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Sonic Illusion (SAGE '21 Demo)

General Information

SONIC ILLUSION
Sonic Illusion still does not have a very clear story, in which I will be working to make sense of the game, I can say that this fangame seeks to be a direct sequel to Sonic Mania, since Sonic Mania Plus, I took it as filler by not presenting anything new in the history.

CHARACTERS:
Players can choose one of 5 playable characters.

SONIC

screenshot104.png

TAILS

screenshot108.png

KNUCKLES

screenshot110.png

MIGHTY

screenshot114.png

RAY

screenshot115.png


CONTENTS:
This demo has a complete zone (SUNSHINE COAST) and several bosses.

ZONES:
>> SUNSHINE COAST
100%

>> RELIC RUINS
10%

>> LUMINOUS CASINO
20%

>> FLOODED FOUNDRY
10%


SCREENSHOTS:
screenshot126.png
screenshot124.png
screenshot100a.png
screenshot101a.png
screenshot106a.png
screenshot103a.png
screenshot102a.png

Comments

Okay, I feel like this is a spiel I have to give every year to at least one sage booth. You broke one of the many rules when making a Sonic fangame. You way over complicated the boss fights. A boss fight in a Sonic game, especially a FIRST boss fight, should not have a ton of phases, unpredictable attacks, and be incredibly difficult to the point where you're getting a game over constantly because you don't even know what the boss is going to do. A tricky boss fight can be fun, however I shouldn't be spending more than a couple minutes at most for a first boss. Just because a boss fight takes a long time, doesn't mean it's good. In fact, usually it means it's the opposite.

Your monkey boss wasn't too bad but it did take me a bit to figure out what I was supposed to do. I thought I should hit the monkeys in the trees at first, but no, can't reach them. Then when I was trying to figure out how to hit the one at the bottom, I kept getting bombarded by the tree monkeys so I didn't even have time to sit and figure out what I was supposed to do. Once I figured out to Spin Dash back and forth, I thought I had it but... again no, there's a phase two. It's extremely tough to follow the monkey around when so much is flying at you and almost every time I'd jump to hit him, I'd get hit by a stray coconut.

My advice would be to skip the first phase all together. Have the monkey jump around among the trees, but have the ones in the tree throw less coconuts. Then after maybe the 4th hit or so they can begin to increase. Sonic games have a very basic formula for boss fights... you spin into them. Either by jumping or spindashing or what have you. It's not a good idea to break the formula on the very first boss in the game. Yes, we're all Sonic fans here and we've all played the classics, but it's better to play it safe and design it as if it's someone's first Sonic game. Go ahead and pretend we're all idiots. I won't get offended, I promise.

Metal Sonic would be a good boss fight for later on, but for the first major boss fight in the game, it's way too elaborate. Not to mention the jumping on the surfboard (or whatever it's called) isn't as clean as it should be so it can be hard to actually hit him when he's vulnerable, which, again took me a bit to figure out WHEN I should attack.

The second (or maybe third? I lost track) phase with the electric poles you have to jump through and avoid is a really good idea and it's implemented well. I don't think you need to do more than this. Also, don't have him shoot a large near unavoidable laser like that. I heard him revving up and assumed I needed to jump over one of his shots, but instead died to a large laser beam. You don't need that. Again, I know I've said this but especially for a first boss fight.

I didn't get very far with the volcano boss either. Every time I'd hit him it'd push me back into the lava... or I'd land safely then immediately get hit into the lava by a projectile.

And that's my spiel. What you chose to do with all I said is up to you obviously, it's your game.

The levels themselves seem to be handled pretty well. There's a lot of hidden areas and goodies to find. In some areas I felt the levels didn't flow quite right, but I still enjoyed them fine. I also really love that you added Ray and Mighty. Even though they were in Mania Plus, people tend to forget so it's always good to see them again.

