General Screenshot/Movie Thread

Varion, we've known each other for years. This is something I have to say, and I'm sorry if it's painful or if it hurts. I don't think it will because we're friends and I'm pretty sure you'll understand hearing it from me.

You started working on CybOut not long after we met. I remember back when the Nick Arcade beta was discovered that you and I picked through it in binary before it was ever assembled. It was then that I knew you were special. You had a knack for hacking that most people don't have. You are on the same level as Stealth, Markey Jester, Clownacy, etc.

What happens, however, is that you can't follow through. You keep changing the game over and over and over, generally on the engine level, to the point where you have essentially created your own engine. The reason that it's 11 years since you started work on the hack and you haven't completed a single level is because you can't create something before tearing it down and starting over. If you keep optimising something, it will never get completed.

This is a type of feature creep and it has killed a number of games. The development of the indie game, Fez, ran into similar issues as CybOut. The guy kept optimising, doing things better, and it seemed as though it would wind up in a hiatus. People started getting frustrated and reacting the same as they're reacting to you right now. That was when he finally decided that he had enough. He finally said "I'm going to outline what it is I'm going to do. If something comes along that's an improvement, I'll do that in the sequel, but what I have here is what I am going to do an no more." Fez was finally released, btw.

CybOut can be as well. You're really smart and if you just stick to it, to a single idea, you'll blow everyone's socks off. I know this for a fact. If you want help, I'm here. I'd be happy to cobble together some art for you or do level designs. Just let me know. The point is, however, that you need to stop starting over.

TL;DR -- Varion, you're smart. Stop tinkering around and starting over. If you wrote down your ideas and stuck to them to the very end and didn't keep adding on, restarting, or optimising, then you could have a badass game out by the next contest!

 

Thank you for the very respectable opinion my old friend . I agree I've had a lot of ups and downs, I've also had a lot of life issues stop me from consistently working on it. The games Migrated to Chaotix while I am flushing some retarded code out of Chaotix and implementing better control like S3K has i've actually got a level in the works. Jade Jungle has most of it's art like Radon Factory does. It's a matter of implementation that is still being worked on, Chaotix not originally having a lives system is the reason you don't see the Life counter, The HUD works differently cause it was custom written in a rush for last years contest and I have yet to activate Chaotix's original HUD system, Mind everybody I am still also very much disassembling both Chaotix and S3K Actively as I work on this project, So it's not like I can just easily use a disassembly and make it work. No I have to finish bits and pieces, Do reverse engineering and ensure everything is properly linked and working. It takes time, 32X and Especially Chaotix is uncharted territory for most. The good news? I will be getting the game done. When? I am not fully certain. Life does take priority as I am trying to settle down now and have stable living and income. This is a mere hobby, A hobby I completely enjoy doing and choose to continue to do. I am thankful for all those who are supportive of me and even to those who give me the harsh criticism I need, I respect that as sometimes my head is in my ass. I just ask for everybody to bear with me while I work hard to keep this project alive, Not just for myself, but for all of you aswell.

 

So I didn't have the full story, I see. Life is definitely a reason that things would slow down. I've disappeared from the community for years at a time because of life (heroin addiction specifically), and it can drastically affect what you're doing and trying to accomplish. I have at least two hacks and a utility on hiatus (thankfully only one of them, Overlooked, is known to the community), so I know how it goes. Chaotix is, indeed, fairly new territory and S3K is still not as accessible for many people.

Don't worry about it. This community will be here for the foreseeable future. Life comes first. It's not like you make money from hacking Sonic games.

Unless you're a badass like me.

Nah, just kidding... I just mooch of my wife these days ;-)

 

I'll go ahead and tl;dr my question, why?

Varion, it's great you're working on this super uber awesome engine, but why? No seriously, it's been 11 years. Stop trying to perfect an engine and get on with the game part of the game, you know? I mean, it's great it runs on the 32x, but is there an actual game? That's the point I'm trying to make. Your engine could literally cure cancer, but if there is no game made with it, who gives a shit?

