General Screenshot/Movie Thread

Discussion in 'Showroom' started by redhotsonic, Jul 2, 2015.

  1. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

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    I finally made proper code to rotate and scale images with the ASIC. I did a test with the DA Garden art data:

     
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  2. Ravenfreak

    Ravenfreak Still hacking the 8-bit titles Member

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    I suppose I'll just show off what I'm working on now. I've only edited the Title Screen palette and moved some levels around, but soon I'm hoping to add some new asm edits to this hack. Back when I first taught myself Z80 assembler, I was attempting to work on a disassembly of this game but since I didn't have any clue on what I was doing, I stopped working on it. However recently I decided to go back and work on that old disassembly again to work on a new hack. xD Moving levels around in this game is much easier than moving levels around in Sonic 2, because there's less things to move. :p
     
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  3. โบวี่

    โบวี่ Tsingtao Enjoyer Member

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    [​IMG]

    Coming Soon

    Also, props to Natsumi for programming the new and improved Joenick boss.
     
  4. EMK-20218

    EMK-20218 The Fuss Maker Exiled

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    Title screen's colors now look more like the Genesis version one. I like it. There's any Genesis level remake in your plans?


    This looks brilliant! The fight against Joe was very, very unexpected. Awesome stuff. Nice art skills on the HUD and in the level background!
     
  5. NiphFM

    NiphFM Host of the Mega Drive Music Contest Member

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    Warning: Low Quality
    Due to people not liking my shitty layout that I had for this level before, I have spent the time to make a better one. THIS is the result!
     
  6. NiphFM

    NiphFM Host of the Mega Drive Music Contest Member

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    EDIT: Trash please. This double post wasn't the forums fault, just to let you know
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2015
  7. Burst

    Burst You call this a connection? Oh, give me a break. Member

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    Thats really awesome, liked that layout.
    Still proud being a bug tester of This Hack :)
     
  8. EMK-20218

    EMK-20218 The Fuss Maker Exiled

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    Level design is really, ehrrr, better, in this video. But palette isn't good, level art isn't good, chunks aren't good, foreground art isn't good, music isn't good (and it's hell damn louder than everything my ears can endure when I play a game) and, and, hm... You're striving yourself to improve your stuff, at least.
     
  9. Misinko

    Misinko Oh SHIT it's the Biolizard! Member

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    Honestly, I don't see much of an improvement here. In fact in some regards, I think it's worse.

    Your original layout, while flawed, was at least not linear. This on the other hand, is. There is no proper speed-based platforming here. You're either holding right to win, or you're jumping through a janky platforming section. The wall of platforming, while improved with the addition of the moving platforms, is still a wall of platforming. And that's a huge "no" for Sonic games. Restrict blocky platforming like that to 2, maybe 3 floating platforms.

    Let me give you a bit of level design advice. If you cannot make it through your level in a relativity smooth run, it is flawed. That's not to say a smooth run of the level shows the quality of the level, but the creator of a game should be able to skillfully navigate their levels without much hindrance. There was so much starting and stopping, and even backtracking near the end in your playthrough. Part of that is due to your play style, and a part of that is due to the level itself stopping your progress. I'd recommend sorting through it, and finding out which is which.

    That's not to say you cannot have starting and stopping in Sonic levels, but the stopping should be more momentum-based. Sonic standing on a platform that's moving. Sonic dashing back and forth to get better timing on a tricky obstacle. Sonic bouncing on a spring or a bumper a few times to get a feel for the level. SOMETHING to keep the player moving and engaged. There's moments of outright halted momentum in your level, and that's not a good thing.

    On the plus side, I do see some creative setpeices here and there, so at least you're improving in that regard.

    Everything else I've talked about in your actual hack thread still applies here. That Splash Hill Zone remix is easily the worst part of the level though. It's shrill, loud, overused, and obnoxious. Please, change it something else.
     
  10. NiphFM

    NiphFM Host of the Mega Drive Music Contest Member

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    The overused songs are definitely going as soon as I make new ones. None of the level art is finished either (trust me, it'll look 20x better when I'm finished) I've got another palette that would fit too. Level layout was the main focus here. Thanks for the feedback guys! I'll fix them later.
     
  11. ProjectFM

    ProjectFM Optimistic and self-dependent Member

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    I really dislike that newcomers use GHZ to create their first level designs. GHZ's chunks don't allow for creative level design with the chunk size being 256x256, the number of chunks being low, and the original design of the chunks being primitive (pretty much every level of Sonic 1 suffers these problems, actually) which doesn't allow for much creativity when creating a level. I've seen hacks that have done wonders with it (Metal Sonic Hyperdrive, South Island Warped, Sonic 2 Advanced Edit, The S Factor) but using the original chunks is asking for bland level design.

