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Serephim

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Posts posted by Serephim

  3. Spark the electric jester - (DEMO v3 BETA)

    in Game Project Showcase

    Posted · Edited by Serephim

    Right off the bat, the Ctrl+Y function for setting joystick no longer seems to allow me to map my own buttons. Dpad is stuck on left analog stick, L + R is stuck on Square/Triangle on my PS3 remote.  Quite awkward.

     

     

    Awkward controls aside:

     

    The good:

    --------------------------------------

    -New powerups are all fun to use

    -New miniboss is fun

    -Rage meter is neat

    -Dash always adds some nice feel to the character

     

    The not so good:
    --------------------------------------
    -Kirby weapon loss is a bit annoying because it doesn't seem to have any wall detection. So if it bounces up and into a wall, it just phases up through the level.

    - Powerups still feel like more of a side-thought than an actual feature in the levels because of how little you see them

    - Smog Sewer is still somewhat boring

    - Kind of odd how the rage meter depletes upon taking damage...

     

    Some more specific thoughts:

    ---------------------------------------

     

    -Overall, i like the improvements. I still think that the powerups feel a bit underwhelming, only in the sense that they're fun to use but otherwise feel fleeting. Like, you have to find them in the stage and there aren't that many, but losing them is way easier than it should be.

     

    - I think you should still work on the way you lose powerups. For instance, in Kirby games, you usually need to take heavy damage to lose your power, but even still getting them back is never that hard. I think another good example would be Cave Story. You don't lose your weapons in that game, but destroying enemies without getting hit rewards you by powering up your weapon. 

     

    - Smog Sewer....the miniboss was fun, still don't like the level. And I believe the reason is because it's a water level. Water levels in games are notorious because of how they screw with the physics, almost always in a negative way. You don't really interact with the water as much as you just tolerate it. It hinders you, changes established physics in a non-empowering way, kills you, blah blah everyone hates them. Sonic 3 dealt with this problem by never throwing you into the water without always giving you something to interact with. Hydrocity had alot of gimmicks crammed into the underwater portions, and the water had synergy with the water shield. Oh yeah, and you could also run across the water with enough speed, which means sonic actually could interact with it.

     

    In a nutshell, try to turn the water into a playground instead of a pool of punishment. Maybe a powerup that lets you blast through it, or gimmicks that make your time in the water more than just floaty jumps.

    • Like 1

  6. The Oh-so-Wonderful New 3DS discussion!

    in Video Game Discussion

    Posted

    Nintendo...meh. As much as I love Metroid, Zelda and Mario, they are just not worth the investment anymore. I didn't want a 3DS because the Vita is a superior console, but the Vita tanked...now I no longer care for the handheld market. I don't want a Wii-U because i'd actually like to participate in the next generation of games. Not splash around the outskirts catching the stragglers. Lets be honest here -- the only defining trait of the Wii-U and its dated hardware is whatever 1st-party exclusives nintendo puts on them. They've once again placed themselves on the shunned end of multiplatform spectrum because the Wii-U is a 360+1 in terms of hardware.

     

    And speaking of 1st party titles....what do I even have to look forward to anymore? Mario? It's is always great, but I can always just beat that at someone else's house. Metroid? I'm not too optimistic about Metroid anymore; the japanese have reclaimed Samus, and for the first time ever, samus' main appeal became the suit she wears under her Varia suit. Other M's entire focal point was exploring the fact that she's (gasp.) actually a woman. Smash Bros? I'm not hype for it because I already know that in terms of longevity, competitive players will still be on Melee/PM in the coming years. Smash WiiU is going to be the best thing ever for about 6 months, after which the skill ceiling will be hit and the game gets stale. 

     

     

     

    Not to take away from the good games that end up on these systems...but it just doesn't appeal to me anymore. I don't want to play 1st party nintendo forever, i'd like to get in bed with other developers too. And for that, it's been risky to deal with nintendo consoles since the GCN because of how they do things. 

