Knuckles Game ('Red')

[Rawr]

I guess it is about time that I posted up this topic instead of using my art topic for it mainly. I've been working in my spare time on things for my own fangame, which has Knuckles as the only playable character since I don't want to set my bars too high when I'm just getting into fangaming. The game won't be anything super innovative, mainly due in part to the fact that I can't really use MMF all that well yet and programming was never really my forte anyway. Instead, I had planned to include original graphics...but that didn't pan out because I know I wouldn't have enough time to make EVERY sprite in the game completely in my own style. Maybe somewhere down the line I can always try something like that, but for now I'm just using custom edited BGs so I don't have to make new sprites. However, I -will be having custom music in my game, which I'll be doing myself. I'm not the worlds greatest musician so chances are my music will not be all that awesome...but anyway...I'm rambling. I'll just list everything here in a list format and provide you with the screens of what I DO have done so far, and three music track demos I've been working on =)

EDIT: Oh boy, how could I forget about this x_X, but uhh, this game is being made in the Sonic Worlds Engine =D. I take no credit whatsoever for the actual engine, since I didn't make it. I forgot to mention that before but I guess it is also in the first WIP screen there.

NAME OF PROJECT: Untitled (I've just got it dubbed 'Red' for now since I can't think of anything yet)

=STORY (very W.I.P)=

Dr. Eggman is at it once again! This time he is building what could possibly the most dangerous machine yet, the Genesis Gateway! In order to power this machine he needs the power of the Master Emerald, which unfortunately for him is guarded by a certain Red Echidna. However, he gets Knuckles by surprise and manages to take the Master Emerald and begins to initiate the final stages of the Genesis Gateway. If he succeeds, he'll be able to distort reality to his very will! Only Knuckles is able to locate the Master Emerald, and in turn - the Genesis Gateway and Eggman. Will he be able to succeed in stopping Eggman?

Very WIP, but isn't going to get much more complicated than that. I want to keep it relatively simple. Eggman is just trying to make Eggmanland again xD.

=GAMEPLAY=

Really not much different from how Knuckles would play in any other Sonic game, the thing is though that I'll be making the levels with him solely in mind. This means walls to climb, areas to glide over etc. As for gimmicks and whatnot, I'm not terribly creative and haven't thought much on that yet - but I'll try and think of something ^^. This is my first fangame, so I probably won't be able to make anything great in terms of gimmicks (also since I can't code very well at all)

=ZONES (not in a final order yet and the names are not final yet either):=

ORIGIN ZONE: This one I'm still deciding where it'll be, or to scrap it altogether. So I don't have a lot of info on this one.

FLEETING FALLS: Just an area near a waterfall and a lake. If there were to be a gimmick on here I'm thinking some sort of a raft or something to get over the water areas, but if you want to take the underwater route when I get the level designed there is that option too.

^WIP Screenshot, you may have seen that in my art topic. I've got a lot of pieces still left to go on this one. As for the shading, it IS done on that particular piece of grass but I haven't updated a screenshot since that is about all I've done on that level now.

ICICLE ISLAND: An ancient island that was once sunny, that is now frozen over. Now it floats amidst the Ice Caps virtually unknown to most people. If this level were to have a gimmick there'd definitely be some patches of the walkway that'll be covered in ice, but that really isn't a gimmick. I'm not sure yet what I would do for this one xD.

^ WIP Graphics. Fusion of Hydrocity and Ice Cap, custom BG (which is changing since that background was slapped together quickly). So far this one I'm the furthest on graphics wise.

SOUNDSCAPE SANDS: I have no screenshot for this one, or any of the ones after this, but it is going to be a stage set around night-ish I think. That might change, it might be early dawn. Either way the stage is pretty much just the desert level. As for the name, I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate some sort of sound-related something into this level to make it fit better since I rather like the name.

RESOLVE RUINS: A ruins type stage. I'm thinking of making this where Sky Sanctuary had fallen down to. Not much thought other than that yet.

MAD MACHINE: I have a music track for this one at least, but this'll be the Eggman Base stage, and the last place before Genesis Gateway (I know that one for sure). This will look very Machine-ey and whatnot. Not sure on the gimmick yet.

GENESIS GATEWAY: This is going to be somewhere inside the Genesis Gateway. Going to make it look machine-like but at the same time it's going to have lots of crystals and whatnot around it. It isn't supposed to be just any ordinary machine. Gimmicks not decided yet.

FINAL ZONE: Last Boss. Gimmick? Last Boss.

=MUSIC TRACKS=

I think they game out real good actually, Icicle Island is a bit iffy though but it was the first track out of the three I started. I'm going to redo the lead in another tone. Mad Machine's lead is also a bit loud in the solo area, but I'll be keeping it in the same tone I do think. Fleeting Falls came out pretty good overall though. My fave riff has to be either the lead from Fleeting Falls, or the 'chorus' bit in Mad Machine.

