Sonic the hedgehog:Emerald Chaos: STARTING FROM SCRATCH

[Spike]

I tried playing the recent beta demo, and it crashed my computer. Bad. It took about 12 minutes to load, and when it did, I got an "unexpected error" and it crashed. It also soaked up all of the memory on my computer, so it was slowed down so much that I had no choice but to restart it. You might want to look into your filesize, and load some files externally. Game Maker is horrible about loading files out of the game file itself.

I admire your determination to finish it, though.

[sonic101]

Yeah I'me doing everythig I can to fix that mad lag problem, I'm pretty sure I know whats cuasing it, the games very scattered when it comes to its use of gml which is a big hug resource wise, As ive learned gam maker and gone through about 4 versions of game maker the game has grown with me, however in doing this it is the victom of many a noob programing move which there are so many it would require an entire coding re-write to really do any justice, and by doing that I'd probably have to rebuild the stages and basically start from scratch. So basically i want to finish it as is as to not waste all the time i spent on it and kind of use it as a testiment to the hard work. In the sequeal which i am planning on doing, I will use all the things I've learned with the first version and make a much more smoother solid, less resource whoring game.

This game mens a shat load to me ina sentimental way, it's far from perfect and it has its quirks, it can be tempermental sometimes but when it desides she wants to listen to you and play for you she can be fun to play, at least I hope so anyway. I've tested it on about 4 different pc's with vastly different specs and tried to make it work as best I could for everyone. the main problem I've found is either that persons ram is puny or their gfx card is crappy. Unfortunatly it takes about 512 to a gig to ork this game well which i know is horribly luaghable but i got a gig of ram so i dont complain heh.

Reguardless I hope I can get it to work for others. And I will try to clean up the programing some so it runs a bit better too.

Now that I think about it maybe for some more junk peices for the trash laying around that zone I should get people to makes broken signs ect for their games as a sort of mini advertizing thing, and use them to add more life to that stage....

[Jsonic]

I couldn't get it to run on my computer, no error messages, no crash, no nothing , it just wont start. it sits at the loading screen forever! after waiting a while I check it with the task manager and it says not responding so I force it to close and thats it.

Windows XP home

256MB RAM (RIMMs)

Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 (128MB VRAM)

80GB Hard Drive

SoundBlaster Live

[sonic101]

I couldn't get it to run on my computer, no error messages, no crash, no nothing , it just wont start. it sits at the loading screen forever! after waiting a while I check it with the task manager and it says not responding so I force it to close and thats it.

Windows XP home

256MB RAM (RIMMs)

Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 (128MB VRAM)

80GB Hard Drive

SoundBlaster Live

thats a pretty old version, several months actually, ive been working on the game all day and fixed one or 2 glitches. some proformance bugs have been fixed, i'll upload it soon as i finish checking it to make sure it all works right.

[Slingerland]

Man, this game STILL has runtime issues? Shi...

[sonic101]

Man, this game STILL has runtime issues? Shi...

Indeed, I'm trying my best to fix that, I've cleaned it up a bit and managed a 30 fps normal( which is what I was aiming at from the get-go) but it still eats ram pretty badly, im guessing its from internally loaded background music, which I any one is willing to show me how to do externally, I'd be willinf to try to see if that fixes ram whorage.

In other news Junkyard Albatross is now complete and I'll be working on stage 6 soon, I just have to go back and input story arch npc's for stage's 4and 5.

Also i liked the idea singerland did in his game last SAGE with advertising other peoples fan games, and I was thinking about doing it in my game aswell (if singerland doesnt mind me borrowing the idea heh, credited of course)

I've already got sonic EVO signed up for an ad sprite, if anyone else wants to put something in like your name or the title of your game I'll glady take it, I'm looking for about 10 signs total. so if anyoen is interested just pm me or leave a message here.

[Slingerland]

I'm a trend setter. I don't mind, so go ahead and use the idea

[sonic101]

I'm a trend setter. I don't mind, so go ahead and use the idea

What Can I say it's a great idea and get gets the community involved. fun for all and others get their projects known about. Great idea.

[Spike]

I would like one. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 by Spike. There may be a namechange someday, but I doubt it.

[sonic101]

I would like one. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 by Spike. There may be a namechange someday, but I doubt it.

Sure can you give me a logo or a sign? Doesn't matter what format or size I can convert it later.

[sonic101]

Okay heres the latest version of the game beta 241.

Hopefully I fixed some runtime bugs *crosses fingers*.

This version has a completed stage 5 Junkyard Albatross including boss. how ever no storyline as been implanted as of yet.

Also I took the liberty of placing in several posters for various games on the forums and placing them as background signs for stage 4 Midnight Neon.

So far consisting of:

Emerald Ties (Chao Killer Team)

Sonic the hedgehog 4 (Spike)

Sonic EVO (metalsluguk)

Sonic the hedgehog DASH (RogueYoshi)

Sonic adventure Remixed (GamerGuy)

GD Edit: Fixed the game creators for you.