You literally have a boss, though it is rather buggy and unfair, that is pretty fucking good, you have some decent level assets, you have art assets made by SonicBoom. Focus on making a game, not an engine. I sound harsh, but only because I find it tiring that you keep restarting from scratch. I want to see a playable game, an actual playable game, not a buggy mess you hash together within a month or two. It's been 11 years, and life gets in the way for everybody, but eventually you gotta focus and get your shit together.

 

Sorry to break the flow here, guys but...

I now have an even worse BG but a better Sonic sprite and huh...
Wait is that a Buzz Bomber?

 

New Special Stage (please ignore the stretched 16:9 aspect, the sound quality loss and the lags)
Featured stuff (taken from the video's description):
- Special Stage 5 with a snow fall effect
- Special Stage has proper palette cycle on the foreground blocks
- Palette for the other related objects are now corrected
- Proper effect of movement in the background clouds
- Background palette is now fixed

Note that some snow flocks passes behind the foreground and others passes in front of everything including Sonic

 

Extremely early PoC, but I thought it's close enough to presentable "on the side."

 

Whoa, Green Hill in Melee?
Are you gonna add the characters running in the bg loop?
Also, even tho it's still an early PoC, I suggest you to lighten the colors a bit\

 

Random S3 Art Editing...

 

Featuring everybody's favorite character, Blue Knuckles!
It looks a bit eye-straining and kind of busy,like in the..."houses"? Also, I see lot's of pillow shading, I'd suggest you to give a
pattern to this level unless this is only a placeholder

 

The less bizarre thing.


The fully bizarre thing.

 

Take the second one, it's funny xD

 

Why you don't put the SEGA sound, and then it cuts when the falling sound appears?

 

i love the second one, it's something original and new

 

The grass was made possible thanks to Derzocker's Grass Tutorial.

Edit: There are still some things I have to fix: I need to add some chunks that connect the sand and grass, make the slopes more naturally curving, and add more variation in the ground under where the grass is. I'm also working on adding a rippling water effect in the background similar to in EHZ.

 

Sonic should have a lighter palette imo, it's a bit too dark even for Sonic 06 standards.
As for the tileset, it's good, but it clashes with the background a lot.

 

Is it just me, or you reduced shading on it? If so, i wouldn't recommend it because sonic 3 already had a weak shading, and reducing it to 2 blue colors isn't really a good idea.

As for the level, it's pretty nice, but the mountain looks a little out of place. I'm looking forward to this tho, this has a lot of potential from an artistic point of view.

 

I put the image on paint and I discovered that yes, that Sonic sprite only has 2 colors, and I'm going to echo what you said, it looks dull...
As for the mountains, aside from the fact that they clash a lot, I'm pretty sure those green pixels on them are supposed to be trees, I'd also suggest to change the ground tiles to fit the level (I'd suggest to lighten up the lightest shade of grass, it blends in too much with the mid-level grass).

 

Noice, now the background looks like Wave Ocean as well.
However, I do have a suggestion: Replace the EHZ tileset with the beach tileset from Sonic Advance in order to make it looks completely like Wave Ocean. I definitely know that's possible because Sonic 2 Recreation already managed to pull that off. Just saying.
Likewise, there are other tileset suggestions:
*Dusty Desert actually looks just fine already, same with Aquatic Base
*Crisis City already has the perfect background, but please, replace the stock Spring Yard tileset with something that resembles a destroyed city. The first three MegaMan X games should be helpful, especially since they do not exceed any color limits.
*Kindgom Valley looks fine as well tileset-wise, but I think it definitely needs a background that screams Kingdom Valley. Also, unrelated to tilesets, but I will cry if Kingdom Valley will not have the eagle ride.
*Tropical Jungle already looked fine in the older demo (sorry, was using cheat codes to enter other levels), but I do wonder how it looks like now.
*Also, since there already exists tutorials for adding new zones in Sonic 1 that do not replace any old zones, I would shit my pants if you would also include White Acropolis, Flame Core and Radical Train...okay, maybe not Radical Train, because fuck that level. But I would still shit my pants for Flame Core and especially White Acropolis.

 

I tried to follow DerZocker's tutorial on how to make grass, and I think it came fine.
What do you think?