MrKsoft

I've got to agree with that. Really a lot of creativity has been lost since the old days when we couldn't accurately represent the Genesis games if we even tried. We were also rolling off SA2 at the time, which everyone loved then (and we still are fond of now, in a nostalgic sense) and so people weren't afraid to do some crazy things or even, god forbid, add some story-- which were always kind of laughable but really did show that they really were made by true fans. I remember being super excited for almost all the fangames because they all had a very distinct feel and sometimes an interesting story too that I actually cared about and wanted resolved. Now a lot of games feel pretty samey, and not just because they all use the same engine. I should clarify that cool with that; I remember when the Sonic SV2 engine was the base of EVERYTHING, but those games at least felt different to each other as people were changing the sprites dramatically, making up some weird level ideas, and adding their own extra gameplay elements to that base engine to make something that felt like Sonic, but was still unique too. Maybe some of that was just me being young and naive and enjoying the simpler things in life (I was like, 10 or 11 anyway, so no games were really all that bad to me!) but I think some of things I remember about early fangames are still important.

Fangames allow me a way to work on different approaches and development practices more easily. There's an existing base of graphics, concepts, etc that I can work with and experiment on in order to improve my skills overall (and possibly even finish something, thus at least demonstrating that I might be capable of seeing a project to completion). That way, if something I'm trying doesn't work out, I haven't just screwed up an entire indie game that might have had some promise before I decided to try a radically different way of coding the engine, for instance.

I actually like it for the most part. In fact, I'm absolutely floored that you managed to do this in the Build engine. There are some valid issues, though. I think a lot of people might not like it because it doesn't feel very Sonic-y. It's more of a standard platformer with a few Sonic elements like rings and the like. Obviously this is just a limitation of the engine, and it's not like it stops Sonic Robo Blast 2, which is very similar. The level designs are decent, but rely maybe a bit too heavily on hunting for buttons to open doors. It slows down the flow of the game a bit as you have to hunt, and it feels repetitive when you realize pretty much every level has at least one of those puzzles. Worse (although not used a lot) is when you have to pick up the vases and drop them on the buttons. It goes completely against the concept of Sonic's speed, and to top it off he can't even run while carrying them. Overall though I had fun, and I'd love to see this finished.

Been poking around fangaming again after a long time... playing with Worlds and stuff. I dunno if anything will end up coming out of this, but maybe some feedback will encourage me. I just can't get the hang of making any pixel art that isn't 8-bit looking, so I'm stuck with lifting art from elsewhere and modifying it slightly. So, of course, there are some guest appearances of the most overused bits and pieces in the fangaming world (Azure Lake mountains, Isolated Island trees) ...but how I've stuck it all together looks kinda nice.

MMF2 for fangames because of the established Sonic Worlds base. For anything more serious, I swear by Construct Classic.

Jesus fuck... The weather all across the globe seems to be worse than usual this year. Mother Nature just doesn't want to quit.

Jeez, ten years ago? o_O I feel old. I remember going over to my friend's and he was freaking out about this new game that had been posted on SFGHQ (I hadn't been online yet that week). Of course this was TFR. We had a blast even though for some reason it would sometimes randomly crash in Millennium Zone (thanks Windows ME!) Definitely a classic, even with the controls and handling being so damn clunky. That's what makes it challenging!

Huh, imagine that, this is the first time I've gotten a birthday thread here. Does that finally mean I'm important? Thanks!

Ummm.. what? No, I've been Mr. Ksoft since 2001 when I joined SFGHQ. I did have a Garfield avatar, but the name's always been the same. Additionally, pretty much all of the graphics I used were pulled from readily available files from right here on this site, so it's not like I'm squandering anything that nobody else is allowed to use. I cannot draw my own Sonicy graphics. My sources would not be a single bit useful to anyone.

Oh snap, you caught me. I see you refer to the old 2005 version, which indeed was short. It was also somewhat trashy, with linear paths and sloppy tilesets. I did work on it into 2006 and reworked it in MMF2. I believe I put out a demo or two. With that version, there were a lot of flaws regarding the engine and general design. While it was much better than my previous version it still wasn't good enough. I'd also tried to shoehorn an old MMF 1.5-based engine into MMF2, which caused some issues. Additionally, for some reason the performance tanked and the game could NOT run a full 60 frames per second, even on computers reaching up to 3 Ghz. (Even tried removing all the objects, and it still lagged) I did have parts of a few more zones started, but with no solution to the performance problem I knew that even if I fixed everything else that would still be there, so I had to give it the axe. I considered restarting it a few times, actually, using Sonic Worlds, but I feel less inclined to commit myself to a large fangame project-- probably because I feel it is better left to others in the community.

toaster1: Not as easy as you think. I totally looked into it, and decided that I'll only ever be able to leave independent game development as a side project. It's just too risky. If you don't get a hit right-off, you'll probably tank. Myself? Well, I've got another year of high school left until I'm on my own. A terrifying prospect for someone who's never really been given the chance to get out, like me. I think I'm gonna look into 3D animation in college. While I haven't had substantial experience with it, the concept is something that interests me. The market for it seems like something that won't dry up, so it'd be a smart choice and is nice and creative, the way I like things. After that, I have no idea. Things are just too unstable to ever be sure. No certainty in my life except that I WILL go to college for SOMETHING. So after that, it's a complete wildcard and I'll probably be playing it by ear.

I want to simply enjoy myself, doing whatever interests me at the moment. Then, when I die, I die. *shrugs*

I stumbled upon this site back in 2001ish. I liked Sonic, but didn't own and knew I couldn't get a Dreamcast, so I knew I couldn't play any new official games that would come out. I also thought that if I made a good game, I could become wildly popular unlike my real-life self. Ahhh, good old age 9 naivety.

I really like this engine. I'm especially attracted to the fact that it's multi-platform, and out of those the console ports are awesome. I'd love to make a fangame with E02 so I could play it on some actual consoles.

I remember this existing, and playing it, but I don't remember anything about its content. I may still have it, or it might have been messed up when I got virused in 2003. I'll have to check in the morning.