Sonic Axiom disscussion

[vexer]

Hi everyone. My demo is now up on the sage website. there was a some sort of mishap, and my demo was never added. Everything is cleared up now.

http://sonicaxiom.angelfire.com/

I have added Molten Meltdown to my demo, because I like the way is coming along and it is mostly complete. i am not sure if I should add the lava shield, so let me know what you think.

Also, I have am in the process of changing the tile and grass design of Coastal Causeway, unfortunately I was unable to get it done for sage. Below is a screenshot of the new design.

Let me know your thoughts on the demo.

P.S. The demo size looks large, but only take about 2 minutes to download.

[Delta Hedgehog]

Dammmmmn!

[Aerosol]

To expand on Delta's comment...

This game reminds me of Sonic CD, right down to the pointless peel-out! Don't get me wrong, leave it in there, I love it.

The level design is amazing and well thought out, and the badnik placement could not be better. I loved that little buzzbomber-type badnik that shot me as I tried to get a shield box! I totally wasn't paying attention to badniks and it snuck up on me, just as they are supposed to.

I can't find anything to criticize here. Even the music choice screamed Sonic CD. I want more of the same buddy. Don't you dare disappoint me!

[vexer]

Thanks for your review. I'm glad to this game reminds you of Sonic CD, that exactly what I was going for. What are your thoughts on the other levels?

[Sparks]

I'd love your tiles so much if you didn't Jpg everything ;_;

makes them look fuzzy

but that is why I will play it :3

[Strife]

Your download link isn't working anymore due to congested traffic. D:

If someone can send me the file, I'd be happy to put it up on Mediafire as a mirror download.

[Aerosol]

Okay, now that I've had a chance to sit down and play all the way through, let me bring some things up.

First, let me say that Coastal Causeway, Stone Sea, and Neon Night are put together very very well. I especially like the little non-gimmicks you put in places; level specific patterns that make that stage unique. For instance, those walls that you run down and get bounced back up on by a spring so that you can use the momentum to jump somewhere else? That's that most memorable part of Neon Night.

Now, the bad. First, your gimmicks (including moving platforms) and boss movements are jerky. Try to find a way to make them smoother. It's possible to get stuck on the water slide in Stone Sea if you spindash or peelout into it. Some spike pits are very hard to get out of too, since you dont jump so high if you aren't moving, and there isn't alot of room to move. And I don't know if this is intentional or not, but if you peelout off a platform underwater, you'll go in a straight horizontal line till you slow down.

Also, I'm sure you know, but Calcified Cavern and Molten Meltdown need a little work. The backdrop collisions are all over the place, and I ended up going through some walls and getting stuck in others!

[vexer]

Aerosol

I glad you like my game. Calcified Cavern and Molten Meltdown were rushed to get into sage, especially the latter. I noticed a lot of mistakes after the demo was posted. There is still work to be done.

I am aware that my download link is not working anymore due to traffic. I will post another link from a new file hosting site. Unfortunately is will probably be very slow to download. I have to go to work so it won't be up for a few hours.

Hopefully the super fast dropbox link will work again soon.

[vexer]

I have uploaded the demo on another site and it actually downloads very fast.

here is the link: http://www.metahyper.com/604cqiuqhyav/SonicAxiomSage2010.exe

the link has also been added to my sage booth.

[OverbounD]

Demo Mirror:

http://timetwisted.sonicstrike.net/SonicAxiomSage2010.exe

The levels are MASSIVE its they are designed very well. In fact I'd go so far as to they are probably some of the best designed levels I've ever played in a FG. That said there's a lot of issues coming from laziness of your programming, sorry but its true. Also the graphics are excellent overall but they could use a bit more polish, get rid of the bad resizing and make sure the colors match.

[squallff8]

Finaly i was able to play Demo!(Vexer,your link not working for some reason again =( Thanx to Overbound for a mirror!) And i'll repeat my words - this is one of the best fangame on SAGE 2010,IMO.The quality are the same as Time Twisted!

I not played all zones(Left some on dessert=) ),but even now i shocked...So big zones,great level design,charater gimmiks,graphics,music - ALL GREAT!

Of course there some glitches and bugs(most noticable is when you get 100 rings you don't get a 1up),but there so many pluses that i forget about the downsides!

I have only one question: There so many zones in this Demo,so i wonder..how many zones will be in final version???

Thats my opinion.I hope you'll fininsh the game as soon as posible.

You awesome,man!Good luck!

[SonicFan2010]

[vexer]

Hi I am glad you liked the demo. To answer your question, there will be three more zones. There will probably not be any more demos before the final release.

[VectorSatyr]

Two observations I've made whilst playing through Stone Sea:

1. There was a point where I had enter the water with a Bubble Shield and the drown ping still counted down, followed by silence for the moment you'd normally see the final drown countdown (the numbers don't show up, the sound doesn't go off, and I don't drown though). I could only guess it was because I was also wearing speed shoes, so the game didn't recognize I had the shield on.
2. If you build up enough flight as Tails and touch the ceiling, you don't float down. I had this problem myself with my own builds. There should already be a check for when you touch the ceiling that sets your vspeed to 0 - put the same check as another condition for when you press the Z key to fly, and this will prevent you from getting stuck on the ceiling (I'm saying it this way, because I don't know how you'd go about that in MMF)

Aside from this and some minor collision oversights I exploited through flight, I share Aerosol's condolences. Just check all the spots in each level that you might be able to reach by flying, and it should be fine.

[squallff8]

Hi I am glad you liked the demo. To answer your question, there will be three more zones. There will probably not be any more demos before the final release.

Ohh!Great to here that it's on final levels of development!

Good luck with it!

