Random hack/Mini project thread

Everyone makes mistakes, but it's our duty to learn something from them.

What out, or else people will stop helping by pointing your bad behaviors, and they'll just ignore you.
This might lead to something really bad for ya.

 

Yet another random little experimental rom I whipped up. This ones a bit special to me though; combining the code from my previous topdown/overworld player code with the engine knowledge I got while making the mario hack, I actually have a somewhat useable basis for a feature that could appear in a future rom hack.

As is, it's a very incomplete and very quickly slapped together tribute to a game I consider to be a true work of art.

Download

Normally I'd be against releasing something as incomplete and potential filled as this, but I probably have much better things I could be working on...

 

It's a great start so far!

Don't lose inspiration.

 

Ok so... The music is creepy, the controls feel very sluggish, and I died randomly? I have so many questions...

Oh also:

 

It's heavily unfinished and unpolished, yeah. There's likely loads of quirks from the original engine that could be ironed out. And it uses assets from Yume Nikki, a surreal and dark game.

This is more of an unfinished tech demo if anything, I released it so I could stop devoting time to it. Might go back to it if I feel like it, but I'm currently on a roll with my other project.

 

In mid 2018, Before @Aier helped me to overcome the torturing challenge of porting "Sonic 2 Clone driver by myself", I asked a young friend to... port S3 one.
And also, I were FAR less hyped to make a Sonic hack, and this is the result.
this is my first Sonic hack, and AKIRASONIC is my second one.

green means fast routes, the orange question marks means secret in surroundings, white squares are places that connects routes, pink means place where I regret making, red are unfinished stuff...
and last but not least, purple is a PUZZLE! I bet you can reach those impossible monitors!
btw, the rest of the zone is... just EHZ with some messed up chunks.



I made this, based in what I like, and how I play Sonic.
and because of that, the level layout is also HEAVILY based around exploration.
There's also some fast parts, but overall, everything is very tricky to do.
In contrast though, with enough ability, you can do this for example.



another point, is that I LOVE SCD astonishing level art, so I tried to replicate It's fanciness.





The only con, is that some visuals looks kinda polluted.
Also, about those marked grass from the last pic... DON'T STEP ON THEM! you cant. ( T-T)
It seems that they have collision, but, no.

anyway, I hope you'll have fun playing it! ^u^

here's the boi. Megalo's unfinished hack.bin

 

Was this an accident, or did you put up an unbreakable wall on purpose?

Other than that, I liked your hack beta, the palette is good, the level layout is good, and so on.

Keep working on your hack to make it 100% complete, or get in your way.

 

Well! I am quite literally surprised!

Now, I am keeping in mind this is an incomplete product, the gameplay aspect does have its negative moments, but compared to what I've played it doesn't fair too badly, my main complaint would be the enemy placements are such that I crash into them without notice (i.e. what we call a "dick move"), but that aside, the layouts themselves do feel fresh and open encouraging quite a bit of exploration! It feels like quite a large level too for what little of it there was, and I do appreciate the visual connections, the way that the chunks never really seem to be out of place, there's quite a nice flow to it visually, objects are placed visually in right locations, and while the indoor sections do feel a little cluttered, they do give a very nice indoor/cave feeling which doesn't feel like that boring EHZ/HTZ indoor section. To further the exploration idea, you've created puzzle layouts within the level, while this has been done mildly before, I like that you've established it as a major part of the game whilst having it not be essential to do.

I love the use of the bush as foliage and growing moss/plant life! I am so surprised at how new you can make a level look without modifying any tiles, just blocks and chunks, most of the time it comes out shitty when someone attempts it, yours does feel pretty well arranged bar the obvious clashing of those bushes and waterfalls (but you've mentioned you're well aware of that, so I consider it an incomplete thing). The visuals invoke feeling to me, and I think that's important. You can make the best graphics in the world, but they don't mean anything if no-one gets any sort of "feeling" from it (I'm starting to sound like those snooty art critics who talk shit now).

Really, you should go back to this! Fix up those minor annoyances, sort out some of the clashing, etc, and make it into a proper project and expand upon more levels. I can really see this as being one of the few hacks that's actually fun and enjoyable to play, rather than being casually gimmicky or whatever. Even if you just get EHZ both acts fixed up for the hacking contest and calling it a demo, I think that would be a brilliant start! Do consider it...

