Ristar

I'm sorry but not every game out there is an FPS, and I refuse to believe that true creativity lies in the east. Look at the Zelda series, that has barely changed since OoT. Mario 3D, not changed since Mario 64 and the platformers haven't changed since the original over 20 years ago. People lick Nintendo's sphincter like it tastes of strawberries; but remember they've not really done much in terms of innovation in recent years (I refuse to accept the Wii as amazingly innovative, more like the biggest add-on console ever). It pisses me off when everyone says "Oh jesus, the new Call of Duty game is just like all the others just with a few different additions!" well... look at the differences between the last few zelda games... mainly graphical. There are a few additions here and there, but essentially it's "go into a dungeon, get item, use item to kill boss, use item to get to next dungeon." Now I'm not anti nintendo by any means. I think there are going to be some amazing games for the 3DS, Luigi's Mansion was one of my favourite games so I'm looking forward to the sequel. But it's not exactly an innovation is it? It will still be Luigi's Mansion 1 with a few additions. I don't love COD either, I'm shite at it, but it's still an enjoyable game and it's amazingly gripping. If you go into CEX or any other second hand games shop you'll find a lot of COD4 copies, but also lots of RPGs, sports games and film tie ins. People are obviously buying these games so it's not exactly an FPS dominated market.

I highly doubt they said that. The problem with fanboyism is that you tend to lose out on decent quality hardware and software just by sticking to one company. I stuck with the Wii during the first 2 years of its life, then I bought a 360 just before moving to uni and was blown away. My gf just bought a PS3, both of which are better than the Wii in just about every way. I stuck with my DS for ages before I got a second hand PSP; again, blown away by it. Saying that, I hold the two on par with each other. And finally can I just come back to this quote: what the fuck is a 3DS then?

they deserve to lose more. the 3ds' library is awful, consisting of nothing more than rehashes of old games. Resident Evil The Mercenaries 3D, an entire game dedicated to the modes of the last 2 resident evil games I played least. Zelda OoT 3D... so what? They've not even improved the graphics that much. Plus they have a gimmick that can't even be used with the fucking 3D (aiming obvs). Nintendogoh fuck don't even get me started. I'd only buy a 3DS second hand, just to try out some of the "original" software. Vita, however, I'm hard for that shit. That's probably because of Nintendo's awful gimmick flaunting putting me off all their hardware and software.

If there's one thing I could suggest it would be to not use alliterative zone titles. It's pretty restrictive in that it limits the the quality of the zone description and can sometimes sound kind of silly. Plus it ends up just being a formula of "[Adjective] [Noun]", like Horrible Hill or Grassy Green. When you remove that formula I feel you can come up with better titles. I also hate alliteration, you can thank GCSE English for that.

yeah that wouldn't be a problem, it would be nice to get other people onto remixing them as well. but I've done sonic-like act 2 remixes before (http://johnnystains.bandcamp.com/album/spikeball-island-ost) so this should be quite fun.

http://soundcloud.com/tunners/possibly-an-electric-mound created this song with this stage in mind.

you need to reduce the contrast of the background and increase the contrast in the foreground. I've also used a similar purple in shading the distant mountains as they previously had a different colour ramp. hope this helps!

video was still processing last time I checked, but here is the link anyway

so... what have you made so far?

video is uploading to youtube now. hopefully you'll be able to understand my strong northern english accent. watch this space.

Yeah making them OGG is no problem as VGMMM exports as WAV. I'm not wanting to force VGMMM on anyone, though I have some ideas about audio direction, such as each song using the same drum samples similar to the genesis sonic games. I find VGMMM to be fantastic as I have just over a year's experience of tracking (which shows it isn't that hard ), plus I love creating proper YM2612 instruments. I've used the Ultimate Megadrive Soundfont and wasn't too keen on its sound and just prefer dialing instruments in from scratch. Would anyone be happy if I made some kind of video tutorial on how to use it?

VGM Music Maker: http://shiru.untergrund.net/software.shtml Standalone program. Unfortunately you're gonna have to learn a bit of FM synthesis as well as how to use trackers but it's completely worth it. There is also Native Instruments FM8 which is capable of Genesis FM synth as long as you make sure all the waveforms are sine, with no more than 4 operators. Same goes for Ableton's Operator if you have that. If you're just learning tracking then you can use MilkyTracker, openMPT or Schism Tracker in conjunction with a Genesis sample pack (such as littlescale's great pack http://little-scale.blogspot.com/2008/08/sega-mega-drive-sample-pack.html). Nearly all trackers are standalone programs btw. At the end of the day you're going to have to put in a fair bit of effort to learn both FM synthesis and Tracking in order to get an authentic megadrive sound, but it's totally worth it, trust me

I dunno if I like it, I feel like Sonic's brow is a bit too neanderthal...

and another. I'm going to start some badnik artwork later on after The Apprentice

had a little go in grafx2. just a test thing for now.

it's worth getting to grips with it, and trust me I know how hard it can be. first time I ever tried a tracker was when I used FL Studio as my main audio program, about 5-6 years ago. It's worth trying something like openMPT out just to get to grips with the interface. anyway! looking forward to seeing some more stuff! I'm gonna have another go at some more test tracks tonight.

I've been a Heart fan for a good few years now but I've been listening to them loads these past few days. Here is an amazing song of theirs:

had some quick ideas for individual checkpoints.

wowww that's absolutely amazing. totally didn't expect that. but I think you're definitely onto something there, I mean that tune is amazing anyway, but maybe I could do the Act 1 stuff, then others can remix or we can interchange. that's still amazing! also! here's a little bonus to show off what VGM Music Maker can do: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34309799/soniczero.bin load that into a Genesis emulator and you can listen to a couple of songs I've done in VGMMM, including the Techzone one

well I was going for a "tech" zone and what says "tech" more than a square wave? FM Synthesis isn't easy either, all the instruments were dialed in from scratch bar the drum samples. not wanting to get too defensive, but the instruments I chose were appropriate for the setting I was going for. Too many unique instruments isn't a good thing either

winner!

that's cause I use VGM Music Maker, baby! It is a complete emulation of the YM2612 and PSG chip in the megadrive. You can export VGM files which can (through a program called VGM Player) be played on an actual megadrive. So in terms of authenticity, VGM Music Maker is the best

yesssss! however, lose the frame you added earlier, it'll give the finger point a bit more of a pop.

I know what the problem is, and it's to do with the inbetween frames. The last frame you've added is unfortunately in the wrong place in my eyes. What you need is an inbetween frame before the frame where OGSonic's hand returns to its resting position.