Violet CLM

It's pretty! Am I going to receive anything for testing sometime?

So store those. You are not at the mercy of your engine... either you can bring those same values for acceleration and all back later, or you can temporarily disable the code that's checking them and moving the player and setting them to 0.

Either store the x and y values to some other variables during transformation and then put the numbers back into the movement values, or just don't read from them or alter them during transformation.

I don't think you really need to worry about ripping that waterfall... it looks like a palette swap, not a real animation. But if your engine doesn't do palette swaps I took a frame and generated all the others for you.

Other people have pointed this out, but I really am concerned about the flying... it just doesn't look aerodynamically feasible. A lot of the thrill of flying in regular Tails gameplay is the constant tactile feedback of pushing jump, jump, jump; it lets you know that you're still in control of the game. There's a lot less interaction to moving straight up or straight right without much control. It also makes gameplay a lot easier, which isn't always a good thing; with normal Tails, if something is about to attack you, you stop pressing jump and hope that you descend quickly enough. Here you hold the down key and are instantly out of the way. Physics are important to Sonic games, and gravity is important to physics. Clearly the main feature of this engine is the weapons that show how smart Tails is. I don't think this is the only route you could go with such idea... one could easily imagine a game where Tails goes around reprogramming badniks and other machines he finds in his path, and manages to pose a threat that way without any great physical prowess. Where is the MacGyver here? I'm not saying do that, it's just an interesting idea. Anyway, I do like where you're going with the weapons, although I think some of them should be a little smaller graphically so as to leave more of the screen visible. Obviously these are weak test enemies so we can't know how hard it will be to kill (/disarm) regular badniks, but the attacks look seriously overpowered. The flamethrower pointing down reminded me a lot of Cave Story, where the machine gun at level 3 serves as a jetpack, and if you haven't played that game I would suggest you do and take notes. That's a game with a very functional weapon system. These attacks you're working with have potential, but I think they would work better as things a player would have to work up to over the course of a level or game and gradually make more powerful. The lightning right now is the most interesting attack, for I don't remember seeing anything like it. Unfortunately the movement of the enemies you lightninged looked really erratic: their sprites rotating was quite awkward, especially when it had no effect on the actual direction they moved, and it generally looked unrealistic. If they fell from the sky and bounced that would be one thing, or in some way kept going with their programming, but this bears no resemblance to anything they had been doing beforehand. I also think the ice would look better if the result wasn't always the same sprite and was actually a frozen over badnik specific to what it was you froze. In general you have a definite direction here and you're on the right path, you just need to do some tweaking, refine the powerfulness, and figure out exactly how you want the different weapons to interact with the level and when they are or aren't a good idea.

Hey, it's Tikal & Chaos! I miss that game.

The basic problem is definitely how few magic points you can carry, I think... primarily, this needs to be remedied by there being more magic pickups scattered around the world (in the forest area you've got the lightning and ice pickups right next to scene changes, but that sort of situation is rare, and in the dungeon in particular there's only so much incentive to use something that won't be replenished quickly). One way to do this might be simply to lower the price on magic in the store, but that could be iffy if money grows more plentiful. Alternatively, perhaps there could be items that give you magic or other things but that don't regenerate when you come back to the screen, like the old platformer trope of destructible boxes. Either they could have some predetermined/at-the-time-randomly-determined magic inside of them, or they could be some crazy mystical artifact that you destroy using magic and then repays you with even more of that same magic? That could even be an enemy, I suppose. I do however think that a carrying limit is important. Since there's already a mechanism (through special drops) to determine by what means an enemy was killed, magical or otherwise, perhaps doing a lot of work with a particular brand of non-healing magic, e.g. killing several different enemies with fire, could result in you becoming more "experienced" in that type of magic, and gaining more carrying capacity for that type? Possibly more abilities, I dunno. I haven't had a problem with the money system (other than the occasional spot to make lots and lots of money really quickly), but one possible alternative to your proposed "eventually there will be a purchasable money bag" system would be for enemies to just drop tiny money bags that can hold 10 or 20 coins each, say, which just gradually increase your money carrying capacity from an initially low number. One possibility for overhauling the magic system would be to make it a lot more Megaman-like, although this might be straying too far from the original vision. Leave the big spells, but make individual magic pickups be actually increments of say 10, and let the magic you've selected be tied into your standard physical attacks, which slowly (I.E. not 10 at a time) deplete your stores. Each magic could give your general attacks some sort of a bonus, but also limit their usefulness when facing an enemy with some sort of resistance, as is clearly common. Just a few initial concepts: Fire: extends the attack length a bit by having some fire (perhaps with an ever-so-faint dragon head) come out from the tip of the blade, which would be particularly awesome in the overhead-swinging weapons. Ice: freezes the enemy you're fighting really briefly (less time than the regular spell), allowing you to keep hitting them if you're quick. Heal: I'm not sure about this one, but maybe you gain a bit of health corresponding to how much damage you do? This might require some rescaling of the various health spectra. Acid, Lightning: no ideas yet. Other than that (all I've got so far), simply having more obstacles within the environment that require the use of magic is a must. Bringing artificial men to life by lightning, acid-eroding the base of a huge pillar which slowly sinks toward the ground as you jump back and forth from it to crevices in the wall, toppling ice structures through fire, halting crushing devices with ice, and, I dunno, healing yourself at practical moments? Something. I do like the idea of healing magic draining life from the surrounding environment.