No synth was used in this at all, every sound but the drums is from my guitar and mixing board effects. The drums are from EZ Drummer

Icicle Island Demo

Fleeting Falls Demo

Mad Machine Demo

Enjoy!

= ARTWORK AND CONCEPT STUFF =

So uhh, I hope this isn't too early for me to be posting about this ^^;

[Epon]

get rid of the MFZB; the obscure reference will confuse people. Other than that, the actual image of Knuckles is pretty tight.

[Rawr]

Oh, I will be. It was just there because I wanted to use it as a sig as well, so I forgot to take it out of the actual image when I was done making it into a sig image.

Thanks!

[Rael0505]

Hey man, those graphics are looking great. Custom music is good too, some criticism:

I really hate the sound of the guitar in Icicle Island. Everything is too legato, the guitar is a little bit quiet, and the reverb makes everything bleed together. It makes the strings sound like the defining instruments in the song instead of the guitar, which is playing the actual melody. It's difficult to follow what's going on.

The composition of the other two are fine, but it feels like for all of these you need to work with volume in the different tracks to make the songs sound a little more "full."

Keep it up, you're off to a great start.

[Cstyler]

Icicle Island Zone looks pretty impressive! Keep it up!

[Rawr]

Thanks a lot Cstyler =D.

Also, thanks for the critique there on the music. I don't know if I mentioned it up above that they were all demo tracks or not. I know that the volume levels on the tracks are way off, and will be re-doing the main melody of Icicle Island's theme. As for the background sounds being strings - I guess technically they might be, but that is actually my guitar xD. I never used any midi or synth stuff other than the EZ Drummer program for the tracks. I just used a bunch of effects from my mixing board and mixed it with effects from my guitar. I'll definitely be fixing up volumes and whatnot ASAP, and re-recording Icicle Island's main melody is going to happen somewhere down the line. Thanks again for the critique again. I too, also am unhappy with Icicle Island but it was the first of the three tracks I got to recording and I didn't know exactly where I wanted to go musically xD. That and I've never really done music for a game before, so it was first =).

Hopefully future tracks will be a bit tighter in terms of musical quality ;

[Serephim]

Pretty awesome looking stuff!

I would enjoy it if you wouldnt reveal all the gimmicks in your game in the description, though...I mean, acknowledge you're putting gimmicks in the game once or twice, but i dont want to play the level before i get to it, know what i mean?

[Rawr]

Well, I was just giving off ideas of what I would perhaps be doing. Right now I haven't put too much thought into gimmicks ^^. I'm going to once I get a little further, I'm just trying to generate ideas for them. I'll definitely keep that in mind though once I get more things done =D.

Thanks =D

[Blue Emerald]

I absolutely love the tiles for Icicle Island; the new color and the redesign of the Hydrocity tiles are downright awesome. It makes me wonder how you did it; it's such a cool design and it fits incredibly well with the stage. However, for the blocks with the symbols in them, maybe you could use snowflakes in there (or some other shape that resembles ice), to give it more of that ice stage feel.

I'd really love to see more pictures of this game, but minus the Sonic Worlds pieces. The backgrounds also pique my interest; they're not pixel art like the Genesis games, but this style actually looks like it'll fit with the game.

As for what I think about Fleeting Falls, I think the stage currently looks a little too desert-like, considering it's a stage located near waterfalls. Personally, I think that all the light browns used in the level should be replaced with grays and dark browns, and the greens of the grass and plants should also be a deeper shade of green.

Overall, this project looks really good. Keep up the good work, and I can't wait to see some more of this.

[OverbounD]

I've got to say you are off to a wonderful start MFZB I was just thinking it would be nice to see a Knuckles game around here. Everyone is too busy making their Sonic clones including me. The levels you've been creating also look very interesting though its obvious you are in the early stages. One last thing the name "Red" I like it, I like it a lot I'd just leave it that.

[Slingerland]

In summation, MFZB is a stone cold pimp.

Good work.

[Rawr]

Massive Super Bump because I am starting this back up again, after pretty much leaving it to die a zillion years ago. First off some stuff that you may or may not have already seen in my art topic:

These will appear in the cutscenes, as you can tell the characters in the game are going to be Knuckles, Shade, and Eggman. At first this was going to just be a solo affair for Knuckles, but I thought about it after playing Chronicles and thought Shade would be an alright character to chuck in here so thats what I did. Of course, being a fangame, Eggman is in his original design and whatnot just because I felt like it, and everyone has the black eyes just because. So really continuity wise it doesn't make sense but whatever rofl.

