Concept Storm

[OverbounD]

The concept storm is back! We're doing it a bit differently though rather than contests and what not I'm going to make it a little more simple. This is a place where you can suggest game ideas, level topes, or gimmicks that do not deserve their own topic yet.

Rules:

1. All items posted are free to use without credit. This is simply done to make the ideas as easy to use as possible. Credit is appreciated though and decent people will probably take the time to give it anyway. It just isn't a rule because if we start building off each others ideas exactly who to credit could become kind of confusing.

2. Try not to repeat ideas.

3. Constructive criticism only. It isn't that hard to find nice things to say even if the idea sucks. Be polite you can still get your point across.

4. You may come up with some guidelines for use for your ideas as long as they aren't ridiculous and don't conflict with the current rules I've set up.

I'm not going to be giving out any formal awards. But those who come up with several decent ideas may get some sort of banner related to CS Tinkering. That said don't spam ideas please, keep them of decent quality.

To start us off here's some old ideas I had.

A construction yard for a skyscraper in progress with lots of travel up and down the map. Concepts would include cement that froze sonic for a second or two and a jack hammer gimmick that Sonic would grab on too and have very little control over the purpose would be to bust a concrete floor to reveal a path.

3. A level on the moon... that's all I have

[toaster1]

An Aperture Science themed map.

The panels would form alternate paths depending on how long it takes you to complete a room. Crushers coming in from behind, forcibly breaking the level apart. Timing challenges, Supercolliding Super button puzzles Pro/repulsion gels to enhance level design, you name it.

I had a dream. Tried to make it work, got bored of it, so here you go.

[Ristar]

I have an idea for a wee game starring the characters in my avatar and signature.

Advance through a series of stages and get to the end of the game within a time limit. The amount of time you complete the game within depends on your overall score and ending.

There are multiple paths depending on the difficulty as well as different puzzles, some can be solved by the yellow guy, some require his bird to fly off to a higher point to solve a puzzle.

I dunno... it's kind of like Sonic fused with Revenge of Metaknight.

[Steven M]

A construction yard for a skyscraper in progress with lots of travel up and down the map. Concepts would include cement that froze sonic for a second or two and a jack hammer gimmick that Sonic would grab on too and have very little control over the purpose would be to bust a concrete floor to reveal a path.

And maybe the sub-boss takes place on a girder that's being transported to the top floor but acts as a dangerously unstable see-saw for the player and boss. And if you were a fan of scripted routines for level designs you could easily take a leaf from cartoons like "Homeless Hare" or something like "Baby's Day Out" - more moving girders, pipes and other objects. Maybe the original Egg-o-Matic could return as a bulldozer/demolition boss. Of course when you say 'skyscraper' do you mean for a city zone or a Robotropolis sort of zone? Because that could also change things up a bit.

[snow toilet]

I have a few things to throw out.

First off, a level I scrapped in the extremely early stages of construction would have been a floating paradise with waterfalls falling towards the earth, seeping out from the crumbling ground below them.

A basic floating oasis if you will.

A good boss idea I came up with would have been something similar to a rocky version of the final boss from Sonic 2, where you basically hit off the head area to reveal Dr. Eggman controlling a machine of types covered with a basic rock suit.

The start of the boss could have taken place at the end of the zone and it would've been in a rock wall and eventually blasts out.

(This idea comes from the title screen of Sonic CD.

One more zone type I came up with was a "neon" styled resort stage (basically like light ups from Casino Night) with a basic montage of the tropical island themed stages such as GHZ, EHZ, AIZ and Emerald Coast, maybe even using the best enemies from all four.

Also, Overbounds moon idea made me think of one more stage I was going to do but decided not to do it.

The basis would have been inside a gigantic clock full of gear based gimmicks (never thought these out to be honest) and it would have basically had, at some point, a clock but reversed being that you would be inside.

It would have been similar to my coffee pots clock where it is blue light with black digital hands.

