One of the classic side scrolling games which is one of many games which has made it into 3D, What I like about the sonic 2D games is there fast paced, exciting levels with plenty of unique features such as loops, jumps and turbo boosts, and the way everything is over the top with unique game designs and interactivity, and despite all of this its a fluent flowing game and easy for a first time gamer to just pick up and play.
A couple of days ago, Dan who is a fellow college mate kindly brought in his Gamecube and we played on Sonic Adventure DX which had designed a level taking the Mayan period has huge influence, even though this sonic game is done in 3D, you can easily draw comparisons to the 2D platform versions, for example the pace and the unique crazy game props which I really like. What I noticed about this level was how dark and dull it was, which suited the level as its a mysterious temple with plenty of hidden passageways and booby traps to challenge the players. However for my game i am aiming at a project which is more colorful.I really liked the view between 30 - 35 in the video of the jungle/temple in background which looked really nice which is emphasized by the way you exit the temple and is like the first real color you see in the level, which really caught my idea. Also something similar is work experimenting with on my level for a background, the idea of jungle with a few temples in the background which I could then repeat as is the normality for 2D levels as the backgrounds tend to repeat which I will write more about in another blog post. Another thing which caught my eye was the use of fire and water within the level which actually contributed each other very well, for example the water slide with fire statues which looked really nice, I have always thought of the idea of contributing fire into the level, through the use of statues or torches. But I also like the idea of experimenting with the water aspect, such as waterfalls, water features or even slides could work well. Finally I really like some of the statues such as the snake shaped statues which are repeated quite allot over the level, emphasizing the point of repetition on levels which is something useful for me as I don't have the time to individually design say 20 statues, so its a good way of keeping the work load efficient but also keeping to a good standard of work.
He also mentioned, something I found interesting is how they recreated a level which they first did in 3D, to a 2D game, here is the example of the 3D level below which I am led to believe they created first which was on Sonic Adventure 2. I've never really been a big fan of Sonic 3D levels and I finally got the chance to play it the other day. Even in 3D the game play is very similar, a very high paced game with plenty of obstacles and crazy course layouts, while I actually enjoyed playing the level there were certain aspects which reminded me why I prefer the 2D levels, firstly I found myself at times struggling to judge jumps, for example landing on a beam, which slight over movement of the controller to the right or left would leave me falling to my death, something that couldn't happen on the 2D, and with the high pace of the game this is easy to do. I also due to the view of the camera found it hard to notice whether there is any hidden paths for example, which could be potentially below the path you are on or above. As sonic is known for the variety of different paths in which you can take, and the camera view at times makes it easy to miss a path, this is what I found. I mean its something to consider for my game, do a just have one path you can take or multiple maze like paths, similar to sonic. However on the positive side Sonic in 3D looks very beautiful, Its was very interesting to see a game which has made its claim as 2d and keep a similar game play and be transferred into 3D, it provides plenty of contrasts to be made between the two games and advice into developing my 2D game and what to do and what not to.
And below is the 2d version of the same level. Unfortunately I haven't played the game, so its hard to make a contrast on the game play, but it looks just as beautiful, to me this looks allot more fun and for the style of the game play easier to navigate your way around the level. Its also great for pausing the two levels at the same point in the game and looking at how they potentially got around obstacles which may have been a issues into recreating the game into 2D from the 3D game and they have done a great job.
And what I found interesting is this fan work, in where someone has recreated some levels inwhere he has used unity. It looks really beautiful, it just gives a good idea on what could be potentially created in unity, It would also be great research to ask the person who created the level some questions on how he achieved.
No comments:
Post a Comment