This is a repost/archival thread of Sonic Sunventure's SHC entry page. EDIT: The final release of this game has come out. Please see the bottom post in this thread for the download. Venture through time! The evil Dr. Robotnik has been meddling with time itself! In order to stop him and prevent a bad future for South Island, Sonic must travel through time and stop the Doctor's evil schemes! Featuring 9 acts filled with exploration, platforming, and speed, take control of Sonic to put an end to Dr. Robotnik's plot! Controls: A, B, C = Jump A, B, C (During Spring animation) = Air Curl Options: The options menu contains several different color palettes you can use for Sonic, as well as an option to disable Sonic CD's extended camera. Defualt: Sonic's normal palette. Original: Sonic's palette from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) and Sonic CD. Classic: Sonic's palette from the first demo of Sonic Sunventure. Midnight: Based on Sonic's palette from the Sonic 1 version of C2 Sonic. Vibrant: Based on Sonic's palette from the Sonic 2 version of C2 Sonic Crackers: Based on Sonic's palette from Sonic Crackers/Sonic Clackers. Red Hot: Sonic with red fur instead of blue. Tides: Based on Ecco's palette from Ecco: The Tides of Time. Cringe: Based on Sonic's palette from Sonic Mania. Darker: Based on the colors of Shadow the Hedgehog. (C2 Sonic was the previous hack I worked on for context. Also, the Mania palette is called cringe because I don't like Mania's Sonic palette, not because I think Mania is cringe [I don't]). Monitors: Sonic - Gives an extra life. Speed Shoes - Increases Sonic's speed for a short period of time. Ring - Gives 10 rings. Invincibility - Makes Sonic invincible for a short period of time. Eggman - Hurts Sonic. Emerald - Grants a Chaos Emerald at the end of the act. Saves at checkpoints. Silver Ring - Gives 20 rings. Blue Shield - Gives a blue shield that protects against electrical hazards. Red Shield - Gives a red shield that grants immunity from fire hazards and can withstand two hits. Silver Shield - Gives a silver shield that grants immunity from spikes, metallic hazards, and select enemies. Gold Shield - Grants a shield that attracts rings and can withstand two hits. Also gives 35 rings. Hidden one per act. Track list: Title Screen - Title Screen (Socket) Options - Deposit Coins (Battle Mania Daiinjou) Green Hill Act 1 - Grass Land Day (Burning Force) Green Hill Act 2 - Grass Land Night (Burning Force) Green Hill Act 3 - Seaside Front (Air Buster/Aero Blasters) Future Bay Act 1 - Bay Yard (Burning Force) Future Bay Act 2 - Bay Yard (Burning Force) + Bay of Scattered Song (Ecco Jr.) Scrap Ruins Act 1 - Volcano Valley Act 1 (Sonic 3D Blast) Scrap Ruins Act 2 - Volcano Valley Act 2 (Sonic 3D Blast) Scrap Ruins Act 3 - Rusty Ruins Zone Act 2 (Sonic 3D Blast) Robotic Ruin Zone - Big Water (Ecco: The Tides of Time) Boss - Stage 1 Boss: Triple Eye (Dangerous Seed) Final Boss - Final Boss (Socket) Final Boss Pinch - Final Boss 2 (Air Buster/Aero Blasters) Act Clear - Level Clear (Socket) Boss Clear - Intermission (Raiden Trad) Speed Shoes - Speed Shoes (Sonic CD US) Invincibility - Surging Power (Knuckles' Chaotix) Ending - Tribute (Knuckles' Chaotix) Game Over - Game Over (Whip Rush) Time Over - Broken Oath (Granada) Extra Life - Stage Clear (Burning Force) Continue - Continue (Arcus Odyssey) Sound Test 89 (Special Stage) - Special Zone 1 - Lights (Socket) Credits DeltaWooloo - Coding, Music, SFX porting, Testing ProjectFM - Coding TheInvisibleSun - Coding, Music Djohe - Help porting Sonic 2's ObjD9 MrJoker27 Productions - Music Naoto - CD extended camera guide Konrad - Mozzietron enemy ported to sonic Inferno - Air