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Fan Game Sonic Utopia

Jul 10, 2018
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No difficulty modes, the game will be as is. Difficulty can vary depending on how you play.


All ideas are subject to the same discretion. I only apply what I consider is good and works well. I prefer sticking with my own for cohesion and to try and prove my own concepts, and I prioritize the rest of the team over anything by strangers.
Alright, my apologies.
 

heshbrown

Green Hill Zone
Jul 19, 2018
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What if the bonus stages took place on the inside of a giant "master ring" in space, like Halo but a astronomical sonic ring. Just a throw-away thought.

Another cool idea for a stage would be some weird place where some areas are flipped onto 90 degree walls, and sonic has to wall run to get through it and has to worry about his speed and the direction of gravity in order to not fall off. I think that would add another mechanic that is emergent from the physics that are already there, and would be something impossible with the 2D universe of the original games.



^ Just showing how some parts of the stage would be perpendicular. Again, just a thought.
 
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WhoWhatWhenWhale

The 3D Classic-ist
Oct 18, 2017
2
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USA, East Coast
No clip of Sonic Utopia in SAGE 2018's trailer. That must surely mean it won't be making an appearance, right? Just like in SAGE 2016. *wink wink nudge nudge*

In all seriousness, whether it makes an appearance or not, I don't think anyone will be too disappointed. You guys are working hard on this project, so even if you all don't release another demo for three more years, that just means you guys want to hit us with as much finished content as you can!

Lange, Murasaki, and the rest of you who are working hard on this game, as corny as this sounds, we all really do believe in you.
 

SuperSquareEyeSpickles

Press Start Screen
Aug 17, 2018
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Heya lads.

First off, the project you all got going here is absolutely fantastic and packs a ridiculous amount of potential. You all seem to have a solid idea of where to go with this and I wish the best of luck with the games development.

Here's a thought. Considering that you're working on more focused level design (which I fully support.) I still absolutely enjoyed the vastness of the demo's design, even if it was a bit slapped together in some sections. So my question is, would you guys be willing to design a new, separate open world level for the final release? I was going to suggest this as perhaps a hub world for the six stages you have in mind. Almost like the old Spyro games.

Keep up the good work!
 

Greedy_Raider

Marble Zone
Sep 7, 2018
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I have played the Demo of utopia, IDK even if is the actual version, I find myself a little lost over the great openness of the level, Might be interesting to have something that can hint you where you should go... for example maybe a sprite of the next level sitting just near the sky-box so you can use it to find which way you should be heading... or for a less subtle way a way-point showing where is the goal... (like arma 3 for example)

Arma 3 example: https://imgur.com/a/dwVq92t
 
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Bagpigs

Press Start Screen
Oct 9, 2018
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Hello Sonic Utopia Team, I have played the demo for a long time, and find myself coming back to it very regularly.

I just have a question: Will there be an option to lock the camera behind sonic in the game?
Its fine like it is now, but I had some instances, where I liked to have a stationary camera behind sonic.

But that aside, this is a fantastic game! I can’t wait for the full release, but take your time with it. I know the more we fans wait, the better the game will be.

Keep it up!
 

kirabate

Press Start Screen
Oct 13, 2018
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Fans does what SEGA don't. I love your project, is the perfect representation of a 2D sonic game in a 3D world, and that perfect music, i just love it!!. Thank you guys for this amazing project .
 

Rock the Harty

I didn't age as well as Sonic.
Very impressed with the quality of the early demo, and the attitude you and your team are approaching this project with. If you need any assistance with research or any other support-type processes such as planning, I would be more than willing to help out however I can. I'm not a practiced artist and I can only currently code in Visual Basic for Applications (mostly for Excel-based analysis automation), but I'm sure if there was an extra necessity for help in those areas I could be of help if you give me some time to study and do some trial-and-error.
 

tigerfunn!

Press Start Screen
Nov 11, 2018
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Hey Sonic Utopia Development Team!

