Sonic 1 Team MickBae Edition

That's because the post wasn't there to criticise the hack itself; it was there to criticise the attitude towards hacking, hence the other half of the post, which was constructive.

 

Great, another one of these threads.

 

​Yeah,I do see what you're getting at. :happy:

 

Alright, I guess. As long as you feel I'm not forcing you to. I get that the post was very brash, and there were a bunch of ways to handle it more delicately. But, to me, that seems to always be the case with 'nipping it in the bud'.

 

​No worries,I don't feel that you're forcing me to. :wink:

 

Who is to say that this had to be just for the hacking contest? I'm sure he already knew this ahead of time. Just like I did a back when I entered in 2012 that there were going to be others far better than mine, but that didn't stop me from entering and just like this guy is doing, I'm sure he feels the same way. Not only just for him but to anyone else here that's going to be entering as well this year. Just because there is going to be competition doesn't mean that they have to go all crazy and bust their butts just to be in it. Maybe they just simply want to be part of it  to just have fun, like I did back then. Not everything has to be about compitition for everyone. Maybe for others that's entered previous amounts of times sure, but for those like me, We just enter again really just to be apart of something.

While I already knew that the pallets weren't all that great and I even stated it in my initial post pertaining to the hack itself, I never said that it was what you call a "masterpiece". As you said, even if he is just 12, he going to be bound to have some problems along the way, but he has to start somewhere doesn't he?

I didnt necisarilly mean it was towards you but more in the sense in how the rest of the community tends to take these kind of threads so do excuse me if it may seemed like I was aiming this at you partly. I'm just so used to seeing hack threads like this that actually have potential all for it to be bombarded with comments that says only the bad without saying anything to help improve upon it to make it better [at least in the past anyway]. As for the little stinger, I felt that something had to be said. Even if it is trailer. rather than just outright saying how bad it looked, we should be giving some incentive and advice on what he can do to help improve and making it Better such as changing the pallets or maybe an example of creating some gimmicks in the layouts to make things a little more interesting. 

Who said I had to be cocky about it? I was only just providing my honest opinion about what I thought, and even if I were to get into some trouble, I would just have to endure it. Well I think its about time we drop this before it gets to out of hand and actually get back on topic with this. Don't want nothing drastic to happen.

 

No one else could explain the meaning of my post better than me, so here goes.

Having been in the scene since 2008, it's unsurprising to say that I've seen some of the best and some of the worst ROM hacks to ever come out in the Sonic scene. Hell, I've been there myself - Mobius Adventures, which was the first ROM hack I ever made - is outright mediocre. The only cool thing it had were a couple moves MarkeyJester put in for me. At the time I was 13, so I can easily relate to making something that is bad. Everyone starts off like that, it's ridiculous to assume that everyone starts out with the ability to make a masterpiece.

What I can't stand is undeserved praise. What I also can't stand is standing behind your age. I'm all for being constructive - if it wasn't for that, I'm certain I wouldn't have improved my abilities. Despite that, I still realise I have a long way to go in many areas. If you're presenting a trailer with really bad level palettes and that's all I have to go on except for listing music selection (woo, soniNeko music. again. woo.), I have to present my words in a way that I feel appropriate. Why should I mince my words and not say what I mean? I'd much rather be honest than beat around the bush and make the OP feel as if his work is the work of Picasso.

If this had something redeemable about it, I'd say something to point in the right direction. But it doesn't. Not yet. If all I can say is "the colours look awful and oh joy it's soniNeko music again", you're not exactly presenting your product in a way that I'm going to get excited for. What this scene needs is honesty, not fake happiness making everyone feel like they're special snowflakes. The least we need is another SMW Central.

 

​

Whoa, whoa, that line about cockiness wasn't aimed at you! It was AmatuerSonicHacker's 'I'm out', 'not bad for a 12 year old', allcap usage, all that. It was something I used to do way back when, but, looking back, it seemed to rub the other members the wrong way, and I can kinda see why.

 

Oh. Then I apologize for what I said. Didn't know it was aimed towards him. 

 

I'll apologize if I sounded rude in anyway. And your right, age shouldn't matter. I guess I should have gone in more detail, when I meant things like "this is too Orange" or "This is too dark"  I meant  tone the orange down or change the palette to a different color and make it not clash between the FG and the BG. And of course the dark, lighten it up, at least so we can see. I also agree that not everyone can learn things and do amazing things quicker like others( I've been doing this for a long time, I'll still consider myself a basic hacker so I can relate).

It takes time, some more than others but that's ok as long you take your time to put the work into it. For your BG issue, maybe you deleted a chunk? what were you using?, ESE? can't remember if that's even possible since I haven't used that program in years. All in all, don't feel discouraged try to take the criticism on board which I can see you already have gone to fix the palettes which is good.  I want people to improve, not to think they suck and shouldn't continue, That's not the right attitude.

 

Whilst I agree with you on some points, I think you need to understand that everyone's brain is wired differently, and that most people within the community are actually being honest when they gave him praise. Nothing in that trailer obviously rocks your boat, so you think it doesn't deserve praise and should be criticised, then when you see people saying "it looks good", you may think they're lying. I can get that, that's your opinion and I respect it. But to some, even me, that trailer didn't look half bad. And I said that it looks good and I wouldn't mind giving this hack a shot. I was being honest. But no where did I say it's the bee's knees and it'll win 1st prize, I'm not praising him that much, just giving him a bit of a reason to continue forward.

