(SAGE 2014 Act 1) Sonic Lost Adventure: Havok Harbor Tech Demo

[Highwire4]

 

Sonic Lost Adventure is a 3D sonic fan game made in Unreal with the Sonic GDK engine and is made in the style of Unleashed and Generations. The game features completely original assets and uses no pre-made assets from unreal. 

 

Sonic Lost Adventure is a game that has been in the making for around 10 or so years. Most of it in the conceptual stage. Most of you will know this game under the name of Sonic Dash, which was a 2D sonic fan game that I stopped development on a year or so ago. I picked up the project again under a new name (since sega is currently using Sonic Dash) for a school project. I've since completed said school project and have decided to finish what I had started.

 

This game is only going to be a single level. Havok Harbor, which would be the 3rd stage in the game and consist of either 2 or 3 acts along with a boss act. This tech demo is only going to cover one act and will not be expanded upon. This SAGE demo is going to be the only iteration of the game for a very long time. Most likely forever. I'm on my way out of college so I'm running out time to do things like this. 

 

So, thats what this is. Its a single level demo that will probably never be seen again outside of SAGE 2014 Act 1 (unless I can some how add more polish to it if I find the time). 

 

So with out further ado, here's a little video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0lucpu-TDI

Pretty sure that speaks for it's self. Thats pretty much the level at this point in time.

 

But um. yeah. SAGE. 2014. YEEEEEAAAAAH

Edited December 26, 2013 by Highwire4

[Light The Hedgehog]

You should really try an make more ACTS it looks too good to be discarded. Even though that wasn't the final version it still looked good, empty but good. I like the whole harbor thing that you made for your school project looks awesome. Great job man

[Highwire4]

I would love to keep this game going but I just dont have the time. I only have till the end of Jan to work on this project. After that I cant afford to devote effort to it any more due to life reasons. Sorry.

[OverbounD]

Cool video, level is simplistic but has a lot of character. I'd love to see a more polished version of this with badniks that attack and more hazards. The video was pretty cool so I decided to post it on the front page of Sonic United.

[Highwire4]

Um, wow thanks Overbound! You really didn't have to post it up on the front page, my game's not that special (to me at least) but seriously thanks a lot man!

But yeah, this game is like a practice session for me. So I'll be constantly polishing it. Its kinda like a bare bones roller coaster track right now. I'll be adding in more things as it goes.

I've updated the first post with a new video that shows the game in its current full state. I don't know if you can edit your front page or not but well, new video is up.

Edited December 26, 2013 by Highwire4

[OverbounD]

I edited the post to include the new video.

[Azookara]

Seems like fun, and looks flipping great! A bit more lacking on slopes than what I usually come to expect from Sonic level design, but I still dig this. I can't wait to see this complexified a bit more, I trust your skills. :J 

[Sly4Good]

Holy crap this looks awesome: I would love to have seen this continued on into a full fledged game but alas: sucks to see you can't continue with it. Just looks like I'll have to savor the little we have left!

[Highwire4]

Thanks guys! I'm nearing the completion of the level as I reach my deadline (which is next tues) and I should have it all done in time. So here's a little vid of whats what right now. It will radically change in a lot of areas as the days go on so keep that in mind. very much a work in progress as opposed to the first vid which was basically a finished 1st section.

[Biggerboot]

You may already know to do this, but increase your top speed a little...

 

Looks good otherwise.

[Highwire4]

Its something I've wanted to do since I started this but I have no clue how. You know how to do this?

EDIT: Nvm, found it and I'm tweeking it as we speek. I'm just blind ahahahaha 

Edited January 14, 2014 by Highwire4

[Biggerboot]

Its something I've wanted to do since I started this but I have no clue how. You know how to do this?

EDIT: Nvm, found it and I'm tweeking it as we speek. I'm just blind ahahahaha 

 

It's cool, I felt derpy too when I finally found out how to tweak those settings.  

[Highwire4]

So, update video:

 

I've gotten the 2D section to be completely playable (its still a little wonky sometimes) and I'm basically 95% done building the game part of the level. All thats left is to finish up the back of that one boat and populate the rest of it with rings, spikes, and enemies. The transition camera in the loop is a WIP (very much so cause god damn it cameras can fuck off) and it'll be textured soon. Randomly rocketing off of slopes is GDK being a bastard, I'm still looking into how to fix that. I've made him a little faster as well to help speed things up. I've also started adding Red Rings to the level just for fun. I'm mostly likely going to reach my deadline for making this level functional so thats good. After thats been reached I'm going to focus on making it pretty and adding some more polish to the game while picking up Estate again for school.

Thoughts?

Edited January 19, 2014 by Highwire4

[Faseeh]

The stage is very vibrant and is a nice take on the harbour trope.

 

I gotta say tho, the 2D section isn't too good but I can't really explain how. Might help if you could make the background in that section look pretty cos it looks really eh right now. 

 

The huge loop in the 2D could use a more dynamic camera. Also protip, avoid using too much dash rings like around 3:03, it gets a bit irritating. 

 

Great first attempt and all the best! Wish I could make fangames and such

[Highwire4]

@Faseeh: Thank you. 

The 2D section is the most unfinished section of the level right now. Its missing most of the gameplay elements and visual asthetics out of all the other sections. Its going to be going under a lot of work.

As for the loop, I'm aware the camera is janky as hell and needs a new one. I'm still trying to figure out how to do it.  As for those dash rings tho, they're literally needed to get sonic across the gap. If I don't put that many there he won't make it. 

Thanks for the feedback though man.

[Biggerboot]

I have a suggestion too, in the 2D section especially, I think if you use physics volumes on the platforms you'll avoid that issue where sometimes Sonic doesn't stick to the platform when he should.

[ZigZaX]

I swear in my mind ive registered the level as "lego harbor" lol.

[Highwire4]

So, Sonic Lost Adventure made the SAGE promo video dead line in at least presentable order. The game isn't finished yet but its darn well close to it. The only things that still need to be done is more graphical touch-ups, textures for a few special pieces, camera fixes, enemy and ring placement, and implementing things like checkpoints and level ending and music and moving platforms. I've got 20 days to do that.

Since school has started up again, I'm now back at work on an indie game as well which means I'm working on two projects at the same time. Suffice to say my stress levels are ridiculous, but I'll get through this and hopefully produce two decent products in the process. 

From people who have played it and from feedback from my peers, this game already has a bunch of problems that I just wont be able to fix (mostly my shitty level design) but I hope you guys enjoy it none the less when it comes out at SAGE.

 

@Biggerboot: Thats the problem, the objects have the SGDK Physics enabled on them and he still does that. I've given up on trying to fix it. I don't have time, its now a part of the game unfortunately. The only other way I can think of to fix the issue would be to make the areas of the levels that have that issue the most into seperate models, which would just take way too long. Maybe I can do that for Act 2 way in the future, who knows.

@ZigZax: Ahahaha yeah it may as well be. I've had people commenting on it saying it looks like a carnival as well which is super cool. Means I've been doing my job right.