Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Fate of the Master Emerald

[Cstyler]

Blue Emerald, Indigo Ruins looks great!

By the way, what programm do you use for making the game? MMF or GM?

[OverbounD]

And here it is, folks! The new mock-up for Indigo Ruins Zone is complete!

I like this mock up a lot my only complain is I do not like the blue ground on top of the bricks it looks out of place or something.

[Blue Emerald]

Rael0505: Thank you, Rael! That looks great. I might have trouble getting the yellowish glow on the grass sprites, though, but I can definitely use the darker green shade.

However, I could somehow take the yellow highlights and make them repeatable, yet still nice-looking. I'll look into that sometime, but for now I'm still doing some work on Sonic Worlds.

Cstyler: I'm using MMF2.

Overbound: Really? Do you think I should make it darker?

[Rael0505]

I was actually wondering if the yellow was too harsh myself. Perhaps instead of getting rid of it you could make it a less striking color? Maybe less on the yellow side and more on the green? It's up to you, but it could probably be fixed that way.

Also, I do agree with Overbound. Maybe instead of that blue you can give it a silvery gray color. But nitpicks like these aren't so important at this point in time - do what you have to first, then touch up graphics later. Perfectionism is the greatest roadblock you can face.

[Blue Emerald]

Well, as you all know, Sonic Worlds is currently going through a massive overhaul, so in the meantime, I'll be giving you all a huge update on the current status of Sonic 4.

Let's get one of the big things out of the way first: the Special Stages are all getting one big simultaneous replacement, and are also no longer being hidden in far-off places in Act 2 of each zone. The reasoning behind this is that, after looking over some of the stages planned for the game, I realized that some of them may have been way too easy, and some might not be as exciting or groundbreaking (one of them was the Sonic 1 Special Stage). Also, I could never figure out how to score them, since some of them didn't even have rings. This is why all the stages are being completely replaced by one single new Special Stage. I believe this is a brilliant idea, and I hope you all agree with this new change.

Now, each zone is going to have its own zone-specific version of Collect the Rings, and each zone will have only one of each of the Chaos Emeralds. Here's how it works: to get each Emerald, you must obtain at least 50 rings and hit the starpost to reach the Special Stage, a la Sonic 2. Once you've beaten a Special Stage and obtained its Emerald, you won't be able to visit that zone's Special Stage again. Instead, that Special Stage will be replaced by one of two Bonus Stages, which I will reveal when the time is right.

There's another bold new twist in the stages: you can actually die in the stages! If Sonic hits a bomb with no rings, he dies. If Sonic hits spikes or Badniks (unless he attacks them) with no rings, he dies. If Sonic falls off the stage (I thought this one was going to be a big shocker ), he dies. If Sonic dies in the Special Stage, you do not receive a score. Instead, you simply leave the stage empty-handed. The goal of the Special Stage now is not only to collect the rings, but to survive long enough in hopes of getting a continue.

Also, some of the bosses I had planned are being redone. Originally, the first Robotnik fight that was planned for the game had you fighting a missile-launching machine that would cause one of the trees in the stage to fall and kill Sonic if the player didn't get out of the way fast enough. I decided to make the Robotnik fight a bit more forest-oriented, so I'm currently changing this boss, and I have an awesome idea coming soon.

In other news, I've recently caught wind of another Sonic 4 in development for the Genesis emulators. Currently, it's being called Project: Retro Sonic, but I haven't heard for sure if the game will keep that name or is still being called Sonic 4. Personally, I think this project is a cool idea, and I don't mind if it was originally called Sonic 4. Having played one of the creators' last game, Sonic 2: Advanced Edit (one of my favorite Sonic 2 hacks), I believe that the project will end up being a real winner. I'd love to get involved in this game somehow, but I wouldn't know where to start. Perhaps I could create some new Badniks for the game? Maybe even help with naming their zones?

Well, in the meantime, keep your eyes on this game, because I may bring out a new update soon!

