Time Twisted Update 6/12/2011

[OverbounD]

Mercury, Hinchy and I have been hard at work on Time Twisted. Its high time we showed you something.

First the game runs on top of Mercury's 100%+ accurate engine AeStHete. That's a name you might want to remember because its a very advanced opensource Sonic engine that has yet to be released. More info on Mercury's Blog.

Now on to time twisted the game aims to grab the best elements from all 5 Genesis Sonic games to create the best Sonic experience possible. The game has a total of ten planned zones with a future and past version of each stage. Each stage also contain 10 at least semi-original gimmicks. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails are planned playable and the story will revolve around UFO's, Time Stones, Chaos Emeralds, Robotnik, and Metal Sonic.

Hinchy's has been working very hard on a completely original soundtrack for the game. The album called Two Ages can be found on the Sound Track Website.

Screenshots

Thanks to everyone who is helping with the project.

Programmed and Produced by Mercury

Art and Level Director Overbound

Music and Concepts: Hinchy

Character Art: Pepijn Ryngaert (Gardow)

Character Art: Strife

Character Art: BlazefireLP

Character Art: Kamon62

Character Art: Zenor

Additional Level Art: Vexer

Additional Level Art: Damizean

Additional Level Art: Phoebius

Additional Level Art: Ristar

Additional Music: LarkSS

Additional Music: MCKhaos

Concepts Art: Adamis

Special Thanks:

AeroGP

DimensionWarped

Rael

Sparks

P3DR0

Old

I've updated the demo a few times this SAGE already with bug fixes. So it something didn't work for you try it again.

Website

Download

Discuss?

Old

The demo's out 2 acts the second one already on the scrap heap so its displayed "as is". Thanks to everyone who helped.

Time Twisted SAGE 2010

Discuss. What did and didn't you like?

[toaster1]

Downloading now. Man, STT is always THE BEST. =P

EDIT: Oh yes.

STT is amazing. Only 4 flaws:

1 - The end of level text is drawn upon the wrong layer; it is behind the water level and the Player. You normally don't notice the player's in front; You're supposed to be moving fast enough at the end. But if you slow down...

2 - Any reason why the title screen's top reads 'Sonic Eclipse', or that everything else reads Sonic Time twisetd? =P

3 - The drowning numbers. They should be drawn above Sonic, not simply placed into the level as an immovable object. =P

4 - The new method of time transition can often lead to Sonic getting stuck in sticky situations; sometimes he may even respawn in a wall. ;.;

I love the level design and badniks and music and EVERYTHING.

[Steven M]

<+StevenM> Worked really nice on the laptop, full speed. Platforming felt like the old Labyrinth levels, only less frustrating, which was nice. There was a bit near the beginning where it was hard to reach certain moving platforms but other than that it was hard to fault.

<+StevenM> Beat the first act and then it took me to "Lost Zone 0" (more of the same but with an easy-access upper path), beat that (Sonic Got Past Act 10) and then the game shut shop.

Overall it's a very polished game, the music compliments the graphics, the graphics were top notch, the physics worked flawlessly with no glitches and while it wasn't interesting to play (and this is purely a personal preference), it wasn't frustrating either. You'd be hard pressed to tell it's a fangame and not an extension to Sonic CD or suchlike.

[DimensionWarped]

It's gimmick-rich and thats a plus. The level design is a bit cramped in some spaces though.

It's a water level and I stand by the idea that people who demo water levels (at least by themselves) are asking for at least some level of disappointment regardless of how polished they are.

The one thing I'm going to ask you to improve on is the fan gimmick. Particularly when you channel the player through multiple fans, there seems to be something a little off about it. There are a lot of ways to do the fan gimmick, but this way you did it is either not tweaked well or something.

[vexer]

I have played the demo I really love this level. I personally like water levels.

The graphics were really well done and look so original. All the gimmicks were really interesting. I especially liked the floating spike balls in the bubbles. I found the up and down moving stair-like platforms a little hard to jump on however. Maybe it would help if it moved a little faster. The music worked perfectly. Overall the level is really coming along well and perfectly captures the sonic CD feel.

[jman2050]

Having Sonic jump at full height no matter how long the button is pressed kinda sucks.

Aside from that though, good work. This game keeps improving after each iteration, and the level design in this stage was particularly fun... for a water level anyway

[squallff8]

I think the best demo on SAGE this year.Great sprites,gimmiks,level design,game style,music.

Only thing that i don't liked is Title screen art(just don't liked Sonic face).Everything else is great.

and on my PC it runs pretty slowly.control response was very delayed =\

[OverbounD]

2 - Any reason why the title screen's top reads 'Sonic Eclipse', or that everything else reads Sonic Time twisetd? =P

Old name it's fixed now.

3 - The drowning numbers. They should be drawn above Sonic, not simply placed into the level as an immovable object. =P

Hmm I've haven't look in a while but I'm pretty sure they don't move in Sonic CD once created. Anyway I really don't like the number sticking over your head. I noticed they didn't that way in Zero and I didn't care for it.