I will beta test (and proofread) if you like.

Still absolutely loving this, and glad to see that the weapons system hasn't been changed or anything. Killing enemies by turning around and not even slashing is always perverse. I don't use the (non-healing) magic for anything but the occasional boss and getting special kill moneys, and I have never even considered using acid magic for anything, but I assume that will change with more specialized enemies later in the game? The purple neutron (neutrino?) dude, who has no picture in the Enemies info menu, seems a sign of this. I liked the new Forest Guardian, though I'm concerned that too much cheap damage may be done by hitting her, waiting until she finishes her immobile invincibility, then hitting her again before she can even move away. I'd prefer to see the blocks triggered in some way other than the spike ball, though, as it's been getting a whole lot of use at that point and there must be some prettier way of triggering things than destroying them. As for the clues, maybe if they were something other than more of the little infocritters? Some sort of delicately carved signs or something? It's weird to see them suddenly go all cryptic, and they were absolutely everywhere already... The additions to the two giant globos were very cool... I was ready to beat up the boxing globo with no trouble given, and then it caught on fire at me, and the crazy transformation song was amusing. Looking good there. I was initially disconcerted by the increased visibility post-darkening, but it grew on me. Hopefully that big red circle is just visible for debug and won't actually follow the player around? A list of actual concerns: The purple 50 coin on the way to the forest guardian is RIGHT next to a frame change, and it takes only about a minute to get 999 coins at that point in a way much easier than showering special attacks on the firebugs. This path is way too accessible and profitable on its bottom frame, and some of it looks a little clumsy too. Again, I have no use for acid magic. The purple guy is mostly immune to physical attacks, which is a nice touch, but then doesn't do anything. I can run under him and not even have to engage in battle. Could he spin around in a dangerous circle? The leather shoes are really expensive for something that makes the game feel that much freer. Could they be bumped down a few hundred? Much like acid magic, excited as I was to get the spirit dagger... I hope there's some use for it I'm not seeing, or something later, but right now I see no reason to use it. By the time I'm there I've got basically every weapon I can buy, and a 6 damage thing, no matter how cute, isn't too useful in combat. The paths back to the village from the forest, or back out of the dungeon, are really slow. Clearly it takes a while to get across all that real x-distance, but couldn't some new gameplay mechanic - diagonal springs or something - be inserted to ease the boredom? The surprise inn-in-the-wall in the forest is really cute, and much prettier than the random giant buildings later in the game, particularly right before the spider boss. Perhaps the save ability could be separated from the rest of the inn, to better allow for its being stuck in random parts of the map without looking huge and awkward? Finally, the brown background just above the awkward spike ball ladder area is really creepy. Keep it keep it keep it. Love this game.

The game complete. Really really enjoyed this, as may be clear from my having achieved that in the first place. I do agree with the criticism of the occasional pixel-perfect jump (mostly with Knuckles vs. spikes, though there was the occasional pit as well), and I'm concerned that there doesn't seem to be any easy way to get back to the special stages. The enter-menu in the missions is also largely useless, but deceptive. Finally, if there's one game begging for (and completely workable with) a level editor, it's this one... everything's in 16x16 blocks, it would be simplicity itself. Everything here is really well put together, and it just kept throwing new stuff at me the more I unlocked. The missions, particularly the badnik hunts, were challenging (though again there needed to be some way to restart them quickly, as a death usually meant waiting ten, thirty seconds before I could start again) yet entertaining, and the actual levels managed to have consistently varying design and throw all sorts of fun ideas at me. That you were able to make distinct areas for Sonic and Knuckles so much of the time was really impressive. The non-scrolling choice was a good one, coupled with the relatively simplistic graphics, though I feel the latter could have been boosted occasionally... the space scenes, particularly the sphere chase and the credits, were just way too barren, disappointing after seeing what could be done to alter graphics after the white-rock special stage. (Did it take anyone else a while to dare to bump the plane against the non-solid ground in the special stages?) I've never played the original, but enough of it looks familiar that I assume the various backgrounds and objects were all ripped... even if that's the case, they're put together very well and with complete reasonableness of function. The badniks got a bit repetitive with the walking-and-firing trope, but the Space Egg ones mostly made up for that. I could go on. Basically, it's a really fun game that can easily be played either in installments or in a long run... did the menus not sometimes take so long to navigate, I could easily see it as a desktop-adventures style thing.

