Apricity

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.

@InfinityAlex, looking great! Seriously, the Cyber Sonic sprites are really fresh.

It would be cool if you styled the pipe like those tree trunks you can walk through in Palmtree Panic Zone from Sonic CD. Maybe more like palm tree's though. Or the entrance could be a conch shell, not sure about the pipe though, could just be an indentation in the tiles.

Was that..... was that a ...?I like the style, especially how it changes up for when he catches Amy. (also just tried for like 10 mins to pause at that subliminal message, cannot be bothered anymore ) edit: Scratch that.

Rayman 1 (the one I referenced) is 2D and a similar style to the Kirby artwork. And there's 2D Crash Bandicoot GBA games, if you were stuck : )

Yeah, Rayman and Crash Bandicoot would be awesome. I would adore Candy Chateau!

http://www.sonicfangameshq.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8032 Time Twisted is made in this engine which is free to use & great looking work Overbound! The past looks really cool (sorry I haven't been around much lately)

Some parts of the Sonic CD soundtrack are so 90s house it hurts.

I really don't think the thread would be a problem but then again I'm not a mod. The size you listed seems adequate, perhaps just add Game Maker's inbuilt full screen feature as well?

You should probably remake your title graphic or save it in a different format, compared to the crisp background graphics and the sharp "fire 1", the anti-aliasing doesn't look great.

I hope Overbound has time for another Level Art panel, because they always rock! And I might be mistaken but I remember the possibility of Sparks doing a Level Design one? Which I am totally behind as well.

@Potatobadger: Cool stuff man! Quartz Quadrant? I'm a big fan of fangames having a one off classic level remade in them. Really grounds it to the sonic universe etc. Will you be remixing the graphics at all, or just using the Sonic CD ones? Cause it would be super cool if it was Quartz Quadrant but with a slightly more original look. The Steampunk Hill Zone boss looks cool and reminds me of a suuuuuuuuuper old boss I had for a suuuuuuuuuuper old fangame of mine where I tried the Green Hill Zone boss ascending as well. Really looking forward to seeing where you're going with it. @Overbound: Really glad to see you got it working! Looking fantastic

Yeah I got that error too. Windows 7 computer, i7 processor but I forget the specs.

Honestly it was just an idea, judging by the fact that Overbound has seen a website being developed it's likely that it will be soon. I'd speculate at a late september/early october SAGE but idk could be anything.

I can totally get behind Sonic in Duck Tales, hopefully you'll have some actually level to show off soon. But so far loving the BG!

Not Enough Rings isn't usually the type of thing I find funny but I was totally sold after the third strip

I'm sure the length of the Death Egg zone levels in Sonic and Knuckles is bigger than that though?

Yeah it's a translation error.

I can really back Dropbox, super useful for team projects as well.

Knuckles is mistakenly referred to as a "mole" in the OVA rather than and echidna. Sara sometimes calls him "Mr. Mole" and the whole gag with Sonic wanting to hit him over the head is a play on the whack-a-mole game.

Labyrinth Zone was originally intended to be the second zone in Sonic 1 but after play-testing the developers thought that it was too hard for the second level.

Yeah y'know what? Christmas or even Halloween themed SAGE might be cool. A christmas one would be interesting if we could get 25 fangames and have a calender where the website gives us one more every day. Giving people who haven't finished their's at the beginning a little more time and the people who are already finished a platform to show their game off straight away. Or even a twelve days of christmas type scenario. Honestly I think it being later is good, more time to work on stuff to get ready.

Sparks, I absolutely can't wait to see your live-stream. The thread you made was great and if the stream goes more in depth then happy days. I'm currently working on some Level Design and it's hard than I thought.

I know, I just thought that since the level was called that in ATS that using parts from Canned Heat in the music was fitting.

I always thought the canned HEAT thing was intentional for redHOT ride.