General Information
Belated Sage 2021 epilogue:
And a 1,000 Sonic fans wondered, 'why doesn't Sonic spin jump?' And 995 were heard to have uttered, '@!#?@! inverted mouse controls!?'
In all seriousness, I actually had quite a bit of fun this being my first Sage, so thanks to everyone who gave feedback, posted playthrough videos (some of it was enlightening), and those who put up with all the discord associated with looking for at least one classic sonic move. :)
Posted a small update for posterity, so at least people who find it post Sage will have normal mouse control options if so desired (more details at the bottom update section). See you next Sage!
And a 1,000 Sonic fans wondered, 'why doesn't Sonic spin jump?' And 995 were heard to have uttered, '@!#?@! inverted mouse controls!?'
In all seriousness, I actually had quite a bit of fun this being my first Sage, so thanks to everyone who gave feedback, posted playthrough videos (some of it was enlightening), and those who put up with all the discord associated with looking for at least one classic sonic move. :)
Posted a small update for posterity, so at least people who find it post Sage will have normal mouse control options if so desired (more details at the bottom update section). See you next Sage!
Hello and welcome to my first Sage demo Sonic AM2! Some things are still a little early, but I still wanted to share it and be a part of this year's Sage experience.
Initially inspired by the question of what would a sonic AM2 arcade game be like if Yu Suzuki and friends tried to make a more traditional Sonic inspired arcade outing in the 90's (maybe more like the Top Skater Series), instead of the Sonic the Fighters game we ended up getting.As such I bring you:
You are getting Sonic the Fighter but now it's a platformer vibes...I command you to get AM2 Sonic platformer vibes...
While it's got some of those roots still in place, it kind of evolved in my mind from simple arcade delights to 'what if all the uncles who secretly worked at Nintendo also had a top secret super powerful AM2 home console that could play full on platformers?' (No, don't expect me to explain the brand politics of that statement). Right now it's a bit of combination of the two, and while the demo is just a small contained area, in my mind it lends itself well to a possible full on genesis-era type adventure.
Anyway, on to the basic game details!
You don't need no stink'n analog controller! (In my day we used rocks and we thought that was pretty cool...)
Controls:Currently still learning unreal engine, so more of a showpiece for the lo-fi/hi-res style at present (and a chance to get familiar with the engine really), so a more robust sonic physics engine will have to wait at the moment (it is a future goal I have, but out of scope for this year's SAGE). As it stands, controls are a pretty lack-luster mouse and keyboard setup (w,a,s,d - movement, mouse - camera control, space - jump, ctrl- pause). But after using it during the last couple of months, I think there is still entertainment to be had here once you get use to...err... floaty first person shooter controls for what hopes to be a platformer.
Goals:
Goal one, get to the classic sonic end stage sign! It is not difficult!
Goal two, find and destroy five Eggman projectors ala Sonic CD. Will there be a reward for your efforts? Um......yes, you get to play videogames instead of other existentially taxing things.
Hmm... Is that everything? Almost, I guess the one other thing you should be aware of is....water running.
For those who haven't heard, Sonic still can't swim. So while you can run on the death liquid while your speed is up, if it gets below a certain velocity... well, sonic gives up on life pretty fast. Also running on water gradually slows you down...so keep that in mind as well with your water treading shenanigans. Happy travels!
Media:
More media to make the booth look more professional! Here are the screenshots that would have gotten me pretty excited if I saw them in a Gameplayers or EGM issue back in the day.... (note: screenshots are taken from early version and subject to change)
System Requirements:
??? 64-bit Windows is what it's compiled for, and that's pretty much all I got for ya. You guys will have to help me out with this one. It runs fine on my computer (which has a high mid-grade graphics card), but as far other cards are concerned..... Let me know. O_o I hope it works fine, (I mean the sonic model has as many polygons as PS1 Crash Bandicoot for crying out loud), but again, as this is my first Unreal Engine game, I'm sure I will learn better how to optimize code and graphics as time goes on and who knows what other programing sins are afoot.
Special Thanks:
Sonic Team, Sega of course, but also the entire Sonic Fangame and Mod Community. (multiple assets from Spriters-Resource.com and it sister Sounds-Resource.com we're used). Also props to the developers at Unreal Engine, it's really cool that any person who wants to (and a decent computer) has access to such a robust set of powerful tools. Anyways, enjoy, I had fun, and please let me know what you think!
Build Update History
9-2 - Main update: can choose between normal or inverted controls. 'These aren't the controls people are looking for', but at least you won't have to completely rewire your muscle memory if inverted isn't your default. Can change at anytime in the Left Ctrl pause menu.- Sonic desire to ascend to the heavens has been greatly mitigated. (frequent glitch of sonic not returning to landing pose has been greatly improved)
- The stupid two-ring glitch has been cleaned up (hopefully eradicated). This one irked me the most actually, because, it didn't use to be there and I don't really know what caused it to happen. (I didn't put them there I swear. O_o)
- No zero live glitch on skipping game-over music.
- And a few other small things...that likely broke other things in the process. Oh well, probably more advantageous to work on something else for a few months and come back with fresh eyes I think. So if you find more errors, feel free to report....but it's likely a wrap for this version of the game. Thanks again everyone!
8-22 - Brought to my attention that 100 rings didn't give you an extra life, I was really hoping I didn't actually have 100 rings in the level, but alas he's right, not getting a 1-up for your 100 ring efforts is just not sonic is it? Well no more! Theoretically if you got a million rings it still should give you your extra life at the proper increments (not tested, don't quote). Also added some point rewards to various events (projectors and baddies) and changed the 'press any button' tag, because unintentionally that was a lie...
8-21 - The zingers weren't moving, how didn't I noticed that before? They just kind of stared into their own souls unless you provoked them. Now they stare into their own soles while wandering about a bit like I thought they were when I first uploaded. Also, they're now just a bit more aggressive in general and eggman wants you to take things up a slight notch. Cheers!