Steven M

Take this post with a pinch of salt... but I think it's a problem of depth perception. The very far background is a deep purple which works well for showing how far away it is from the viewer, but the next background layer is a bright yellow and the next a subdued golden brown. The golden brown isn't so bad but the use of yellow/purple clashes badly with the foreground because they're too similar to each other. Not to say that you can't have a yellow/purple background, but that it needs to have darker/lighter tones than the foreground so it doesn't clash. I think this picture is a bit better because the background has its own interesting colours and it doesn't clash with the foreground as badly. The only real problem is the purple cranes - particularly on the right side of the screenshot they look as though they're part of the foreground. I'd say to fix it you'd want to take another look at spatial depth in painting (how the saturation or tone of a colour determines how close or far away it is). These links should prove useful - they're a bit of a wheeze text-wise but I hope they help you. Spatial Depth in Black and White (The Basics) Spatial Depth in Color (Builds on what you learned from the last page)

I'm not a fan of water levels and not all that keen on Sonic CD. Despite that I acknowledge I'm not the best person to give their thoughts on Time Twisted - objectively speaking it's well polished, the gameplay works great, the level design is very open-ended, it's not riddled with glitches or frustrating moments like some fangames are, and loads of people are going to enjoy it.

Not really, but looking at it in comparison to the SPA sprite I can see where you're coming from. It's more inspired by a mixture of the Megaman sprite and Rlan's Mini Sonic sprite. Left: Mini Sonic (by Rlan). Middle: BTB Sonic (by StevenM). Right: SPA Sonic (ripped by Tails the Fox).

Overall it's a very polished game, the music compliments the graphics, the graphics were top notch, the physics worked flawlessly with no glitches and while it wasn't interesting to play (and this is purely a personal preference), it wasn't frustrating either. You'd be hard pressed to tell it's a fangame and not an extension to Sonic CD or suchlike.

Interesting idea, though it'd have to be a pretty simplistic style of platforming since I suck at actual 360 engines (e.g. not just fullcircle demos). But I'll definitely look into it.

EDIT: http://stevenart.co.uk/art/sagebtb/ Hello and welcome to SAGE! This year is my first appearance and with it I bring you a game somewhat different from the norm - a Sonic-themed shoot-em-up. Many fangames at SAGE specialise in the level design that Sonic platformers are well known for (loop de loops, springs, spikes, multiple paths, etc) while still bringing something new to the table, and so I decided to try a similar approach with a different canvas - or more like banging a square peg into a round hole. This is the result of about a solid week of trial and error. The new feature for this game is that Sonic, being neither a spaceship nor able to shoot bullets, ditches the archetypical SHMUP template of 'ship shoots lots of bullets' in favour of 'ship charges forward and wraps around the level back to where it started'. It's a bit more complicated than that, though - you can still steer where Sonic runs and control where he lands, which is vital for platform-hopping and for teleporting right through enemy fire if you're clever enough about it. It also comes in very handy during the boss fight where it's deliberately slowed down enough for you to have better control over it... but I'll let you find that out for yourself! At the moment I have a demo consisting of two Acts of a level, a boss fight and a bonus stage – the game sadly isn't much to look at (the graphics are placeholders reminiscent of the arcade games of the 80’s) but there's more to BTB than meets the eye - hidden items abound, you’re ranked according to how many rings you acquire and how many badniks you bash, and there’s even a giant enemy crab! Dead serious, I'm afraid. There was a cheat code if you do really well (or don’t kill any enemies at all) but when the engine was tinkered with the effects of the code didn’t really work that well. Maybe next time. Feel free to leave critique and feedback. Do you find dashing through bullets ala Alien Soldier to be fair, or do you think players should be punished for even trying to touch bullets? Is the level design sufficient for a first level (easing the player into the game)? What’s your high score? What else would you add to the level? Do you think the game is too slow as is? Would you like to see more integration of Sonic design elements into the game (e.g floating platforms leading to hidden routes, spike bridges, destructible tunnels, shields, etc)? Do you in fact think it would work better as a Rocket Knight Adventures fangame? Let me know! http://stevenart.co.uk/art/sagebtb/

I have to admit, I'm getting the old feeling of cautious optimism that I had when I saw games like Sonic 06 and Sonic Unleashed and what have you - you remember that? When you were almost looking forward to the game and then WHAM they hit you with the latest theme/gimmick? But really, I think little aliens doubling as power-ups isn't that bad an addition to the game, and it genuinely seems like they know what they're doing with this game. Overreliance on grinding aside. That said, who else isn't going to touch Sonic Rush 3 with a barge pole?

Well now I feel like a right silly sausage. Some movement tinkering later (both static and camera-wise) it works like a charm. Thanks, Violet CLM!

