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Lange's Supplemental Sonic Fangame Guide


Guest Mr Lange

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This is news to me!

 

I'm not changing TIme Twisted just because you dislike a few things about it Alex. I will create the game I want to regardless of what critics say. Offering advice is one thing but pressing issues when developers have already acknowledged your opinion start to get obnoxious. Developers are free to disregard feedback to preserve their artistic vision if they so choose. There seems to be this attitude creeping around that if developers disregard some suggestions their games are considered failures, and frankly it's unproductive.

 

I could have sworn you said Attraction Attack wasn't supposed to be the first level in final. Hmmm. Honestly in that case I might have to agree with him a little. It does seem a little higher on the curve than the subsequent stuff right now and it doesn't really fit with the whole idea of easing into a new game. It still stands to reason that if you are playing fangames that you should be at a higher skill level than what you would expect for someone just playing the originals of course.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The reason why these typical green hill clones are so annoying is because they're the trope for the first zone and many projects don't make it past a one act demo. Honestly, I'd extend it past just tropical and into anything relating to flora or fauna for the first level as unoriginal. Be it tropical forests, grassy hills by the beach, woods etc. It's much more interesting just to shuffle the themes around; a late game green hill zone would be fun (and it would be cool to see how people modulate it to reflect the difficulty curve).

 

There's a fine line between having a style congruent to the classics and just plain unoriginality. A defining feature of the classic series is how each game evolved and mutated from the previous; Sonic 2 had Super sonic, Tails, two act zones, spindash; Sonic 3 had insta-shield, Knuckles, mid-act bosses; Sonic and Knuckles had playable Knuckles, Hyper Sonic, the first Super Sonic level. Following suit, fangames must also evolve to keep this old and maturing society interested. The need to pay homage and mimick every detail of the originals becomes lessened with each subsequent fangame that abides by them; originality and fresh, evolved ideas are vital in 2014 because as a community we have seen far too many fangames fall down the same formulaic routes.

 

That's not to say that having a tropical first zone, a Super Sonic last zone, or any zone mimicking a trope of the original games is an inherently bad thing, it's just when fangames do very little to push the boat out, however well made they are, they will ultimately be unsatisfying.

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Here's my thoughts on first level tropical zones.

 

I have no problem with the trope itself, it's just the way they are usually the only type of levels we play outta fangames and USUALLY, don't even get finished or get past a 1 act demo.

 

I'm honestly fine with having tropical first levels, just continue with your fangame and don't get stuck there.

 

as advice, well, if you really need/want to have a tropical first level, you could always change stuff as the acts change, as in showing progression and blending slowly into the next zone. Not only it makes it stand out, but it makes it unique!

 

Example:

 

You're in Typical Tropics Zone Act 2, and the next level is a city (we're calling it Default City Zone), you can see hints of the city in the background, and maybe in act 3 you're transitioning into Default City's outskirts, therefore the foreground starts to have more city related stuff, maybe adding some lamp posts, bits of concrete, and a closer look at Default City in the background without giving up your theme. Typical Tropics Act 3 directly transitions into Default City Zone Act 1.

 

Keep in mind it's just an example and you DON'T have to follow it exactly as I said (please don't), and you don't have to do stuff in the foreground as drastic either, or just don't at all, just give the player a feel of progression, because that's always a REALLY neat thing I love in any game. I can be progression between any kind of trope. You could also mix two or more different tropes as long as they make some sort of sense.

Edited by Jassbec
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Why this thread is still called "Guide"? Why did it have the "guide" word in it's title in the first place? The first post is too subjective  for that.
What I see here is a bunch of people entitled to their opinions speculating of what should and what should not be in their "Perfect Sonic fangame".

 

I think the title should be change to not misguide fragile minds of young fangamemakers. "What I like and what I don't like about Sonic fangames" would be a much better title.

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Guest Mr Lange

Why this thread is still called "Guide"? Why did it have the "guide" word in it's title in the first place? The first post is too subjective  for that.

What I see here is a bunch of people entitled to their opinions speculating of what should and what should not be in their "Perfect Sonic fangame".

 

I think the title should be change to not misguide fragile minds of young fangamemakers. "What I like and what I don't like about Sonic fangames" would be a much better title.

The thread may have turned into a series of opinions, however the original post is a guide of supplemental details that can improve a Sonic fangame, hence the title. Like with any guide, you don't have to do any or all of what it says, you can do things your own way. That's why it's called a guide, not an instruction manual.

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I think level designers should add multiple paths and secret little rooms and such to reward a player for exploration, giving a sense of replay value to each zone. 

 

Character specific paths are great too! It also adds a nice little twist on some stages if pulled off correctly. :D

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*clears throat* If you don't want want your game to have a peel out, and you decide to delete its code from your engine, replace it with the jumping code. I've noticed this issue with BTS' Tails and Edge of Darkness. I really don't see a reason why the character shouldn't be able to jump just because he's looking upwards.

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks for pointing that out.

Turns out the code for the "Actions - [02] Stand Up" motion in the old Worlds version some of us use has nothing for what characters other than Sonic should do when the jump button is pressed while looking up. I'm not sure if it is like that in the current Worlds release.

 

Another peel out oddity I've seen in Lake Feperd's games and other ones is that it isn't cancelled upon taking damage (which is hilarious in ATS due to the "Sonic Step" animation). To fix it, just have the peel out be disabled if Sonic's current animation is 9 (the "getting hit" animation).

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  • 4 months later...
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