LarkSS

If Audacity supports VSTs, you could get the limiter Ristar mentioned: http://www.brothersoft.com/classic-master-limiter-133887.html Or select one from a collection of other freeware limiters: http://www.wavosaur.com/vst/limiter-plugins.php The point of these is for when normalization doesn't get the volume you want, you can apply a limiter which will automatically keep peak levels within a safe range while allowing you to boost quieter segments. I can't really recommend the one I use as it comes bundled with FLStudio.

I'm guessing you panned the melodies hard left and right so that the addition could be easily hearable so I won't comment about how it hurts my eyes ears when listening with headphones. In any case, I like the slight remix you did to the tune. ;> May I ask what software you're using to make this? Your renders are coming out rather quiet and if it's because you're trying to keep the audio within a safe range, a limiter/mastering vst will allow you to boost the volume without distorting anything.

I still need to take some time to try the updated demo. ^-^ In the meantime, maybe this edit I did to the second health bar could work too?

I thought the two megadrive songs you posted were pretty good, but felt somewhat lacking at the same time. I usually have a friend of mine help me out when I feel that way about one of my tunes, but I decided to mess sd61_gen myself to see if I couldn't fill the lingering emptiness. I normalized the audio levels too since your render was somewhat quiet. http://larkss.thisisourcorner.net/mymusic/mixes/ElectroStation.mp3 A bit unfaithful to the genesis hardware as I applied a dynamic filter to the track I added, but I think it still sounds believable.

@Strife: The christmas demo was pretty nicely put together and quite fun too. I'm only at the second stage though so I can't say too much about it. I'm pretty impressed by the animations though. I did feel however that the health system was vague. I understand you are only notified about health when it is low, though I usually prefer to monitor my status even at higher amounts. The recharge system also was weak in regaining my strength, and I'm not sure how good it is to set up a recharge system that can fully heal you if you're patient enough rather than having you rely on items so that keeping your strength up is actually a challenge. And one more thing. Your controller support is quite limited. You cannot use the controller to progress through conversation currently, and the weapon charge didn't work.

Much better Strife. Looking forward to giving it a go.

@Strife: Try applying fog then aka overlaying a bit of dark orange-y black to the background.

Hyper Emerson, I think the grass shadow would look better if it was still somewhat transparent. Also the mammatus clouds are quite out of place compared to the rest of the bg. Same goes for the bridge post due to its outline. (By out of place, I mean there's a style conflict, not necessary that it should be removed.)

I don't like the idea of hidden files and forcing an installer. Instead you should see if you can load an icon directly from the game's exe, or from a .ico file selectively if the user provides it (otherwise it falls back to the exe icon). Since you require the globe to be running as the fangame runs for achievements to be, well, achieved, you could use a communication extension that sends data directly to the globe when an achievement is earned. Developers could request their game be added to the globe's database along with a list of values which represent different achievements (1=achievement1, 2=achievement2, etc). These values are sent to the globe as they occur and the globe deciphers them into achievements. The data related to achievement selection can be stored within an external encrypted file to prevent the need to update the entire globe application as new games are supported. This way, the globe checks if new games are supported, and autodownloads a new file containing the new games and achievements. The file can be stored right alongside the globe application, as with proper encryption hiding it shouldn't be necessary. I like knowing where files are going in any case. Edit: Just having you note the bolded part of my post. This means that developers need to figure out what variables to use for their achievements, and how to send the data to the globe, which is what I meant about creating a standard. Same goes for the option of having a .ico file with the game as I previously stated; it all needs to be clarified before this application can be supported.

Nono you guys misunderstood me. I was referring to an external format which game developers would have to abide by in order to log achievements within the globe application. Fangames can't support it if they don't know what your application is looking for. (For example, ini, xml, etc. This is why I mentioned registry keys in the first place.) Edit: Reading your post thoroughly, you're saying you require your application to be running for achievements to be logged. I guess that's fine, but you still need to specify what a fangame has to do in order for your application to detect that an achievement was made, since it can't do it on its own.

I think it would be best that you start a discussion around here regarding the format for the achievement system. It should be easy to support, not make any use of registry keys, and preferably not require your application to be running in order for achievements to be logged, though the last thing may require registry keys to work effectively... hence discussion is necessary!

Hyper, I like the left one personally.

@Strife: Thinly on both sides, somewhat like this: Maybe not very necessary since the bushes behind the trees may be blocking some of the light though. :shrug:

Rael has a "you can rape me but I'll rape back" face. It's much more legal.

haphaphaphaphaphaphaphaphaphaphaphaphaphaphaphaphaphaphapPYBIRTHDAY Your Bulbasaur is taking forever by the way. Might want to get that checked out.

Zero should detect it actually, so why not? If it has force feedback too, make sure to say if that responds as well!

Little ailments like slight mis-proportions wouldn't matter in-game anyway.

Wow Strife that is awesome. If the trees in the very back were bright along the sides to blend with the light behind them, it would be perfect.

I love it. Second time I've heard this comment, yet last I checked the spindash uses the same strengths from Worlds, and I'm pretty sure Worlds got the proper strength values from the retro physics guide. I'll have to check to be certain when I get the chance.

The golden lighting really suits your eyes.

A bulk of it is under Objects Management > Player > Player Control > Actions. Manage Actions will enable action groups based on what the action value is, and within those action groups you will find events that change action values during certain events. You would put your Homing Attack trigger in the group Actions - [01] Jump for instance, as I would presume that you can only execute a Homing Attack during a jump. If this attack is only for a specific character, place the Homing Attack actions in a group within the character's category (such as Sonic Actions if only Sonic can do it), otherwise place it in Common Actions. After making a new action group for the Homing Attack, remember to handle it within Manage Actions in the same way the other actions are managed.

As long as you program it to do so. :] If you use an object like Animated Picture, you can load external files dynamically into the object and treat it like an active object. I believe you can import image data directly into active objects though, including setting up new animations at runtime.

Personally I don't recommend global events whatsoever since iirc there is a bit of a timing issue between global events and frame events that can cause problems later on. And yeah, the lack of qualifier support just kills its functionality in my opinion. But I digress. If you wanted to make code that was truly global and allowed something like this to be done by simply swapping level graphics, you'd need to make a level editor and have all levels loaded inside of a single frame. Managing the levels yourself like this, it should also be possible to achieve effects like having act 2 linked to act 1. ;>

I never liked the time travel gimmick personally. If you want to implement it though, you could probably duplicate a stage and change the backgrounds in the duplicates for each time period. When you active time travel, store Sonic's position and speed in global variables, then shift to the frame containing the new time period loading the position and speed variables back into Sonic. Checkpoint stuff should be global already, so I don't think you even have to worry about that bit. Remembering which badniks were busted and which rings were collected is a different story though.

It doesn't clash too badly with the genesis sprites, but it definitely looks designed for the advance style. I also like that you have the grass layered on top. Steven_M: The first shot's simplicity would probably look better if you had a lot of objects moving around. In general though the first looks too plain, while the second is too busy.