    And that's how I feel about that level. It's short and bland.
     
  12. NiphFM

    NiphFM Host of the Mega Drive Music Contest Member

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    I actually redid that level because I know that most people didn't like the old layout. I watched a stream from the Hacking Contest, I believe it was The Geek Critique. Do you know how pissed the chat was? Within 3 mins, the chat was in uproar. That's what made me redo the whole level from scratch. I do get your point though and GHZ is very limited.
     
  13. Narcologer

    Narcologer Hell angel Member

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    My first steps in badnik programming:
    [​IMG] [​IMG]
     

    Attached Files:

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  14. SaunicBoom

    SaunicBoom Well-Known Member Member

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    I'll throw in my two cents on this...
    • The "Team Mickbae" splash screen has heavy dithering and just looks plain messy. I'm guessing the base image was ran through a color-indexing program/filter with no cleaning up of the image output.
    • The trees in the background have highly saturated magenta for the trunks. While the color choice is questionable at best (though subjective with a game like Sonic), the saturation definitely needs to come down. Same goes for the magenta flowers. Tree trunks also suffer from pillow-shading. Look into studying how light sources work to clean that up.
    • Foreground pattern is a bit busy-looking and, overall, lacking a distinct direction in style. As a result, it looks quite generic.
    • The background sand seems oddly out of place. I get the impression the zone has a beach or coastal setting, but it clashes with the rest of the level considering the foreground itself lacks any dunes of sand. It'd make sense if there was an ocean stretching far in the distance, but it just feels out of place here.
    • Water in the background looks strange and not at all like water. While highly detailed water can look great, an easy way of rendering water is to keep it simple and add only some small highlights here and there throughout the body.
    • Bits of the shadows underneath the grass are cut off, giving it an unpolished and unnatural look.
    • There's some instances in the level layout where it's simply flat and uninteresting (behind the waterfall 30 seconds into the video and at the very end of the level). Either tweak the layout or add some props/enemies there to break the monotony.
    • There are higher bits of the layout that aren't connected to the ground underneath it, giving it the impression those big chunks are floating. Stretch them out to the bottom of the level to give a realistic sense of structure. Floating chunks are fine if the zone takes place in the sky.
    • The big pit 1 minute into the video isn't reassuring. If it's a bottomless pit, consider adding an additonal route below or add some spikes, but don't leave it empty. Assuming it's the first level of the game, the layout should be relatively easy to navigate. If you insist on leaving it there, at the very least be courteous enough to add a checkpoint before the pit. Otherwise, players who fail to cross it will have to start at the very beginning of the level, which is quite frustrating, especially for the very first level of the game.
    • I won't comment on the music since I'm not familiar enough with music to be able to elaborate on what's good or bad about it.
    • There might have been some other minor details I missed, but I think the points I've got here are enough to work on. As far as the quality of the artwork goes, I understand not everyone's talented in that area, so I won't unjustly dog you on that.
    Overall, keep working on it as it all feels rather unfinished at this stage.

    On a side note, while I understand everyone's got a right to voice their opinions, I'd personally like to see more effort put into critiquing someone's work rather than simply posting something "isn't good". My apologies if this isn't the proper place to express this.
     
  15. Clownacy

    Clownacy Retired Staff lolololo Member

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    So, are those ports or total rewrites?
     
  16. LordXernom

    LordXernom Well-Known Member Member

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    S1: Return Of Homeland isn't dead yet. The background change in Homeland Zone (I hope change is for better).

    [​IMG]
     

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  17. Burst

    Burst You call this a connection? Oh, give me a break. Member

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    Some layout testing for S1: Emerald Island. But it's only the beginning of the first act! I will place some rings in there, so the beginning don't feels empty.

    Oh yeah, and how about some new music (Thanks LordXernom!)
    BTW, since Gens is having some reason to not record my videos, i must go back to Fusion. So, the level select bugs. But it's only the music you should hear.

     
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  18. Narcologer

    Narcologer Hell angel Member

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    I added some modifications in codes of crabmeat and burrobot and ported graphics from sonic 2's disasm.
     
  19. LordXernom

    LordXernom Well-Known Member Member

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    Another background change in Homeland Zone, because I had issues with background and missed elements in it.

    [​IMG]
     
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  20. LooneyDude

    LooneyDude Back after a long absence! Member

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    [​IMG]

    How about one last hurrah?