In addition to AeroGP words about Stone Sea Zone want to say that you should make more frames with chained spikeballs 'cause them looks wierd for me...

And the music on that zone...I think everyone who played Ironrind's Sonic Nebulous will recognize that track.It was first zone music.

[vexer]

I think your right about the spikeball chains. The have always given me trouble. I will try to fix them up. The music in Stone Sea is not a remix. It is from the sega saturn version of Sonic 3D Blast. All the music in that game was different from genesis.

[Moogle]

you should make more frames with chained spikeballs 'cause them looks wierd for me...

Or making them move using sin and cos would be better and smoother.

[SonicFan2010]

If this is your demo, I shudder to think what the final version will look like.

[RedEchidna]

I've got to say, this game is fairly choppy on my system. Some suggestions you could try:

A) Turn off Fine Collision detection/turn on Collision with Box on anything that doesn't check for collisions.

Set Deactivate if Far from Window to Yes on anything that doesn't have to keep doing stuff outside of the window. (This includes rings and such, but maybe not starposts.)

C) See if you can turn off Check for Background Collisions Even Outside of Frame (in the frame properties, if you don't know) without negatively impacting certain objects.

I do all of these if I can, and it really does help performance.

[Steven M]

<Steven_M> Just finished Coastal Causeway

<Steven_M> It's another Sonic CD fangame, right?

<Steven_M> It definitely has the visual style down, as per the music

Me talking out of my ass. Regardless the first level was alright, it was another tropical level like so many other fangames. To be honest I didn't have a lot to say about it. Even the boss was just there.

<Steven_M> Ok, Coastal Causeway was cool and all, but Stone Sea was a chore

<Steven_M> (responding to someone else's complaints about the level) I do remember it was two fucking underwater levels that took five fucking minutes to complete each with fucking spikes everywhere and background shit in the foreground and fucking automated platforms that you had to wait for for like another five minutes until they popped out of the ground and you can't judge your jumping right because your acceleration is fucked to shit

<Steven_M> Besides that Coastal Causeway was alright

The zone was too long and a chore to play through, the underwater effects were nice, the badnik placement was a bit frustrating (the level design occasionally encouraging you to run faster and then FUCK YOU HAVE A ROBOT), the automated platforms were a nuisance, the high platforms that you could slip off were a nuisance, and by this time the acceleration was really starting to annoy me (Sonic runs at a fair clip which is great, but he accelerates like treacle). Boss was cool, sort of reminded me of Sonic 3's final boss. It was a little tricky to hit him from above (I attacked directly from below and it penalised me) but other than that it was alright. The zone was not.

<Steven_M> Ok, first act of Neon Night? Pretty good, loads and loads of springs. But please tinker a bit more with the flipper/bumper parts of the level. It's a good idea but a hassle to pull off correctly

<Steven_M> Second act: really good. Really, really good. I found myself thinking "This is it, this is classic Sonic".

Easily the best zone in the demo, probably the best zone of SAGE 2010. Not joking. The only real issues I had were occasional moments where you had to bounce off flippers and into bumpers (because sometimes it worked and sometimes it was a pain to get right), and the one solitary block to push out of your road seemed a tad out of place. Otherwise, everything really worked - the spikes, the half-loops, it went together very well, it was fun, it wasn't frustrating to navigate.

<Steven_M> Calcified Cavern, as a zone, seems to be a mixture between breakneck Sonic platforming and more cautious Sonic platforming - one minute you're rolling down several slopes, the split-second next you're met with a falling wall of spikes and missile-spewing badniks from above and backwards-firing springs. It says "Play this level again until you

<Steven_M> *"Play this level again and again until you've figured out the layout of it"

<Steven_M> Boss wasn't too bad, reminded me of the Sky Chase/Flying Battery bosses where they beat themselves up

Calcified Cavern felt like a bad combination of the elements of the last two levels, contrasting between the rush and the slow. It's not impossible to have speed in a level where you need to watch your step, but a bunch of slopes to boost across followed seconds later by a falling wall of spikes? A half-loop with a spike ball and a slippy platform in the middle, and the floor of the loop has water in it dragging your speed down? You could argue that this is the kind of level you need to play over and over again to memorise the layout, but the level has to be fun enough to play over and over again to do that, and... this level wasn't fun. I don't want to sound harsh or discouraging, but I think this level needs a bit more work. The boss was pretty interesting though.

I think a lot of what I've touched upon could be seen as purely opinion (other people would like the levels I disliked for their own reasons, etc) - the big issue I could not ignore was the acceleration and deceleration, which made Sonic more difficult to handle than he should have been. I think if you fix that, and combed through your levels a bit more, you'd have a real winner on your hands here. Honestly.

[Neo Hyper Yoshi]

I'll say this now but this is really well put together for a demo. There a few nagging things that need sorting and I hope they are come the full version.

Also, Neon Night Zone = pure win. Best level in the demo by far, looks great and the music... the music! I want it for my ipod, its that good!

I look forward to the final release.

EDIT: Look what I found on Ocremix.

[Tweaker]

I wrote an article detailing my opinions on this game. I would have written more, but I felt Mercury's blog post said everything I wanted to say and more.

Brilliant work! By far my favorite game from SAGE this year.

[Strife]

Reading Mercury's blog post and your review was quite enjoyable, even though I've already played some of the games you guys mentioned. Hot dang, this is making me want to start a small Sonic fangame project. xD; Must... resist... too many... other projects...

As far as Axiom goes, Neon Night Zone is completely and utterly made of win. It ranks up there with Generic Garden Zone as one of my faves this year. <3

[Slingerland]

Neon Night Zone's music is the greatest shit EVER. Vexer, you get the maddest of reputation points for

.