Fan-Made 2D Sonic Remake

[Charlie_Brown]

Hello there Escapist crowd, just registered to ask this quick question (quick answers welcome).

I'm in the middle of doing a very dull dissertation, and was wondering what people would think of me writing a remade 2D sonic game? Not a piss-poor flash remake like the ones plastered all over the web, but a proper high-quality game engine for fan-made levels and mods which run on a computer as an executable (.exe) file. I'm pretty rubbish at graphics and sound, but I could write an engine and an editor that would allow graphics to be imported and levels to be made. A community could be built around that.

Thinking of a UnrealTournament-style game but with the classic feel of Sonic 3, where you choose to "play a map" and try and get a hi-score or something.

Basically, has it been tried before?
Would it be played? Would you play it?
Would SEGA let it be distributed? They're normally fine with their graphics and sounds being used for fan stuff as long as they are credited.
OR should I just go back to my dissertation and forget it?

If anyone's seen the success of Mario Forever over on CNET, I think it has potential, but I won't bother trying it if there's no point or glaring errors I'm missing.

Cheers!

 

[Snotnarok]

Yes it's been tried before, there's a few good ones out and coming out
I'd play it, the Black Knight is not going to be good for me.
You couldn't sell it, you'd be better off doing it in secret then put it out. If you kept putting out info you -could- be found out like the 3D Chrono Trigger remake
up to you, I'd like to see a new Sonic fan game.

Good sonic Fan games:
Sonic Megamix
Sonic 2 HD

 

[Theo Samaritan]

If you could in some way make an awesome 2.5D version of sonic, I will kiss your feet.

You should be fine doing this, and hell yes would I play it.

 

[Charlie_Brown]

Thanks for the titles Snot, I'll check that out.
And yeah, this isn't to sell, just a timewaster. I've played Sonics 1-3 enough on emulators to want to be able to build my own levels, bosses etc.

And yeah, the 3D Chrono Trigger remake...still gutted about that. Hope they really are carrying it on and just keeping it 'off the grid' as it were.

Theo, I was thinking pretty much a remade engine of Sonic 3 (& knuckles) though possibly without the Chaos Emerald-special stages as that'd be a bit of a headache to write that.

 

[DigitalSushi]

I'd download it off the web, I'd play it, complete it, get a high score.

then I'd ***** about how its not a proper Sonic and how shit it was, how I feel insulted that someone could do that to Sonic, while bypassing the issue I stole it for free off the net.

 

[samsprinkle]

I wouldn't play it...mainly because I have an old Genesis set up that I can play sonic on whenever...but other than that I'd play it...

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

You're damn right I would play it. The concept sounds awesome, and I love you long time if you do such a thing. Also I like the idea of a remade sonic 3 engine.

 

[Charlie_Brown]

Samsprinkle, the idea is that people would be able to easily share their own art and level designs and mods for the engine, not necessarily so people could replay sonic 3.
There are emulators for that, of course people could accurately remake the maps, but in my opinion that's kind of missing the point of why I'd want to do it.

Any particular features needed then? Could people live without special stages?
I'm putting my foot down and saying no werehogs though.

 

[Snotnarok]

Samsprinkle, the idea is that people would be able to easily share their own art and level designs and mods for the engine, not necessarily so people could replay sonic 3.
There are emulators for that, of course people could accurately remake the maps, but in my opinion that's kind of missing the point of why I'd want to do it.

Any particular features needed then? Could people live without special stages?
I'm putting my foot down and saying no werehogs though.

Suggestions? Don't make it mach 10 running, just keep it fast and Genesis like, loop-de-loops are a must, and special stages I feel are a must but they don't have to be like the others, just different from the stage to stage deal.

 

[Sylocat]

There are plenty of Sonic ROM hacks floating around the net. Most of them are terrible thanks to Sturgeon's Law, but some of them are really good.

Check out this playlist [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPni3b4jyls&feature=PlayList&p=28D9F92EB7A3DEA7&index=0&playnext=1] for some pointers (ignore the first video if you like).

I wonder if someone has put together a freeware level editor yet... I know there's one floating around for Super Mario World (hence this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0ib4GxLPw]).

 

[Charlie_Brown]

Thanks Sylocat, great playlist there. Didn't realise hacks of this quality were quite as numerous, if there's a level editor out there maybe I won't bother after all hehe.