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SAGE 2022 - Demo Sonic Kick (Early Alpha Demo)

General Information

:ABOUT:
Sonic Kick is a Sonic fangame inspired by the Advance and Rush series, meant to be the combination of Rush's adrenaline-fueling speed and Advance's momentum-oriented origins, all built from the ground up.

:GAMEPLAY:
Sonic has a few brand new and returning moves to keep the pace going! These include:
-The Dropdash
-Stomping
-Sliding
-The all new Summerkick, Trickjump and multi-functional airdash
-And all others you would come to expect from a sonic game.

But not only does Sonic change, The levels do as well, being built for keeping your momentum as your primary goal with ranks set to match!

:VISUALS:

brhyu.gif

endScreen.gif

Sonic Kick Boasts a unique OlliOlli-inspired artstyle for it's UI, with additions to the classic Advance artstyle for it to stand out without alienation getting involved.

Comments

The slide move doesn't seem to be working as the tutorial shows it, I can't progress past that. I'm pressing Action 2 while moving, and Sonic does the little flip thing, no sliding. Am I doing something wrong?
 
The slide move doesn't seem to be working as the tutorial shows it, I can't progress past that. I'm pressing Action 2 while moving, and Sonic does the little flip thing, no sliding. Am I doing something wrong?
Heya, no idea what's happening here, have seen someone else with controller issues, might be a steam driver issue. Would love to hear what controller or keyboard you were using to play the game!
 
Heya, no idea what's happening here, have seen someone else with controller issues, might be a steam driver issue. Would love to hear what controller or keyboard you were using to play the game!
buttons might be bound wrong, actually, PC controls says both "Ctrl" and "P" should let me slide but only "Ctrl" works, and "P" also does the flip thingy
 
Please make controls rebindable or change the keyboard binds around at least moving with wasd while also having to slide/stomp with ctrl is not fun

also most of the actions seem to make Sonic face right and that makes him really awkward to control

though I do have to say, once you get Sonic to move, he moves really well, I really like that high unroll jump move, whatever it's called
 
Please make controls rebindable or change the keyboard binds around at least moving with wasd while also having to slide/stomp with ctrl is not fun

also most of the actions seem to make Sonic face right and that makes him really awkward to control

though I do have to say, once you get Sonic to move, he moves really well, I really like that high unroll jump move, whatever it's called
Rebinding is currently set for SAGE22 V1.1 (likely won't take too long)
New build does have alternate arrow keys though. Hope that should be fine for a bit atleast.

Thanks for the feedback! i'll def see what would work the best for the moves, should be done by V1.0!
 
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Rebinding is currently set for SAGE22 V1.1 (likely won't take too long)
New build does have alternate arrow keys though. Hope that should be fine for a bit atleast.

Thanks for the feedback! i'll def see what would work the best for the moves, should be done by V1.0!
I have yet to download the update but it does sound like there has been improvements, honestly being able to use the arrow keys to move already sounds great, that's really good to know.

Excited for what's to come!
 
I can't beat the kick into jump tutorial, i did high one once on accident but couldn't replicate it
 
This is a really cool idea, but my fucking GOD is it frustrating to play. Sonic's momentum is WAY too heavy, feels like you're trying to drive a Sonic shaped truck. In addition, the tutorial signs are borderline indecipherable, I straight up couldn't figure out the high jump sign and resorted to using that hidden spring just before that section in order to continue. This could be rad as hell but it needs MAJOR work in the controls and physics department.
 
This is a really cool idea, but my fucking GOD is it frustrating to play. Sonic's momentum is WAY too heavy, feels like you're trying to drive a Sonic shaped truck. In addition, the tutorial signs are borderline indecipherable, I straight up couldn't figure out the high jump sign and resorted to using that hidden spring just before that section in order to continue. This could be rad as hell but it needs MAJOR work in the controls and physics department.
Heya! Thanks for the solid criticism, this stuff genuinely helps a ton!

The billboard of the summerkick/high jump has been updated to be a tad more clear in v1.0, alongside fixing some control issues. (would love to see some ideas on improving the billboard without an overflow of text)

As for the weight, I'll for sure take a look and tweak it a bit in (hopefully) v1.1, primarily with deceleration!
 
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Heya! Thanks for the solid criticism, this stuff genuinely helps a ton!

The billboard of the summerkick/high jump has been updated to be a tad more clear in v1.0, alongside fixing some control issues. (would love to see some ideas on improving the billboard without an overflow of text)

As for the weight, I'll for sure take a look and tweak it a bit in (hopefully) v1.1, primarily with deceleration!
Rad, sorry my phrasing was dickish, and thank you for taking it well. I do look forward to seeing more of this.
 
I really enjoyed the experimental movement mechanics of this demo. I feel like there's a trade off with the game that raises the bar with a higher skill ceiling for understanding and using movement options, in exchange for satisfying and interesting mechanics after the time has been invested to learn them. It's an unenviable task to have to teach the player all of the moves without taking control away from them.

