Sega doesn't care about fan projects at all, not to mention this one has been in development for about 9 years now so if they wanted to get rid of they would have done years ago.
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Remember the Sonic 2 HD fan project? Apparently it's back [UP] Demo out
- Thread starter Perfect Blue
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Sega doesn't care about fan projects at all, not to mention this one has been in development for about 9 years now so if they wanted to get rid of they would have done years ago.
CuckFupertino
Banned
Yeah this art style just falls flat. Those zones lose their identity without the pixels. Also, really poor timing coming off the heels of Sonic Mania.
Wait a year or two, come back with something better.
Wait a year or two, come back with something better.
Yeah, I agree. In motion, it really looks fantastic.
I'm willing to try this, if my crummy PC can handle it.
JetSetRadio
Banned
I just want to play Sonic 1-2-3 on my PS4. 
Lucky Seven
Banned
Also, pretty sure somebody working with SEGA has gone on record to say that SEGA is aware of fan projects and is fine with them. I read it somewhere on Sonic Stadium or tssz when BTS and ATS were popular.
CloudyTuba
Member
The problem I usually have with all these HD texture remakes done by fans over the years for a variety of franchises is that most of them, instead of just recreating the art in HD, they change the art style. They often don't realize how much they've changed the art style, though.
They do something that is loosely equivalent to the original and when comparing the two it doesn't seem like a big thing, but when every single asset is the same way, it amounts to a lot.
The most faithful HD remake I've seen recently is Starcraft HD (excluding the character portraits). The stuff in the actual world all looks so close that you could be fooled if they claimed something like "we found the original art assets!"
That's how I feel HD updates to sprite games should be.
They do something that is loosely equivalent to the original and when comparing the two it doesn't seem like a big thing, but when every single asset is the same way, it amounts to a lot.
The most faithful HD remake I've seen recently is Starcraft HD (excluding the character portraits). The stuff in the actual world all looks so close that you could be fooled if they claimed something like "we found the original art assets!"
That's how I feel HD updates to sprite games should be.
You don't really have to dig back that far.
That being said:
The people that worked on Sonic Mania aren't quite simply interchangeable that way. Sonic Mania isn't a fan game that SEGA just suddenly decided to publish.
AwakenedCloud
Member
Okay. I think this is a small part of what I was thinking of. I remember checking retro on occasion, only to find wars being fought over blades of grass or pixel 792 of the fish robot in Emerald Hill Zone.
I thought this was looking really good last time they showed it. Emerald Hill still looks great, but they've made some questionable artistic choices with the other zones, imo.
The use of more blue and blending of colors hurts the look of this background, imo. The harsh contrast of the hard burnt orange/red and bright putrid green really sell the industrial look. In Sonic 2HD the background looks too neon and feels more like a casino background.
These trees look awful. The original game was going for stylized 3D conical trees round trunks, but in Sonic 2HD they decided to make them these weird flat felt cutouts with square trunks that clash really bad with the rest of the visuals.
The use of more blue and blending of colors hurts the look of this background, imo. The harsh contrast of the hard burnt orange/red and bright putrid green really sell the industrial look. In Sonic 2HD the background looks too neon and feels more like a casino background.
These trees look awful. The original game was going for stylized 3D conical trees round trunks, but in Sonic 2HD they decided to make them these weird flat felt cutouts with square trunks that clash really bad with the rest of the visuals.
Man those Hill Top trees look terrible. The concepts from years ago looked better than that.
On the other hand, Chemical Plant looks great. I don't know if Hill Top is very unfinished and still using original assets or what, since CPZ implies that they've relaxed quite a bit with the pixel-perfect ideology they had when the project first started.
On the other hand, Chemical Plant looks great. I don't know if Hill Top is very unfinished and still using original assets or what, since CPZ implies that they've relaxed quite a bit with the pixel-perfect ideology they had when the project first started.
Fachasaurus
Member
I have a feeling this thread would have gone in a different direction if Sonic Mania didn't exist and release a few weeks ago.
balladofwindfishes
Member
Sega hired some of the original team for this fan project to make Sonic Mania.
cireza
Member
I find this pretty impressive. Going the HD route requires a lot of work on the graphics department. Of course, there are going to be a few "failures" for certain objects. But they can always rework them later.
I wonder if this project will be tolerated by Sega in the long term...
Edit : I have seen the tweet.
I also think that the work done in Chemical Plant's background is pretty great. The new gradients are not too intrusive, and they contribute to renew the style of the level quite well.