Sorry that this is such a long comment and I hope you don't feel as if I'm just dragging you down or anything. That's not my intention, I Just want to give some good honest advice. I wish you happy game making and will be checking out future releases.
 
Okay, I feel like this is a spiel I have to give every year to at least one sage booth. You broke one of the many rules when making a Sonic fangame. You way over complicated the boss fights. A boss fight in a Sonic game, especially a FIRST boss fight, should not have a ton of phases, unpredictable attacks, and be incredibly difficult to the point where you're getting a game over constantly because you don't even know what the boss is going to do. A tricky boss fight can be fun, however I shouldn't be spending more than a couple minutes at most for a first boss. Just because a boss fight takes a long time, doesn't mean it's good. In fact, usually it means it's the opposite.

Your monkey boss wasn't too bad but it did take me a bit to figure out what I was supposed to do. I thought I should hit the monkeys in the trees at first, but no, can't reach them. Then when I was trying to figure out how to hit the one at the bottom, I kept getting bombarded by the tree monkeys so I didn't even have time to sit and figure out what I was supposed to do. Once I figured out to Spin Dash back and forth, I thought I had it but... again no, there's a phase two. It's extremely tough to follow the monkey around when so much is flying at you and almost every time I'd jump to hit him, I'd get hit by a stray coconut.

My advice would be to skip the first phase all together. Have the monkey jump around among the trees, but have the ones in the tree throw less coconuts. Then after maybe the 4th hit or so they can begin to increase. Sonic games have a very basic formula for boss fights... you spin into them. Either by jumping or spindashing or what have you. It's not a good idea to break the formula on the very first boss in the game. Yes, we're all Sonic fans here and we've all played the classics, but it's better to play it safe and design it as if it's someone's first Sonic game. Go ahead and pretend we're all idiots. I won't get offended, I promise.

Metal Sonic would be a good boss fight for later on, but for the first major boss fight in the game, it's way too elaborate. Not to mention the jumping on the surfboard (or whatever it's called) isn't as clean as it should be so it can be hard to actually hit him when he's vulnerable, which, again took me a bit to figure out WHEN I should attack.

The second (or maybe third? I lost track) phase with the electric poles you have to jump through and avoid is a really good idea and it's implemented well. I don't think you need to do more than this. Also, don't have him shoot a large near unavoidable laser like that. I heard him revving up and assumed I needed to jump over one of his shots, but instead died to a large laser beam. You don't need that. Again, I know I've said this but especially for a first boss fight.

I didn't get very far with the volcano boss either. Every time I'd hit him it'd push me back into the lava... or I'd land safely then immediately get hit into the lava by a projectile.

And that's my spiel. What you chose to do with all I said is up to you obviously, it's your game.

The levels themselves seem to be handled pretty well. There's a lot of hidden areas and goodies to find. In some areas I felt the levels didn't flow quite right, but I still enjoyed them fine. I also really love that you added Ray and Mighty. Even though they were in Mania Plus, people tend to forget so it's always good to see them again.

Sorry that this is such a long comment and I hope you don't feel as if I'm just dragging you down or anything. That's not my intention, I Just want to give some good honest advice. I wish you happy game making and will be checking out future releases.
First of all thanks for commenting, I agree with you about the bosses, I think I exaggerated on that, the truth is that I thought a lot about that topic and I was not sure when I compared it with the bosses of the classic games.
I wanted to imitate the Sonic 4 formula in which bosses have a second phase after certain hits, although I feel like I made bosses with too many attacks and vitality, in classic games everything is usually simpler and more intuitive.
I have to work on that, anyway, thanks for your comment, it helps me a lot.
 
