W.A.C.

Cool. I'll definitely wait until after that version comes out before working on anything with that engine.

I'm thinking about starting a Sonic fangame project at some point and wondered if there was any news regarding 1.4.4. In this interview, it's mentioned that 1.4.4 is "months and months away". Considering how that was said eight months ago, are we likely to see the new version soon? I'd hate to get very involved with a fangame project now only for the new version to come out later this year with noticiable improvements.

I did not find out about this demo until recently, but I wanted to say I'm really glad to hear you're working on an improved version of Sonic Axiom. The original game had some of the best level design and most consistent art direction of any completed Sonic fangame out there, but there was one weird issue that plegued the original game compared to some other completed Sonic fangames. That problem was animation fluidity. Some of the enemies, hazards, and bosses felt like they were lacking frames which at times gave the game more of an amatuerish look as opposed to something that looked more professional and polished. I really hope the improved version of this game fixes those issues, as it was clearly the game's biggest problem. As for my thoughts on the demo, you did a really nice job with the new animations and level itself looks really nice, but I reccomend improving the level's background. The background art diminishes in appearance the further down you go in the level. My only concern with the added content is having four acts to a zone it quite a lot for a Sonic game, so hopefully the additional acts will add enough variety to make them feel like a worthy addition. I felt the original game with its act structure struck a good balance where you got a lot of each zone, but you're not in each zone for so long that the level starts to lose its appeal. Edit- Another suggestion is improving the boss fights. With the game's current version, I don't feel the bosses are one of the game's biggest highlights and they could use some improvements to make them more enjoyable. I find them fun, but they could use additional polish. Also, any chance Sonic's insta-shield and elemental abilities from elemental shields will be added to the game in the future? The insta-shield alone would be a nice addition.

Out of all these mockups: I like the blue one the most personally. While the pink one has more contrast, I feel the contrast is good enough in the blue one to work well. I would even go as far as to say I feel there might be too much emphasis on contrast with the first one. I feel the blue one strikes a good balance between contrast and cohesion. Also, it's worth mentioning the art in that stage looks noticeably better than the art from the demo. o_O The brightest colors in the purple mockup also seems too dark.

Whoops. I thought it I put back in its original folder at some point but failed to do so originally. I was really impressed with the game and liked a lot of the influences from Nintendo games with the DKC influenced level easily being my favorite one. However, Beam Kirby from Kirby Super Star controls a lot more fun than Beam Sonic. Maybe tweaking the controls to be more similar to how that move was used in KSS would be a good idea? Admittedly, it is weird for Sonic to have that ability in the first place but at least it's a fun move. Also, you should add widescreen in the future!

[LINK] Does this game have a false positive or an actual virus?

So I was about to play the game but the cutscene that's supposed to play before the title screen shows up is not showing up at all. I have no idea why and it's really frustrating me. I didn't have this issue with BtS at all. Edit- I just played through the first zone in the demo. None of the cutscenes worked at all so I stopped playing the game. To me, the cutscenes were a huge part of the charm of BTS so not having the cutscenes just makes me not want to play this until the issue is resolved somehow. Shame too because zone was really damn fun and I didn't want to stop playing.

Oh really? That suuuuuuuccccccckkkkkkksssssss... Maybe you could find some way to bring it back in AtS? That was a good move. Having the quality of the ending be determined on how fast your get through the game was kind of odd in older versions.

Good call on replacing the lives feature with a difficulty setting. The lives system seemed pointless since getting a game over always just resulted in me starting from the last check point.

I really enjoyed this game a lot but please, PLEASE don't lower the difficulty. You have no idea how refreshing it is to play a brand new game with a first level that's not insanely easy. The threat of death often makes a game a lot more exciting for me so the fact I actually died a couple of times in my first playthrough of the level was a nice surprise. However, I think I have a good compromise solution: difficulty levels. While I often hate how difficulty levels are often executed (hey my guns are much weaker and now it takes forever to kill one enemy), I think it could work if it's implemented well. As for some thoughts of the game. While the art direction could be improved (I've made suggestions in the past), it's a lot better than I expected and the animations are great. I had a lot of fun speedruning the level to unlock Carol so you should definitely do more in the future when it comes to unlocking stuff from getting fast times. Adds more replay value on top of levels that are already very replayable. There really isn't much else I can say that other people haven't already said both here and on Retro, but the game is definitely an example of why we take certain aspects of Sonic games for granted. (The rings system, ball form while jumping, spindash, etc.) Makes me wonder if the rings in Sonic games are really that great of a system. One thing I do think could be improved that someone on Retro suggested is the idea of being able to attack while holding down. Not only would it be a nice ability to have, but it would allow you to add more stuff like shorter enemies without the game feeling cheap or maybe some in-game puzzle ideas.

I just beat this new version of the game and I must say, it's pretty damn nice. My view of the game is pretty similar to what I thought of the last version except the big ring isn't a huge problem anyone (except on one level) and I was able to unlock things like the level select after beating it so some of my old complaints are no longer relevant. And of course, my opinion of the soundtrack is very different for this release. I was really impressed with the new soundtrack. A lot of the music was really catchy and now I have quite a lot of the songs stuck in my head. Easily one of the best soundtracks I've heard from a fangame. One thing I'm surprised I didn't mention back then is that I thought the quality of the stages were inconsistent. While a lot of the later stages were great, some of the earlier ones were a lot less interesting. I assume nearly all of the stages were made in a specific order? In so, the game definitely documented your growth as a level designer since much of your level design improved as the game progressed. I also got to say that I like pretty much all of the changes you made except one thing; I miss the blue ghost effect from when Sonic ran really fast. Why did you get rid of that? D: I always thought that was really damn cool. Anyways, I probably won't get around to playing the ATS demo tonight since I'm pretty tired but I'm totally looking forward to playing it later today. Keep up the great work, both of you!

So I decided to take a break from this game to go eat a meal and watch some internet videos. I went back to the game and I'm no longer able to use the 2x size option for continuing the game. I guess I would have to start over to be able to do that. :/ Oh well, thank god for Windows 7's magnifier feature.

Really looking forward to your fangame. Considering some of the influences from the Kirby franchise for both BTS and ATS, I take it Kirby is one of your favorite game series?

I haven't posted here in over four years, but I felt like making this post after watching the trailer just to let you know that I think your fangame looks really awesome and I'm so looking forward to playing it. I didn't even know about this project until I watched the trailer just now. Awesome work. Edit- Is Tails going to be able to fly in this fangame? o_O

So I missed out on one of the best SAGEs ever? Damn. I can't believe I forgot about it. :/ Is there an entire list of all the entries?