Sonic: The Fated Hour - July 2009 Update

[Felik]

That was no one's favorite game anyway.

You mean that Sonic Labyrinth is someone's favorie game? O_o

[BlazeHedgehog]

Sonic 1 MS and Sonic 1 GG are more or less the same game. So is Sonic 2 MS and Sonic 2 GG.

I know there's differences between the two versions, of course, but they don't really matter to me outside of the first boss in the MS version of Sonic 2 actually being defeatable.

[BlazeHedgehog]

You know me, can't keep a secret very well.

Shields.

Lots of changes are happening in TFH now. First major progress since releasing the SAGE demo, really. I realize the concept of a Wind Shield isn't exactly the most original idea in the universe, but it works with the theme of being elemental.

I'll detail all of the changes (and there are a lot) for this month's big update. I'll also be posting the results of the poll. The changes aren't anything terribly dramatic, but they are all towards making this a much tighter, more balanced experience. The Shields video is just a small taste.

[Ollie]

Cool stuff, I haven't really looked into this game so this is all new to me, one question relating to your shields video. Are all but the Tornado shield complete, as in effects-wise or what? Anyway, loving the style of the shields they are all very sleek and the graphics keep a consistent style... AWESOME!

[BlazeHedgehog]

Yeah, I guess you'd say the other shield graphics are done. Might do some tweaking on the bubble shield.

[P3DR0]

Awesome! I love the shields design. What program do you use to make the shields?

[BlazeHedgehog]

Any image editing program will do. I mean, I don't have a special shield-making program or anything like that. You could use Photoshop, or Paint.net, or whatever you want.

It's more about technique than it is anything else.

[Streak Thunderstorm]

Lol, wind shield =]

[BlazeHedgehog]

The Update is up.

http://www.moddb.com/news/sonic-tfh-february-update

I'm too lazy to redo all the formatting here, so just go there. The most interesting thing in this update is the poll results. It also talks a little bit about how some of the game mechanics are shifting around thanks to the poll results, and why the wind shield functions the way it does.

[BlazeHedgehog]

Wow, look at that. I actually fell off the first page. Been a while since that happened.

Updated yesterday with a new video and more information. You can read the whole update here if you want, but I'll just paste the most important bit:

The biggest change in this video is at the end. The game's boost system has received a complete and total overhaul. As much fun as it was boosting around the demo level Sonic-Rush-style, that's not what I really wanted. Again, this all goes back to gameplay balance - having a boost that you can just hold down constantly lends itself to a certain type of gameplay. Levels have to be designed around boosting that much, and those are not the kind of levels I had in mind for this game. I'm not trying to make a Sonic-Rush-clone. I want TFH to be more like the classic Sega Genesis Sonic games with some elements to update it with the better parts of modern Sonic games. I didn't want to remove boosting completely (since, in some vague form, boosting has been a part of TFH even before it was officially implemented in Sonic Rush), so I tried to go for a system that still lets you boost... just not forever.

Essentially, if you've ever played Excite Bike on the NES (or, for a more recent example, MotorStorm on the PS3), you'll notice that you can only boost until you "overheat". When you overheat, you become incapacitated for a while and it breaks your flow. It's the same concept here. If your boost meter fills up all the way, you are stunned and cannot boost again until it drains completely empty. While destroying enemies and collecting rings can slow down how quickly the boost meter fills, pretty much the only way to drain the boost meter again is to not boost.

[Aerosol]

Looking good, as always. I especially like the boost system!

[ZFG]

Blazehedgehog, you have one of the most AWESOME projects going on here at SFGHQ. This is looking really good as Aerosol allready mentioned: As allways.

[Blue Emerald]

Much better. I really like that new overheat gauge; it keeps that dash from being too easy to abuse, which is the main gripe I previously had with the game. I'm quite glad you found a way to remedy that issue.

[Rael0505]

I'm really glad you limited the boost usage. Good thinking.

[VectorSatyr]

Aww... I've been thinking of a way to work around boosting for days. Can I use that? ;_;

[Rael0505]

I say do it. It's not like the idea of limiting a boost feature in any kind of game is unheard of.