There's still plenty of room for more if you want yours in there.

Also I made an animated sign of Slingerland and I hope he doesnt get mad, it's kinda poking fun at my games stretched tiles using him. If you disaprove man(slingerland) I'll take it out, it's not ment to make fun of you but as an inside joke of the games development.

Bassically the sign says

Noob "I'm in yer gayms stretchen yer tilez"

Slingerland "OH NO YOU DIDN'T!!!

*shows slingerlands forums piccy with flashing text "Slingerland DISAPROVES!!!"

if that offends you slingerland I'll take it out, i just thought it'd make a humourous inside joke thats all. Anyway I hope it runs for you all and that you all enjoy what I have thus far.

For the next releast I think I'm going to try to convert the game to externally loading the back ground music and see if that cuts back on the ram whorage, and hopefulyl have more logo' and signs for stage 4. also I'll have the storyline npc's in place for stage 5 and a breif bit of stage 6 which im not sure what to do with just yet.

download linky

Beta 241 (released april 17th 2007 )

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=S5KYIQOP

[Spike]

Wha...? Sonic 4 is mine, not metalsluguks. I've attached a logo.

[sonic101]

Wha...? Sonic 4 is mine, not metalsluguks. I've attached a logo.

Whoops fixed.

[TRD]

This sounds interesting, you can put mines up there too if you want:

It's a banner of Sonic Turbo 2.

[sonic101]

This sounds interesting, you can put mines up there too if you want:

[qimg]http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/6403/turbobannerwa0.png[/qimg]

It's a banner of Sonic Turbo 2.

Sure you'll find it in there next release. Stage 4 Midnight Neon.

So anyone play the new release of beta 241 yet? Any problems getting it to run? thoughts? Likes/ dislikes for the new stage 5? Comments ect.? Suggestions for stage 6?

[VectorSatyr]

Sonic the hedgehog DASH (insert programmers name here)

RogueYoshi. T_T

Sonic adventure Remixed (insert programmers name here)

GamerGuy. T_T

Also I took the liberty of placing in several posters for various games on the forums and placing them as background signs for stage 4 Midnight Neon.

Rip-off artist!

[Slingerland]

Slingerland DISAPROVES!!!

I don't object to your sign or your idea...I object to this game. Holy fuck that was painful to play. There's no nicer way to put it. Bullet points to follow for easy quoting (that way, like everybody else, you can take each point, refute it, and then give some lame reason much easier! If you don't do that, you have my utmost respect). Normally, I'd provide a way to fix each problem, but there are too many problems to begin with. I'll just point them out.

Nobody call me an asshole. This is the straight up truth:

-Right off the bat...the opening load time SUCKS BALLS. What is in this game? What could the problem possibly be? I know I have more shit in my game than you and it takes about 3 seconds to load. I sat for about 5 minutes for your game, sonic101.

-Why is everything so fucking big and pixely? Why is everything so huuuge? Why is some stuff stretched while other things are they're regular size?

-One sentence to describe the background for the first level: It looks like every green/tropical zone threw up and all the pieces mixed together to make a gross background puke soup.

-Broken tiles...push them together.

-Load times between cutscenes and levels...why are they so long?

-WHY CAN'T I JUMP ON ENEMIES?! That's what Sonic does! I jump on an enemy and then I get some ___gy landing animation and get hit.

-The physics are terrible.

-The game only takes into account the key that you are pressing. If I am running, jump, and then mid jump let go of the right key...Sonic stops dead in his tracks. If I'm running and press down, I stop and crouch.

-You lose your roll while descending. Bad. Wait...forget that...the roll physics are bad already.

-No slopes.

-Sonic moves like Mario. Slow. Well, at least they'll be the same speed for the Olympics, right?

-After 5 minutes of frustration, I closed the game...only for my computer to lock up.

-Green Hill Zone music...AwEsOmE!! Get new music please...

+Wall Jumping is surprisingly stable. Good job.

This beta is no different than previous releases. It still locks up computers and is a step above "unplayable." This "game" needs work...a lot of work.

[Rolken]

Specifically, the thing seems to have memory leaks and inefficiencies up the wazoo. The first time I loaded it it hit 192MB RAM usage by the time it finished "loading", and after playing through the first level I exited and restarted and it sucked up 413MB RAM. At that rate, any computer that doesn't have at least 1GB RAM will convulse and slow to a crawl, and there's no way it's necessary for an 18MB game.

edit: Oh, and the RAM usage continually goes up as you play, so it would seem nothing's being freed there either.

[Gamerdude]

Well, I played through Stage 2, and while this definitely isn't the best game I've played, it isn't the worst either. A lot of what Slingerland has said is true (but if it was me, I probably wouldn't have been so harsh). Here's a list of stuff that I've come up with.

Pros

- I like how you're incorporating power-ups like the wall jump shoes and light speed dash stuff. For the most part, they seem pretty solid...at least solid enough to be usable.