     

    In order for me to consider a Wii-U, they'd have to deliver on a serious Zelda and Metroid series. Zelda already looks like it's dropping its trope forumla. But Metroid has yet to show whether it's decided to go the route of Prime (new ideas, exploration, awesome shit), or Other M (retro pandering, fanservice, terrible writing) 

    • Like 1

  7. Next sonic game + Me wanting to make a sonic fan game

    in Sonic & SEGA Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Serephim

    My issue is how they seem to drop the ideas in the same title they introduce them in. Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog were the only sonic games that were legit 'SONIC' games from start to finish, nothing else inbetween, just 100% speed action platforming. 

     

    Heroes was the right path imo. 100% Sonic gameplay, included knuckles and tails without giving them hunting/shooting crap, stages returned to abstract classic, 2-act design in a non-lazy fashion. They just kind of ruined it by forcing Team Rose and Chaotix on you, and forcing you to 100% the game to get to its higher difficulty mode and 2-player races. Now if they just made a sequel where they further polished the physics, let you hand-pick your teammates, and did away with the whole "beat the game 4 times" crap, they would have basically made a 3D Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

     

     

    Of course that would never happen, because instead they just made Sonic 06.

  11. What's your favourite title in the Boost trilogy?

    in Sonic & SEGA Discussion

    Posted

    this thread is old

     

     

    PS3 Unleashed, because it actually made good use of the mechanics it implemented in its stage progression, especially in Adabat and Eggmanland. I don't know why older 3D sonic games always waited until the final stage to pull out all its better design choices. Eggmanland had sections that were unlike anything seen in the regular stages. If Knuckles/Rouge played anything like their Cannons Core stages in SA2 I would have never gotten bored with them.

     

    Werehog was not that bad. Honestly, it just wasn't. None of its shortcomings were close to game breaking, and it constantly had some nice concepts for its levels, all of its boss fights were interesting and way better than the day ones.

    • Like 2

  14. SEGA not interested in remaking S3&K with Christian Whitehead

    in Sonic & SEGA Discussion

    Posted

    Taxman made the engine himself, he doesn't have to worry about any of that. It would be no more difficult to port than CD or S2. And when is Sega not being jerks to everyone? It's anyone's guess why they haven't already jumped on this port.

     

    i've beaten Sonic 3 and Knuckles so many times, at this point there's no way I could get excited for another port. It'd have to add a lot of new content.

    • Like 2

  18. Spark the electric jester - (DEMO v3 BETA)

    in Game Project Showcase

    Posted

    what

     

    You don't like his opinions, so you're going to review his review? What the hell?

     

    Look, I know you guys like Lake and all, but to you and everyone knee-jerking at non positive reviews, just stop it. That's what the demo is for, to find what people like and what they don't. A thread full of "omg this is the best thing ever, no seriously man rly" is polite and all but that's only one perspective. Pulse gave a google doc full of very descriptive thoughts on the provided demo, and if he thought it was bad, that's his opinion. There are no guidelines for having an opinion. This isn't DeviantArt. 

     

     

    ANYWAY

     

    The new video of the powers looks pretty intriguing. Have you thought about maybe having enemies drop weapons upon being defeated?

     

    A MMX dash would allow for some tighter action elements in terms of positioning. It sets your speed, but do you keep momentum if you let the dash go? Also, If the Dash is a standard ability for Spark, then it opens up another avenue for item differences.

    • Like 1

  19. Change of interests in life- "My Sonic relationship...complicated?!"

    in Sonic & SEGA Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Serephim

    I remember being infatuated with Sonic....god damn. Sonic 3 was one of the coolest birthday presents I can remember, the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge and its lock-on, and the first time getting to The Doomsday Zone in an era of gaming with no endgame spoilers. Some of my earliest memories of the internet in the 56k AoL days, getting debug mode secrets for Sonic 2, and the ridiculous mindfuck that ensued when i saw screenshots of Hidden Palace Zone from the Simon Wai prototype. Finding out about emulators (Genecyst), the popularity of Sonic Hoaxes and the Moogle Cavern. I remember the first website i loaded when my family got a DSL connection was The Sonic Foundation's MP3 section. In like the 5th grade, maybe a bit earlier, i remember getting a registered copy of The Games Factory. I believe i had already joined SFGHQ, and was the same type of obnoxious as the newer members are now.