The point would have been to repeat the time on your PC/Mac/Dreamcast VMU/360/whatever you would use to run this game.

The reason why I bring up the moon thing is I came up with a thing while concocting my game to where it would be a way for Eggman to check the time from outer space, maybe while he's on a moon or a new Death Egg or what have you.

Kind of lame but hey.

At least it served a purpose.

I hope this is the right thing you are looking for.

If so, I have a shit ton more ideas its just that I'm tired.

Have at it.

(Mind you, I'd like to see that clock tower zone come to life one day so I hope someone definitely uses it.)

[Ristar]

A good boss idea I came up with would have been something similar to a rocky version of the final boss from Sonic 2, where you basically hit off the head area to reveal Dr. Eggman controlling a machine of types covered with a basic rock suit.

The start of the boss could have taken place at the end of the zone and it would've been in a rock wall and eventually blasts out.

sounds a lot like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCq6TzIkHK4

thinking in terms of space zones, I had an idea for a level set on an asteroid belt, with each asteroid having its own centre of gravity... pretty much like a 2D Mario Galaxy; but with small asteroids instead of planets. You could run round the asteroids the same way sonic runs round those round belt things in Carnival Night Zone.

[snow toilet]

Here's something that is more of a jumping off point for someone who doesn't have a clue on what they want to do as far as a fan game goes so bear with me on this.

So let's say you wanted to do something instead of having a "final fight" when collecting all the chaos emeralds.

Something like a longer game so to speak.

Make an extra quest, if you will.

The idea that I had was that you would go back to the stages or areas of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and it would be like three to five years later.

I always wondered what they would look like after several years.

Examples:

Mainly you would find bits and pieces or maybe chunks of what used to be the Wing Fortress all over, all rusted and what have you, due to a crash landing.

This would be in the backgrounds of some of the stages.

- Emerald Hill: a lot of plant life has grown making this more like a typical botanical type area.

- Chemical Plant: possibly cleaned out and looks more like a metallic city of types.

- Aquatic Ruin: took the most damage from the plane crash so it has now become more of a ruin than before.

- Casino Night: a lot of construction in the background to show that they are expanding/building more casinos. (Another idea was to make this more of an early dusk background and a lot of the slot machines and light up neons wouldn't be working due to them being only active during night hours.)

- Hill Top: has now become more of an active volcano and a lot of the trees and grass have been burned up. (This was the only stage that was going to have a new name besides Chemical Plant and it was going to be Quake Central, however several days later that earthquake hit Japan so I thought it would've been bad taste.)

- Mystic Cave: less of a spooky cave and more of a silver mine, maybe similar to Endless Mine.

- Oil Ocean: Never came up with one for this.

- Metropolis: very much abandoned at this point, maybe a lot of rust and holes with sunlight seeping through the walls.

Also, none of the background moving due to inactivity of the factory.

I never came up with any new gimmicks or what have you for the stages to have more of an original feel compared to their Sonic 2 counterparts.

Also, I never intended for such stages as Dust Hill, Wood, Genocide or Hidden Palace due to, obviously, Sonic and/or Tails never technically venturing in them in the original.

Be creative as possible with the level looks and feel after several years, those were just possible examples of what they could look like but still feel free to use them all.

I might wait on more due to this being quite a long one.

Right then.

More to come soon.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the idea obviously is heavily based on Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal's "after you beat Lance extended quest" where you travel back to Kanto.

So yeah, have at it.

[OverbounD]

I have an idea for a wee game starring the characters in my avatar and signature.

etc. etc.

I dunno... it's kind of like Sonic fused with Revenge of Metaknight.

I have never played Revenge of Metaknight. But some how I'm reminded of Bubble and Squeak by your signature. I should add that I really like that your signature!

