Project Mobius (Help Wanted!)

Hey all! Just wanted to share some screenshots of a project I've been working on for several months now which is titled Project Mobius. (For the moment.)

It is a non-profit transformative game project that I started around June 2023. I'm currently now in Phase 2 / 3 of the project, and want to ask fellow fans for a bit of help.

I am looking for help especially when it comes to sprite work / pixel art, but I'm happy to get any help I can in other regards as well. If you're interested, there's a discord channel at: https://discord.gg/A9KQ927h


Concept:

This project was conceived as one that makes a spirited effort to combine some of the best aspects of the official games, comics, tv shows, and more into a JRPG-style game. The game will be set up in a semi-linear fashion, similar to the way that titles like Spyro, Crash, Banjo-Kazooie, SM64 and others use a 'hub world' style of map structure to allow players to backtrack and revisit unlocked zones.

The game is being made with RPG Maker MV, using the MV3D plugin, as well as a large library of others.

Story:

The storyline is planned to be sort of an amalgamation of noteworthy events and appearances by various characters from all forms of Sonic media, but will still strongly follow a sequence of zones in the same order as many of the official games. The game may not lean heavily into stories presented in the Archie / IDW comics, but there may occasionally be some areas or scenarios set up that loosely reference elements from the comics. For instance, it may be possible to come across some friendly enemies which are cameo characters from the comics in an official game zone, or possibly visit areas like Knothole Village, Robotropolis, Echidnaopolis, etc. But for the most part, the story will follow the official SEGA canon sequence of events with elements of other Sonic media peppered in.

Although Eggman will remain the primary antagonist overall, the player will also come across major villains from the comics as well, such as Ixis Naugus, Mammoth Mogul, Enerjak, The Dark Legion, Dimitri, etc, along with minor villain groups. In some cases they may play a minor role in the story, but will likely not greatly affect the trajectory of the overall narrative. I feel it's highly unlikely that 'Classic Sonic' from Generations will be included along with things dealing with multiple timelines. In some cases, these villains may be recurring throughout the game, or the areas you encounter them in may be official game zones or ones based on the comics and used as intermissions between game sequences.

Exploration:

I'm also trying to make the game a bit more engaging to play when the player is walking around in the field as well, so things like jumping / spindashing / flying / gliding have been implemented, along with obstacles and traps to mix things up a bit more. Players will be able to unlock a number of skills for each character that are usable in the field, and in many cases those skills will allow you to interact with objects in special ways. There are no plans for any kind of overworld map, but some zones may allow for exploration with The Tornado / Tornado II and possibly even the Sea Fox.

There will also be a number of discoverable secret areas (usually zones that were originally cut content) as well as super-secret easter eggs, extras, and encounters that are very hard to come across. While not totally necessary to find these areas, it counts toward the player's overall completion rate of the game.

Many of the zones will be looping in both directions to allow each zone to feel more open and vast, visually speaking. But each zone will have a Warp Ring gate that allows the player to exit back to the last Hub Map they visited. The zones are only 120 x 120 tiles, but since the game is rendered in MV3D, it's possible to be on top of walls or high cliffs, making all 14,400 tiles explorable on each map. (Provided they are not hazards which the player can fall into, resulting in them warping back to their last touched Warp Ring or Checkpoint.)

Players will be able to use the Tornado / Tornado II to travel between hub map areas via a menu, but may also be able to call it and control it in zones they have cleared and where Tornado flight is enabled.

Combat:

In combat, players are able to use combo attacks with finishing moves, similar to the way that Deathblows are used in Xenogears. In order to do those combo attacks, they need to build up points by causing a lot of damage to enemies. The best way to do so is by using skills because they're a bit stronger than normal attacking, but each time a skill is used, it will be on a cooldown timer for a few turns. So players will be encouraged to rotate through different attacks with each character each round in order to build up points and unleash combos. Performing a combo can result in up to 5 attacks during a single turn, but all of the character's built up points will be spent, and the player may have to make strategic choices about whether or not they want to do that or switch characters over to Super / Hyper Forms.