 

Yo @DevCion , I mentioned that the rest of the zone is a glitchy EHZ, right?
Well then, this part is one of the chunks of the zone that I reused to make a new one.
the chunk is right here!


Hey @MarkeyJester , thanks for your words man, you actually pointed out everything I was focused on, I'm so glad that the visuals is looking so impressive for you!
( TuT)
Also, what's your opinion about the fast routes? Did I succeed at making a nice balance between fast pace and exploration? tell me more!
Again, I took some inspiration from Sonic CD. I love how gigantic the zones are, and how varied is the level art and the layouts.

Anyway, unfortunately, you will never see this project being finished. I have to spare some time in order to take care of my second project, and other stuff of my personal life.
But, you will surely see EVERY good aspect in this project, being GREATLY expanded in AKIRASONIC! Here's an example of the art variety, being seen in my newest project.

 

Here's something I've been slowly working on for some time now:
Tropical Tides Zone

New-ish art, new-ish music and new layouts.

Download~

Credits:
Stealth - SonED2
MainMemory - SonLVL
Xenowhirl - SonMapEd
ValleyBell - mid2smps, SMPS Converter and SMPS research pack
vladikcomper - MegaPCM

 

@Electroball - Nice demo! I really liked the usage of the recycled art and ported songs! The DAC samples also blended in with the ported songs really well. If there is one thing for me to criticize, it would be the over usage of spikes and some of the hazard placements. I think this demo had way too many spikes, I would suggest to tone down the amount of them. Also there was a couple of instances where a trail of rings lead me to danger or a spike-pit that I wasn't able to get out of.



Aside from that, this was a fun mini hack, and it's great to see you come back to hack after such a long time, EB!

 

The level design is all over the place. It's a bit confusing to navigate and it has way too many spikes and enemy placement in very tight spaces, and overall was pretty frustrating to play through. And also that death pit Jdpense mentioned. The act 1 music is kinda generic with the stock mid2smps FM patches, but it's okay. The art is just Tidal Tempest, but with a very brown palette. The background blends way too much in with the foreground. It'd probably be best to either give the background a different color or at least make it darker.

 

@Electroball - To be quite honest, I didn't enjoy this at all, and really couldn't be bothered to actually finish it. The level design is too cramped and the enemy placement just seems to be quite dickish at times.. especially with all of these spikes being in this zone. There's just an overabundance of spikes, whether it be the labyrinth moving one or the base game general one, there's just too much. I honestly doubt this whole zone can be finished without even getting hurt once in any act.

As for art, I feel like the foreground and background seems to be clashing a bit. I would recommend making the background slightly darker to emphasize it's in the background. I also find the background style clashing with the foreground style, the foreground is very detailed while the background is not detailed enough to fit... but then again that's pretty much Tidal Tempest's fault.

For the music, Act 1 with Aqua Man from Mega Man 8 fits well but it seems to be using the base presets from mid2smps which honestly hinders the quality a bit. Act 2, I don't really know the original to compare it with (it sounds more like a straight smps to smps conversion). Act 3, well.. it's Ristar. A pretty popular choice for this type of zone. Can't really say anything else about that.

 

Well, this hack for me is easy and hard, it has medium difficulty, SMPS more or less

I liked the hack more or less, even though it exploited the inner aquatic parts more.

Besides having only 3 acts, and 1 zone, it's a good start for your hack.

we can say that it is a "more or less" modification

 

@Electroball I liked it... but not too much. The DAC samples were a nice catch to the music. The background seems compatible with the foreground although its color does confuse us a little bit (perhaps it needs to be darkened a little more?). I felt the original touch on the art even it using pieces of existing art, because you mixed it very well. The foreground pieces with rings around it gave it a even better feel. As for the music... Hm... I liked the Mega Man 8 song... it's a very catchy tune which can easily fit to any kind of water level in Sonic hacks. Ancient Mound (from Golden Axe 3) is half acceptable, because it doesn't fit to the style of mystic cavern your level has. This song's melodies really have a nice touch, but not too much. Ironically, this makes me remember I used it in Sonic 1 Harder Levels in one of my cavern levels, but my art was more focused in some kind of crystal cavern filled with jewels everywere, so that's why the song seems to fit more for some reason. Ristar's Undertow 2 was already expected... almost everyone who port songs straight from other Genesis games uses it in water levels of Sonic hacks. I also didn't like how its percussion was adapted. There are many missing stuff that I can't understand why weren't ported, although I know how hard is to port songs from Ristar due to the dual PCM the game originally has. As for the level design it's pretty good, but not at all. I lost a countless number of lives due to certain traps I wasn't able to see in time, such as the platforms that rises and smash us into the ceiling and some pits with unexpected spikes below. It was a pleasible experience, but it needs a lot more changes to make it less frustrating. I appreciate your effort on it, especially because I know how fun is to edit Labyrinth Zone. You did a pretty nice job. It can be improved a little, but it's a pretty interesting mix of pieces taken from other levels. I'm sure you will think about the music and I'm sure you'll do it even better the next time.

