Aki-at

No matter how bad the current games can be, they don't displace how much I enjoy the classic games. I still regularly play Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on my phone and at times dabble into playing Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog CD. And honestly even as bad as Sonic Boom has been, I was never really interested in that segment of the Sonic series, much like I have no particular interest in any of the spinoff Sonic media except for the OVA. I ignore plenty of poor, downright awful pieces of media Marvel shots out for their major characters like Hulk or Spiderman but I still remain a big fan of those series, I just tend to pick and choose which continuities I think I'd be interested in. Despite how badly they've gone at lengths to ruin a character just for a few extra comic book sales, I still would very much call myself a Marvel fan because at time they still managed to bring out some quality pieces of entertainment. Likewise I think SEGA has had a decent period recently going from the lows of 06 back to some highs with titles like Sonic Colours (This is another Sonic game I'm not fond of, but I know it has plenty of fans!) If it's good like Sonic Generations and Sonic and Allstars Racing Transformed? Great! I'll be there to get as much enjoyment out of the games as possible, if it's bad? I'll just ignore it and forget it even exists (I've yet to play through bad titles like Shadow the Hedgehog or Sonic the Hedgehog 2006.) I've dealt with Sonic games on this basis since Sonic Heroes and it's served me well. I've found SEGA JP/EU did a good job between Sonic Colours to Sonic and Allstars Racing Transformed, hopefully they find that consistency again, it wasn't the best idea to let SEGA US handle a spinoff of the franchise after they budgeted that colossal failure in Aliens: Colonial Marines, at least people got the Sonic Boom animation out of it, eh? But I think you'll find this is a problem in most fandoms. I'm a big fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but I know a large group who absolutely hate anything that came after the original cartoon (Personally, I think the successors are superior to the original.) likewise every single episode of Doctor Who is always met with "Moffat has ruined the series YET AGAIN!" you'll find people being extremely critical in one aspect or another. Would I swear off the franchise and that it has no hope? No that's downright silly. Will I be optimistic, to the point that I'll take any insult to the franchise as an attack at me? Again no way! I'll evaluate on a media by media basis and decide if I want to participate either my time or money, if not, move on till the next! The series that's blocking a new Jet Set Radio isn't Sonic but Yakuza since most of the developers are working. SEGA isn't going to kill that series anytime soon : P

Yeah I think 2 stages with a miniboss and boss is the sweet spot and I'd recommend going forward with that. Since you're not losing any great amount of work you can stick with the new design (Perhaps the cut content, if good enough, work as secret levels?) If you want to use 3 stages at some point, save it for something towards the end of the game as challenging level (IE. Metropolis Zone.)

@Mors: I've purposely kept the shading on the smaller characters (30x30) as minimal as possible, it's a design choice I went with but I'll wait to get more feedback (Another factor was that since the sprites are so small, every single pixel matters greatly.) The hud was pretty much purposely meant to seem like it would fit in with something SEGA/Japanese publishers would come up with for a 90s mascot platformers so I'll be sticking with that! : P I think you've hit the right sort of colour for the stage, looks like the right kind of grey.

https://twitter.com/BrockCrocodile/status/543784524971515905 Showing off three of the four gimmicks found in Museum Mayhem; laser beams, blocks and moveable crates. Level is a lot more slower than the prior 2 levels and probably my favourite to playthrough (But not necessarily to design!)

I think having 24 stages per one world is way too much. Even if each stage might be less than a minute long... say 30 seconds at the most minimum, you're looking at over 48 minutes worth of gameplay. No doubt that would be a drag even for the most dedicated players and as you mention, time would be better spent on other areas of the game than repeating the same ideas ad nauseum, as they say less is more. How many worlds are there exactly? Sorry if I missed it mentioned in this thread.

Did a bit of a design update on one of the baddies for the second stage. Featuring the all new Bee Paladin, now twice the coolness factor (I hope!) https://twitter.com/BrockCrocodile/status/541272476924518400 For comparisons the originals were just a dirty recolour of the archers in the level (To the left.) (I really should think about changing the default size of my images!)