4 - The new method of time transition can often lead to Sonic getting stuck in sticky situations; sometimes he may even respawn in a wall. ;.;

I'm guessing this happened in the second level. Which was the level I started working on first and scrapped due to the fact I didn't like the design. It was also before I made the change to the time travel which is why the post don't work very well.

I love the level design and badniks and music and EVERYTHING.

Yay! Thanks for the support!

Overall it's a very polished game, the music compliments the graphics, the graphics were top notch, the physics worked flawlessly with no glitches and while it wasn't interesting to play (and this is purely a personal preference),it wasn't frustrating either.

Thanks! But by "wasn't interesting" you mean you just don't care for the style of level it is? Could you just clearify that a bit?

You'd be hard pressed to tell it's a fangame and not an extension to Sonic CD or suchlike.

Hahah I'd like to believe that. But given the fact that there are a few game breaking bugs I'm not so sure that I agree with you, thanks all the same though.

It's gimmick-rich and thats a plus. The level design is a bit cramped in some spaces though.

Glad you like the gimmicks, and thanks for putting up with my boasting on Aim about the 9 gimmicks in the level. xD But you did have a few things to say above the gimmicks before I tried to fix most of the issues you raised. Were any still unpolished (I know I forgot to put a wave on the boat).

As far as the level design goes. It is cramped, h/w in pixels its the smallest level I've ever made. Time wise its probably the longest. The 3 levels I really tried to model the level design after were labyrinth Zone, Tidal Tempest, and Marble Zone.

It's a water level and I stand by the idea that people who demo water levels (at least by themselves) are asking for at least some level of disappointment regardless of how polished they are.

The one thing I'm going to ask you to improve on is the fan gimmick. Particularly when you channel the player through multiple fans, there seems to be something a little off about it. There are a lot of ways to do the fan gimmick, but this way you did it is either not tweaked well or something.

Are you talking about the middle of the level where you go up 5 or 6 fans cause I already fixed that. Or are you talking about the left and right movement between fans? The first problem is already fixed and the second I've been tweaking this fan for months I doubt I'm done, because honestly it still doesn't feel quite right to me either.

I have played the demo I really love this level. I personally like water levels.

The graphics were really well done and look so original. All the gimmicks were really interesting. I especially liked the floating spike balls in the bubbles. I found the up and down moving stair-like platforms a little hard to jump on however. Maybe it would help if it moved a little faster. The music worked perfectly. Overall the level is really coming along well and perfectly captures the sonic CD feel.

Sweet thanks. I think you are right about the stairs blocks needing sped up a bit, I'll change it. It also has a couple of collision problems too unfortuatly. But that probably won't ever get fixed.

I think the best demo on SAGE this year.Great sprites,gimmiks,level design,game style,music.

Only thing that i don't liked is Title screen art(just don't liked Sonic face).Everything else is great.

and on my PC it runs pretty slowly.control response was very delayed =\

Hey thanks man! GameMaker is rather slow over all. I've done my best to speed the game up as much as possible but GM just has its limits .

[toaster1]

About the time transition; There's a time warp to the future after a couple of blocks that had swinging spike balls around. When you run on the other side of the screen, you can get hurt by the spike balls. A game-wide gimmick should not hurt you. =P

Also this is Act 1 BTW. D=

[AntonHuckleberry]

Loved the demo! Plays well and features a lot of interesting features! Graphics were awesome and I really enjoyed it. The only criticism I can think of is that theres no way of seeing what time your currently in. Only a small point though. Great work!

[Steven M]

Thanks! But by "wasn't interesting" you mean you just don't care for the style of level it is? Could you just clearify that a bit?

I'm not a fan of water levels and not all that keen on Sonic CD. Despite that I acknowledge I'm not the best person to give their thoughts on Time Twisted - objectively speaking it's well polished, the gameplay works great, the level design is very open-ended, it's not riddled with glitches or frustrating moments like some fangames are, and loads of people are going to enjoy it.

[FanGameRevolver]

Love it, my favorite project at Sage, found two bugs though, thought I would point them out.

1st, the wheels that activate the geysers.

When I jumped at the first one from a spin dash I was unable to control sonic once I landed, I was able to recreate this multiple times.

2nd,

sometimes when you should get crushed, you are moved above the ceiling you collided with, instead of dying. This is an easy fix though, just create an object to kill sonic when he enters the pocket or something.

Act two was really short

Also this demo didn't crash when I completed a level like the 2009 demo for whatever reason Thanks for this great game, looking forward to the next zone!

Oh and thank your composers, the music in this game is shaping up to one of my favorite game soundtracks.

[OverbounD]

Loved the demo! Plays well and features a lot of interesting features! Graphics were awesome and I really enjoyed it. The only criticism I can think of is that theres no way of seeing what time your currently in. Only a small point though. Great work!

Sonic CD had the life icon with the P or F in it to show the timezone. Since Sonic Time Twisted only has two timezones I'm just not sure its necessary.

