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Remember the Sonic 2 HD fan project? Apparently it's back [UP] Demo out

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F

FranF

Banned
I actually like it a lot, it has a really "90's" feel with those soft, saturated gradients. A lot better than how Sonic 4 came out in any case
 
C

CloudyTuba

Member
Coreda said:
Found the blog post about it. Last concept art looks nice.

Apparently it was internally referred to as 'The Fucking Tree' 😄
Click to expand...

The first attempt looked bland because the artist only paid attention to the shape outlines and not to the values. It's not surprising it looks boring after being completely flattened out like papercraft. They made a mistake and instead of fixing it, just gave up and went a different direction. Very strange.
 
R

RagnarokX

Member
Coreda said:
Found the blog post about it. Last concept art looks nice.

Apparently it was internally referred to as 'The Fucking Tree' ��
Click to expand...

The "too bland" faithful tree looks better. All they really needed to do if they thought it was too bland was add some texture to it to look like pine needles.

Though it looks like they were making it way more complex that it needed to be even with the faithful tree. They made it a bunch of weird flat arrows laying on top of each other with spikes coming out the top when all it is is a bunch of stacked cones:

46Wr415.jpg


Basically like an 80's cg art version of a typical simple cartoon pine tree.

NSMBU went with a similar style with the pine trees in Frosted Glacier and used textures and stacked the cones off-kilter to give the trees some flare.
YxGFsqjl.jpg


But I think a very geometric stack of cones fits Sonic better.
 
F

Falk

that puzzling face
I'm pretty convinced between the responses to those two other videos and the Sonic Mania mod that colors Sonic a darker shade of blue that the fanbase really just enjoys having a harder time spotting Sonic or something.
 
V

Valentus

Member
So this is not the same sonic 2 hd of the PagodaWest Games guys? (so in conclusion they are not involved in this game's resurrection?
 
P

PaulloDEC

Member
Geez, tough crowd on Gaf. I remember playing the first demo and thinking it looked staggering, and this seems fairly close to that.

Sonic Mania was a tough act to follow apparently!
 
D

Dereck

Member
M

MagnoSauce

Member
The official one is beautiful while the fan game is fugly? Sega lives in the opposite world from Metroid development apparently.
 
E

Eumi

Member
This has always looked awful to me. The levels and enemies have been made shiny, I assumeto make it look more 'HD', but they just look like inflatables to me.
 
O

Ogni-XR21

Member
Having worked on a fan game myself I have to give props to everyone involved. People are much more likely to complain about stuff than give it praise or even acknowledge the work people put into these projects in their spare time.

I loved the first demo and really am looking forward to this demo 2.0.
 
C

Catvoca

Banned
I appreciate all the work that goes into projects like this but I'm just not into the artsyle much at all. I'd rather just play the original.
 
B

BlazeHedgehog

Member
Falk said:
I'm pretty convinced between the responses to those two other videos and the Sonic Mania mod that colors Sonic a darker shade of blue that the fanbase really just enjoys having a harder time spotting Sonic or something.
Click to expand...

No it needs more flares and trails and particles and a dirty camera lens

MORE graphics is better than LESS graphics, because you get more! It's self explanatory!

Anyway, I'm not sure what Sonic Fan Remix or that Mushroom Hill Zone 3D video do that isn't already something we got in Sonic Generations. Y'all "waiting for a Sonic game that looks like this" sort of... got that? Granted, it's not a perfect, 1:1 replica of Classic Sonic gameplay, but unlike Sonic 4, I found it enjoyable enough.
 
N

Nanashrew

Banned
For the record, this project was a restart for the team. This project had been around for awhile but died because the lead programmer LOst, put DRM in the game then suddenly disappeared. None of the team had any idea there was DRM in it upon it's original demo release. And there was no way for them to actually take it out or fix anything about the build after what the programmer had done to it.

Here's the original statement of this project back in 2012

Last month we proudly showed off a demo of what we’ve accomplished with S2HD. Needless to say, more work has been done on the game; unfortunately, the odds of this work every seeing the light of day is slim to none. We gave the project’s Lead Programmer, LOst, a week to provide us with a DRM free build of S2HD. We’ve heard as much from him as you have, so it’s safe to assume that’s not going to happen. Given his complete lack of communication and cooperation, it falls upon to LOst to assume full responsibility for his actions as, up until the demo was released, the project’s leadership was unaware of both the DRM and the now infamous DirectInput bug. This was the last straw for us. He had ignored direct requests for the past two years, effectively holding the project ransom by refusing additional help or review on his private engine. If he didn’t think a piece of artwork matched his vision for the game, it was not included, or worse, was replaced by assets of his own creation. The same thing happened with the excellent multi-format sound engine our Tools Programmer Saxman created. Ultimately, LOst is no longer a part of the project.

