Highwire4

I don't know because I don't know what you're really making. I think its a game, but with questions like that it sounds more like an open source flexible engine. If you're making this into a game you need to sit down and decide yourself what your mechanics are and decide on what kind of game you want to make. Basing game mechanics on a community vote is probably going to end up in a less than sub par game. Sure, bouncing or stomping sounds fun but WHY do you want that in the game? Does it add to the gameplay? Or is it just because its a thing sonic can do in his official games? Same logic goes for your other mechanics. The move set looks fine but it doesn't offer anything new from other fan games unless you plan on bringing a new function to gameplay with those mechanics. Most of the time things like stomp in fan games are just to move down faster and don't bring anything new or unique to their game.

I have the 3DS version of the game and my overall experience was alright. The controls were solid. I haven't had this much control over sonic since colors and its precision doesn't stop when he's going at top speed. The parkour system is super fun and I love how it can be used. While going up a while slows sonic down a bit, I think its fine since there is some precision platforming elements going on that require a bit more time to react to. The bosses were enjoyable (cept for zone 4 that boss can fuck off) and while it is super annoying that the final stage is nothing but bosses, they were at least enjoyable. The bosses were an actual challenge at times which was nice to see compared to how ridiculously easy and lame the Wii U version's looked. The final boss, while not difficult, was actually a lot of fun and lasted for long enough to feel like a proper final fight. The one thing that I though brought done the game as a whole though, was the level design. It starts out pretty good and is just a blast to play for the first few zones, but as the game goes on it gets progressively worse. The main problem with the levels isn't that its super hard or overly gimmicky (which happens quite a bit), its how badly designed they are. The levels are designed so that you have roughly a 4-6 minute level thats divided up into 3-5 different sections. This is largely due to it having to load stuff but it helps when it comes to trying to memorize the levels when doing speed runs. The problem with the mid-game levels (not so much the later levels) is that they'd take a gimmick, like say rolling a snow ball around an obstacle course to solve puzzles, and make it work great for one segment. Then for the rest of the level, they throw in ridiculous and silly stuff to make it the most unfair and frustrating level ever and drag it out for as long as they can. This didn't really happen in zones 6 and 7 that often, but when it happens it just kinda really kills the whole game. Srsly limits replay-ability by making most of the level just not fun to play through or pointless to speedrun due to bullshit which leaves only a handful of levels you'll find your self going back to again and again. The other bad thing about the game is the special stages. While they're creative and new, their over use of the motion controls makes them just not fun. It uses the gyro scope to steer sonic through space and while that sounds cool on paper, I found my self almost throwing up on more than one occasion. I never get motion sickness from games. Never. Yet I get so damn dizzy during these special stages its ridiculous. The 3D in this game is ridiculous too. In that its super powerful in a way that doesn't hurt your eyes so its actually kind of awesome. I didn't really understand the point of Tails' lab or the RC thing. I guess thats if you have it on wii u but I don't so yeah. Overall this game was alright. You won't miss out on anything if you pass it by.

@InfinityAlex and P3DR0: You guys have been added to the list. Thank you guys so much for volunteering! I've sent out the beta build to you guys along with a list of rules and such. I don't know when the next build will be ready. I'm hoping maybe to have it ready by the first of dec. Maybe have a new one out every month. I dunno, we'll see how it goes. Thanks again to all you guys doing this, it seriously means a lot to me!

When I get the time I'll do a video on it. I'm horrible at horror games and I'm little pansy so it should be entertaining. Plus it should be helpful to you to see someone play your game.

Hey guys, sorry about the double post, but I'm just letting you guys know that I've 'finished' the next beta build of the game a little bit ahead of schedule, so expect to see a download link in your inboxes on Nov 1st! I'm still willing to add more people to the beta test list if anyone is interested.

Woah Kirs that was pretty amazing. The editor looks so smooth and easy to learn, so serious props on that! I've seen event editors in other programs that are just hopeless confusing to learn but yours looks pretty straight forward. Can't wait for the next update!