     

    The death of Sonic and Sonic Team is pretty significant to me, because along with it went Phantasy Star. It was hard to tell exactly when the ball was dropped, but now i'm sure it was around 2006...because that was ironically the year both Phantasy Star Universe AND Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 was released. Sonic Team's two biggest franchises, completely shitting on expectations and delivering insultingly broken experiences to the fans.

     

     

    It's so heavily rooted in my childhood that it's something i don't think i can ever fully quit, but I can say that at this point I no longer have any real respect for Sonic. I feel that SEGA only sees it for what it is, a wonderful way to milk both the east and the west of its nostalgic past. The same way they took Phantasy Star, a pioneering franchise in both RPG and MMO terms, and have perverted it into a valueless, soulless otaku fanservice machine with no respect for its own lineage or the players it exploits. Of course, the sort of shit PSO has become only sells in the east, so Phantasy Star Online isn't even localized anymore.

     

     

    Honestly, I hate SEGA now. More than EA, more than Capcom. Hell, probably more than Comcast.

    • Like 1

  22. Next sonic game + Me wanting to make a sonic fan game

    in Sonic & SEGA Discussion

    Posted

    I am just tired of them having decent ideas, then barely using them.

     

     

    Adventure games, less action stages than hunting and shooting

     

    Sonic Heroes, ruined the whole experience by forcing you to beat it with 4 teams that get increasingly worse.

     

    Unleashed, revolutionize sonic 3D gameplay, 50% of game is god of furry

     

    Colors, tease you with unleashed gameplay, sike bitch this is a wannabe mario game

     

    Generations, 2D sonic and 3D sonic? NOOOPPE sike again gaylord modern stages spam 2D more than 3D

     

    Lost World, new 3D gameplay style nope mario galaxy party 0.5 wit motobugs get reckt noobs

     

     

     

     

     

    ...the only sonic game with consistent gameplay design was Shadow the Hedgehog...

     

     

    • Like 5

  25. Why Bother at all? Fan Games

    in Game Creation Research & Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Serephim

    Lange, holy shit, this post. I'm sure glad you're around to make my posts look smaller.

     

     

    I do not remotely understand your argument about creating original assets. I do not understand why you brought this up at all or how it is in any way a problem. Is it an issue because it makes projects too ambitious? Because it takes too long? Because it can result in games looking worse than the official art? None of these would be valid arguments. An ambitious project is the choice and burden of the creator.

     

    Making the project too ambitious is the argument I lean towards, but i never said original assets are a bad thing, no way. It's an argument I usually make about fangames in response to how frequently they go unfinished. But over the years though I find that there's really not one thing you can blame this on, and like DW pointed out, one act demos are still progressive learning tools. I agree it isn't a very strong argument, and it is on the choice of the creator. It's just an opinion of mine.

     

     

    The games throughout the series have measurable qualities that validate the notion that the Genesis games are superior in many ways. 

     

    Proper physics in Sonic 4 isn't the answer... by itself. Proper physics would be a huge improvement however, because this does have a lot to do with what is needed of another entry in the original Sonic series. There's plenty of other problems that need to be addressed, such as the horrid music, and also what you said about it is true, it had no direction. But at the same time, it failed to adhere to anything in the format of its predecessors. Believe it or not, that's a huge part of what made them what they were, and these things should've been observed in the creation of a Sonic 4. By neglecting all of these things, it failed to be a legitimate Sonic 4.

     

    I never was downplaying the genesis title's design strength. I was pointing out that your fangame taking literally every cue from them is not going to make it an inherently better game. This is why I criticized Sonic 4 on a deeper level than even its engine flaws -- by pointing out that the very concept of the game itself was flawed, which leaked into and influenced every mediocre decision. This is a much greater problem than crappy physics could ever cause. Fixing them wouldn't be a large improvement, the game is built around it, and thus would still be a shitty game. The music was aggravating because instead of trying to sound good, it tried to sound retro. 