I wonder if this project will be tolerated by Sega in the long term...
Edit : I have seen the tweet.
I also think that the work done in Chemical Plant's background is pretty great. The new gradients are not too intrusive, and they contribute to renew the style of the level quite well.
CampbellzSoup
Member
I might go against the grain, but I don't really care for Sonic 2s music and the hard reliance on the sound tune it uses.
If you were designing Sonic 2 from the ground up in this day and age, this isn't what it would look like. But for what it is, it's looking pretty slick these days, particularly for a fan project.
I think Sonic 3's more detailed art would hold up better at high res than 2's does, but eh, this is what we got. Hopefully they'll be able to actually complete it. It's been three years since the project reboot and I'd at least hope they've made headway into more than these three zones.
Good luck, team.
I think Sonic 3's more detailed art would hold up better at high res than 2's does, but eh, this is what we got. Hopefully they'll be able to actually complete it. It's been three years since the project reboot and I'd at least hope they've made headway into more than these three zones.
Good luck, team.
BlazeHedgehog
Member
People nitpicking the art direction make me feel like I woke up and suddenly it's Sonic Retro circa 2008 all over again
For those that didn't know, Sonic 2 HD started out as a community project over at Sonic Retro, where forum users would contribute art to the game. Initially this seemed like a good idea but it would often cause bottlenecks that would last months as users argued over which artistic interpretation of a specific tile was "correct." Folks would go back and forth and back and forth over tiny minutiae like what the dials on the platform in Chemical Plant were really supposed to look like
It lost tons of momentum, changed project leads, and the new project managers decided it would stop accepting community input and instead recruit a core art team to define and standardize the look of the game
Seeing people complain about the shape of trees and what color Chemical Plant should be brings back a lot of very, very exhausting memories
I think it looks good the way it is. It'll probably never come out otherwise.
For those that didn't know, Sonic 2 HD started out as a community project over at Sonic Retro, where forum users would contribute art to the game. Initially this seemed like a good idea but it would often cause bottlenecks that would last months as users argued over which artistic interpretation of a specific tile was "correct." Folks would go back and forth and back and forth over tiny minutiae like what the dials on the platform in Chemical Plant were really supposed to look like
It lost tons of momentum, changed project leads, and the new project managers decided it would stop accepting community input and instead recruit a core art team to define and standardize the look of the game
Seeing people complain about the shape of trees and what color Chemical Plant should be brings back a lot of very, very exhausting memories
I think it looks good the way it is. It'll probably never come out otherwise.
Just imagine that's Studiopolis Zone in the background.
James Scott
Banned
Isn't "by the fans for the fans" basically "for the mania by the mania"?
There's also the HD Taxman port which probably looks better than this even if it's stuck on iOS.
There's also the HD Taxman port which probably looks better than this even if it's stuck on iOS.
People nitpicking the art direction make me feel like I woke up and suddenly it's Sonic Retro circa 2008 all over again
For those that didn't know, Sonic 2 HD started out as a community project over at Sonic Retro, where forum users would contribute art to the game. Initially this seemed like a good idea but it would often cause bottlenecks that would last months as users argued over which artistic interpretation of a specific tile was "correct." Folks would go back and forth and back and forth over tiny minutiae like what the dials on the platform in Chemical Plant were really supposed to look like
It lost tons of momentum, changed project leads, and the new project managers decided it would stop accepting community input and instead recruit a core art team to define and standardize the look of the game
Seeing people complain about the shape of trees and what color Chemical Plant should be brings back a lot of very, very exhausting memories
I think it looks good the way it is. It'll probably never come out otherwise.
Well it looks good, I just think that the color values of the background lose the harsh industrial look. I don't think it's so much nitpicking over interpretation when the art direction is this different from the source.
That tree is completely different and would look awful if this was a completely new game, though.
Some of the assets produced by the guys who went off to form Pagoda West years ago might still be in there, but the people making it now are completely different from the Mania team with the possible exception of Tee Lopes. The project lead put out a recruiting call when it got restarted three years ago.
Yeah, it's not bad though - a lot of work and love has gone into it and the Chemical Plant stuff looks great, BUT there's too much gradient airbrush shading. Especially on the character sprites, which also lack highlights and consequently look flat compared to the hard shading of the original pixel art.
It's also, in my (in)experience, not a good idea to simply up-res and revamp individual elements faithfully without considering how it will balance as a whole. I think that might be part of the problem here. Chemical Plant is too busy, whilst the organic levels seem empty. It's an odd look.
