Characters: Silver the Hedgehog

Another Character Update. As soon as I get all of these out of the way I'll jump into engine and graphics and then level concepts. Of course,there are a lot of characters, so this could take a bit. I may interrupt the characters periodically with the other stuff. Your call, what do you want to see next?

Characters: Shadow the Hedgehog

Alright, for the next week or so I'll be putting up some basic character concepts, as I already start with the other day. There are a lot of characters in this design (as you may have seen with earlier posts) and as I said, expect about 1/3 of them to be cut, but that leaves me with a lot of work in the meantime. Today, I decided to jump slightly ahead in the character roster and present Shadow. There were two reasons for doing so, the first of which is that I have been spending a large amount of time thinking about how to take his character past what has already been done. Secondly, he's popular and I do not doubt that people are more curious to see how Shadow works into this then say...Tails or Silver.

Characters: Sonic the Hedgehog

Alright,  before I move onto stages themselves, I'd answer a few questions and begin putting up the chracter profiles, plot and descriptions as well as begin to flesh out the playable differences between characters. At this time, I would also like to announce that I am opening this design document to your outside assistance in the form of concept art. Those of you who don't know as much about game design may be shocked to find that games can call for literally thousands of pieces of concept art, some of which never makes a public appearance, some of which sets the tone for the games many ideas, and some that goes as far as to add new ideas that can be built into the game. I'm not an artist in the visual 'draw, paint, or sketch' category myself, the best I can do is straightforward 2D sketches, so at this point I am opening the call to SatLoA concept art. If you read through this and want to do your own design of what the Atlantian cityscape, levels, or characters may look like, feel free and post a link in the comments of the section that best applies to that art. If if gets a favorable response and fits the vision, I'll go through and begin putting it in the design doc itself (with permission of course). So those of you who have the artist itch. sharpen your pencils, ink your pen and get ready!

The World: Atlantis Overview

Well, I said that this would be soon, but this is likely sooner then you expected. But I've found myself in possession of some more free time since finals ended, so much so that I am putting up another one tonight! Anyway, as promised, you're getting a world overview of Atlantis, the kingdom in which Sonic and the Legend of Atlantis takes place in.

Plot: The Basic Prompt, Outline, Characters and Key Events

Whew! Finals are over (much to my enjoyment) and I can finally get back to work on this! Now, the question in my mind following the last post was "in what direction do I go from here?" Not in the sense that I am out of ideas by any means, but in the concept that I present a logical flow of information based on the fact that this is a blog, and the less confusing it is the better. With that in mind, I feel that the next best area of presentation is plot, as the plot not only establishes the story, it more importantly defines the world in which the game is set. The world, at this point in design, is more vital knowledge then the actual plot of the game, because we need the stage to enact the play. So expect to see an in depth world description coming soon as well. Hopefully enough is here to be clear.

Many will notice that there is a lot of content here. Fact is, I'd expect about 33% (especially characters) to get cut from the game (I'd rather not, but some would be unnecessary, and some just due to time.

The Controls/Movement: Initial Concept

Yeah yeah, I've got plot, characters, all that jazz to get to, but I felt that it would first be a better idea to present the control and the movement system, especially considering the last post referenced the various modes. So here we're going to get the first explanation of how the player will control the game. The system that Sonic and the Legend of Atlantis will be using is very different from conventional games, so I will also need to explain how the controls relate to the player characters actions.

The Camera System: Initial Write Up

This is the initial write-up for the camera systems to be used  by SatLoA. What will separate this system from current Sonic games (I believe) is the introduction of three separate camera systems that will flow from one to the other to improve playability. Because of the difference in the camera and how heavily it will impact gameplay (in addition to camera complaints being a common issue in Sonic games) I decided to put this up first. More on how this will be implemented will be detailed in a later post when I discuss the difference controls schemes available to the player as they will be heavily tied to the camera. Although most of you can probably guess how these will apply to the controls.

The One Sheet--Version .7

Alright, for those of you who are unfamiliar with game design, the One Sheet is a quick, summarized write up of a game design, usually entailing what the game is like, how it will play, key features, what system it is for, what market it will be aimed at and any other important details about the game. The One Sheet is also what most people first see and hear about the game. In effect, it could almost be considered a lengthy (although more technical) preview of what the game will be like. Additionally, it can be used as a quick reminder of the goals of the game during development. So of course it stands to reason that the first thing I put up here is a one sheet for SatLoA.

The Concept: Sonic and the Legend of Atlantis

Hey, I've always liked Sonic games, and growing up I used to doodle my own little Sonic adventures in the margins of my notebooks. I even used to draw levels and create basic ideas which looking back at them now, really needed some serious work. But I enjoyed it, and I kept at it. Years later, when I got serious about game design and started getting serious with it, it wasn't long before my mind asked "What could you do with a Sonic game?" I promptly told it to be quiet, but deep rooted childhood ideals don't die easily in my mind, and the ideas kept coming back, even if I didn't use them.