Haha I came here just to talk about Yakuza 5. I've already completed the game in Japanese and let me say we're in for a treat, everything about the game is amazing. The soundtrack (Biggest in the series.) the boss battles, new gameplay segments, 3 new citites, to me it was the game of the generation. I was thinking the presentation was slightly disappointed just before that point, after that it hit top speed and didn't stop until the end. Get hyped for Yakuza 5!

Not sure if posting level layouts counts as screenshot but what the heck, level design is probably my strong point so I'm focused on that aspect most of all with Brock Crocodile. Pretty happy so far with Serena City/City Lockdown, treasure buried right under the player's nose.

The Evil Within. I've been taking is nice and easy with only getting in an hour a day with the game and I think I'm coming to the end bit I'm not sure, it seems like it's going on forever, the good kind! After coming off from Alien: Isolation (A game I loved a lot but never touching again, too terrifying being chased by that Xeno!) this is a bit of a refreshing change, not so much survival horror but survival action, the game really does mix it up with locales and enemy types and I've so far loved most it, glad to see Mikami still loves having plenty of bosses in this games!

I think that the contractual oligations meant they had to release something, rather than nothing at all and I think it comes in two parts. First the exclusivity deal with Nintendo. It's not difficult to say but this deal served neither party well, SEGA had limited sales from both Sonic: Lost World and Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic games and Nintendo didn't quite get the sort of quality SEGA had released recently in Sonic Colours and Generations. It probably makes sense that they may not have investment/commitment in any of the three Sonic titles as much as they normally would have simply because what would be the point (I'm talking from a company's viewpoint, not as a fan here.) as the titles seemed doomed to fail and Nintendo paid for the development costs. The second and I think more essential is that it definitely seems like the show was the main focus and the game was an after thought to help boost the sales of licensed materials. Selling merchandise rights is a major money maker these days and I assume being able to show toy makers that not only are they producing a major television series but a video game too. So it wouldn't be a simple case of cancelling it and/or even delaying it, they probably wanted the next mainline Sonic game to be available on all consoles and they needed the game out around the time of the show to give more exposure to the Sonic Boom brand. Of course I'm not entirely confident in the next mainline Sonic regardless unless Nagoshi/upper management manages to rein in Iizuka/Sonic Team like they have been doing for the past four titles. I worry with Sonic Boom in existence they are given permission to do whatever they want with the series.

Dr Robotnik is brilliant so far but I cannot for the life of me understand why Sticks is in this show, I think I would have enjoyed episode 4 if it was someone else instead of her. Also really hate how dumb Knuckles has gotten, sadden by that. So far the series has been decent but not good yet, I feel though it can only get better as the show starts to find it's feet. Was very unimpressed with episode 1 whilst episode 2 was good, episode 3 started brightly and then faded (The fact Robotnik had a computer to calculate the pecking order made me laugh more than it should have haha.) and I probably would have liked episode 4 if I liked Sticks.

I played it at Eurogamer and predicted this game as being very negatively received. Researched a bit more on the developers and found that outside of the 2 Naughty Dog guys that it was entirely composed of people who developed licensed games like Shrek, Disney Princess' and the poorer versions of Disney Infinity, really poor choice in developer. Would have loved it if Sumo Digital got a chance but alas it was not to be. It's actually funny that this game is released in between Alien: Isolation, Project Diva f 2nd and the Valkyria Chronicles port (And if you want to include Sports Interactive and Relic, Football Manager and the new Company of Heroes expansion.) from SEGA, talk about a bad apple in the pile.

This is looking fantastic, are you still targeting a Valentine release date? Damn that the expo is this weekend though, I've got a wedding to attend to in Manchester or else I'd love to have tried it!

Loving the colourful aesthetics on this, reminds me of something out of Sonic Team in the Saturn era! I definitely can see a few different paths from time to time, do all the bottom paths happen to be the "longer" route? Only recommendations I can suggest is adding a bit more scenery like tree stomps, plants, bushes etc to add a bit more character. Looks great otherwise!

That looks morbidly cute heh! Love the ghost thingy and balloon.