First of all thanks for commenting, I agree with you about the bosses, I think I exaggerated on that, the truth is that I thought a lot about that topic and I was not sure when I compared it with the bosses of the classic games.
I wanted to imitate the Sonic 4 formula in which bosses have a second phase after certain hits, although I feel like I made bosses with too many attacks and vitality, in classic games everything is usually simpler and more intuitive.
I have to work on that, anyway, thanks for your comment, it helps me a lot.
I totally see where you are coming from with the multi stage bosses. Take the difficulty down a couple notches, sure, but the multi stage aspect is definitely interesting and gives the player more time to interact with the boss, so it isn't over in 7 seconds.
 
I totally see where you are coming from with the multi stage bosses. Take the difficulty down a couple notches, sure, but the multi stage aspect is definitely interesting and gives the player more time to interact with the boss, so it isn't over in 7 seconds.
I think I exaggerated with the bosses hahaha !!
I hope that the easy mode that I included in the update helps to reduce the difficulty of various bosses a lot.
Uploading it to SAGE helped me to see that, so I will continue working so that in the next there is a balanced difficulty, in addition to being able to bring other things.
Thanks for commenting xD
 
It's hard to add to Dashaque's advice—yeah, I got a game over from almost every boss, and I immediately exited the game after it turned out the launch base boss had an instakill move that didn't care how many rings I had—but I will say that the boss designs all seemed pretty cool/interesting, especially the carousel one. Unpredictable and unexplained, but cool. You could probably also improve the level select interface... it's telling that Dashaque only mentioned the bosses on the first page, because the screen says to press "X" to switch to the next page, but the actual key the player has to press is "D."

The non-boss acts were okay but it's perplexing that the gimmicks all seemed to be standard stuff that I assume was included in the engine, or if not, certainly came from existing zones in existing games. If you like programming (bosses) so much, turn some more of that energy to the rest of the game. We've all seen the green hill bridge with the rotating spikes before.
 
Played the game's original release without any updates, and here's what I would say...

-MUSIC-

Let's get this out of the way first - it's all remixes or just taken from already existing games. Nothing really interesting, though first act's music reminded me of Sonic Classic.

-VISUALS-

They're alright. The Mania stuff is as ugly as it always was and the Genesis sprites stick out like a sore thumb in the new visuals, but it's nothing terrible either. I liked the smiling Sonic on the title screen.

-LEVELS-

Abominable. I have played through them without even caring and there was only one part where I had to at least think a bit - and even that part with the platform moving up and down was taken from Green Hill. There is nothing original about them and everything taken from something else was done better in the original. However...

-BOSSES-

Oh, NOW we're talking! After most fangames seemed to take lessons from S3&K's insults towards the player's intelligence that it calls "bossfights" without any shame, this game surprised me... and it surprised me nicely! First, the midboss is a bit confusing for the first boss in the game, I'd say it would fit in the end of a first third of a Sonic game. Plus, while it's guaranteed that you would eventually discover how to hit the boss in the first phase, the coconuts themselves aren't distinguished enough visually from the trio's coconuts. Maybe make them more similar to a ticking bomb visually? The Metal Sonic boss... brilliant! I don't really have any complaints, aside from the music failing to loop and just restarting after a fade-out around 20 seconds before I beat the boss. As for the boss, it's brilliantly done and would fit very well into late-game, showing the likes of Mecha Sonic how to actually make a late-game boss instead of a pathetic heap of metal... but here's the thing: I said late-game. What is this doing in the first zone?
The spider boss would fit well a bit after the monkeys, it's pretty easy to spam but still takes quite some time and learning to beat.
The wheel boss is exactly what the first midboss should have been... though it would be nice if the spikeballs dropped exploded like Meca Sonic from Sonic 2 does a spike attack, as otherwise the boss can be beaten pretty much just by standing in the middle and jumping. The carnival boss would fit as the first Act 2 boss, nothing to say there.

