Paper Sonic (Demo)

[ElChibo]

Game Title:

Paper Sonic

Desired Author Name:

ElChibo

Brief Game Description:

A fast paced classic sonic game with a paper twist. The demo features the entire first level with 2 regular acts, and a boss act. In addition, you are able to play the first level of the special stage. Press F1 for the game information. After your done, you can visit the Official Paper Sonic Website for more content, and the Beta Demo Survey that we ask you to please fill out when your done, so we can get feedback to help make the game better.

Screen shots(maximum of 3):

Screenshot 01

Screenshot 02

Screenshot 03

Game Link:

Download Here

[Huepow00]

Looks more like "MSPAINT SONIC" but I'll play it and Assume it's at least fun...

EDIT:

Yes, yes it is fun to play.

[Spike]

More like Terrible-MSPaint-Art-Not-Even-Trying Sonic. Seriously, you could make all of the level art in the entire game in about 30 minutes, probably less. The green hill background is a prime example of the horrible art. Jeeze, use the circle tool for god's sake if you absolutely have to use Paint.

The gameplay is actually okay. I would have enjoyed more paper effects like the turning and flipping, though.

[ila]

Moved to General Fangame discussion since I think its a better place for this right now. Anyway this is a very charming game, and I think with some graphical refinements, as well as engine refinements and some Papery gimmicks, we'd have a real gem.

Welcome to SFGHQ by the way.

[Pheonix Gamma]

eh, here's some things to improve on:

gameplay:

-Sonic feels too slow, and too heavy. Hitting Robotnik was hard because Sonic didn't want to go far enough to even touch him.

-Sonic is supposed to bounce when he hits an enemy or box.

Art:

I'd suggest making the art a lot cleaner. I love the water idea, and the clouds pinned up are cute, but it's too MSPaint-y. The lines are thick and pixelated. The charm in Paper Mario is that the 2D art is smooth and such. I'd reccommend Flash for this game, just because you could draw and animate Sonic in a way that would mimick Thousand Year Door and Super Paper Mario quite nicely.

Also, the rings are completely out of place. You can't just use one kind of art style and throw in Genesis sprites. At least make them look like they were drawn by the same guy.

Finally, I think the ground should be outlined in black, too.

[Ryan Cordel]

Actually, in contrast to other people who prefer 'omglolz hi def 32 bit aa'd' art, this is actually pretty cute and a nice turn from the standard. You might have to, unfortunately, antialias some things to make it look smoother and fix some proportional and anatomical problems, but otherwise, it looks very good, in my opinion. Like the style.

[Asuma]

More like Terrible-MSPaint-Art-Not-Even-Trying Sonic. Seriously, you could make all of the level art in the entire game in about 30 minutes, probably less. The green hill background is a prime example of the horrible art. Jeeze, use the circle tool for god's sake if you absolutely have to use Paint.

The gameplay is actually okay. I would have enjoyed more paper effects like the turning and flipping, though.

Tsk Tsk.

[TRD]

I like this, but there's some errors:

*Watch out for thick lines. I know you're going for a paper mario style, but the lines weren't that huge.

*Take out those genesis rings. They don't fit at all.

*The physics need some work, Sonic can't jump very far. He feels out of place, and it's hard to beat the special stage due to that.

Other than that, and what some of the other guys said, this could be a really good project once those things are taken cared of.

Good work so far.

[Midiman]

More like Terrible-MSPaint-Art-Not-Even-Trying Sonic.

ok, im going to be blunt:

PAPER MARIO

retard.

[Spike]

No, listen. Before you go around being an asshole and calling me names, make sure you know what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about the STYLE, but the art itself. It's horribly MSPainted.

[Zenor]

Graphics aren't everything

[Midiman]

No, listen. Before you go around being an asshole and calling me names, make sure you know what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about the STYLE, but the art itself. It's horribly MSPainted.

I did listen. I do know what you're talking about.

now again:

PAPER MARIO

retard.

[Neo Hazard]

Personally, I thought Paper Sonic was good for a first. The graphics could use some touching up, but do hold "paper-ish" theme to them. It probably shouldn't try to be some much like Paper Mario, which was the vibe I kept getting. Some things need to be tweaked, especially Sonic himself. Fighting Eggman was hard because he was so screwy, but none the less, solid. Looking forward to the next release.