[BlazeHedgehog]

No kidding. I mentioned two examples in my post.

[VectorSatyr]

Okay, then. Expect to see the tension gauge return in Firestorm. =)

[BlazeHedgehog]

From Moddb:

What a month it has been. For those of you who have been keeping up with TFH for a while, you know that I've had a long string of computer problems for a good year now - or rather, I should say, computer problem, as it's been one component overheating and basically ruining the party for everybody else. After having replaced almost every component in the system, one at a time, the problem seems to still be persisting - meaning it's either the hard drive or the processor. Since the hard drive is still under warranty, I'll be replacing that, next. On top of that, severe plumbing problems. But, while I've been beating the springtime heat and trying to get rid of the smell of old, wet carpet, I managed to work on the game! Fancy that.

For starters, I've been re-writing the partner AI code. I really wanted to include Knuckles in the Dry Savannah demo, but in actuality, his movement code was pretty sloppy and it just wasn't up to standard. The new code for partner stuff is hopefully much more efficient and polished. It's not done yet, of course, but I can always roll back to the old stuff if I'm for some reason not happy with the way the new code is turning out. No real new features in this area, just... clean-up, really.

I also did a bunch of other little tweaks to things that are so small that aren't worth mentioning, so I'll just skip right to the big one: Amy's redesigned shop menu. Menu systems are usually the bane of my existence - especially highly modifables ones. Amy's old shop menu needed to be dynamic, and have a wide range of items to purchase. It was cluttered and took up the entire screen:

It was a bear to work with and I never really did finish writing it because I figured I needed to get Sonic's equip menu done first. When I made the decision to simplify the game a bit and throw out the whole overcomplicated equip system, I basically tore out all the code for both Amy's shop and Sonic's equip menu and started over from scratch on those elements. I am happy to announce that Amy's new shop menu is complete and

.

Small, elegant, and fitting with the rest of the menus the game presents. It shows just as much information as the old shop menu did in less than half the space. Prices on items may seem steep, but that's intentional - to start with, I don't want to devalue finding items in levels themselves; it encourages players to venture out in to levels to try and find items hidden in secret locations rather than spend rings to buy them. Plus, if you're good at the game, having a lot of rings is not really a problem - some would consider the Dry Savannah demo a "small" level, and it had around 700 rings in it if you went around and collected them all.

If you're unclear on the concept of the ring bank, basically, it's like Sonic Adventure DX on the Gamecube; when you finish a level, your leftover rings are added to a "bank" of rings that can never be lost. When buying items from the store, it factors in both the number of rings you currently have with you and the number of rings you have in your ring bank and subtracts from the bank first (Thinking about it as I type this post out, it might be wise to give Amy a "deposit" function, actually, that transfers some of your current rings to your ring bank from her shop menu).

That'll just about do it for TFH's April Update. Considering the whole "Hard drive Warranty Repair" situation, I'll probably be out of comission for a week (if not longer), so next month's update might be a little strained - depending on how lazy I feel, of course. What with producing a massive volume of content for the site I work for (in the form of video reviews, etc.), I think I have an excuse!

Next month marks one solid year of monthly updates on Moddb! Can you believe it's really been a year? Assuming Seagate's Repair Center doesn't screw something up, I'll see you guys in 30.

[DiabloHedgehog]

Hey whatever get's the game complete

[flame6753]

genius man, I've been following TFH since I was 12. I'm 17 going on 18 now, keep up the great work and take your time man, there is no rush. I can tell your the type of guy who wouldn't give up on your project and who...makes backup files frequently.....So we can all wait and be patient for the long awaited finished product, which is going to be the best sonic fan game ever IMO.

[BlazeHedgehog]

I didn't post the May update in here, because, frankly, it sucked.

But June is here! June is much better.

Hey! Check it out! It's June!

...

Okay, so, uh, it's also kind of really late into June. I generally try and make my updates any time between the 20th and 27th at the latest, and here it is the 29th - almost the 30th. But worry not, dear readers, for I come bearing gifts.

Well, maybe not really gifts, per-say. But Updates! Glorious updates.

