A new WIP hack!

I made an update! It has slightly improved layouts for Lazy Field Zone and Pollutant Plant, and has rendered labyrinth zone temporarily unplayable! The old version is here.

After several months of learning the ins and outs of hacking sonic games, I have created an unamed, WIP hack. It is my first true sonic hack. After working on it for so long, I decided to show it to the world to ask if its worth continuing its development. Some important notes:

New backgrounds for the first 2 zones

Nearly every zone has major layout changes, with the exception of labyrinth zone, which I plan to overwrite with new zone data.

There are new special stage layouts for stages 1-6 (most of them have been playtested)

Spindash has been ported from sonic 2, "Sonic CD style"

Sharp difficulty curve in scrap brain zone (rings and monitors are extremely rare in act 2)

All bosses have extra objects added, removed or edited in the environment to make them much more difficult

Marble zone has a pallet swap (and more graphical edits planned)

Music port for lazy field zone

Labyrinth zone has been temporarily removed from normal gameplay (SYZ goes straight to SLZ)

Special stage ring added to the end of all boss battles

Known issues:

Most of the graphics have not been changed yet

Labyrith zone has some odd palete changes with the HUD and rings, strange issues with the art, and has several areas that are blocked by new chunks, making it unbeatable

Not all of the zones have new names or ideas for nessecary art changes yet

Demos are very strange, as I have not figured out how to edit them yet

I playtest it extensively for bugs and level issues, but I can't catch all of them, so pointing out any that you find below would be greatly appreciated. Also, while I'm open to suggestions, I'm not very good with ASM code yet (all the code, besides the sound effects made by the eggman and s monitors are from sonic retro tutorials), so try to keep it down to layout ideas and potential art changes. Also, feel free to suggest a title for the hack, I stink at naming things xD

Pictures:









Feel free to use the level select, I put a lot of effort into starlight zone act 1 and scrap brain zone, and all the bosses are definately worth playing.

 

Honestly, most of the time I just use snipping tool while in windowed mode, and save as a png. Of course, this assumes that you use Windows.

 

ew. But at least you do it in windowed mode, it could be worse.

Anyway, it's Shift+F12 in Kega Fusion. I should rewrite the last section of that guide, though, since just a few hours ago we had yet another confirmation that there's nothing like Imageshack anymore

 

Thanks for the tip! I'll add pics when I can.

Also, for future reference, how do you add spoilers to posts (I'm kinda new, if you couldn't tell)

(update) whenever I drag images into the editor, it shows them properly, but won't let me save. It says "You must enter a post" and only saves when I remove the pictures.

 

Go to the full editor for both options. Don't drag and drop the images, instead use the upload pictures option, select the pics you want, and upload them to the post as your please. For adding a "spoiler" there should be an option for it. Click it, and type whatever you want into the box.

OK! Review time. I only played up to Act 2 of your Marble Zone replacement (I forget the name) and it was... interesting. Both in a good way and a bad way. 

Let me start off by saying the pallet is ugly. In both Marble, and Green Hill. There's some weird coloring going on with the water in GHZ. Secondly, the layouts aren't terrible, and in GHZ Act 1, I had a decent time playing through it. However, there is a lot of work that needs to go into act 2 of MZ. It feels too much like the original, and when I got to the segment where you have to break the blocks to continue, I screwed up, and got stuck because I didn't break them in the right order, and I couldn't advance. That's where I put the game down. Act 1 of MZ and Act 2 of GHZ are also REALLY awkward to travel through.

Then there are the special stages. Oh boy. Well props on the first one, having the entire stage be breakable blocks is a unique idea, if frustrating at times. But stages 2 and 3 are terrible, I went down the normal route in stage 2 because I had no idea where to go, and got stuck because the barrier blocked me from getting out of the room. Stage 3 I had no idea where to go, and wound up hitting an "goal" block by accident. These stages weren't fun at all.

Overall, I like the idea you're going for. I like Sonic games that let me explore the stage. But like I said for many other hacks, it needs a lot of work before another release.  

 

The idea for the GHZ background is that it should be a field, like the name, but as a place holder, I dumped a bunch of foreground grass tiles there, which I will change when I get around to it. I do need to change marble zone act 2 and 3 to make it more original, but I'm having trouble working around the screen constantly moving the "death area" at the bottom of the level. I'll replay through GHZ 2 later to see what should be changed (I'd appreciate it if you said what specifically made it feel akward, it plays ok for me). As for the special stages, 2 and 4 are incomplete and untested, so frustration will be fixed in later builds. Stage 3 was built to be a rediculously huge maze (perhaps I'll make it a bit smaller).

 

Please do that. I have literally no idea where I'm supposed to go in that stage. I did like the idea behind the color of the breakable blocks relating to the color of the solid blocks in the stage. I guess I should say the hack is loaded with potential. There's some really creative things in there, but it's out shadowed by poor use of said ideas. It's not the worst thing I've played, but it's not the best either. 

 

I wasn't much of a fan of your first special stage, way too many breakable blocks. I actually ended up outside of the stage and ended up collecting like 3 Chaos Emeralds. :V Also I find that the second act of Lazy Field has way too many badniks in one area, definitely don't need that many especially in the same area in the level. Finally I wasn't too much of a fan of Marble Zone's new palette. Your hack needs a bit more work, but good luck with your hack.

 

Looking at the screenshots, I didn't feel good going into the hack. What is with the first screenshot in Star Light with the Eggman monitors and out of place spikes? It all looks random and cluttered without thought.

I'd say the following(after playing through GHZ):

• Pallette is pretty appalling
• Green Hill Zone looks like a mess, don't know how you managed that
• The layout of GHZ is okay, but it could use some work and better object placement

Overall, it isn't very good and I can't really find much good to say about it except the layout is decent in some places. Still, it isn't absolutely AWFUL.