I'm a bit nervous about sharing my code, so I apologise if the problem sounds vague or sketchy. But yeah, there's a constantly-moving object that the camera follows and a seperate object that the player controls. I might give that rightward movement idea a try, though it'll play havoc with the X/Y counters.

I've devised a static engine that allows the player to move around in eight directions. The camera focuses on an object which scrolls through the frame automatically (named Camerafocus for convenience), whereas the 'mask' scrolls across the screen independent of the playing area (Scrolling Options 'Follow the Frame' etc are unticked) so the player doesn't have their finger down on the Right arrow key all the time. The overall effect gives the impression of autoscrolling, like Gradius and Soldner-X. This engine works alright for the player colliding into walls and slopes from behind and usually horizontal walls too, but the player can still walk through vertical walls and wriggle through slopes in front of him. If the mask has Scrolling Options ticked these issues seem to be fixed, however this results in the aforementioned Right key-holding-down issues. How do I go about fixing this - to achieve this autoscrolling without static bugs?

Pretty much this. The hack's just a megabyte of SonicEpsilon going "HEY GUYS DIMPS SUCKS AM I COOL YET", don't get overanalytical about it.

The SAGE2010 Sonic hack looks pretty sweet. What other fangames will we see in the final video?

Here’s a riddle just for you – what do you get when you have a square peg like Sonic and a round hole like the Shoot-Em-Up genre?

Whatever happened to The Sonic Project?

And here I was thinking this hack would be faithful to the Dimps model.

That's cute. Really. I'm sure you were going for wiseass, as opposed to dumbass. Looking into it now. Some good files but the site's not letting me download anything, even with an account. Seems weird.

Any idea where I can get some?

Sweet stuff, Ligar. Have the rest of your blokettes sorted out who you'll play with and which version?

So we're doing the old "this looks shit"/"You haven't played it you can't judge it yet"/"Dude come on"/"At least give it a chance" bit again, are we?

Wow, I haven't played Sonic 2 in a good long while. Dumb question #2 - any idea where I can download it? Google's giving me nothing save a page of title card fonts and a link to an expired domain.

Dumb question, but what font is that?

Whichever's more convenient, though online seems to be the preferred method.

I figure this weekend would be good, unless that's too early for you guys to get organised.

It's more fun as a Let's Play since people can talk to each other. I'd say you could do it muted if you really want, but a cheap mic is easy to get a hold of. Mostly it's due to organising four players per game. Also you have to make sure MAME works properly on your machine (mine doesn't for example). Besides that, it gives people a choice since there are a good few differences between the original and the SNES port. You play through the game while commentating on it. List of examples.

Edit: IT'S SATURDAY, BITCHES This thread is for the SFGHQ Let's Play of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (also known as TMNT IV). The sequel to TMNT Arcade, and a classic side-scrolling beat-em-up in its own right, this game sees the titular turtles trash the terrifying Technodrome - before taking a tubular trip through time. Players will battle classic villains from the TV series like Baxter Stockman, Metalhead and the Shredder, and depending on which version you're playing (SNES or Arcade) you'll see some familiar faces from the live-action movies too! RULES 1) If you want to play, great - announce what time you and your mates will play so you all know when to start. We're going to have at least one playthrough per game. If more people want to play, and they can arrange it properly, then it's alright. 2) Have fun! (TENTATIVE) SCHEDULE SATURDAY TMNT IV for the Super Nintendo! This port of the Konami classic has a good few changes from the arcade, the most tragic being that a maximum of two players only are allowed to fight the Foot, the most awesome being the inclusion of the aforementioned Technodrome level. If I remember correctly you have a limited number of continues in this game, so if you haven't played Turtles for a while you may want to get some practice in before the big show. A game of TMNT IV means two players working together via a SNES emulator with online play. You should also have a mic and sound/video recorder setup for the game, too, but that's a given for Let's Plays. SUNDAY The arcade smash hit Turtles in Time, in all its old-school four-player glory! One game of Turtles in Time via MAME, although this is up for debate - if there's enough people willing to organise a game, we could manage two playthroughs. UP FOR DEBATE 1) I'm considering a Let's Play for other ports of this game, in particular the PlayStation Network version and the Reshelled remake for the 360. The big question is - are there enough people willing? Would they be able to sort out a Let's Play for the weekend? Do let me know! 2) Is this weekend too early to organise a playthrough? Is it fine? I'm all for it either way. 3) I'd like a team of people to help me organise this showdown (preferably mods?) in case I have any embarrassing questions to ask in the process (probably a lot) or if I'm not around to sort things out, depending on different time zones. Who knows.