Anyway, that's all by the by, I mainly just wanted to flag up something really interesting going on over there on Sonic Retro - Sonic Generations hacking. You may have seen this video already but in case you haven't, it demonstrates Sonic Unleashed levels being imported into the Sonic Generations engine and thus being playable on PC and perhaps even perfected a little bit:
It's now gone even further than that though, videos of the same treatment on even older levels have been popping up all over the place, albeit still in very much a work-in-progress form. Still, the possibilities are getting even more exciting. Check these out...
First of all, the prospect of updating and re-imagining old levels that, with enough talent behind enhancing textures and re-modelling, could look as good as the ones that were actually re-made for Sonic Generations, is tantalising enough. This is all clearly still in the earliest stages, and from what I've read they are understandably still working things out, and importing old levels is obviously a very good way of doing that. I'm amazed at how much they've already managed to achieve, there's some amazing talent around in the community.
But the Sky Troops one interests me in particular because it looks a lot more customised and demonstrates the exciting possibility of being able to create your own entirely new stages. At this point in time it all seems way beyond me to get my hands dirty with it, and I'd need a decent PC for a start. But I'm a budding level designer, with a particular passion for coming up with fresh ideas in every aspect, and hope, over the next few years, to start realising some of these ideas I've had knocking around in my head for ages now. I've always imagined them as 2D, but I adore the modern Sonic Generations levels so much that I can't help but get extremely excited about the possibility of my levels taking that form as well. Problem is of course that while I reckon I can work my way pretty far through the creation of a 2D game with a bit (ok, a lot) of dedication, 3D is a completely new domain for me, I know next to nothing about it and frankly would struggle to make a model of a perfect cube.
However, for anyone with similarly colossal aspirations, I recommend keeping an eye on this scene as from what I've seen of 3D Sonic fan-made engines over the years, this looks like one of your best bets. Sonic fan game or hacking projects are notorious for getting scrapped along the way, and this is complex stuff that really requires collaboration, something that's very difficult to hold together within an amateur context. Plus I do have some concerns about SEGA's view on all this. Editing 20 year old games to put new characters in and change the colours a bit is one thing, but this is messing around with a very current engine that could be used to create very similar, rival content to new official Sonic games.
Still, that all being well, I'm hoping that these clever guys can come up with some nifty tools to make the whole process a lot more user-friendly and easier for less-technically minded, but more creative people to bring their imaginative ideas to life. Even then, creating a massive 3D Sonic level of the quality of those in Generations - or indeed any for that matter - has to be a huge undertaking if you want to do it properly, and I'm sure it will always require a lot of dedication and a willingness to understand new concepts. My mind is twirling with the possibilities of my imaginary level, but I'm trying to remind myself it's going to take a hell of a lot of work and perhaps collaboration with others. To that end I'd be particularly interested to hear from any of you for whom this has also got your brain ticking about what you could do with this engine given the best tools and capabilities at your disposal. Perhaps we could discuss further and share some ideas - believe me, I have a lot of them!
The best place I've seen so far to follow these developments is on this lengthy Sonic Retro topic. Spend a bit of time going back through the last pages and look at the kind of stuff they're working on. I think their goals seem to align with what I've mentioned above, and it all sounds really promising.
Comments 15 Comments have been posted.
#1. Comment posted by Brady Meyers on Saturday, 23rd June 2012, 3:40pm
#2. Comment posted by afolita on Sunday, 24th June 2012, 10:56am
#3. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Sunday, 24th June 2012, 10:59am
#4. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Sunday, 24th June 2012, 11:03am
#5. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Sunday, 24th June 2012, 2:59pm
#6. Comment posted by afolita on Sunday, 24th June 2012, 8:05pm
#7. Comment posted by Brady Meyers on Sunday, 24th June 2012, 11:01pm
#8. Comment posted by netch on Monday, 25th June 2012, 9:17am
#9. Comment posted by Brady Meyers on Monday, 25th June 2012, 5:11pm
#10. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Tuesday, 26th June 2012, 7:51am
#11. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Tuesday, 26th June 2012, 7:54am
#12. Comment posted by Brady Meyers on Tuesday, 26th June 2012, 9:08am
#13. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Tuesday, 26th June 2012, 11:09am
#14. Comment posted by Brady Meyers on Wednesday, 27th June 2012, 6:08am
#15. Comment posted by Kabam! on Sunday, 1st July 2012, 2:18pm