[Cuda Ahbuda]

So far, this is a great looking game to be real. What else is there to say............im lookin forward to more updates

[True_Sonic]

Well, as you all know, Sonic Worlds is currently going through a massive overhaul, so in the meantime, I'll be giving you all a huge update on the current status of Sonic 4.

Let's get one of the big things out of the way first: the Special Stages are all getting one big simultaneous replacement, and are also no longer being hidden in far-off places in Act 2 of each zone. The reasoning behind this is that, after looking over some of the stages planned for the game, I realized that some of them may have been way too easy, and some might not be as exciting or groundbreaking (one of them was the Sonic 1 Special Stage). Also, I could never figure out how to score them, since some of them didn't even have rings. This is why all the stages are being completely replaced by one single new Special Stage. I believe this is a brilliant idea, and I hope you all agree with this new change.

Now, each zone is going to have its own zone-specific version of Collect the Rings, and each zone will have only one of each of the Chaos Emeralds. Here's how it works: to get each Emerald, you must obtain at least 50 rings and hit the starpost to reach the Special Stage, a la Sonic 2. Once you've beaten a Special Stage and obtained its Emerald, you won't be able to visit that zone's Special Stage again. Instead, that Special Stage will be replaced by one of two Bonus Stages, which I will reveal when the time is right.

There's another bold new twist in the stages: you can actually die in the stages! If Sonic hits a bomb with no rings, he dies. If Sonic hits spikes or Badniks (unless he attacks them) with no rings, he dies. If Sonic falls off the stage (I thought this one was going to be a big shocker ), he dies. If Sonic dies in the Special Stage, you do not receive a score. Instead, you simply leave the stage empty-handed. The goal of the Special Stage now is not only to collect the rings, but to survive long enough in hopes of getting a continue.

Also, some of the bosses I had planned are being redone. Originally, the first Robotnik fight that was planned for the game had you fighting a missile-launching machine that would cause one of the trees in the stage to fall and kill Sonic if the player didn't get out of the way fast enough. I decided to make the Robotnik fight a bit more forest-oriented, so I'm currently changing this boss, and I have an awesome idea coming soon.

In other news, I've recently caught wind of another Sonic 4 in development for the Genesis emulators. Currently, it's being called Project: Retro Sonic, but I haven't heard for sure if the game will keep that name or is still being called Sonic 4. Personally, I think this project is a cool idea, and I don't mind if it was originally called Sonic 4. Having played one of the creators' last game, Sonic 2: Advanced Edit (one of my favorite Sonic 2 hacks), I believe that the project will end up being a real winner. I'd love to get involved in this game somehow, but I wouldn't know where to start. Perhaps I could create some new Badniks for the game? Maybe even help with naming their zones?

Well, in the meantime, keep your eyes on this game, because I may bring out a new update soon!

This interests me somehow and I feel the vibe that this is going to be sucessfull. I sure hope it is so HURRY WITH THE DEMO PLEASE !!

[Cuda Ahbuda]

Yeah I now just heard about Project: Sonic Retro when checking my email today. I feel its gonna be successful to, but there arent adding new characters like Sonic 2 and 3.

[Blue Emerald]

Yeah I now just heard about Project: Sonic Retro when checking my email today. I feel its gonna be successful to, but there arent adding new characters like Sonic 2 and 3.

Yes they are. Nack's going to be in the game. I also just finished the snake Badnik for their rainforest level. If I get validated, I can post it on the Project: Sonic Retro thread.

In the meantime, I'm working on the Crystal Tundra Zone mockup, and so far it's looking quite stylish, if I do say so myself.

[Cuda Ahbuda]

Project: Sonic Retro is bringing Nack back, now ill give them thumbs up for that. I just looked looked it up and there also (i think) introducing a new version of Metal Sonic.

[True_Sonic]

Yes they are. Nack's going to be in the game. I also just finished the snake Badnik for their rainforest level. If I get validated, I can post it on the Project: Sonic Retro thread.