The graphics look fine in general, but please don't nix the old optical illusion texture. I was happy to see it no matter how many screenshots or demos it featured in.

I'm guessing not, although there are other options.

I didn't see this in a thread search, but when you get a game over after hitting a checkpoint (at least in the first level) and then begin a new game, you're warped to that checkpoint with the elapsed time and such.

I like the big grass, but the background is way too bright and eye-catching, especially in comparison to the ground itself. Not at all easy to figure out what I should pay attention to.

Movement Techniques, down a few items?

- Knuckles doesn't turn around if you're behind him (but is otherwise seriously cute). - Collision detection on red rocks and rotated blocks seems a little wonky. - Make sure to check your levels for the left side of the frame being solid. - Jumping while running up a 45 degree slope is weird. - The ring counter goes behind the falling red rock things, as well as the walls above them. - I managed to fall through a thin platform once when falling from a spring-induced high. Other than that, it was a great show. The graphics and gameplay felt quite authentic, and the plot is handled in a very well-executed minimalist fashion. The enemies were all pretty dumb, but I guess it's early in the game, and they certainly looked pretty. Looks to be a very solid start.

That won't work: -4+0 = -4 -4+1 = -3 -4+2 = -2 -4+3 = -1 -4+4 = 0 -3+0 = -3 -3+1 = -2 ... 0 + 3 = 3 0 + 4 = 4 You're going to get a lot of results at zero, and only occasional results on the far ends of the range. Just use random(11)-5.

It's been done. This is quite well-made, but I wouldn't suggest putting it out on the market, given the level of existing competition.

Please do not let the self-proclaimed grammar nazis (ignore all visions of, um, genocide) scare you off the boards, btw. Not everyone is familiar with the English language, and hypothetically they realize that. What's important is what you make and how well you understand and appreciate other people's comments and help, not how well you structure a sentence. If someone does refuse to help you with an issue because they disapprove of your spelling or grammar, then one wonders why they are even in the Fangaming Assistance forum in the first place, if not to give assistance to people who need it.

*blinks, flickers into forum activity* I finished this game the other day, and it was quite enjoyable. For the most part, it felt like there was a definite structure to each level, except for perhaps the second carnival level, where things were confusing and it was not too clear what switch affected which door. (For that matter, the switches could have been more visible and obvious in general.) Other than that, though, the designs were quite sound, and I never felt like you didn't know where a level was going. I would also question the Floating Island graphics - the bricks look a bit too plain - but my main concern is in levels like Emerald Resort. Your engine, though clearly based on big block tiles, obviously allows room for transparency and tile variation, and it seems odd that Emerald Resort is so bland and unbordered. It, the desert zone, and maybe some others, could use more graphical variety, or generally look less flat and straight-lined. Especially when the blocks are used in diagonals and don't go smoothly together at all. I don't mind the spikes hurting from the side - it was easy to learn, and contributed to the level design. There were a few occasional engine bugs, where I would get stuck eternally trying to walk into a corner until I let go and fell, but other than that, it felt movemently quite solid. A solid, fun game, good on replay value! Nice work. (The special stages had interesting variety... for the most part, the hardest ones involved killing enemies, while the rest were pretty simple once I figured out what to do. Pretty original all round!)

Admittedly, custom enemies/bosses would be pretty tough unless you included some sort of script language for them. I just think the whole sending-in-levels-to-have-them-included thing sounds clunky, especially when it's done as a map and not even directly in GM or whatever.

Wouldn't it be more sensible to have the stages come from external map files, created in a built-in level editor, rather than having people create fake maps? That way they wouldn't have to send them to you for assimilation, and could just make and play whatever they wanted.

Sonic Blast 2

Every time I see that zone I get sad because I've been trying to draw it for years and it never looks that good.

Skylight: It looks good, particularly the loops, but everything is a bit blocky. Also, it could use some more color contrast or something, so it's clearer what is or isn't solid.