Plom510

@Highwire4 A lot of the problems you've stated in your post are blind spots for him. As you said, you can hide under him while he's charging the energy orb, and the player will usually be in the opposite side of Darth when he'll do his dash counter attack. With you're issue with being able to hit him at all times, you really can't quite attack him whenever. When he's moving across the screen and when he's charging his orb, you can't attack him. The reason why I made it so he can't be attacked when moving is that when he stops his dash counter attack isn't trigger based and instead based on alarms. Based on his slowness, he's really only that slow since I feel like there's enough telegraph time to avoid his energy orb as well as having enough time to attack him. I still have enough time between now and SAGE to make some improvements to him though. With that said, I am open to ideas for what else he can do for that fight since I don't want him to be too predictable. I'm probably gonna leave the predictability when you're fighting one of his robots as a boss.

I believe it seems like I'm finished with the boss fight against Darth. Every time you attack him, he'll drop some coins as well as performing a dash attack after he recovers. Right now, he only has 8 hit points and he just vanishes once he runs out of hit points. I still need to make an ending sequence for him, but I also need a VA for him. You can also notice in the video that Bingo has a crouch sprite and he can now crouch whenever he's standing still. Any thoughts on the boss fight itself?

I'd most definitely would like to test play the game myself. When I'm not working on my own game I'm usually trying to find something productive to do, and this may be a good excuse for me to do something. As for recording, I could possibly do that after I get familiar with whichever levels will be available in test builds and I would post them as unlisted videos if you don't want anyone watching early builds.

I can totally understand where you guys are coming from. Yes, from a first glance, he does indeed seem to be a discount villain. I do want to make him shine more in the boss fight encounters you have with him each time. As for boss fights though, here's a short preview I made. You can't hurt him yet and he can't hurt you. I do have plans for what he does after each hit on him but character pixel art takes quite a while for me to do. As for Darth himself having any connections to Bingo, I haven't exactly thought of his backstory just yet as I'm more focused on making the overall levels. I know that if I choose to keep his current design (which I'll most likely do), I might have to make up for it by making him an interesting character.

@Pulse0 I know. I can accept change, but only when I know if it's for the best, like how Bingo's old color scheme and shoes made him be similar to Sonic and such. Gameplay related stuff I have no problem changing up though as I removed the spin dash and changed the bounce mechanics a bit. Aside from all this talk, would you guys like to see a boss fight in the next SAGE demo with Darth himself? I will attempt to do so if I can get sprites for him done in time, but it won't be a problem to start programming his fight.

Sorry. I know how you feel about the name choice for the villain as well as his color scheme. For his name and design in general though, I just stuck with it ever since I designed him. Not to spoil what I have plans for in the game, but at some point, the villain is going to have a different form that will be permanent.

I'll be honest, I designed these characters back in 2007 when they were based on Chaos, which explains why they look the way they do. Over time, I did take away their emotiballs and their wings off (they used to have those way back when I first thought up with these guys) and tried my best to make them their own species. All I can really say is that if I plan on making any new characters or add any NPCs into any of the levels, they will start becoming unique by design.

Since Sonic Revolution will begin in 13 hours as of this post and I probably won't have any internet access while I'm at the con, I may as well make an early reveal tonight. Meet the main villain of the game, Darth! As you can see, he appears to be similar to our hero, Bingo. What is his true purpose on wanting to conquer the world?

Finally got around to making one of these. As you can tell by the screenshot, I'm also implementing a Bank system that could be used in the final game to buy powerups such as shields, temporary speed-ups, invincibility, etc. Only attendees at Sonic Revolution will be able to see this next week as of this post since I'll need to make a new demo with the level clear stats implemented. However, the coin bank will serve no purpose in the demo and all it'd really be good for until the game is completed is bragging rights.

Updated the demo again. Now you can see how my new sky backgrounds look like in the game as well as trying out Bingo's new Butt Bounce. I'd really like feedback at this point since it looks like I'm just bumping this topic every now and then.