I think the pipe gimmick could actually work out pretty well but it kinda just sticks out right now. Perhaps if you changed the checkered cliff asset its inside to mold around the pipe instead of just having it clip through it might look better? Or change the pallet to something that works better with green and brown/gold. I do like the consistent style you have going on though, so the pipe still fits with in that regard.

Thanks for the concern, but this isn't the first time I've beta tested the game as Mr. Potato has said. I've sent previous builds to people on skype a few times in the past. Those builds were ready to test. The game in its current state is not. The coding is too incomplete on too many assets so they don't really reflect the way they are intended to work. Testing them now would be like testing a shovel with out a head. Yeah its got the base for a functioning tool but its missing the main components that make it useable. Testers would complain and report bugs that are there due to its incomplete nature so I wouldn't really get anything usefull out of it till I coded more into it. Sorry if I sound like I'm rejecting your advice or something with this long post and over abundance of details and words. I'm not rejecting it at all, I'll keep what you said in mind next time I'm working on stuff. I just want you to know the circumstances of whats going on is all so that we don't have a possible 5 pages of miscommunication going on later down the road. Thanks though.

Wow thanks a lot for the support guys! You're all on the list! I'm hoping to get a demo of some sort out by the time SAGE comes around so expect to get a build sent via PM sometime around Nov 1st....or at least thats what my goal is xD I'm not sending half assed or half working betas though. Doing that would be a testing failure on my part, so they'll be done when they're done. I've currently got about just under half of the abilities working and a few half working. A few puzzle elements are basically working as well but nothing really works too well with each other quite yet. Will post up some screenshots on saturday! Thanks again guys, and more can sign up too!

@GamerZ1: Currently it is being made exclusively for OUYA but I will have a PC port at some point after its ouya console release. I'm aiming for Steam Greenlight but I don't really have a big enough following to get that to happen. I'm hoping I can help establish that base with the ouya release. And yes of course you can beta test! I'll add you to the list.

So progress on Project ESTATE has been going along quite well. In fact we're going to start beta testing some stuff soon. SO. WHO WANTS TO BE PUT ON THE TESTING LIST? You'll get sent builds when ever I make them along with a set of instructions of things I'd like you to try while you're testing. They'll be a bit more particular during these first tests and get more relaxed as the game gets more developed. If you are on a mac, smartphone, linex, or tablet computer, I'm afraid I can't let you test since it just won't work. Also anyone in beta testing isn't allowed to share the software around with anyone or really talk about it with anyone else.

Sketching out a basic idea of what I want the world map to look like. This will massively change at any time during development but its definitely helped me piece together elements of the game. Stars are secret areas and circled stars are new abilities. There are about twice as many abilities as displayed here but yeah. The order of worlds right now is Dark Green, Light Brown, Purple, Orange, Light Green, Blue, Dark Brown, and Red. Worlds Dark Green, Light Brown, Purple, and Blue are above ground and are a part of the Estate w/Dark Green being outside. Everything else is underground and not a part of the Estate. Thoughts?

Hey Jassbec. You should have a level from Zork. I'm curious to see what you'd do.

Maybe a loop? Like the coding for changing into different layers so you can go through one? This is looking nice but out of curiosity what are you using to make your game?

Woah lookin cool. I'd have to go with the bulletin board level select. Its what Kirby super star did for a level select so it makes sense to continue that idea. You're already keeping megaman's stage select the way it was sooo..

Woah reminds me of super mario world. Totally digging the feel of it. I think its possible to get sprites to look like that and keep the same feel. Nice to see you still working on this.