And maybe the sub-boss takes place on a girder that's being transported to the top floor but acts as a dangerously unstable see-saw for the player and boss. And if you were a fan of scripted routines for level designs you could easily take a leaf from cartoons like "Homeless Hare" or something like "Baby's Day Out" - more moving girders, pipes and other objects. Maybe the original Egg-o-Matic could return as a bulldozer/demolition boss. Of course when you say 'skyscraper' do you mean for a city zone or a Robotropolis sort of zone? Because that could also change things up a bit.

City construction is what I meant. I really like the idea of the boss taking place on a girder. I think in that kind of setting giving the boss some kind of weapon that acted with bouncing ball movement would be neat and challenging. Also kind of surprised no thought of a eggomatic bulldozer before. I can just see it in my head looking similar to EHZ's boss.

Also, Overbounds moon idea made me think of one more stage I was going to do but decided not to do it.

The basis would have been inside a gigantic clock full of gear based gimmicks (never thought these out to be honest) and it would have basically had, at some point, a clock but reversed being that you would be inside.

A clock on the moon, its so crazy it just might work. It might work especially well as a final level for a game with some time element, such as our game or Sonic Time Attacked. The moon might also be a cool place to play with the gravity level.

thinking in terms of space zones, I had an idea for a level set on an asteroid belt, with each asteroid having its own centre of gravity... pretty much like a 2D Mario Galaxy; but with small asteroids instead of planets. You could run round the asteroids the same way sonic runs round those round belt things in Carnival Night Zone.

Another cool space idea. I think there's a lot of potential to do something very original imagine a asteroid shaped like a loop-de-loop that had its own gravity.

[Steven M]

A water park zone. White-red colour scheme with an ocean/sky background - Greek elements here and there. Some indoor areas here and there, infrequent - most of the action takes place in the outdoors. Pipes to run through, pipes to run along on, giant rubber rings, swimming pools with items at the bottom, zone-spanning water slides, glass towers, etc. The sub-boss fight takes place in a S2 Special Stage-esque water pipe. The end-of-zone boss fight takes place in a large half-pipe which actually connects from one zone to the next (post-zone cutscene ala Sonic 3/& Knuckles).

[Apricity]

The skyscraper idea sounds cool. I imagine it sort of like a penultimate level, where construction on Robotniks massive ship or possible even death egg-esque creation is nearing finish. So you infiltrate the construction site to get into the ship as it takes off.

I imagine the boss would be a Robotnik-esque battle but not actually featuring Robotnik as he would be piloting the ship. Maybe an egg-robo in one of his egg-o-matic's? You'd reach the boss as the ship began to lift-off. The egg-robo would work like green hill zone apart from he wouldn't have a giant ball he'd be carrying a girder and you'd have to jump on it. The boss starts as you jump on the girder, the scaffolding begins to break and the platform you were previously on collapses so if you fall it's an instant death. He would swing you side to side attempting to throw you into falling pieces of debris. When he swings high enough you'd be able to hit him.

As you deafeat him he would blow up and send your girder sky high into a cutscene where you'd either jump into the ship or have tails catch you on the tornado.

[TailsSena]

The skyscraper idea sounds cool. I imagine it sort of like a penultimate level, where construction on Robotniks massive ship or possible even death egg-esque creation is nearing finish. So you infiltrate the construction site to get into the ship as it takes off.

I imagine the boss would be a Robotnik-esque battle but not actually featuring Robotnik as he would be piloting the ship. Maybe an egg-robo in one of his egg-o-matic's? You'd reach the boss as the ship began to lift-off. The egg-robo would work like green hill zone apart from he wouldn't have a giant ball he'd be carrying a girder and you'd have to jump on it. The boss starts as you jump on the girder, the scaffolding begins to break and the platform you were previously on collapses so if you fall it's an instant death. He would swing you side to side attempting to throw you into falling pieces of debris. When he swings high enough you'd be able to hit him.

As you deafeat him he would blow up and send your girder sky high into a cutscene where you'd either jump into the ship or have tails catch you on the tornado.