[Slingerland]

This game is a nice little gem, and an idea that I have seen many people discuss, but never do. My recommendation for the backgrounds is that you use a straight line tool for just about everything. That way, the game would look considerably cleaner and would stop "OMG HORRIBLE MSPAINT" comments.

Also, take a look at your water compared to the original Green Hill:

Notice how the original Green Hill goes back to give the player a sense of depth. Your water is a wall of blue tin-foil that looks out of place with the rest of the theme. Therefore, I'd also do the water by hand and try to achieve that sense of depth.

This demo is a good start to your project and I hope you continue to improve the engine (because it was buggy in areas, like others have said) as well as the backgrounds. In my honest opinion though, this game needs to be more on the backgrounds than the engine, due to its style.

[ElChibo]

to everyone who gave good comments and constructive criticism, thank you so much! to everyone else yelling paper mario retard and what not, whatever...

for all the haters, look at your games. in all honesty, while the graphics are clean and neat, it's all been done. im trying to take a creative spin on the game. perhaps it was cause i was playing super paper mario at the time, or whatever else, but i love what i chose. as for the actual object sprites, most of them wont change. sonic for one definately wont change, but the enemies will probably get touch ups and the ground will for sure. as for the background, Slingerland made a great point. i guess i never noticed how flat it looked until i really looked at a screenshot of it, and especially one where the ground was low. this is actually the second background made, as the first didnt have the real crumbled paper for water. but yea iv noticed that from genesis titles, and i will be adding a better layered perspective in the future, but probably not till much later though. for now im focusing on making more levels.

as for the scope of the project, this is still in early beta, so there are plenty of bugs, but its still a pretty solid engine so far. its only been in development for like a month and a half so far, and with my guess wont be done until like february or march of 08.

next on the post, speed issues. i know ppl have said its slow, and i noticed also at first, but i guess i just got used to it from playing it so many times. dont worry though, i already increased the acceleration, and lowered the deacceleration values so sonic moves a lot faster now. its not perfect yet, but its getting there. this also makes the special stage easier, when bouncing from one side to the other.

another note on the special stage, it was really really tough coming up with an original idea, and this is actually the 2nd special stage i made. to give an idea of how it will get harder for later emeralds, the width will increase, there will be more moving springs, some blockers or things that will hurt you, and so on...

i have no idea when il put out a new demo as i dont want to reveal too much. perhaps il put another out in a month so people can get a feel for the new physics, also when we make bouncing off things better, or things like adding a puff of smoke when you kill an enemy. i think the next demo will just be the first stage again, but with all the new enhancements, and my guess is that it will come out in a month or two. as for new levels and what not, i will definitely provide tons of gameplay videos and screen shots, i just want to save it from ppl playing it until the final project so its really a massive release at the end.

also one more note to the haters lol.... it actually took a long time to make all the graphics for this game. every single thing in this was hand drawn by myself with a mouse. yes, it sounds like a pain and a bad idea in some ways, but it all contributes to the art style im going with. and the water and lava, that was crumbled up water i put in my scanner and added some effects to.

also, why was this moved to this forum? i like how its here so it has a lot of discussion, but i thought it had plenty of gameplay to be a good demo. the rules for posting in the act 1 forum said was for games and demos. will this show up on the website?

[TRD]

everyone else yelling paper mario retard and what not, whatever...

Midiman was defending your game, not hating it. =\

another note on the special stage, it was really really tough coming up with an original idea, and this is actually the 2nd special stage i made. to give an idea of how it will get harder for later emeralds, the width will increase, there will be more moving springs, some blockers or things that will hurt you, and so on...

Still....the physics make it really hard to beat.

also, why was this moved to this forum? i like how its here so it has a lot of discussion, but i thought it had plenty of gameplay to be a good demo. the rules for posting in the act 1 forum said was for games and demos. will this show up on the website?

I think that rule has been change to only Full games instead of demos now. It just wasn't put into the forum description yet.