Big Arms... now, S3&K's Big Arms was one of the game's two good bosses, alongside Red Eye, but was still easily cheeseable by instashield and didn't really feel like a final boss, moreso one of the first Act 2 bosses, perhaps for Zone 4. But this one? Bravo, you made it work! There's now pits on sides so the player can't just stay there during the moving below the ground phase and expect safety, there's no insta-shield so you actually have to jump carefully and the second phase actually makes it feel like a final boss, especially with that hand attack reminding me of Wario Land 3's clown final boss. Speaking of that... there are a few things missing. The second phase lacked another attack added for the last two hits - I'd say that clown, Rudy's punch attack would work well. Plus, it feels like a final attack is missing - something like Sonic Rush's (non-Super) final boss' final attack would have been great, or Sonic 4 Episode 1's final punch.

Overall, I think this has potentional... as a boss rush game. While the visuals and music are alright, controls are fine and the bosses are utterly brilliant, the two levels lack any sort of originality, challenge and equate to holding the right button and hoping for the best while jumping and spindashing, and I didn't have even a single bit of fun while playing those levels.

Of course, this is just my opinion, as always.
 
Played the game's original release without any updates, and here's what I would say...

-MUSIC-

Let's get this out of the way first - it's all remixes or just taken from already existing games. Nothing really interesting, though first act's music reminded me of Sonic Classic.

-VISUALS-

They're alright. The Mania stuff is as ugly as it always was and the Genesis sprites stick out like a sore thumb in the new visuals, but it's nothing terrible either. I liked the smiling Sonic on the title screen.

-LEVELS-

Abominable. I have played through them without even caring and there was only one part where I had to at least think a bit - and even that part with the platform moving up and down was taken from Green Hill. There is nothing original about them and everything taken from something else was done better in the original. However...

-BOSSES-

Oh, NOW we're talking! After most fangames seemed to take lessons from S3&K's insults towards the player's intelligence that it calls "bossfights" without any shame, this game surprised me... and it surprised me nicely! First, the midboss is a bit confusing for the first boss in the game, I'd say it would fit in the end of a first third of a Sonic game. Plus, while it's guaranteed that you would eventually discover how to hit the boss in the first phase, the coconuts themselves aren't distinguished enough visually from the trio's coconuts. Maybe make them more similar to a ticking bomb visually? The Metal Sonic boss... brilliant! I don't really have any complaints, aside from the music failing to loop and just restarting after a fade-out around 20 seconds before I beat the boss. As for the boss, it's brilliantly done and would fit very well into late-game, showing the likes of Mecha Sonic how to actually make a late-game boss instead of a pathetic heap of metal... but here's the thing: I said late-game. What is this doing in the first zone?
The spider boss would fit well a bit after the monkeys, it's pretty easy to spam but still takes quite some time and learning to beat.
The wheel boss is exactly what the first midboss should have been... though it would be nice if the spikeballs dropped exploded like Meca Sonic from Sonic 2 does a spike attack, as otherwise the boss can be beaten pretty much just by standing in the middle and jumping. The carnival boss would fit as the first Act 2 boss, nothing to say there.

Big Arms... now, S3&K's Big Arms was one of the game's two good bosses, alongside Red Eye, but was still easily cheeseable by instashield and didn't really feel like a final boss, moreso one of the first Act 2 bosses, perhaps for Zone 4. But this one? Bravo, you made it work! There's now pits on sides so the player can't just stay there during the moving below the ground phase and expect safety, there's no insta-shield so you actually have to jump carefully and the second phase actually makes it feel like a final boss, especially with that hand attack reminding me of Wario Land 3's clown final boss. Speaking of that... there are a few things missing. The second phase lacked another attack added for the last two hits - I'd say that clown, Rudy's punch attack would work well. Plus, it feels like a final attack is missing - something like Sonic Rush's (non-Super) final boss' final attack would have been great, or Sonic 4 Episode 1's final punch.

Overall, I think this has potentional... as a boss rush game. While the visuals and music are alright, controls are fine and the bosses are utterly brilliant, the two levels lack any sort of originality, challenge and equate to holding the right button and hoping for the best while jumping and spindashing, and I didn't have even a single bit of fun while playing those levels.