Time to show more of my crap character spriting! He looks more like as if he's sitting on a chair reading a book or driving a car, but that's the best I can really do to be honest. I'll also be working on tweaking the physics of Bingo's bounce ability since it wouldn't really make any sense for him to cancel his horizontal momentum as well as gaining a lot of vertical speed if his bounce will be considered a "Butt Bounce" now. I will make it so he falls faster though and make it so he can get back to his original height when the bounce is first initiated. This may make some interesting level design if everything works well.

Here's that screenshot I promised! I also have a video if anyone wants to see how this level is played. Any thoughts so far?

@Spykid Yes it is! Although I feel like it's a bit early to say that, I will make a formal announcement about it in 2 weeks. I may be able to provide screenshots later today since there are a few art assets that I still need to work on. I may provide a video as well if I'm feeling generous today. I'll be honest now, it wasn't that easy to make the post I made since I had to cleverly use the words that contained the letters I needed, which would explain how the message's secrecy isn't very subtle. With that said, any critiques on the mountain art? It's a 1536 x 1536 image so it looks HUGE in the game.

I just drew a mountain. This can also lead to another level that I'm working on. All I will say about this "winter" themed level is that it's a special secret. If anyone iS able tO decode a tiNy little message I've plaCed heRE, I may show a screenshot or two of this Very cOLd snowy moUnTaIn level. I've wOrked oN it for a while and it utilizes assets that won't be seen anywhere else in the game.

@Proto Dan I can still make the proper adjustment as I have the PSD file. It's only that high as I want the mountains in the level background to obscure the sun a bit.

Out of what everyone is saying so far, I have attempted to make unique sky backgrounds for my game. I would like to say that they may be hit or miss. TOP LEFT: Verdant Valley TOP RIGHT: Forbidden Ruins BOTTOM LEFT: Sunset Valley BOTTOM RIGHT: Power Plant I just made these in Photoshop and this is the best I can do. I am unable to do gradient dithering so I had to work with what I can do. Also, my worst attempt at making clouds can be seen. I will provide before and after screenshots when I have them ready. Before and after screenshots aren't really that necessary when I could just update the demo. I'll probably do so when I actually have something new to implement besides from these new sky backgrounds. I can say that the Forbidden Ruins sky will be much bigger than what you see here and adjustments will be made to some of the backgrounds in the game.

@Stardust Gear I wasn't gonna have enough time to finish it anyway. At least it's almost like what I was going for. I could still try for an icon if that's okay.

Another update has been made to the demo! You should go back and play the newer version as the Shift to Run removal and Spin Dash replacement will make the game feel more "unique". I would like to share some other news, but I am not currently sure if I can reveal it. The news has nothing to do with what will be in the game if anyone is wondering. I'd also want to see if anyone can make a better logo for my game as the current one looks very bland. It's okay for normal menu navigation, but the title screen doesn't seem very exciting if you think about it.

http://dariansfiledump.webs.com/sfgdk_logo_wip_color.png Still need to add shading but I would like to show what colors I'll be using for the final logo. Also, how can I send the finished logo to you Stardust? I'll also see if I can make an icon as well if I have spare time after I'm done with the logo.

Well, I decided to make a quick logo just to pass the time. It's only a work in progress because I don't want to add the coloring if the logo isn't good enough. http://dariansfiledump.webs.com/sfgdk_logo_wip.png It's a large image, that's why it's a link.

That depends...what version of GameMaker are you using? In my experience, with 7, it usually takes longer for me to start a game containing a lot of resources. It's sort of the same in Studio as well but that latter may be since I don't have a fast PC. Are you also using mp3s? In 7, they make the game take longer to load.

I finally replaced Bingo's spin dash with a different move! Bingo can now Dash on the ground or in the air. As of now, I'm still tweaking how his energy regenerates after the ability is used. If he dashes on the ground, he is still vulnerable. Should I change it so Bingo is invincible while he uses the dash?

New Screenshot! It's more of a forest, but I need to desaturate the mountain. I also need to make the sky darker since it's supposed to be nighttime in this stage.