 

Pacguy, I checked out your four edited special stages, and from my point of view:

Stage 1: I'm quite surprised to find the first one high on the difficulty curve because the boundaries consisted mostly of barrier blocks, and I was suspectible to a blind fall into Goal trap.



Stage 2: On the second stage, the "emerald room" was misleading because it would've led me to a forced loss being trapped in the area with a single 1-UP and a Goal trap. I see you branched out a new path to the actual emerald room. I understand you didn't playtest this stage.





Stage 3: The third one was pleasing of a challenge despite it being very long and time-consuming. Took me 30 minutes to complete the stage, collecting the emerald. I counted over 600 rings when playing in Debug Mode.



Stage 4: Near impossible to complete because the Goal blocks placed on this shortcut make this route far too tempting to take. You may want to add an R block or a jump block (at Sonic's current position). This was the other one you didn't playtest.



And this, on the correct path.



The long, narrow blue path, lined with a ton of rings, led me to a dead end and 4 more free lives.



I automically picked up 2 free lives at the start of the stage -- a bit of 1-UP spam there. Kinda unusual to immediately award the player two extra lives from just entering the stage.



If this is your first time using a special stage editor, it's a pretty solid start, but when editing special stages, try to follow these tips:

1. Try to make each stage at least fair and winnable for the player.

2. Try not to overuse 1-UP blocks just by placing them in clusters (as shown in the above pic).

3. Try not place rings dangerously close to Goal blocks -- use them to lead the player in the right direction. And never, ever place Goal blocks in open areas unless they are blocked off by barriers.



4. Try to avoid having the player seeing ring/Goal block formations like these shown below. If you're gonna place Goal blocks there, then remove the rings near it.



5. Try to place 100-200 rings in each stage, considering Continues and extra lives from collecting rings.

6. When two solid objects are separated by a one-block gap, even diagonally, Sonic is too large to fit through, making it impossible to pass.

7. Try not to place too many objects in a single area because VRAM glitches will occur, causing part of the graphics to disappear.

Other than that, you'll do just fine. I play S1 special stages a lot, and I will expect to see this from first-time hackers.

 

Thanks for the tips! The cluster of lives at the beginning of the level is accidentally left over from editing (I used it to remember where sonic spawned), and I am working on making stage 3 a bit shorter. As for the excess of rings, they are kinda decorational, but your right, the amount of rings makes it way too easy to get lives and continues (I always get 1 of each every time I play it xD). I'll keep this in mind as I try to fix the special stages :3

I know the pallete doesn't look good on marble zone, I still haven't gotten around to changing the graphics yet. As for GHZ's background, it is temporary, and will not look like it does now in the final (It is a place holder for the "Field" in Lazy Field Zone)

 

Not going to lie, but you could probably pass off Marble Zone as a swamp with a palette like that, if that's what you're going for.

 

Maybe...

The idea at the moment is for it to be a sewage plant of sorts (I haven't added the techno details yet). Also, there's been an update, I improved Pollutant Plant Zone act 2's layout (Act 3 is the same as marble zone, but has a shortcut that leads almost immidiately to the boss).

 

I know the pallete doesn't look good on marble zone, I still haven't gotten around to changing the graphics yet. As for GHZ's background, it is temporary, and will not look like it does now in the final (It is a place holder for the "Field" in Lazy Field Zone)




Goal blocks are meant to mark dead ends of a path, so use caution where you place them. I'm not gonna be redundant, so use the tips to the best of your ability. If you need any help with layouts, let me know via PM or Skype (if you have Skype)

 

Please feel free to test Scrap brain zone when you can. I worked really, really hard on it (and scrap brain act 2 is my favorite level thus far). The level select is unchanged for a reason. You shouldn't feel bad about it, either (it is an incomplete WIP hack, after all).

While I appreciate constructive criticism, I do reccomend playing the level before you criticise it. They look much better when you see them in action (the spikes move up and down, you see)

(update)

I am removing some enemies in the lower path of lazy field zone (It would have been great if someone told me where they were, but I had to find them myself). I also made lazy field zones background much more visually appealling, and fixed the title screen with a tutorial. I'm updating the download now.

 

There is one thing you guys forgot to let him know, and that is he forgot to switch the remember sprite state on, for almost all of the objects, killed a bunch of lizard badniks, and than went back to the same place were they loaded after leaving the screen position, and they loaded again.

 

Oh, I forgot about that, I'll fix that next (I'll do it for all the zones, so it doesn't show up again). Also, please keep commenting while I'm in limbo, I'll keep checking for tips. I'm updating the ROM now (it has a slightly different level select, and labyrinth has been renamed "Scrapped Ruin Zone").

 

Limbo? My dear boy, I think you mean Prospect. You don't want to go to Limbo. That means you screwed up your trailist phase.

 

Actually, this wasn't a mistake on his part. It shows he read the rules like he was supposed to.

There's a line in the rules which says:

According to older posts, before there was the Prospect group, you would go to Limbo to wait. If you didn't pass, you would stay in Limbo.

The rules just haven't been updated.

 

I'm already a member! (that was quick!) Any way, I'm trying to figure out a good name for my modified spring yard zone, revolving around the word "cliche" . My ideas were "Clisino Zone" or simply "Cliche" zone, but both of those sound a little strange to me. Also, I really need to add more stuff to the end of spring yard zone, as act 2 is unchanged and act 3 is incomplete (but playable), and I'm running out of interesting things to do with the zone (I never did like those casino zones, but I've edited too much of it; i'm committed now).