ZOMG!! That's amazing! Shouln't be hard in the Worlds Engine either! Probably a Zone 2 boss...

[OverbounD]

Yeah that is just epic sounding chronic.

[Apricity]

I am considering it for Arcane Assembly zone in my game but since it's here anyone can use it

Thanks!

[Doctor Ansem]

I want to create a Metroidvania Sonic.

Sonic would only start with his Sonic 1 moveset, and would have to traverse Sonic CD esque levels in an open map (or an open level select akin to Castlevania Order of Ecclesia) to get more of his abilities. It being a Metroidvania, I'd go for more horror themed locations and foes (like those awesome bomb chucking ghosts from Rush Adventure in the Haunted Ship) I could also mod some abilities like giving him slight variations of his boosting ability--taking a note from Triple Trouble where his Super Peel Out was called Strike Dash and rendered him able to nuke enemies for the first 2 seconds he kept his speed up.

I like my bosses challenging and dangerous, so they'd be based off of Castlevania and Metroid bosses, adjusted to give Sonic a hard time. And considering that his potential was wasted in 06, I'd use Mephiles as a villain (with Eggman still providing the robo horrors).

I'm in the middle of some nasty times at the moment, so I don't want to promise I'd build it, but some points in the right direction would help, and I don't mind if a faster or more dedicated programmer takes the idea instead.

[DimensionWarped]

I want to create a Metroidvania Sonic.

You, me, and everyone else who has ever thought of this insanely awesome, yet probably insanely difficult idea.

[Doctor Ansem]

What's stopped people before? I know someone had up Sonic: The Fated Hour, but what seems to be the deal breaker? Level design? What abilities? Plot?

[DimensionWarped]

I'd say it's just the combination of fangames already being experimental projects by nature and something like that requiring a rather copious amount of effort. It's perfectly doable, it's just that making one that actually goes anywhere is going to be rare since making a game in general that goes anywhere is rare too.

[JetHawk95]

An idea for a level I have is like a Micro machine's styled level. Have it as 2D And run round the house jumping off T.V's and onto Wii's then getting chased by a cat and so on xD

[Ristar]

An idea for a level I have is like a Micro machine's styled level. Have it as 2D And run round the house jumping off T.V's and onto Wii's then getting chased by a cat and so on xD

honey i shrunk the hedgehog?

[JetHawk95]

Yeah xD Classic Sonic shrunk = Cute ^^

[Strife]

I'd say it's just the combination of fangames already being experimental projects by nature and something like that requiring a rather copious amount of effort. It's perfectly doable, it's just that making one that actually goes anywhere is going to be rare since making a game in general that goes anywhere is rare too.

Aye, true. Plus, a persistent and interconnected world would mean that there are no acts, and as a result, a number of core gameplay mechanics would have to be revamped (such as scoring, time, etc).

I think Sonic Adventure 1 was the closest we ever got to a Metroidvania, and it did strike a nice compromise - Action Stages were your typical Sonic fare, but you also had sandbox-esque Adventure Fields in which new areas would become accessible depending on the Action Stages you completed or the equipment you collected for your character.

[luksamuk]

Sorry for bumping it out of nowhere, but I remember someone once made a concept of a badnik for rainy levels that catch water and throw it on the Player and whatever. Well, I'd like to recycle that - but I don't remember the artist and I can't find the concept picture anywhere. Does anyone remember who did it? And if so, could I use it anyway? (Of course, the creator of the concept and whoever points where both concept and author are will be +repped and credited on the Level Collab.)

[luksamuk]

Nobody? Really?

[Doctor Ansem]

Has anyone done a fangame starring Blaze? Has anyone done any good sprites of Blaze?

[MrChidna]

Has anyone done a fangame starring Blaze? Has anyone done any good sprites of Blaze?

No good, comprehensive set of Blaze sprites, as far as I know. And a Blaze And Silver fangame would be quite nice.