I just got the game and been playing it so much, it's super fun and what I absolutely love about Sonic! Glad to see fans of this character capture the essence of the "Speed/Exploration" gameplay style for Sonic in your own way. If you guys need any supportive process or just creative ideas on gameplay mechanics, I would love to assist you guys in any way possible. I'm no programmer or designer of any sort but just seeing you guys work this hard with the limited budget and resources is very inspiring, especially for a fan of Sonic!
 

gush

Press Start Screen
Jan 27, 2019
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This is a great game, lateral and vertical camera control isn't working for me though on mouse and keyboard, don't know if it's intended.
 

eMorph

Stuck in Marble Zone Act 3
Dec 5, 2019
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Adding characters is a much loftier notion than it might seem. Making character models, rigs and animations are the most demanding assets to create aside from the levels themselves, but besides that, the game has to be worked around them and their unique traits and abilities. This can multiply the planning and testing needed for level design if not outright stifle a lot of what can be done with it. This is particularly because Tails and Knuckles have abilities that can easily break the game in a 3d space. It is difficult enough just designing this around Sonic and the core mechanics, and it is best that focus goes into getting this down for a complete solid game. Much like how Sonic began, new characters and abilities are better introduced after the fundamentals are figured out.
Knuckles won't be around for this game, but Tails will be for the story. Given he will have a model and rig, making him playable will later be experimented with, but I'm not promising anything.
I think with enough terrain variation, Tails and KTE could work. Especially in a level like the demo, I could imagine flying up to a floating platform to get some extra lives, or get to an exclusive extra level/special stage. I could also imagine climbing up lots of giant hills, and gliding into flying enemies. Maybe KTE would be more combat focused, freeing all the animals in a stage, while Tails does the intelligence missions, involving exploration, and Sonic is about getting to Eggman's lair as fast as possible. Sorta like SA1, but Tails won't break the game.
 

heshbrown

Green Hill Zone
Jul 19, 2018
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In the developer livestream, it was stated by Murasaki that the steering was not handled by the physics engine or something like that? Could you elaborate on this and what it means? What was the purpose, and how has it changed/stayed the same in the newer iterations? Im just curious about physics programming and things and wasn't clear on this. Thanks!
 

gebara

Press Start Screen
Mar 26, 2020
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Hello, this was a masterpiece. The perfect conversion from 2D to 3D. Please, will this project be continued?
 

SonicIsCOOL

Press Start Screen
Apr 7, 2020
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Ok, upon first playing this in september 2019, I thought, "holy crap why is this not an actual sonic game?" I played it every day for 6 weeks, despite only being able to play green hill zone. Then I stopped playing it until christmas 2019. then i played it again. I realized why it's not a sonic game: IT WAS NOT MADE ON SEGA SATURN(lol)
 

Vis The Roc

Green Hill Zone
Sep 2, 2018
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I'm sorry, but did you add attention shifting and horrified, wide-eyed looks to the enemies when Sonic is about to destroy them? That kind of animated, 'OH SHIT' expression is the attention to detail this game needed, almost like watching Mania Adventures (or the old Sonic movie). It might be me, but I'm pretty sure I saw one of the roller bugs turn their head to look back before Sonic broke them.
 

AnonImousse

Press Start Screen
Jul 4, 2020
5
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8
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I'm going straight to business here to gush about something in this game I do not want lost during the "refinement" process.

That being the challenge that is posed of navigating loop-de-loops, and pseudo moebius strips, the fact that turning too fast either via assist of the manual camera turning mechanics, or what I simply feel is inferior during the "free cam", impacts your speed. This level of control, and juggling with physics really made it fun to fail the complicated loop-de-loops or pseudo-moebius strips without abusing the peelout or spindash until perfection was reached, something that can't be said of any 3d game's spectacle events. It really reminds me of those rough unrefined edges the first Sonic game had that helped it stand apart, the idea that in the "fast" stages conservation of momentum was a must, because gigantic slippery parabolas, loop-de-loops and even a few simple slopes were a genuine challenge to navigate or in some cases circumvent all together. Unfortunately I've read rumors in multiple places about you with Murasaki et. al. trying to see if there's a way to further automate the traversal of loop-de-loops plus pseudo moebius strips, fine automate them as you will, platformers are unfortunately supposed to be mostly skill floor friendly.