People nitpicking the art direction make me feel like I woke up and suddenly it's Sonic Retro circa 2008 all over again
For those that didn't know, Sonic 2 HD started out as a community project over at Sonic Retro, where forum users would contribute art to the game. Initially this seemed like a good idea but it would often cause bottlenecks that would last months as users argued over which artistic interpretation of a specific tile was "correct." Folks would go back and forth and back and forth over tiny minutiae like what the dials on the platform in Chemical Plant were really supposed to look like
It lost tons of momentum, changed project leads, and the new project managers decided it would stop accepting community input and instead recruit a core art team to define and standardize the look of the game
Seeing people complain about the shape of trees and what color Chemical Plant should be brings back a lot of very, very exhausting memories
I think it looks good the way it is. It'll probably never come out otherwise.
Was there not also a issue with the main programmer (or was it project lead?) at some point?
Velocity:Design:Comfort
Banned
Artstyle is terrible in my opinion. Thankfully we live in a world where sonic mania exists now.
The trees remind me of a cheap flash game.
Why did they go with that? Jesus. Check this out from the very thread back in 2010 about the game, looks a million times better: https://ibb.co/dvWqB5
The Xtortionist
Member
Chemical Plant's Mania transition solidified this as my headcanon
Paracelsus
Member
It looks fine, it's just that when you polish something old the whole picture doesn't blend well like when it was a bunch of pixels. It's kinda like using an OoT texture patch, but it doesn't look ugly like that, this works. It doesn't hurt physics and speed so.
The Hermit
Member
Yeah, it would
lmfao
This project used to look ugly as sin, but now it's looking a lot better... For the most part.
Characters are fine now but some of those backgrounds... I dunno.
A great effort, but I don't think I'd be interested in playing it at all, sadly. I'd prefer a wide screen version of the original lol.
Characters are fine now but some of those backgrounds... I dunno.
A great effort, but I don't think I'd be interested in playing it at all, sadly. I'd prefer a wide screen version of the original lol.
Tetsujin_MK
Member
Not a fan of the style. Absolutely disagree with people who think Mania should have looked like this. =/
Polioliolio
Member
That picture in the OP is quite deceiving.. Yeah, those trees look badish..
But watch it in motion with the trailer in HD. Actually looks gorgeous.
But watch it in motion with the trailer in HD. Actually looks gorgeous.
Coreda
Member
New character sprites are pretty sweet.
I'd love a version without the right side preview and text. Those illustrations are glorious.
I'd love a version without the right side preview and text. Those illustrations are glorious.
goldenpp72
Member
I'm sorry but this looks awful.
Wonder Peter
Member
Do not worry I forgive you.
I actually quite like it as a fan project, pretty impressive. Glad they recovered the project.
BlazeHedgehog
Member
Yeah, the original programmer for Sonic 2 HD tried to make the game unmoddable and unhackable. He thought he could outsmart an entire community of his peers and prevent anyone from modifying his code (which itself primarily existed because of the same reverse-engineering techniques he was now trying to block).
It became a significant point of contention in the community; the programmer put his foot down and refused to remove it, whereas meanwhile the game was tripping anti-virus and anti-malware programs because it was insecurely monitoring system resources in ways that could lead to security holes. That original version of Sonic 2 HD was basically acting like a rootkit under the hood.
Worse still, even if you turned off your malware/virus detector, Sonic 2 HD's "Mod Protection" had a hair trigger, and would often arbitrarily lock people out of playing the demo for literally no reason whatsoever.
Sonic Retro ran that guy out of their community on a rail and I believe that whole debacle was what lead to the original project leads abandoning Sonic 2 HD (they would go on to form Pagoda West Games). From those ashes rose this completely new version of Sonic 2 HD.
At least, that's my memory of the situation. This was over five years ago at this point, so memories are getting a little hazy around the edges.
I am Christina Aguilera
Member
I'm just happy that it looks like it's finally getting somewhere after what, a decade? I feel like the interest in this fan project over the years justified Sega to greenlight everything from Sonic Generations, to Sonic Mania, to Sonic 4. I'm happy with it coming out at all, but we sure have plenty to compare an attempt at a HD version of Chemical Plant Zone to at this point, and an HD 2D Sonic game isn't really the novelty it once was when this was making the forum rounds.
Bravo that it's getting somewhere, tone down that Chemical Plant Zone background, with it that colorful, it's too busy, you can barely see the enemies
Bravo that it's getting somewhere, tone down that Chemical Plant Zone background, with it that colorful, it's too busy, you can barely see the enemies
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