Roll guide Yami - After-image object vladikcomper - Advanced error handler Flamewing - Flamewing's DMA transfer Giovanni - Testing Sonic CD, Knuckles' Chaotix: Various art, Ecco 1/Ecco 2: Text, various art. Addendum There are some things I should probably address using this post. -There are a few somewhat minor collision issues throughout the hack (With chunks and the water in Future Bay). They'll be fixed for the next (and likely final) release. - I didn't have enough time to finish Future Bay Act 3's layout so it will be in the next release. - I am very much looking for people with coding knowledge and music knowledge to help out for the next release of this hack, as there are more features I'd like to have in the game but couldn't due to lack of coding skill. If interest is high enough I'd be willing to make a sunventure discord server Spoiler: future feature ideas - Unlockable Super Sonic after beating the game with all emeralds (would save) - Metal Sonic boss - Rising lava section at the end of Scrap Ruins 1 - Cutscenes - Custom background scrolling with more than 256 Y - foreground object - special stage results emeralds displaying during act results - level specific gimmicks - more music
Absolutely amazing! The level art feels like a good merge of Sonic CD's design with Sonic 3, while the gameplay is designed with momentum and replayability in mind. I would make the chaos emerald locations more secretive, since I finished my first run and got all of the monitors in each act.
I am so incredibly humbled to have come in third, let alone have gotten any trophies at all. I had hoped for first, but I never really had a chance against Sonic & Johnny and SHIMA. They outclass me with their technical prowess and unique content and they're great hacks in their own right, they deserved to win. I do have quite a lot to say so this is gonna be a rather long one. Sunventure almost didn't make it to the hacking contest, and I was almost about to throw out the hack entirely out of frustration, not to mention how last minute a lot of additions were (Future Bay 1 & 2 were made in under a week), so that fact that I came in third despite everything is something. Becoming popular was never a goal of mine when I created Sunventure, and it never will be. In the end, all I ever really want Sunventure to be is a fun, replayable game that I can play when I want more classic Sonic action (which is very often). I should also probably address the lack of spindash and other moves... again. Both the spindash and peelout are in the game, fully functional, but they'll remain disabled and I'm not adding an option to turn them back on (and if I did the spindash would be like the chaotix spindash and suck balls). This is because I want to keep the controls simple and have the focus be on using momentum to your advantage. I admit the levels in the current build aren't built around this as well as they could be but they will be in the future. I want to design the game to be more welcoming to first time players and have the player able to understand the game through gameplay alone, but that doesn't mean I'll exclude challenge for experienced players. Sometime soon I'll be releasing an Rev02A update that fixes a lot of the collision issues, level design issues, bugs with the Future Bay water, limits emerald monitors to one per act, adds some new stuff, and more sprite changes (I didn't finish the title screen sprites for example). Last year, I gave it my all and came out with nothing but valuable feedback. This year, I brought my C+ game and managed to snag some trophies. Next year, I'll be bringing my A game, and whether I'll win anything or not doesn't really matter to me.