- While the custom graphics weren't that good...I still respect the fact that you attempted to use your own custom graphics for some things. A lot looked like 5 minute MSPaint jobs...but still, better than nothing.

Cons

- The game's physics were weird...they don't feel exactly Sonic-like. I'd recommend sitting down with Sonic 2 or 3 and just playing it to get a better sense of what it should be like. I'm not trying to insult you by saying you don't know what they should be like, just offering some advice...that's what I did and it helped me awhile back.

- I don't like how you can't just jump and land on enemies, as Slinger pointed out. I did notice that you could home-in on enemies, which was nice. However, in 2D homing can be easily abused. The only reason why homing was introduced to Sonic was because hit enemies exactly while in 3D was way too difficult. I personally believe there's no reason for homing in a 2D game. Your choice if you want to keep it...by I do think Sonic should be able to just jump and and hit and enemy while on the descent regardless.

- Levels didn't exactly feel Sonic-like. Again, as Slinger said, they feel like Mario levels. Too much jumping around and not enough speed. I don't think I ever reached top-speed while playing, which isn't good.

- Spin dash? Not sure if you are aiming for a Sonic 1 style of game-play, but if not spin dash is pretty important...

- Stretchy backgrounds...has already been touched upon by Slinger, no need to reiterate.

- The memory hogging...oh boy...for me, it wasn't too much of a problem since I have 2GB of memory. However, an 18MB game taking up a little over 420MB in memory isn't really acceptable. I don't know what is taking up so much, but the problem needs to be addressed.

Like I said, there's a lot of room for improvement. I personally think the memory problem should be the first thing fixed because anyone with computers that have 512MB of memory or lower (which encompasses a lot of people) will cry if they try to run this game.

[sonic101]

I give up. I just give up. Since 2002 I've been at this game, I cant for the life of me figure out what it's problem is, I'm tired of trying to make it work, I'm tired of hearing how it' doesnt run like sonic 2 or 3, I'm tired of fighting about it. I'm tired of hearing about tilez and backgrounds, I just plain give up, I'm having a really shitty day and this is pretty much the last straw. I've got nothing left. I just don't care anymore. I broke my mp3 player, and 2 pair of headphones today so I'm out $200 and the friggen tills were short 30 bucks at work which means im out another 30 bucks I dont have , I keep having to spend my anime north fund on shit cuz one random expense comes up after another and im all ready in a bad mood and I just cant take this anymore. I quit. Call me a whiner or a bitch or what ever I just dont care anymore, 5 years is a long time to work on a game and try as hard as I have I just cant make people happy with it.

so fuck it, game over. I'm outta here.

[Syonic]

poor guy, I feel sorry for you, but tbh if ya make a game, make it YOU want the way it should be, after all no one can make a perfect Sonic game like 2 or 3 after all. Like me I decided to keep on a low profile about my game till its released OR if ya had enough of the engine do like everyone else does, use another person's engine till you get good at creating your own, though I must say you did make a decent sonic engine (better than my first attempt) so I'll thumbs up for that part to you.

Keep it going if ya can m8 and dont lose hope because people compare to much on this forum, thats why hardly anyone actually finishes a game they started. PROVE THEM WRONG!

[Gamerdude]

so fuck it, game over. I'm outta here.

bye?

I'm sorry to hear you've had such a bad day, but seriously get a grip. People aren't happy with the game for legitimate reasons. In the future, should you choose to give this another go, do what I do before I post anything for my game. I pose myself the following question: "If this were to be released in a game store, would I buy it?". Honestly, just sit back and take a look at your game from above. Did you believe that no one would have complaints when you played it yourself? Did you say "hmm, this is turning out very nicely." You have to ask yourself these questions. I understand your frustration, but you need to able to take some constructive critism (Slinger's comments aside, they were on the harsh side).

I give up. I just give up. Since 2002 I've been at this game, I cant for the life of me figure out what it's problem is

Then why don't you ask someone with Gamemaker knowledge to help you figure out the problem that it's having (the memory problem)?

Oh, and I've been trying to make a game since 2000 and I'm still having trouble, so bleh on you.

[Dobermann]

Not everyone can make games... But as everyone try it's how it end up for most of them! Always start with a real project and wrote it on paper, story, gameplay, ennemy, goal, etc...

Games who start with those kind of stuff has more chance to come out!

And a thing i have to say, i really hate the blur added on the sprites, it's really ugly...

[Xoram]

Trial and error. I have remade my engine 8 times, and I have been at my game since 1999/2000. It's not easy for anyone, we've all been where you are now. You simply need to carry on.

[Perfect Chaos Zero]

I've never made a game in my life and I own half the place. Relax 101, just because you can't make a game or aren't very good at it doesn't mean you can't learn and/or just stick around and play them. If you're so troubled, maybe you could drop by IRC and ask Dami or someone for some one on one help. Why don't you drop by the chat and talk with us? You'll probably find yourself feeling a lot better after doing so. Give it a shot, you'd be surprised.