Of course, this is just my opinion, as always.
First of all, thanks for commenting, as for what you told me, let's start answering it.
As for the levels, I am aware that they do not add anything new and that they can only be overcome by going to the right, in fact the level design costs me a lot but creating bosses for nothing.
I suppose that in my case the levels are an excuse to have the bosses as protagonists, although I will try to improve that in the levels that I will include from now on, but it could take a time that I do not have at the moment. . due to study.
Of course, the idea that it is a game of bosses does not seem crazy to me, perhaps in the future it could be a reality, who knows.
I'm glad you enjoyed the bosses, it's the part I wanted to highlight the most xD
 
It's hard to add to Dashaque's advice—yeah, I got a game over from almost every boss, and I immediately exited the game after it turned out the launch base boss had an instakill move that didn't care how many rings I had—but I will say that the boss designs all seemed pretty cool/interesting, especially the carousel one. Unpredictable and unexplained, but cool. You could probably also improve the level select interface... it's telling that Dashaque only mentioned the bosses on the first page, because the screen says to press "X" to switch to the next page, but the actual key the player has to press is "D."

The non-boss acts were okay but it's perplexing that the gimmicks all seemed to be standard stuff that I assume was included in the engine, or if not, certainly came from existing zones in existing games. If you like programming (bosses) so much, turn some more of that energy to the rest of the game. We've all seen the green hill bridge with the rotating spikes before.
First of all thanks for commenting, having said that let's start with the answer xD

-Interface-
As for the interface, I know that it could be improved, in this case I did it like this to launch it quickly for the SAGE, I am aware of the case of the buttons that are shown on the screen, which as you mentioned you must press the "D". Although the "X" button appears, I must admit that the fact that at no point did I specify the game controls did not help, so I apologize for that, I will be updating it.

-Levels-
I would be lying if I told you that it is not difficult for me to design levels, in fact I was not satisfied with the final result of those that I uploaded in this demo, I am also aware that they do not contribute something new and revolutionary, I could say that it is the typical "Green Hill "that can be found in any other Sonic game, although for the rest of the levels I will try to contribute something new, I do not promise that it will be" incredible ", but I know that in terms of level design the game falls short.

-Bosses-
I think there is not much to say here, I know that they are somewhat annoying and that in the case of Big Arm it has attacks that can kill you in one go, but I would be lying if I said that I do not like the result of the majority, if I am honest , Metal Sonic's boss, when I designed it a long time ago, was a boss destined for the middle of the game, which explains why it's so difficult, the same goes for Coconuts.

-Conclusion-
There is still a lot to do, so I will try to improve it as soon as I have free time.
sorry for the long answer xD
Greetings!!
 
it's telling that Dashaque only mentioned the bosses on the first page, because the screen says to press "X" to switch to the next page, but the actual key the player has to press is "D."
I think that was my other problem too, I couldn't get to the next page...and I just kinda lost interest after the volcano boss lol
 
Might want to credit the people that you ripped assets from. Mainly using Soul Shore Zone graphics for your sunshine coast metal sonic boss. You gave credits for music and sprites, but then no credits for the assets used?
 
Might want to credit the people that you ripped assets from. Mainly using Soul Shore Zone graphics for your sunshine coast metal sonic boss. You gave credits for music and sprites, but then no credits for the assets used?
I got the sprites for that level from here:

Obviously, if I have to give credits I have no problem.
If you know who I should give the credit to, I would appreciate if you could tell me, so I can correct it.
 
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I don't know if my computer is bad or the game is laggy and its still laggy during the metal sonic boss fight because one time think I got the hang of it but the lag makes it so when I move it doesn't move then metal sonic hits me and once I got far into the battle all of a sudden he kills me when I was trying to move backwards and no I don't hate the game just that my computer is bad or the boss fight is too hard for me, so if you think I hate it I don't
 

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