     

    Ignoring the framework of its predecessors is indeed a pretty terrible offense for a 2D sonic game. But Sonic Rush a was phenomenal 2D sonic game and it had nearly nothing in the scope of proper classic physics. But it was a good game, because it wasn't trying to be reminiscent of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It was trying to be Sonic Rush, a new exciting sonic game for the DS with 2 screens, where you go fast as fuck by pressing a button.

     

     

     

    Your point was golden in that sentence, up until the very end, which makes it a contradiction. You say that modern Sonic games have sucked, yet you say people only draw from the past games out of nostalgia. Okay, it's obviously not just nostalgia if people are avoiding the modern games because they suck. Make up your mind. "Nostalgia" is not an argument because it's speculative, and in many cases, completely false.

     

     

    It's not a contradiction, you just misunderstood me. I'm not saying modern games suck and old games are only good because of nostalgia. I'm saying modern games suck because their only focus is to provide nostalgia. It's the same problem above, where the concept behind the game itself just dooms it to be mediocre. And I personally believe, this backlash has leaked into fangames. The newer official games suck, Sega is basically acknowledging that's a fact, but they are still for whatever reason unable or unwilling to fix the problem. They have no clue what Sonic is anymore, only what it's supposed to look like.

     

    But sonic fans are actively studying what sonic is supposed to PLAY like, but with no positive present inspiration to feed off of, we now only build towards the past. Thus, every new fangame is a genesis clone, trying to be like a genesis game, with genesis graphics and a genesis storyline. 

     

    ---

     

    Alright, this is alot to reply to, so im going to try to broaden my response a bit.

     

     

    What bugs me so much about this argument is that you say it like people are forced to choose between one or the other.

     

    This is when Sonic fangaming became stable. What you call pre-death was essentially a bunch of kids experimenting and goofing off and having fun

     

     

    Alright. It seems like the real root of our disagreement is coming from the definition of what a sonic fangame even is. You believe it's something that's faithful and respectful to the medium, I believe it's whatever you think would be fun to play that you can convert into a game involving sonic the hedgehog. It ultimately comes down into semantics and opinions, really.

     

     

    You don't have to sacrifice quality to make a creative or wacky fangame, and a wacky fangame is not inherently more appealing to me than a series faithful one. You seem to assume i'm saying people should start making SonicxMegaman fangames again, not worry about quality or game design theory in regards to sonic, and revert to static engines. This is totally not the case; my argument is not based on what a fangame looks like, or pulls its features from, or which engine it uses. It's all about what influenced you to start making the fangame in the first place. Which, as you already mentioned, is entirely at the whim of the creator...It's just an observation of mine that current fangames are seemingly biased towards a specific generation of sonic fangames. Which I cannot say happened nearly as much when fangaming was younger. And that is something I attribute to Sonic Team being far more forward looking and progressive with advancing sonic, whereas now Sonic is more about regressing backwards into "what worked", while pulling key design decisions from games that aren't even Sonic games.

     

     

    So in a nutshell, i have no problem with people who extensively study the mechanics of the old games, I don't think its a bad thing, i don't think it's a flawed thing, I don't think it's worse than doing random things. But I do COMPLETELY disagree in the belief that a sonic fangame is a such only if certain criteria are met. And i dont care what that criteria is, be it gameplay, graphics, genre, or whether its shit or not. I mean, i guess it has to have sonic characters in it. That's about it.

     

     

    As for my sentiments on 360 engines, I've already explained, that's just a personal belief of mine. I do believe that the current 360 engines have provided an amazing, stable tool for creating fangames. But for all of their overwhelming benefits, I also believe the removed limits come at the cost of that experimentation you talked about, because for whatever reason it's just not happening anymore. It's not not not the shitty fangames I miss, it's the mentality that produced them. And I don't think i agree that it was a mentality produced only by our inability to reach the classics, but who knows.

    • Like 2
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