I thought I had done an updated version where Eggman had a trim on his stache there, but I'm still searching for whatever materials I have left of this on my h-drive. Since I am super dumb, when I got my external h-drive I didn't copy EVERYTHING over from my old comp so I may have accidentally lost the documents I had...I'm still searching! Edit: So it does appear I lost my psd with the changes in it, and a partially done walk cycle for Knuckles =(. Apparently I have another one where I started a walk cycle with Sonic for some reason though rofl.

Just some old WIP screens I had going on. I'm going to be redoing this games graphics again probably, make it look more Sonic-like and such.

Basically though since I am restarting this and I no longer have MMF2 (lawl 8D) I am thinking of switching to Game Maker and doing things from that end, I was just wondering if that was a recommended move or not? Also, one other thing I was curious about was whether or not there was a background sprite template I could work off of. I did search the site and I found one that was for Sonic 1, but it was also in a format I couldn't open.

If there is a tile template somewhere that I could use that would be able to give me the correct sizes for tiles for Sonic 3 styled graphics that'd be awesome

Sorry there isn't much more here, but I want something to do in my spare time again that isn't music or drawing, since I draw all day at school (and have craploads of HW requiring me to draw xD) and music I just haven't felt too inspired with lately, so I just needed some advice on this so I could continue on with it =).

[squallff8]

Like artwork for Cutscenes..Eggman is great!

[luksamuk]

Yesh, I am REALLY liking this. I'm afraid Knuckles doesn't have too many epic fangames made.

...But oh, the name "Red" seemed strange for some reason.

[OverbounD]

I love it MFZB but I would like to see some more texture on those stones.

These aren't prefect but maybe something like this.

[Rawr]

Oh, yeah, those are old WIP shots . All the graphics/sprites on here are from last year sometime when I was still working on this. Thanks for the kind words everyone. As for those level tiles, I'm going to end up completely redoing them again anyway haha =D

But I was still wondering if I should switch to Game Maker or put MMF2 back on my comp and go back to using Worlds? I'm still a really shittastic programmer in any of these programs so whatever one will be the easiest for me to add new stuff into would probably be the best one for me to use.

...But oh, the name "Red" seemed strange for some reason.

Its just what I am calling it right now until I think of a better title.

[OverbounD]

IDK what to tell you but I can help you with questions and such as you use Sonic Dash in game maker.

[Rawr]

Sweeet, what version of Game Maker is the best one to use? I see they released Game Maker 8, just wondering if its anything to be excited over or if I should track down GM6/7?

[OverbounD]

MFZB get on aim/msn sometime tonight and I'll talk to you about it

[Rawr]

Sweet, I'll get on MSN then later !

[RAGE]

Lookin good! Im doing somthing similar. If your interested in working together drop me a message and will talk more about it on msn. Btw mmf2 is better in my opinion but what ever you feel most comfortable with.

[Rael0505]

Duuuude, I don't know how I missed this! It's looking amazing. I love the Eggman custom art, it's fantastic!

Looking forward to more!

[Rawr]

Thanks dude! College has me by the balls again, so I'll probably only get to update this once in a while . I posted this in my art topic, but I might as well post it here since I am going to be using it as the basis for my sprites...

As with all my stuff, please don't use it. I'm just showing what I do have is all! Everything here is custom (cept for my little references at the bottom), though I am heavily referencing the genesis sprites since I want to make a 'continuation' of sorts with them. The reason I am doing Sonic first is because I tried doing Knuckles before, lost the file due to reformatting and my stupidity, and figured if I do a Sonic sprite first I can easily just modify it for the other characters . There are a few things I'm in the midst of fixing still. Once I have the sprites done for the other characters too then I'll be working on level graphics again.

[OverbounD]

I like it but you said its supposed to be a continuation of the genesis sprites. This looks more stylistic than genesis to me. I made a couple of edits which IMHO make it look more like that continuation.

his head is less flat and there is less shading on his under spikes the bottom spike's been reshaped more in line with some of the classic pictures you see of Sonic and his nose is only 2 pixel's now with 1 pixel of shading under neath. I know the nose is different from the Genesis one but to me Sonic 3's nose always looked like a clown lol.

[Rawr]

Ah, I'll probably keep my sprite the way it is, thanks though . I do want to have my own style on it as well. Thats why I put "continuation" in quotes like that because I wasn't sure what word would properly go there haha. The reason being is that I don't want it to be exactly like the genesis games because since I'm doing all the graphics myself I want everything to be consistent with my style as well .

The things I need to fix is the face a bit during the running animations, the hand on a couple of the running frames and a few other small things I want to go back and fix. Then I can start editing it into Knuckles and Shade.