@MEGALOMANIA I like the way you do your stuff, but, brown again? Well... I really like the constant feeling of maze this level has, but I felt lack of speed in most parts and some unexpected "bottomless" pits makes me feel stressed while playing the level. I also don't think the Sonic 3's song fits to the art. A better song could have been used on it. The level also seems unfinished in most sections. It's a pretty interesting try, but doesn't went well for certain reasons.

 

@EMK-20218 It's brown again because, I think both projects are, kinda the same. :V
It's just AKIRASONIC but with EHZ assets and without any new art.
About the bottomless pits... there's only two of them in the level layout.
The first one was made, because the puzzle is indeed hard.
As I said before, everything is tricky, because I played a lot of Sonic hacks, so I have more ability to control momentum and direction.
I choose a S3 song, because at that time, I didn't know NOTHING about porting music. Imagine like, everything that is easy for you, being extremely hard for me.
and i think no one will understand my pain of trying to port that god damn clone driver.

This project is also unfinished as hell, there's like, 30% of the level layout that I want to change or remove.

aside from your critics, (which I don't have anything against) I really like that the layout gave you a feel of maze! and, could you talk more about the "lack of speed"?

 

I was talking about speed sections. The sections where you can go fast without interrupts when Sonic can go being sent from a gimmick to the other one in high speed. I mean that your layout lacks speed sections. I like sections that require the calculations and concentration from the player to pass through. I just think that in Sonic games this must be balanced in order to not to result in a kind of a frustrating experience.

 

So, that 1st (really early) beta of my hack (Catswell's Edition) where you can go through first act of Ancient Forest. There are still can be some bugs (included title screen), so I sorry for this thing.
I released that because I really want to know my level design possibilities and how I need to continue building of levels.
Criticize me as you can.

MegaPCM - vladikcomper
Music ports - XBRO
Consultation in the graphics - mr.cat
Boss (if you use level select code) - TheBlad768

 

Well, since you asked for it...


I honestly think the level design needs work.

First off, those Motorbug placements are pretty bad. They're mostly placed in spots where you're generally running at a high speed, and are impossible to react to. I played through the level multiple times and I still got hit by them.

Second, the level can basically be beaten by holding right the entire time and jumping occasionally. There's literally zero platforming unless you try to take the upper path. Sonic games are always supposed to have a nice blend of platforming and speed sections. It isn't good when I can literally skip every platforming section in your level.

Third, while I do like the fact that there are multiple paths, why would you even bother taking the higher path over the lower one? It's clearly much slower and much harder than the lower half. Sonic games usually do have the one path be harder, but as a trade-off, it's usually also the faster route. So you have two options, play it safe and pick the slower path, or risk it and pick the faster path.

So keep all these points in your mind when you create your next level. If you're still struggling, you could also take a look at the original GHZ layouts. While not perfect by any means, they are a good basis for a good Sonic level.


But enough of that.

On the positive side, those are some very nice level grafix! I'm honestly looking forward to what you do with the rest of the zones in the game. Keep it up!

 

@Catswell - Excellent hack so far, I'm really loving the art to this! However, I think the level layout could a few adjusts, like the badnik placements, as SMS Alfredo stated previously. I also think the boss at the end of act 3 was a really cool concept, but there are a couple of things about this boss I would like to point out.

Spoiler: Boss Fight

First, I think the number of explosions from the spikes that Eggman fires should be reduced a little, since it seems it kinda exceeds the sprite limit for the Genesis.

Secondly, there was that one phase where the spikes were shooting upwards, and I found it hard to dodge the spikes since I wasn't able to tell where the spikes were coming from and I had very little time to react. Maybe the phase could use a warning sign before the spikes shoot upwards.

Those criticisms aside, looking forward to where this project goes!