We all agreed the palette is awful, so no doubt he'll make improvements before the contest. But the layout looks pretty good, and I praised him for that. Though trailers can be misleading, can't they? I hate seeing an awesome trailer for a film, I then go to the cinema only to realise it was shit. It happens, we may be fooled and you were right. But still, I think a lot of people in this community are honest, some just don't see it.

As for boosting members to become better at hacking, there are two ways to do that. First is criticism, like most people do quite often but another is actually praise. His layouts may be superb, and if we praise him for that, it'll gain confidence for himself and continue to bring great layouts. While criticism is normally a better way to improve a person, too much of it will put them down and they'll just give in. Maybe what people should do is a list of pros/cons when judging what they see/play. If you only have Cons, so be it and list them.

That's my say.

 

Umm... The only one that said anything about the word "masterpiece" was LordXernom. And he said that "This is a masterpiece compared to my first hack in 2010." He is comparing it to his hack, not stating that this is a masterpiece because to be honest, it isn't a masterpiece. I've played better hacks than this.

Didn't I say that they were going to change? And plus, half of the current music isn't SoniNeko music!

On a brighter note, I've been hearing that you like my layouts so here is Palmtree Oasis Act 1



Hope you like it

And, cockiness removed! (Might've missed a line or two though)

 

It looks pretty good, but I noticed some issues:

• The springs which are placed under grass, are visile so it looks like they are floating in the middle of the grass and also it looks odd.
• Some chunks are oddly connected and/or placed. Most notable the waterfall section (starting at 0:35). Some places also need the objects number 44.
• Speaking of the waterfall section: is too long and too linear and thus too boring. There is also another linear section, after the first S-tube.
• There are too much spikes. IMO the first stage shouldn't have that much spikes (unless it's a hack which is meant to be harder)..

Otherwise, the layout is pretty good. Keep up the good work.

 

Touching up on what Painto said:

0:26 in the video, those chunks look like they are floating without a bottom chunk connected to it, I would either change the chunk or put one underneath to connect to the chunk above. 0:30 same thing with the waterfall chunk it isn't connected.

0:32, the s-tube chunk should connect with the other S-tube chunk. At the moment it looks like it was cut off. And as stated, it is a little to linear. Straight line zone if you will. When your running on top of the bridge with the waterfall, add different chunks, multiple pathways to keep it interesting.

And the same thing at the end of that bridge you've cut it off with object 44, in that situation cut it off with a chunk that fits. (0:44 in video)

 

My main complaint is the whole layout only has one pathway that leads to the finish. Keep in mind that original Sonic 1 levels (and almost every other classic sonic game level) almost always had more than one path the player could take to get to the end, excluding LZ of course. Experiment with branching paths, ( sometimes they can meet up) and it will be worth it in the long run, it also adds to the replay value. I know from experience because I used to make linear paths like this as well. >>;

 

After seeing this new video, I can now give more an in-depth review for this seeing as the game play is at it's regular speed than from the other one. So far, the pallet for this particular act of the stage is pretty decent. As for the layout, While it's Exactly not the best in the world, I have an Idea In what your trying to do. As joe stated, It's looks a bit to linear. some parts are just going from one side to the other while the rest of it is basically going in a straight path. I should know from experience as well back when I used to work on one of my older hacks, I used to do the same thing. another thing to add on about the layout, specifically some of the object placements are a bit out of place. like for example with the shield monitor that was at the end of the first S-tube or the speed shoes monitor that was in the middle of the pathway. These type of things can't be rushed. you actually have to plan out how you want your layouts to look. randomly adding objects all over the place doesn't help. Again I should know because I used to do the same [Good lord I didn't realize how much I used to suck at hacking back then lol]. In anycase, I would suggest that at the very least try to improve upon your level layout abilities, not only for this stage but for the rest of them as well as I'm pretty sure those are looking a lot like how this one looks. again while it's not the best, I can see that you have a basic idea in how to make one as a beginner. And that about all I have to say about this so far. also a little tip but If you ever need some help in making proper layouts, I would suggest using this guide



Or if your a bit of the lazy type on reading, there is also video guides as well in which animemaster have created which can be found on his youtube channel. but other than that, good luck. you'll need it.

 

​I don't even know why I did not mention my own tutorial's but yeah. Object placement is also a thing, when it's powerups/goodies is best to spread them out and not put them out randomly or places that don't really make sence. I think I noticed one spike that stops your momentum so you have to jump over it. It was probably better to use the ghz rock.

 

I've been experimenting with mid2smps lately and I'm glad to say, it's going well!  (vgm files)

View attachment MIDI toSMPS - Rusty Ruin Act 1.vgm

View attachment MIDI2SMPS - Sonic 3 Title Screen.vgm

And, Party Palace Act 1!



Route 1 shown

P.S. I'm looking for some people that are interested in testing my hack for bugs and other things. If you are interested, email me at bebop626@gmail.com and I'll get back to you with more info.

 

Not bad, but I'd have to say that bumper section needs to be changed as it is nothing but frustrating to the player, and in the end you didn't even take the intended route by going over the section.

 

While Im not to big on hacks overusing the sonineko songs nowadays, The rest of the level itself seems decent enough so far, though I can see that some parts are still unfinished. I also have to agree with ferggy about those set of bumpers near the beginning of the stage. it would just be an annoyance as the player would just be stuck in them bouncing all over the place. I would suggest maybe Adding some floating platforms in it's place or something. as for your other two smps ports, they don't sound very good to me. if anything seeing as these are from both S3 and S3D, you could've just used Valleybells' S3K to S1 SMPS Converter (Also supports S3D) and then used his optimizer tool to fix any other problems to it. unless this is still unfinished, the palette as well, specifically the Background needs some work. well that's about all I have to say for this.