@Mr. Potato: Woah that sheild is pretty snazzy. Can't wait to see that animated. I assume the two rows there alternate or play at the same time or something? UPDATE: -Changed the saturation of the generator pallet -Changed shading on brick pattern to make it softer for use as a background while keep hard edges on walls. -Added an alternative to the generator--a key pad with various light up animation keys. These lights will flash. -Added a black outlined variation on the keypad to make it stand out against softer background objects. -Added a variation of the keypad that has different symbols. This is for colorblind support. -Added a power cord of sorts that connects a switch to what ever it powers. I've got more variants of these in another sheet. -Removed the doorframe. It was ugly. I'm thinkin having gameplay elements and collisions outlined in a black outline. Thoughts on the new update?

@Sparks: yeah it is a bit iOS esk. I've tried to do hand drawn tile sets in the past and its just a real pain when it comes to making each tile match perfectly with the rest in terms of color, shading, ect. I probably just didn't figure out how to do it right so I'm curious how you're going about it. Perhaps if you shrink the size of that outline, its quite huge and makes it look pretty cartoony. Looks snazzy though. Very clean I've been rather busy UPDATE: -Slightly lowered contrast of darkest shade of lamp post green. Was too dark and stood out too much. -Changed shading on gate door again. -Added 2 variations of a generator and switch. Not sure which one to go for. I have both on and off and neutral sprites shown. -Added a glowing lightning bolt with 2 animation frames that would be placed on generator 1 when powered on. Generator switch could change a lot as the game's development goes on. Main concern with it is that its not too busy and stands out a little from the rest of the world. Its a game play mechanic so it needs to look like you can interact with it. Thoughts?

Thanks a lot guys you're the best <3 @Libi: There will at some point but I just don't know what to do with doors right now. Their orientation is super important to the gameplay and I'm still figuring that out. @Serephim: omgod its so squishy <3 @overbound: Woah thats looking crazy cool. I'm not sure if the color of the flower really fits with the rest of the pallet though. Maybe moving their pallet more towards the blue spectrum a teensy bit? Or maybe a bit more orange to compliment that orange container thing? Also I'm messing around with pallets. Not sure what to go with, thoughts? Backgrounds are mockup temporaries btw:

@GamerZ1: ahaha thanks a lot! I'm honestly not sure how I'm making good pixel art since I'm a massive noob to it. I've really only been doing it for the past 3 weeks. And believe it or not I do make these in MS Paint xD UPDATE: -Altered the yellow brick pattern to repeat less noticably (did this for all brick tiles except for double door frame) -Added a yellow brick exterior window -Got rid of the yellow brick red carpet platform -Altered the shading on top of lamp posts to match direction of light source in the rest of the sheet -Altered bush 1 a little bit -Got rid of the first grass platform. These two new ones will replace it -Made both bush 2 sprites match -Got rid of the banding on the gate sprite and implemented new shading -Changed curvature of the gate door -Added 2 new cobblestone platform tiles. Both have 2 variations. 1 is a flat stone face, 2 is a cobbled look similar to the ground tiles. These may be subject to massive change at any time. -Changed some of the color variation in ground bricks in the cobblestone platforms Gotten comments about banding on the gate. Super not sure what to do about it since any shading except banding seems to fuck up the curvature and make it look wonky. Thoughts?

I've received a few comments regarding the gate sprites so I've been working on them to give them more depth. UPDATE: -Changed pallet of gate pillar and altered shading on sphere and gate -added 2 new brick wall tiles -added single door and double door w/animations -added brick double door framing -added 2 new alternate grass platforms -added specular highlights to tree/shrub Thoughts?

@Kessler: It looks better but I think more needs to change. Because its monochrome I think you need to make the difference between the white text and the kinda white background more evident. Try out a black outline on the text. You're goin in the right direction with this, it just needs more push.

@DaHog: Looks good but could you change the prompt from "Press Fire1" to an actual key? One thing that really annoys me is when a game tells you to press something but is beyond vague about it and you end up just mashing all of the keys for 5 minutes trying to figure out what Fire 1 is. Is that a ring energy bar I spy in the corner?

EDIT: derp I'm a moron just keep scrolling.

@Potato: wow thanks man! @Jass: its just a placeholder. i havent even started sketches of the character yet