In the meantime, I'm working on the Crystal Tundra Zone mockup, and so far it's looking quite stylish, if I do say so myself.

Cool but can you eventualy show us something thats NOT a mockup. I wanan see a video or something maybe sometime.

[Blue Emerald]

Cool but can you eventualy show us something thats NOT a mockup. I wanan see a video or something maybe sometime.

Unfortunately, I don't have anything that records the computer right now. Also, Sonic Worlds is still under construction, so I want to avoid adding anything else to my build at the moment until the build is complete.

I have the music for it right now, and some of the tiles are done. I also have to animate the Badniks for the first level, and I have to work on the level design, but with the amounts of homework I have every day, that's becoming very difficult to do. As of now, I can only be so productive to the point where homework starts piling up too fast.

One word: calculus.

But I promise, that I eventually will show something cool for this project. I already have something in mind, but I'm going to keep that secret for now.

[Daniel]

If you really need a recording program...

http://www.hyperionics.com/hc/

It helps. Just go to AVI File and set Rate Frames per Second and record to 30 and press the sound tab and press record sound.

You are also going to have to be able to record sound...

Goto the sound icon on the taskbar (ALL THE WAY AT THE END OF THE START BUTTON BAR) and select "Open Volume control"

then press options, properties and recording. On the check list, press Wave out mix. Check it again on the recording control and leave the Wave out mix volume control at it's default. *in YGM voice* You've got sound!

[Blue Emerald]

Thanks for the link, dnlhern. I never knew HyperCam was a free program. I've seen HyperCam used all over YouTube, but the big issue with it is that it always has less-than-stellar quality, with slow framerate and skipping. Is there any way to optimize HyperCam to avoid those problems, or is that something I might have to deal with unless I buy one of the high-quality screen recorders? To me, this is very important, because I want the video to be as viewable as possible without detracting from either framerate or visibility.

In the meantime, I've finally finished the new design for Crystal Tundra Zone. This is a big change from the first one, which almost looked like a clone of Ice Cap Zone. I put much more effort into this one, so I hope you all approve of the new look. Check it out!

Personally, I love my new ice tiles. They definitely give Crystal Tundra Zone its character. You'll also notice that I've made actual icy surfaces this time around, instead of using small white rectangles like I did last time. The snow was also made from scratch; I decided against just sticking with the original ICZ snow, so I made some new snow, and even went to the trouble of designing shadows for it.

Notice the red and green crystals in the background? I don't plan for them to stay that way in the game. These crystals will have an awesome effect of alternating from their original blue to red, then to green, and back to blue again. They're like the crystals from Quartz Quadrant, except those crystals only went from blue to red. Ha! Take that, Quartz Quadrant!

You're also probably wondering about those new Badniks on the ice platform. Some of you may have already figured out how they'll function. I'll reveal these Badniks at a later time, just to keep you all in suspense.

To conclude this update, I'd like to announce that I'm currently doing some work over at Project: Sonic Retro. Mostly, I've been working on naming zones, but I plan to do some more sprite contributions, as well. I feel that my spritework has improved considerably since I first began spriting for Sonic 4, so I'm definitely more confident about my spriting skills. I'd like to try my hand at creating more sprites for the project, and hopefully, you may all get to see some of my work in the game.

Which leads to me to discuss why I'm making so many mock-ups for Sonic 4. The big reasons as to why I'm doing this are because 1) Worlds is currently going through a massive overhaul, which will help immensely, and I feel that I have to do something with this game during that time, and 2) because I want to see what people think of the zone's design beforehand, so I can see if anything needs changing before I put it into the game. I've already recieved some great constructive criticism on my designs, and so far it's only made the zones look that much better. This is why I consider the mock-ups to be so important. I want this game to be visually appealing, which will more than likely lead to a better response from the players.

Stay tuned to this thread, everyone, because I feel that this game will only get better with time. Have a wonderful day and a wonderful tomorrow!