4 months later and I think an update is due on the hack's progress, since I had planned for a rev02A but plans have since changed and didn't want to leave everyone in the dark. I haven't been terribly motivated to work on the hack since SHC and have made little progress. I still have yet to finish Future Bay's art overhaul (those chunks I made for the '22 build sucked), super sonic is implemented but still in an unfinished state, and there's still a lot more I have to do before it's ready for the next (and final) release. The scope of Sunventure has increase significantly since its initial inception, from simply being me making sunset palettes in Sonic 1 with only 2 planned zones, to now where my current plans will have me use all 6 of sonic 1's stages (and my dream "never happening unless someone helps me with the coding" ideas of having short cutscenes, custom bosses, custom scrolling, etc.) I really like the ideas I've come up, with but fear I might have to cut the ones that require more coding than I'm capable of (aka anything remotely complicated). This isn't meant to be advertisement for help (though I have heavily considered doing one of those in the near future). I have done a bunch of bug fixing and listened to the amazing feedback from the contest and have made some fixes: -Emerald monitors are now only one per zone and have better hiding spots. -Fixed many collision issues (including the SRZ3 collision issue, but I have a dream "never happening unless someone helps me with the coding" idea of referencing that). -Water tag object in furture bay has had a rework and will function better. -Splats has been removed from the scrap ruins enemy table. -Scrap Ruins 3 has been made a little more challenging (and I fixed the gray shield monitor in the spikes they're slightly lower now). -Gold shield now gives the 3d blast homing attack instead of 35 rings and 2 hits. -Graphical improvements -Removed the "Cringe" palette (yes, I hate sonic mania's sonic palette that much). I could have kept it and just renamed it to "mania" instead but have I mentioned I dislike mania's sonic palette yet? -Extended GHZ2 and SRZ2. -Minor level design changes to Green Hill 1, Scrap Ruins 1, and I added a door to Robotic Abyss that prevents you from looping around the level after pressing the switch you need to beat the level like I was about to do for the '22 build but couldn't get it to work in time for the contest. -I haven't yet but I do plan on extending GHZ3 as well. Also, the entirety of Future Bay is getting a level design change (I'm keeping the tubes though). If you have any other critiques or have found a bug/oversight with my hack that hasn't already been addressed the lack of spindash is not an oversight, or if you just want to let me know what you liked about the hack, I'd be very glad to hear it. On a side note we need more people reviewing rom hacks because right now it's basically just me. Also, yes, I will be adding more Burning Force and Socket music. oh, and have some a complimentary new zone preview with placeholder art that I definitely didn't post on my twitter which you can definitely follow I should stop making so many threads for this hack there's like four of them
I was going to make a post lamenting about how my passion for this project has run out and I was likely going to put it on indefinite hiatus, but I might as well try the hacking equivalent of a ransom note instead.
Update: Hack is dead. I've stopped development, and can't see myself starting again any time in the future. If you want to know why, read the essay below. Development was arduous and frustrating, and all my passion for the project is gone. I tried in earnest to kick start development back, and some other people were interested, and I thank them for it. However, I didn't really do much after it. Progress stagnated, and I moved on to focus on other things. At the time, I summed my lack of passion for the progress being laziness, but in retrospect I think it was just burnout. I didn't work on the hack much months after SHC'22, in start contrast to the previous year where the contest invigorated me to work on the hack more. Admittedly, I feel kinda bad about abandoning Sunventure with the last release being a middling, unfinished hack made by some amateur that lucked its way into third place because there was a lack of any better hacks that year Sonic 1: Score Rush should have gotten more appreciation that year. I'd be ignorant to ignore the positives that the hack had, but the overall game was disappointingly lacking in things that should have been there, and the hack still came in third regardless. I'm not going to relinquish my trophy or anything like that, I couldn't even do it if I wanted to - I simply feel like I didn't really deserve to come in third. The hack seems to have left an overall middling impact after the contest ended, which annoys me but I suppose is reflective on the middling content the game offers. I started Sunventure solely as a learning experience, with no plan or ideas to guide me, which in retrospect may have been what ultimately killed my passion for the project. At multiple points in development I became frustrated with the current direction of the hack and wanted to quit. A few times I was super close to calling development off, but was convinced against it. This time I'm not frustrated, just tired. While I was working on the hack I was inspired by those simple "art and level design" hacks of Sonic 1 from back in the day. I suppose it's only fitting that it'll have the same sendoff as those hacks: Unceremoniously killed by its creator. As a learning experience, Sonic Sunventure has been an invaluable asset. I've learned a lot about hacking while working on this hack, and have grown as a person and as a game developer alongside the project. As a creative project, it thoroughly disappoints me. It had the potential to be a great hack, but due to my own flaws it never made it there. I don't expect people to really care that much about it ending either, nor do I expect anyone to want to finish this fuckass project. The entire reason I got so far with it is because I didn't want to add another unfinished hack with wasted potential to my ever growing rom hack graveyard. Whether that was a mistake or not is for you to decide, but I'm doing the right thing for me by killing it now (actually, I killed it months ago but am only writing this post now). The thing about the hack that disappoints me the most is I could have done so much better. Not just now, but a whole year ago when I was working on it for the contest. I had Sonitroid on the backburner, a hack that has much more potential than Sunventure ever had, and I didn't focus on it much because Sunventure was eating my time. I have plenty of ideas for Sonic rom hacks that I currently lack the programming and art ability to create to their full potential. If the interest is there (and maybe even for pursuing some of them? I feel like I have the ability to lead a group project) I could make a post talking about my various Sonic game ideas, most of them are fairly fleshed out. I've been resuming work on Sonitroid, and while I haven't been as motivated to hack as I have been previously, I do intend to finish the hack. I guess where one hack ends, another begins. Goodbye, Sonic Sunventure. I'm not gonna miss you, but you've helped me get this far - and for that I am grateful.
