There's nothing wrong with mixing and matching tiles and looks sometime. People do it all the time. You're just supposed to give it enough original twist to make it appear to be a new experience. Take that background, for example. I really like it. Sure, it resembles the shape of Palmtree Panic's cliffs, but it looks different. You might as well just keep building on that so you can at least get something done here. I mean, I don't know how much further you can innovate the "tropical Sonic stage" anyway.
It might have something to do with the fact that the music in its current form sounds like it belongs in a game you would buy for $5 at the drug store >_> Perhaps you could try making something in that yamaha emulator thing? I can't remember what it's called, but I'm sure someone does.
VOPM? I'll try that I guess, but I found LMMS irritating to use and I honestly kinda detest FL studio. [Course, in a perfect world it would sound more like this: http://www.box.net/shared/uki4p3xu9u]
Split art into tiles Reduced colors by removing useless or near duplicate ones. Dix Minus the black borders and the transparent color, it uses a total of 13 colors.
<!--quoteo(post=271431:date=Jan 22 2009, 07:04 PM:name=Chimpo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chimpo @ Jan 22 2009, 07:04 PM) Minus the black borders and the transparent color, it uses a total of 13 colors.[/quote] Is tropical zone just a working name or are we actually going for a Tropical look? Just suggesting that for a tropical level, perhaps a more lush green would be in order? That grass is more yellow-green and reminds me of Texas.
<!--quoteo(post=271431:date=Jan 23 2009, 01:04 AM:name=Chimpo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chimpo @ Jan 23 2009, 01:04 AM) Minus the black borders and the transparent color, it uses a total of 13 colors.[/quote] Could something be done about the tiles that look like Mario coins?
<!--quoteo(post=270231:date=Jan 19 2009, 09:05 PM:name=fifthelephant)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (fifthelephant @ Jan 19 2009, 09:05 PM) [/quote] Whoa, I love this. This reminds me of the sudden level transitions in Mushroom Hill Zone, brilliant. Sonic could start off on the grassy areas of the zone then the level could make a slick transition to a beach as you get near the end, or the other way around. Those rocks could be moving in the foreground and background to make it look like Sonic is running near some coastal rocks or something. I think we should definitely use this background/props, it looks to fit in nicely.
Just in case it hasn't been made clear, do note that E02 is not limited to the chunk/block/tile hierarchy of the Genesis games. You can place any 8x8 tile anywhere you like and apply any collision you want to the level. The sky is the limit, so it's not necessary, though it may be prefereable for organizational purposes, to draw with the Genesis limitations in mind.
<!--quoteo(post=272055:date=Jan 24 2009, 08:19 PM:name=OSM)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (OSM @ Jan 24 2009, 08:19 PM) [/quote] Whoa, I love this. This reminds me of the sudden level transitions in Mushroom Hill Zone, brilliant. Sonic could start off on the grassy areas of the zone then the level could make a slick transition to a beach as you get near the end, or the other way around. Those rocks could be moving in the foreground and background to make it look like Sonic is running near some coastal rocks or something. I think we should definitely use this background/props, it looks to fit in nicely. [/quote] Hmm, and you just gave me an idea, that it has a part that is all water, that you have to jump from rock to rock, and if you fall, a water flow will take you to the begining of that part :O
<!--quoteo(post=272748:date=Jan 26 2009, 03:38 PM:name=RamiroR)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (RamiroR @ Jan 26 2009, 03:38 PM) [/quote] Whoa, I love this. This reminds me of the sudden level transitions in Mushroom Hill Zone, brilliant. Sonic could start off on the grassy areas of the zone then the level could make a slick transition to a beach as you get near the end, or the other way around. Those rocks could be moving in the foreground and background to make it look like Sonic is running near some coastal rocks or something. I think we should definitely use this background/props, it looks to fit in nicely. [/quote] Hmm, and you just gave me an idea, that it has a part that is all water, that you have to jump from rock to rock, and if you fall, a water flow will take you to the begining of that part :O [/quote] That is freaking genius!
The way things look (especially the rocks), it could be rather hard... those rocks don't look flat at all.
And it would be fairly annoying, I can't think of many sections in a sonic game when you have to repeat a fairly large section if you mess up, normaly you just get put on a seperate route.
In that case have there be an underwater route to take under the rocks for the player. The path can slope up from the water and put the player back on land intertwining with the route jumping on the rocks.
For a first level you'd probably be better off keeping water levels to a minimum. It shouldn't be too challenging... I mean after all it IS the first level. If you end up going for that underground level with water it would probably be better to include any water flows there.
With your two current best options for building the levels (SonED2 and E02), it's absolutely unnecessary to do that manually :P Either one has a level rip function that will break an image into tiles, ignore duplicates, and use them to rebuild the image as level layout data I'm not sure if you did that just to illustrate a point or what, I just thought I'd make mention