Characters: The Chancellor

One of the most important portions of any story is the antagonist, or villain. A lot of things can make or break a good story, but a good villain of some kind is a key element. If you ask anyone to name a list of characters from a classic movie, the first two characters that usually are mentioned if the movie was done well are usually the Hero and the Villain. We like our villains to be memorable. We like them to feel threatening, comical, or maybe both. We like it when the villain makes sense. More then one villain has been ruined simply through poor writing, bad plot choices, or inconsistent character, which brings a level of challenge to putting together any villain, even if part of his character is already preconstructed by virtue of an established universe. With this in mind, I'm presenting the initial character build of SatLoA's chief villain and declaring that if there was ever a place for feedback, this should be a primary one.

Characters: Blaze the Cat

Man, all this E3 hype has kept me hopping over at The Game Critic, but I've still got time to get work in on The Underwater Hedgehog and one of my other design projects (which is coming along well and getting a lot of cool work done on it lately). I must admit, I was rather surprised that no one had anything to say about my outlines for the games music design, I was sure that would stir up some comments. Ah well, I guess that means no news is good news! Anyway, on to the character design for today!

Sound Design: Music

Now I'll take another break from characters to make a small post about sound, specifically the musical genre and composition that SatLoA requires. Some may not realize how much of an impact sound design carries on any game. Much like film, music and sound effects have a large affect on how the player views the game. Scene and mood are very determined by music, and more so in a Sonic game, where music has always played a large part of the series. If SatLoA were to be a success, it would need to have good music.

Characters: Amy Rose the Hedgehog

Yep, it's time for another character design update, this time returning to the Hedgehog roots of the series with Amy Rose, the little pink hedgehog who has, kudos to Sega, moved from abject dislike to acceptance in the Sonic universe, and now even has fans. I'm not joking, here either, I seem to recall a Sonic fansite back in the wee early days of the internet that ran a poll asking fans if they were a fan of Amy with a yes or no response. Out of over 5000 responses, two admitted yes. Ouch. Since then though, Sega's given her significant redesigns and managed to improve her standing among the fans.

As usual though with my designs for SatLoA, Amy will not behave exactly like her current iteration, but rather reflect a more advanced and mature character. Much like Black Knight changed Amy to fit her role in the story, SatLoA will be doing the same.

Characters: The Thief Kings

Some of you followers may be wondering why I've been writing up some of the smaller plot-centric characters lately, and the reasons pretty simply actually. There are a lot of hedgehogs, and I was feeling that it was a little tiring when I did all three in a row. They were similar characters in  lot of respects, which is not a bad thing, but I wanted to stretch out the other characters and not get caught up in similarity of design with the hedgehog characters. Which is why today I'm tackling the most complex (programming and animation-wise) of the characters, The three-in-one character known as The Thief Kings. I'll be dead honest, no matter how "cool" they turn out, if any characters are given the axe (and it will happen) I'd give this "character" the highest likelihood of going, as they aren't heavily needed in the game and represent a high level of development complexity. Still, nothing like rounding out the character log with some really wild ideas.

Characters: Tails the Fox

Wow, it's been a full 11 days since I last managed a post on here! Sorry guys, been busy. Anyway, this time I'll be going over the character designs for none other then Tails the Fox, that classic two-tailed vulpine hailing all the way from Sonic 2 on the Sega Genesis. Now, the key difference in characterization this time around is that Tails is actually working against Sonic in this game rather then with him. As Captain of the Atlantian Air Corp, he's duty bound to obey the orders of the Chancellor, and does so throughout the game, serving as a foil to the heroes. To acknowledge this key difference, Tails is going to be a bit different this time around. Like Silver, he's going to be a lot more mature and a bit older. His design will also be much more militarized and slightly darker, as he's playing for the other side this time around.

Characters: Espio the Chameleon

Wow. It's only been six days since my last post here, but it feels like its been a lot longer. A lot longer. Anyway, after last weeks brief discussion of the visuals (which really surprised me in that there were no comments for or against the new art direction outlined)  I'm returning this week to characters, starting with a lesser known fan favorite: Espio of the Chaotix. So get ready to see how his unique style fits into the game. But first, I would like to throw out an alert. Sterling Verses, a Sonic-themed podcast, has hinted that SatLoA might come up during it's second season. If you've never heard of Sterling, give it a listen and a bit of leeway. It starts a little rough, but you can see that the crew is committed to making it work, and the show gets better and better as the season goes on. By the time they reach the first season finale, you can tell that they're getting used to the way things work and the order of the show. If you're a Sonic fan (and since you're here, I'm assuming you may be) give it a listen. Now, on with the design...