Since December of 2017, I've been working on a Sonic Adventure inspired 3D platformer that I've been referring to as Radical Adventure.
I have an early demo build on Itch here: https://zlsinger.itch.io/radical-adventure-working-title
(It's browser playable too! No need to download anything. But if you want to try the split screen mode, I'd recommend downloading a build as it's not optimized for browser yet.)
Once I figure out the finer details of the game's plot and characters, I'll come up with a different title. Right now it's still sort of in the prototyping phase. The game is being developed in Unity and for the character controller, I've decided to handle physics and collisions myself. So there's a lot of custom movement that I've been playtesting and tweaking a lot over the last year. The reason I decided to not use Unity's physics and to code my own is because I found that Unity's physics conflicted too much with what I was trying to accomplish. I decided that I need to have complete control over player locomotion in order to create the best experience that's most evocative of what people loved about the Adventure games.
(On a side note, I've also looked towards Crash Bandicoot a bit for inspiration and ideas in regards to level design and camera movement.)
I made a short video showcasing some of the key features of the game:
I really loved the Sonic Adventure formula. I want to create something that captures the spirit of what made the Adventure games so much fun. I want to make a game with fun, fast paced 3D platforming, a good sense of speed and momentum, and a story that the player can experience from multiple perspectives by playing as each character.
Going forward, I plan to release incremental updates to continue to get feedback. The last update I put out there was in August in which I added a hub world and split screen multiplayer.
Key things I'll be adding/addressing in the next build include:
So I'd love to get some thoughts and opinions from this community on the progress I've made so far.
I have an early demo build on Itch here: https://zlsinger.itch.io/radical-adventure-working-title
(It's browser playable too! No need to download anything. But if you want to try the split screen mode, I'd recommend downloading a build as it's not optimized for browser yet.)
Once I figure out the finer details of the game's plot and characters, I'll come up with a different title. Right now it's still sort of in the prototyping phase. The game is being developed in Unity and for the character controller, I've decided to handle physics and collisions myself. So there's a lot of custom movement that I've been playtesting and tweaking a lot over the last year. The reason I decided to not use Unity's physics and to code my own is because I found that Unity's physics conflicted too much with what I was trying to accomplish. I decided that I need to have complete control over player locomotion in order to create the best experience that's most evocative of what people loved about the Adventure games.
(On a side note, I've also looked towards Crash Bandicoot a bit for inspiration and ideas in regards to level design and camera movement.)
I made a short video showcasing some of the key features of the game:
I really loved the Sonic Adventure formula. I want to create something that captures the spirit of what made the Adventure games so much fun. I want to make a game with fun, fast paced 3D platforming, a good sense of speed and momentum, and a story that the player can experience from multiple perspectives by playing as each character.
Going forward, I plan to release incremental updates to continue to get feedback. The last update I put out there was in August in which I added a hub world and split screen multiplayer.
Key things I'll be adding/addressing in the next build include:
- Smoother movement controls
- New character models that are actually unique to each playable character.
- The player won't come to a stop after using the homing attack. Instead the momentum will carry them forward.
- More responsive targeting for the homing attack.
- Hub world music.
- A re-designed tutorial level that will hopefully eliminate some of the sign-posting issues I've noticed while watching playtesters.
- (I also HOPE to have the first boss fight done, but for now I'm focusing on getting the first level right.)
So I'd love to get some thoughts and opinions from this community on the progress I've made so far.
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