Pretty sad that this hack is dead. It was very funny. I like how it looks, I like how it sounds. It was one of best shc 2022 hacks, imo. Anyway, good luck to you and your future hacks. I hope they will be amazing as this creation. Thank you for everything you did. You're cool.
Today's a good day for a funeral. I still stand by what I said in my last post. I really had no intention to give any kind of final service to this hack, but I suppose its vengeful spirit had other ideas. One night last week, I was about to put my Sunventure folder in my backup archive (mostly a graveyard containing the remains of projects I've abandoned) when a ghastly revelation hit me: by killing Sunventure, I'm throwing away all the genuine improvements I made to the hack after SHC'22, and its legacy of my hacking failures would haunt me for as long as I still live. So I dug up its broken, unfinished corpse of a disassembly and began working to finally finish what I started years ago. When I originally started on this hack, I only set out to design two levels (Green Hill and Marble), and that'd be it for the hack. Evidently it didn't work out that way as my ideas started to balloon into making a fully fledged hack out of what was, for all intents and purposes, a practice hack. It's funny how this final release fulfills my original vision for the hack - and while it took me two years to get back to about where I started, I'm not quite the same person I was two years ago. I would release the source code for this hack, but in its current state I'd rather not, though I do plan on releasing the source code of all finished hacks I do in the future. Even though I haven't done much for this community, this community has done so much for me, and I feel I should do what I can to give back. It's about time I put this hack to rest. My last post was the wake, and today's the funeral. Don't worry though, everyone's invited! Tickets are free, and the funeral's open casket to boot gotta put the fun in funeral somewhere. Tonight I'll sleep easy knowing that I can definitively close the book on the long and agonizing story of the development of Sonic Sunventure. And may its soul finally rest in peace. Spoiler: Rev. 02 Patch Notes Green Hill and Scrap Ruins, each with 3 complete acts. One act of Robotic Abyss and Final Zone. All playable levels have received level design and palette changes. Blue shield now attracts rings and the Gold shield now works like it did in Sonic 3D blast (as was originally intended). The "cringe"/Sonic Mania palette has been replaced with a new palette. The game now saves your selected options in SRAM (and the options menu has an actual background). Sonic can now air curl at any time, not just on a spring as was previously the case. The options, boss, and final boss pinch tracks have been replaced. Known issues: Robotic Abyss' doors have had a tendency to break on certain emulators. I've never run into any issues on more accurate emulation like BizHawk, BlastEM, etc, or on real hardware, but if you're running the game on Fusion or Gens be keep that in mind. Collected Chaos Emeralds aren't reset upon completing the game and starting a new game (The data is cleared when the game is hard reset). Robotic Abyss Zone says act 3 on the title card because I had no idea how to make it use Final Zone's act-less title card mapping (and still don't) Spoiler: Credits inferno - air roll guide luigixhero - sonic cd art test peelout & skid sfx deltawooloo - coding, music and sfx porting projectfm - coding assistance theinvisiblesun - coding naoto - cd extended camera guide konrad - mozzietron ported to sonic 1 yami - after-image object vladikcomper - advanced error handler flamewing - flamewing's DMA transfer valleybell/mrtakmis - grc2mid + socket ports fuzzy - coding testing: deltawooloo, giovanni
