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Sonic Encore (SAGE '21 Demo)

This is a pretty great game! It has a ton of potential and I can't wait to see this game get even better! I had a ton of fun with it and with some more work I can see this becoming one of my favorite fangames!


PROS

•Multiple playable characters with unique differences/abilities

•Pretty good selection of characters

•Most animations look pretty nice

•Diverse and open levels that have a lot of replayability

•Satisfying Homing attack that can keep your momentum or help you slow down if you want

•Controls pretty well

•Bumper engine is used in a great way

•Fast, fun, and skill based gameplay that feels like the evolution of Sonic Adventure's momentum based 3d gameplay

•Sonic, Blaze, and Knuckles are all a blast to play as and feel almost perfect ability wise

•The physics are great and the level design really uses the physics based gameplay in a great way


CONS

•Level design can be confusing at times

•Enemies are a bit too tough and aggressive

•Framerate dropped and the game lagged pretty badly during some parts (mainly Aqua Lake act 1)

•Some animations look a little rough and can be a tad glitchy

•Controls invert in pause menu and character select menu

•Couldn't find a back button in the menus (you have to physically scroll to back/exit and hit it)

•Some character abilities need tweaking (ie: Shadow's drop dash and Chaos Control attack)

•Shadow needs the most work ability wise (His Chaos Control attack is pretty useless as of right now and his drop dash actually slows him down)

•As of right now menu seems a little dull


SUGGESTIONS

•Change Shadow's drop dash to some other move (you could buff his drop dash but I think it would be nice to change it so he is more unique and not Sonic 2.0). A Chaos Snap upward diagonal teleport comes to mind (maybe it could be used to gain some height while keeping his speed).

•Buff Shadow's Chaos Control attack so it launches him farther when you use it (maybe you have to time it right to go farther so that way it doesn't just become a better Homing Attack)

•Add a stomp/drill ability for Knuckles since all the other characters have it (it feels weird that all the other characters except Knuckles have it)

•Change Blaze's normal jump animation to the same as her air dash (spinning with fire around her). Currently Blaze's jump looks off.

•Lower enemy aggression and change timing on some of the enemies so you aren't always hit when Homing Attacking them

•Add victory animation to characters upon beating a stage

•Add bosses (I know bosses were in the first demo with the other zones)

•Metal Sonic as an unlockable character could be cool

•Change scrolling controls so they aren't inverted in pause menu and character select menu

•Add a back button in menus so you don't have to manually scroll to back/exit


Sorry if this was long. I seriously enjoyed your game and I can't wait to see more of it in the future! You did a great job and I am excited to see this project grow, evolve, and get better with each release! Best wishes!
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lordgimpet
lordgimpet
this is the kind of stuff i want. just a comment with shadow, I think with the level lacking a tutorial to better explain things would helped. as his the thing with his chaos attack, while it behaves like a second homing attack it currently makes him the best to take out enemies as it freezes time and he is practically invincible during it., and it the best choice for bosses fights which are not in this demo sadly. TBH im really stuck with what to do with him. the intent is for every character to have a single special move. so i could replace it with something like Chaos blast or he throws shards. I did have an idea to implement guns for him instead of elemental shields when he gets one it give him a gun from his old game with the elemental attack using rings as ammo. however coding is not my strongest skillset making this game. but again thanks for the constructive feedback
Wolfshadowj
Wolfshadowj
Oh that makes sense. A little description of what the characters can do would be nice in the character select screen (although that would probably be one of the later things to do). If your intent is to give him an ability to destroy enemies quickly and easily than I would say his current Chaos Control ability is probably the best thing for that. I'm glad I helped!

Edit:After understanding more of what his Chaos Control ability is used for I have had a lot more fun with him and he has become a lot more useful. I have even flung myself at insane speeds using it in the middle of a group of enemies. Maybe increase the range of his Homing Attack/Chaos Control Attack instead?
lordgimpet
lordgimpet
hmm not a bad suggestion. i may have to turn off momentum retention for his homing attacks as a trade of but increase the speed so that its almost instant. As one bit of feedback ive receive a few times is the floatyness of the characters, this is a combination of air time combined with speed. so faster you go you naturaly get longer air time. but also the homing distance is a touch too big reducing the distance ie lock on range will remedy this. or increase the speed but then adding momentum to that is just too much. so ill try tweaking shadow with more range but no momentum and sonic with less range. im also maping out a tutorial stage and that should explain things better
I liked it a lot, there's little 3D fangames that attempt to do full levels, most just do one level or stay at being a proof of concept, and this one promises a lot.

It looks really pretty, it controls really well and the stage selection is pretty unique, certainly didn't expect Aqua lake to be there.

Apart from what other people have said with optimization I feel like it's biggest downside right now is the level design, which is generally quite fun to traverse but in some levels (like Mystic Cave act 1) it's pretty easy to get lost, many times I found myself knowing which was the correct path but not if I was going in the correct direction, the other nitpick I have with level design is that it sometimes feels pretty samey, things like the set piece where you ascend with the help of fans in Aqua Lake act 2 or the multiple gimmicks in Oil Ocean were pretty useful to break up the pace and make the stage more unique.
In part, this fangame reminds me of the Sonic GT fangame. Changing the subject, I love it
A very interesting demo version of the game. Beautiful level design, interesting music.