But to the more, let's put it kindly, "mechanics obsessed" freaks like me out there make the automation less significant in a "hard" mode difficulty, or maybe call it a "hedgehog physics" mode instead, but just allow a mode to keep it as close as possible to the borderline perfection I found in that demo I still "obsessively" play 1-2 hours a day still. Of course I realize the demo has bugs (flapping your wings to glide, kek) in it so refinement will probably see not just the bugs gone, but the quirks some of us may have grown to love, that's fine, but just keep in mind some of us actually prefer the lack of automation found in the demo, some of us unironically enjoyed the challenge. Substance over spectacle, the substance being mastery of how to incorporate the spectacle into the traversal of the terrain.

A critique and PRAISE about your stance of "lives" being a derelict of the arcades in your 2016/17 SAGE interview about S:Utopia and Sonic's game design in general

In an age where videogames have turned into boring interactive movies, or a boring checkpoints abusing snooze fest, I unironically miss the idea of a lives system. Sorry for getting slightly off tangent here, but you can't imagine my surprise then when Doom Eternal added the "no more lives" mode and then made it so all the "lives" you find exploring inside a level actually matters. Back on tangent, that is why a lives system for more "traditional" gamers matters, it incentivizes rationing of resources, makes us reconsider our approaches to levels and incentivizes exploration. In games with scoring systems it also incentivizes whether we play more stylishly to gain points, or play more conservatively to eek out a victory. So to see you try to chuck away a lives system as "just a derelict" in videogames is really disheartening.

However I must give you praise where it's due, we've been long overdue for something more meaningful to be done with a lives system, there's potential for it to mean something more than just a token that says you can continue playing the game and a token you're rewarded for exploration. Most specially in platformers where having collected lives means both exploration and collected more than a certain preset number of collectibles. Excuse me for getting "Satanic" or "edgy" but maybe have a mechanic where the player can sacrifice a life tokens to gain extra speed or jumping power for a limited amount of time, or maybe he can chuck a life token as a CRT monitor at enemies, hahahahaha.

Or hell maybe just add a "no more hedgehogs" mode into Utopia so gamers who don't like lives systems can game and abuse checkpoints as much as they want, while those of us daredevils can farm as many lives as we want and lose more than one in the process of hunting said life tokens.

Additionally I'd like to mention something from S3&K that added replayability even when you played as Sonic that all the 3d entries and even unfortunately to a certain extent SRB2 has neglected significantly.

Those are Elemental Bubble Shields, specifically the abilities and immunities the shields give you. From the water shield's bounce ability plus reflection of projectiles as well as being able to breathe underwater, to the lightning shield's double jumping ability, immunity to electrified objects plus ring collecting abilities, to the fire shield's immunity to fire and lava plus sweet homing attack. All of these added so much replayability for Sonic in S3&K despite his lack of wall climbing, gliding or flying, there's no better thrill for me than edging or sometimes even getting inside of Tails oriented segments of stages in S3&K. Moreover mastering each ESB's general gimmicks plus utilities was always damn fun as well. The fact that these gimmick power ups are now gone, in favor of a homing dash which has heavy auto aim in the official SEGA Sonic games is just anguish for me.

With the above said, I do like how you've managed the homing dash in Utopia, it's not game breaking like SRB2's thok mechanic which gives you speed boosts on demand, nor is it as easy to abuse against enemy mobs like it is in the official games. If you were to add a pseudo EBS abilitty maybe add a shield that gives sonic a dash manuever that sacrifices the current homing dash's auto aim ability for extremely long horizontal jumps. Just a thought.

Also you may have changed stance on this decision, but if you didn't I agree whole heartedly.

This decision being of adding more playable characters, I completely agree on your rants of understanding Sonic's core 3d game mechanics properly in terms of physics engine and level design, before EVEN ATTEMPTING to add different playable characters who will all require different level design philosophies as well.

Finally a concession point in regards to elemental bubble shields;

Yes EBS were introduced in SONIC 3, the third entry into the series, an entry where all of ST Japan plus America's skill and experience with the franchise culminated into all the brilliant, and sometimes inane gimmicks (fuck barrels in carnival) that make the entry so unique to the rest of the series in terms of mechanics. So no, I don't expect you to add EBS into Utopia, nor would I hold it against you if you didn't. Merely what I want to do is remind you of their existence and to you to incorporate the philosophy behind them into whatever other video game design endeavors you may engage in the future.