.

The most important thing this video showcases is that I've been getting bits of Sonic's new menu up and running lately, and with it, I've been going back over some of Amy's stuff to make it a bit nicer as a result. I got rid of that weird, Super-Mario-World-style floating item icon in exchange for hiding it within menus. Now, when you sell the item, it shows its icon in the sell slot, and when you have the item, obviously it shows it in Sonic's menu. Nothing else currently works in Sonic's menu but what I demonstrate here, but at the very least, you can now buy, sell, and most importantly, use items you are holding.

A lot of other little tweaks have been going on behind the scenes, as well, as always. After playing way too much Sonic Unleashed (it was kind of my job) I grew increasingly tired of Sonic's total lack of air control in that game. I noticed this was kind of a trend in TFH, too, so one tweak I enabled was giving Sonic a little bit more air control - it's so subtle that, with any luck, you won't even really notice it, but basically, your ability to change directions while in mid-air has been improved. I also went back through and completely re-did Sonic's underwater physics (something had broken them) and I implemented similar underwater physics for your Buddy character, too. I've also begun toying with the idea of having a homing-attack crosshair, but right now that kind of covers up what you're locked on to, so we'll see.

All of this comes down to the big question: The Sonic Amateur Games Expo is next month. Will TFH be at SAGE? (for those who don't know what SAGE is, see the news post I made about it in August 2008)

That's a hard question to answer.

I've been pushing myself rather hard lately, trying to get some momentum again on TFH. When you get in to the habit of doing something and then you stop, suddenly, regaining that momentum again is probably one of the hardest things. After the demo last August, I kind of got burnt out on working on TFH. Working on something, non-stop, without any breaks or recreational activity, for two or three weeks solid will do that to you. Adding insult to injury, the next items on my "To Do" list were perhaps the hardest, most tedious things to do in the entire game. Those were, funnily enough, Sonic's menu and the rest of Amy's menu. The same two things that I've been talking about for almost this entire year. If it wasn't for me feeling obligated to do these monthly TFH updates, I probably would've gotten distracted again and shelved production (as I have a tendency of doing).

Okay, I'm rambling here - let's get back on topic. The point is, that while I have been working on TFH, I'm not entirely sure if I am at a point where I want to do another demo just yet - and from the sounds of things, the only way you're going to be in SAGE this year is if you have a demo. I am eager as hell to get the next demo out the door as soon as anyone else, but there were people last SAGE who complained about the Dry Savannah demo having all of the coolest features unavailable in a boring, generic, tiny little level.

That shouldn't happen a second time. I could finish Sonic's menu and could most definitely build a demo out of that, but it still wouldn't be totally feature-complete. Granted, the majority of things that are still left on my to-do list are things you aren't going to be seeing until much later in to the game - which means I might be able to cheat and get a demo out and none of you would be the wiser. But, no, I don't think I want to do that.

So TFH probably will not be at SAGE this year. When will the next/final demo be released? I could be optimistic, but instead I'll be realistic: I don't know. Given the struggle I've had to regain momentum on the project (and my horrible ability to estimate release dates), it could be Christmas for all I know.

But it is coming, because updating this profile every month is what keeps me in check. The day I stop updating this profile is the day the game dies, and I can't ever let that happen. If this sounds kind of like a downer, I don't really mean it like that, I just see it as being blunt and realistic. I'm not sugar coating any of this for you guys, because if it wasn't for you, TFH wouldn't even be this far along. Pat yourselves on the back, viewers. I do it for you.

I'll most definitely see you next month (which regardless of my appearance at SAGE, will most definitely coincide with the event itself).

[Daniel]

The video looks lovely! Good job!

Also... Sorry your not in SAGE this year.

[True Blue]

I like how your game is going.

Just an idea: if you ever get a demo done by Christmas, it would be a nice touch if it was Christmas themed.

I think you've done an awesome job with the SAGE 2008 demo. I still like to play it. The level doesn't seem short to me.

Nice to read your updates. We all encourage you to keep making them. After all, they help you on your work.

[Realm0D]

Bummer you've not in SAGE this year, Next year eh?