I've got a pitch for a two-button control scheme that might help ease people in a bit easier:
  • Map "Acrobatic" options onto the the X button (leftmost face button)
    • X + :emoji_arrow_right: Forward in the air to Dash forward (Potentially also mapped to no direction pressed as well)
    • X + :emoji_arrow_down: Down in the air to Stomp (as in the current demo, without halting forward momentum)
    • X + :emoji_arrow_up: Up in the air to flip.
    • X on ground to perform what I think you refer to as the "SummerKick"
  • Map "Rolling" options onto the A button (bottommost face button)
    • A in the air for drop dash (timing drop dash closer to contact with ground rewarded with more speed)
    • A + :emoji_arrow_down: Down on ground to spin dash
  • Have rolling on the ground replace the slide for moving under tight gaps
    • This would probably require a different rolling animation than the one currently used, since it has about the same size as sonic standing straight up vertically.
  • Toss the "Rolling" and "Acrobatic" options onto the shoulder buttons and trigger as well, just for the user's preference. Either to opposite sides (Rolling actions on Right Trigger and Right Bumper, Acrobatic options on Left Trigger and Left Bumper) or separated between the shoulder buttons and triggers.
Another idea you didn't ask for, this one to potentially simplify the SummerKick: make its trajectory not based on timing, but instead how the player angles the analog stick when X is pressed on the ground. I separated this from the other suggestions because of the potential complications in translating the movement for keyboards and d-pad only controllers. The workaround might be limiting the SummerKick to launch at only three angles, 90 degrees (:emoji_arrow_up:Up pressed) , 45 degrees (:emoji_arrow_upper_right:Forward and Up pressed together) and 0 degrees ( :emoji_arrow_right:Forward pressed). All of these ideas are just food for thought.

I'd also be interested to play a version of the game with the camera zoomed out more, maybe even twice as much.

Also the UI, both the HUD and the menus, are very well clean and well done. My only request would be for the pause menu to appear and disappear a bit faster.

This was fun. I'd like to see more experimental projects like this in the future, and I look forward to seeing more of this.
 
I really enjoyed the experimental movement mechanics of this demo. I feel like there's a trade off with the game that raises the bar with a higher skill ceiling for understanding and using movement options, in exchange for satisfying and interesting mechanics after the time has been invested to learn them. It's an unenviable task to have to teach the player all of the moves without taking control away from them.

I've got a pitch for a two-button control scheme that might help ease people in a bit easier:
  • Map "Acrobatic" options onto the the X button (leftmost face button)
    • X + :emoji_arrow_right: Forward in the air to Dash forward (Potentially also mapped to no direction pressed as well)
    • X + :emoji_arrow_down: Down in the air to Stomp (as in the current demo, without halting forward momentum)
    • X + :emoji_arrow_up: Up in the air to flip.
    • X on ground to perform what I think you refer to as the "SummerKick"
  • Map "Rolling" options onto the A button (bottommost face button)
    • A in the air for drop dash (timing drop dash closer to contact with ground rewarded with more speed)
    • A + :emoji_arrow_down: Down on ground to spin dash
  • Have rolling on the ground replace the slide for moving under tight gaps
    • This would probably require a different rolling animation than the one currently used, since it has about the same size as sonic standing straight up vertically.
  • Toss the "Rolling" and "Acrobatic" options onto the shoulder buttons and trigger as well, just for the user's preference. Either to opposite sides (Rolling actions on Right Trigger and Right Bumper, Acrobatic options on Left Trigger and Left Bumper) or separated between the shoulder buttons and triggers.
Another idea you didn't ask for, this one to potentially simplify the SummerKick: make its trajectory not based on timing, but instead how the player angles the analog stick when X is pressed on the ground. I separated this from the other suggestions because of the potential complications in translating the movement for keyboards and d-pad only controllers. The workaround might be limiting the SummerKick to launch at only three angles, 90 degrees (:emoji_arrow_up:Up pressed) , 45 degrees (:emoji_arrow_upper_right:Forward and Up pressed together) and 0 degrees ( :emoji_arrow_right:Forward pressed). All of these ideas are just food for thought.

I'd also be interested to play a version of the game with the camera zoomed out more, maybe even twice as much.

Also the UI, both the HUD and the menus, are very well clean and well done. My only request would be for the pause menu to appear and disappear a bit faster.

This was fun. I'd like to see more experimental projects like this in the future, and I look forward to seeing more of this.
Heya, thanks for the suggestions!

Definitely gonna look into maybe changing the control scheme, no idea if it'll work or not, but it's worth trying as the current one is quite confusing for new players.

As for the SummerKick, it actually is already separated in 3 directions! I could try to see if directions instead work, but I sadly doubt it as it'd make the visual aspect a bit of a struggle alongside shifting from regularly holding forward to another direction being a bit shifty on keyboard.

Pause speed will be increased whenever the next update rolls around! Now I can't unsee how slow it is lmao
 
That's interesting. I always used to think to myself that Ridge Racer Type 4's music would work really well in a Sonic game, and then I hear "Burnin' Rubber" playing in the stage here. Pretty cool.
 

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