[Cstyler]

[qimg]http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k151/cloudstrife2006/CTZv2.png[/qimg]

I think, you must add some details on the snow, or recolour it.

Maybe it wil help you: http://smages.com/i/66/33/6633222af35f16b29b935c57732676da.png

[Blue Emerald]

So, you mean I should add some small layers of snow over the original snow?

I could probably do that. Of course, I guess recoloring would be easier; it did take me a long time to make that slope. And I see why you'd say that; the snow does seem a little too white, now that I look at the finished product a bit more. This was just my attempt at contrasting the zone from Indigo Ruins, since that zone has a lot of blue in it.

I do like the snow in your pic. That looks nice. However, I'll keep the shape of my snow the way it is. I might as well try recoloring it now and see how that looks.

Just not right now. It's almost 5 AM over here and I haven't slept yet (Jeez, I am such an insomniac! ). I was planning to get some shuteye after posting here, but I started reading the Sonic Retro forums and didn't stop until now. So, I'll go get some much-needed rest now (and probably end up sleeping 'til noon) and see you all in the afternoon.

[DiabloHedgehog]

Game is "looking" extremely pretty, but I still have doubts when it comes to making the game, are you going to spend this long tweaking everything as you construct it?

[True_Sonic]

Blue Emerald: That looks awesome, don't change it. I like it ^^.

[Rael0505]

Cstyler: I don't like the colors you chose for your snow. I think it would be a bad idea for him to take your palette.

That's looking really awesome man, a huge improvement. Keep it up

edit: And I agree with Diablo... save graphical tweaking for later. Work on the more important stuff like engine work or gameplay now!

[Blue Emerald]

Finished recoloring.

Looks just as good as the previous one. I've noticed, Rael, that you said you didn't like Cstyler's palette. In that case I could keep the original snow (I haven't deleted it), but this one looks just as good too.

This is like Summer Forest Zone all over again. However, in this instance, there actually is going to be a nighttime act planned for this zone, so in that case, I could use the brighter snow for Act 1, and the new snow for Acts 2 and 3.

DiabloHedgehog: Yes, I probably am going to be tweaking them like this while making them for the game. Of course, I'm making tilesheets for these pieces, which should making working on these zones much easier. The key is going to be in the level design. First, I'll use the mock-ups to find out if the tiles are good or if they need tweaking. Next, I'll draw the levels out, then figure out which new tiles I'll need to make in order to replicate the drawing.

By the way, speaking of drawing the levels, I have a question concerning this. How much graph paper would the average Sonic level use?

[True_Sonic]

Blue-Emerald : I like that just the way it is and i also love the Blend of colours you've used too. However I just think the *RINGS* could use a recolor cuz that colour is getting kinda old and reptative now. *Not that it's your fault of anything*

Rael0505 : I don't think that Cystler's work is that bad but however bad you might think it's better than most can do. The effort shows too.

[Blue Emerald]

Minor update today. After spending a lot of time working at Project: Sonic Retro, I've learned a few new things. One of them was one of the big issues in the graphics department, involving a new Sonic design. Since it was a spiritual sequel of Sonic 3 (as is my game), it needed a new Sonic design, since Sonics 1, 2, and 3 all had a different Sonic. So, what do you all think? Should my Sonic 4 use a new Sonic design?

This is the one I came up with. It's pretty much a recolor, but it's based off the colors used in official Sonic artwork.

So, how does it look? Should this one be used over the original Sonic 3 sprite?

[DiabloHedgehog]

Well it's nice and bright, I like it.

[Cstyler]

I like S3&K Sonic's sprite, and I think you must use it.

Your recolour is based on official artwork's colours, right?

Check out my little edit:

If you like it, I'll give you full spritesheet. If not, I think you can try to recolour Sonic like on American boxart.

Good luck!

[Cuda Ahbuda]

I like how Blue Emerald did to the Sonic 3 sprite, but I also like what Cstyler Sonic 3 sprite. Both of them is great; just combine the sprites, a little from Blue Emerald work and a little from Cstyler work.