shoe monitors too, which are meant to be either hidden, or in hard to reach spots. The title is beyond generic, in fact, it's literally Sonic Mania's developmental name. This, along with the description, tells me you lack direction other than "Sonic hack". Consider a larger theme, or gimmick, that overarches throughout the whole game and run with that. This will help your hack pop out from the sea of "Sonic the Hedgehog: Overdrive", "Sonic the Hedgehog: Ultramix", "Sonic the Hedgehog: New Edition". Granted, that might be much to ask for your first hack, but it is worth keeping in mind for future projects.
thank you for the feedback! Discovery is a very tentative title. it's not meant to be final at all. in fact, I think naming it Sonic the Hedgehog: Inagi Islands after where the game takes place would be a better title. as for the level graphics and design, I'm not too skilled at either hahaha. but I'm going to try to take your feedback to heart and improve. I agree the rings are placed too often. I'll tone it down a lot in later builds. if I ever go through with my idea of having a gold zone like one of the cut Sonic 1 concepts, I'd probably not have as much rings either. and the enemies are kind of a buzzkill too... I did find myself getting hit in my playthroughs when testing a lot, too. but I'd mostly added them and the monitors out of fear of not making the designs too flat, as in not having them just be hold-right simulator... I'm thinking I should just remake parts of the designs (if not all of them) from scratch. I tried to make the designs to incite exploration more mixed with speed sections, but as I'm thinking now I don't think I added enough exploration spots. IIZ1 had the most exploration spots I think, and it had too few in my eyes. as for the snow being hard to look at, I'll try to fix it up by the next build too. as for the ice platforms being 'awkward', what exactly did you mean by this?