Super and Hyper Forms are already implemented, and once in a Super Form, characters can progress up to Hyper Form by rebuilding points on that same meter before the Super Form buff runs out. Being in those states will dramatically increase each character's stats, making it a bit easier to rebuild their point gauges and progress or maintain their forms. Certain abilities may become available in those forms as well, and there's a fair chance that a small number of characters may even be able to gain access to Metal Forms in the future.

There are also several other types of skills which use different systems like consuming items that are used as ammunition, summoning helpful companions, and so on. Wisps and Critters will be collectable in the field and drop as rewards in combat, and will be able to aid the party in a number of different ways.


Shields are also implemented too, and will protect players from attacks of the same element. So far, there are only plans for 5 different types of attacks: Physical, Projectile, Fire, Lightning, and Water. However, there may be a small expansion of types in the future.

There are also 'Bouncy' and 'Spiked' status effects that can prevent damage or cause damage to a character when an enemy is hit, so certain types of attacks may need to be performed in order to remove those states and make enemies vulnerable. Additional standard status effects like Poison, Sleep, Confusion, Stun, Paralyze, Blind, Berserk, and so on may come into play as well, but will not interact with how elements behave or do any special kind of elemental damage.

There are over 600 enemy sprites so far, but some of those encounters may be with friendly characters that make cameo appearances, and there are rare variants of enemies that drop better rewards after battle too. When encountered, entries will be added to the Encyclospeedia's encounter list, which will include more information about both Badniks and friendly characters alike.

Levels:

So far, about 170+ zones have their resources imported, including tiles for floors, walls, hazards, bridges, and slopes, as well as zone skyball backgrounds and battle backgrounds. Objects are in for all of these zones as well, and behavior scripting for the objects is in process. Basic terrain has been shaped for all maps, but will likely get additional revisions in the future. Currently I am in the thick of it with heavily detailing maps, and once they're filled out, the next phase will include deeper and more detailed scripting related to the zone's quests and storyline events.

The zones include basically everything from the following titles so far, with repeated zones omitted and some alternative versions added: StH (8 Bit), StH (16 Bit), S2 (8 Bit), S2 (16 Bit), S3&K, Triple Trouble, CD, Spinball, Mania, Chaotix, Chaos, Tails Adventure, Tails Skypatrol, Advance, Advance 2, Advance 3, Rush, Rush Adventure, and Colors. I do have some plans to add content for Sonic Adventure / Adventure 2 zones, but it's going to take an extensive amount of extra work done by hand.

Characters:

The game is planned to have up to around 40 characters, and is currently at 27 of them fully implemented. Playable characters at the moment include Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Sally, Cream, Bunnie, Antoine, Espio, Charmy, Mighty, Ray, Shadow, Rouge, E-102, Eggman, Bean, Fang, Jet, Marine, Surge, Blaze, Silver, Nicole, Scourge, Uncle Chuck, and Tikal. There's about 13 of them still in the works, and several more may be added as secret or super-secret characters. The party is limited to three characters, but I may be able to implement a system that allows the player to temporarily summon a 4th party member as a companion to assist the party.

Menu:

The player's Main Menu and HUD have been fully customized and will continue to be updated, and the battle system UI has been overhauled as well. Menu includes Items, Equipment, Shards, Skills, Traits, Stats, Boosts, Party, Row, Records, Quests, Encyclospeedia, Achievements, Options, Save, Music, and Cheats. (With the last two being unlockable features.)

Additionally, a button to switch Camera Mode has been implemented as well in order to allow players more freedom with how they want to play the game. Camera modes include Standard, Distant, Close-Up, First Person, Orthographic, Isometric, and Mouselook.

In the near future, I am also hoping to implement a display into the HUD that shows the player's collectables record for the zone they're currently in, but at the moment it's a work-in-progress.

Music:

Music in the game will consist of a rather eclectic set of tracks for each zone that will continue to play into combat, rather than having one or just a handful of recurring battle tracks. Mid-Bosses and Zone Bosses will have their own special music going on, but normal fights will not repeatedly interrupt the zone music. Most tracks selected for this project are fairly fast-paced and suitable for combat, and character themes may be included as well.