I'm not a fan of water levels and not all that keen on Sonic CD. Despite that I acknowledge I'm not the best person to give their thoughts on Time Twisted - objectively speaking it's well polished, the gameplay works great, the level design is very open-ended, it's not riddled with glitches or frustrating moments like some fangames are, and loads of people are going to enjoy it.

K that's what I thought you meant. The next demo will be of Attraction Attack which will be a Springy styled zone so you'll probably like that better.

Love it, my favorite project at Sage, found two bugs though, thought I would point them out.

Thanks!

1st, the wheels that activate the geysers.

When I jumped at the first one from a spin dash I was unable to control sonic once I landed, I was able to recreate this multiple times.

Ah that's an easy fix thanks.

2nd,

[qimg]http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss120/FanGameRevolver/fusionglitch.jpg[/qimg]

sometimes when you should get crushed, you are moved above the ceiling you collided with, instead of dying. This is an easy fix though, just create an object to kill sonic when he enters the pocket or something.

That's an exellent idea. With these fan engines there seems to always be some collision issues. Putting a kill object in places where you are not supposed to be is a great idea, beats the hell out of getting stuck.

Act two was really short

Also this demo didn't crash when I completed a level like the 2009 demo for whatever reason Thanks for this great game, looking forward to the next zone!

Maybe GM8 fixed that?

Oh and thank your composers, the music in this game is shaping up to one of my favorite game soundtracks.

The Song for the past of the zone was made by LarkSS. Then Hinchy made the future song remixed somewhat from a song Lark had previously made. Both songs sound great and compliment each other nicely too. Thanks goes out to both of them.

[FanGameRevolver]

just realized why act two is so short, I start near the end of the level, I found there was a lot to backtrack through. Dunno if its a bug, or if you had moved the starting location to test and forgot about it.

[Caleb]

I found this game too great to be a GameMaker game. It plays like a Genesis game would. It was pretty challenging, but upsetting that it was only 1 "full" level.

[Moogle]

Nice game, there were a few bugs like when going over the first two fans on level 1 if you don't make it to the platform and fall down into the water keyboard input seems to stay disabled. The fans seem to shake you quite quick and you fall swiftly once you're off them. Also I can't move left or right once I've gotten an air bubble.

Apart from that it all seems okay, and seeing as yours is GM it loaded quite quick compared to most of the other GM games.

[vexer]

I thought I should mention, that while I was playing through your demo again, I came across a killer checkpoint near the end the level. The checkpoint is right in the path of a chained spike ball. If you die and return to the checkpoint you will be instantly killed until lose all lives. Just thought you'd want to know.

[FanGameRevolver]

Apart from that it all seems okay, and seeing as yours is GM it loaded quite quick compared to most of the other GM games.

probably because it was compiled with gm8, and all the music is handled externally (game maker has far to much trouble with that stuff). That really helps the load times on game maker projects.

[Moogle]

probably because it was compiled with gm8, and all the music is handled externally (game maker has far to much trouble with that stuff). That really helps the load times on game maker projects.

well then I suppose all the other GM'ers should take note of this then

[OverbounD]

Excellent STT news. Mercury from Retro is now acting as lead programmer on the project. And the game has moved to his super smooth engine that's almost 100% accurate to the Genesis games with the only.

What does this Mean?

This will free me up to work on graphics and level design. Plus since his engine is in Game Maker there is virtually no learning curve for me.

It also means that in the future Sonic Time Twisted should be just about as bug free and accurate a fan game can be!

Anyway you should expect to see a lot more progress on Time Twisted thanks to Mercury's involvement.

Video of the engine:

[Slingerland]

What does this Mean?

This will free me up to work on graphics and level design. Plus since his engine is in Game Maker there is virtually no learning curve for me.

Ah, yes... you taking this route sounds oh-so familiar.

Great news, Bryce. I was literally writing a review about this demo as you posted it. Looks like I'll have to include this new video.

[OverbounD]

Sweet, I really appreciated your review from last year.

[toaster1]

Wow. =O

What does this mean for existing levels? What if you can't recreate some gimmicks you've made for your current engine?

does this mean your gimmicks are up for grabs =P

[OverbounD]

Pretty sure if Mercury can program an entire Sonic engine that good, he can program all the gimmicks over too. That or I just made a horrible decision. xD

Seriously though the gimmicks are not up for grabs, most of them are at least somewhat original and the ones that aren't are super easy to program. I intend on keeping the ideas for use in future versions of Time Twisted.

[toaster1]

I was just joking, indicated by the small text and pokey-tounge-face that is ordinarily connected to not-entirely-seriousness. =P

Anyways, tis a shame to see you depart from the Sonic Dash users. I suppose it may be worth it. It's just that you will find yourself trying to code in a manner suited to the Dash engine every now and again, disorientating you and disrupting your learning curve. =(

Also how can you accurately reproduce your original levels pixel perfect? That is always a problem when switching engines.