[CrypticSailor]

I think this is a pretty decent effort. Unfortunately I didn't get to play with sound.

People who are claiming the art style is horrible should try making their own original graphics in their games(100%). It's not easy. Aside from that, it *is* a fangame. We should encourage people be a little more creative with these things instead of "OMG LOOKZ LIKE PAPER MARIO". I remember people used to complain things are never finished, now people complain that original graphics looks bad. Amen to you actually aspiring to finish this thing realistically! I've also never played Paper Mario, and I don't give a shit. The thing looks fine considering *no other* fangame looks like it?. Another rediculous thing I overlooked was "Sonic is supposed to bounce" - I think that is also bullshit. Sonic is supposed to do whatever the hell you want him to in your own fangame. If it's not meant to be a genesis replica, it doesn't really matter. I Would agree that a little more speed would be nice. It's way too easy... maybe fix up the difficulty? Add a few spikes or something aside from speed?

Also, while your style isn't bad, there were still things that could be touched up graphicwise - the ring sprites are off... You probably already know this. It'd be better to draw them the way you did everything else. Sonic's jump anim also looks kind of terrible x__x.... Maybe you could draw some sort of cheap swirl marks inside of the blue area to show he's spinning(might go with the style)? The water resembles Ice, but maybe it's because it's stiff... It definately does not feel like I'm looking at water. You might also want to add an outline to the tiles... I dunno... and Robotnik should have some sort of hurt animation(even if it's just one frame of him making a face, it'd be a big improvement). Guess that's all I got. I know you're working on it, and you seem new. Good job.

[ElChibo]

o ok whoops, i thoguth midiman was flaming it lol. sry bout that

thx solemnity for ur thoughts on it. i forgot to mention the rings in the last post.... originally right after we made the engine and didnt add paper graphics yet, we were slowly adding them as they were made, and didnt make the rings yet and i thought they looked kinda nice like that. iv been 50/50 on the issue. one part of me makes me wanna make em paper to keep the art style continuous, but the other half kinda likes em in better graphics like that, almost giving them a magical essence to em, which i was also going to do tothe emeralds soon. il decide later, and probably base it on a lot of feedback for whatever i choose.

as for the robotnik hurt sprite, i defintely want to do that. it was on my list of things to make in the game, but i guess i completely forgot to make it before the demo came out lol. dont worry, there will definitely be one, including a better explosion sequence later.

and yea as i said before, il work on the background a lot more later.

and i agree, sonic should bounce more effectively lol. we actually switched engines halfway through development, and in our old one i had the bouncing perfect, and unfortunately it was a bit harder with our new engine and i forgot to implement it. il make it bounce better by the time the game comes out.

as for difficulty, i kinda wanted it easy, but hard to master. i loved picking up and playing green hill, spring yard zone, or the first act of scrap brain from the original sonic as they were all quite easy, and you could beat it really fast, which is what i was aiming for with this. however, if you want to challenge yourself, go for the S rank, which makes the levels longer (as you have to travel through all paths), and get everything which can be a challenge. thinking of ways to get every ring and enemy in all the paths is pretty hard.

[ElChibo]

oh yea, as for the jumping sprite, i was messing around with some ideas but i couldnt find anything i particularly liked, so i stuck with that for now. thats the only part of the sonic sprite that may change.

[Klonoa]

Sonic's empty doll eyes scare the hell outa me. Aside from that I like the direction you're taking.

[Ryan Cordel]

People who are claiming the art style is horrible should try making their own original graphics in their games(100%). It's not easy.

That's actually the part I don't find difficult.

[Slingerland]

That's actually the part I don't find difficult.

Of course, because you've practiced and have become extremely talented when it comes to graphics, Ryan.

[Ryan Cordel]

I'll just let others note it took 6 years, so it ain't no quick job.

[CrypticSailor]

yeah... a crapload of time. And a lot of people don't have time to excel in all aspects of game makings due to the rest of life's responsibilities(Unlike actual hired Game Designers/Artists... who's job is actually that ) x__x... That's why I think it's pretty notable when somebody bothers to go all out on their own with it in a fangame.

[love 4 shadow]

Atleast it's origanal.