That’s the good news. The bad news for the project far outweighs it unfortunately. We cannot replace our lead programmer as LOst kept the source code for himself, making it impossible to the coded source material to be updated or used as a base for newer builds. Additionally, two key staff members, scanline99 and Cerulean Nights (both of whom were chiefly responsible for the many animations, spritework, and overall polish seen in the demo) have resigned from the project to concentrate on independent works and careers. While we wish them the best in their endeavours, what this means to the project is that they will no longer be producing any artwork for it. Without them we are not able to guarantee the same level of quality seen in the alpha. At the moment, with ongoing careers and kids to look after, both myself and Canned Karma don’t anticipate that we’ll have a great deal of time to devote to S2HD either, which means we’re forced to announce that

Sonic 2 HD is officially discontinued.

Certainly the DirectInput bug and the blogosphere fallout over it didn’t help matters, but by the time that had taken place we had already made the decision to discontinue the project almost two months ago, well ahead of the demo’s release. Internal conflicts between the project leadership and its main programmer which reached critical mass, and the only thing holding it together was the collective determination to put our frustrations aside and get a playable build into the hands of everyone who waited years for it.

Hopefully, another group in the Sonic community will pick up the torch and go forward with the vision we had over a year ago — not just creating a Sonic 2 remake, but creating entirely original content.

Thanks to everyone who supported the project, especially to the passionate classic Sonic fanbase. The appreciation thousands of fans expressed to S2HD as a game made “by fans for fans”, represents a landmark where SEGA has to look at for a profitable use of the -highly demanded and beloved Classic franchise.

-Vincent Team S2HD Project Leader.
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--


nkarafo said:
This is great but Sonic himself looks very weird here.



By the same guy who made 90's Arcade Racer. Two unfinished dream projects.
Click to expand...

90's Arcade is finished. Likely has been for years now, but you know, Nicalis! Also it had a name change, because Nicalis! It's called 90's Super GP now.
 
B

Blueblur1

Member
I think it looks great overall. These folks have been silently regrouping and toiling away and it shows. I would love to see this project completed. (And hell, it'd be great if Sega picked it up and made it official.)
 
P

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Chemical Plant looks great, That Fucking Tree looks fucking awful.

I remember reading into how they were approaching 'recreating' some of the assets and it read like some sort of mental sickness just crying out for an intervention.

That infographic about the tree tells me the individuals did not end up getting the help they need :(
 
W

Weltall Zero

Member
BlazeHedgehog said:
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.
Click to expand...

I don't care how much PTSD anyone has about overzealous fans, there is no excuse for those trees.
 
B

Blueblur1

Member
Pie and Beans said:
Chemical Plant looks great, That Fucking Tree looks fucking awful.

I remember reading into how they were approaching 'recreating' some of the assets and it read like some sort of mental sickness just crying out for an intervention.

That infographic about the tree tells me the individuals did not end up getting the help they need :(
Click to expand...

Jesus Christ. What kind of post is this?
 
D

Diablos

Member
I think it looks great. I'll play it.

Ideally I'd love to see this patched into Mania as a mode you can turn on or off. Wishful thinking I know, but it would be fun.
 
M

MaLDo

Member
RagnarokX said:
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.

Mce4EP3.png

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.

czJB7rQ.png

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.
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My only problem with the new art style is they seem to hate dark colors. I mean, shadows are really bright and that's the reason of the flash game feeling.

Only darkening the shadows and removing some details, because I think those trees have so many of them, it looks way better imo.

sonic2hd49oli.gif
Click to expand...
 
T

thepenguin55

Member
Honestly, I think Sega will shut this down. They'll be as nice as possible about it but I think it'll happen. Especially since I think it's only a matter of time before they bring all of the Christian Whitehead versions of classic Sonic's that are on iPhone to modern consoles (or at least I hope that to be the case cause I want those on console!)
I guess the question is where does Sega draw the line with this stuff? Do they even need to draw the line with this stuff?
 
S

Shadio

Member
thepenguin55 said:
Honestly, I think Sega will shut this down. They'll be as nice as possible about it but I think it'll happen. Especially since I think it's only a matter of time before they bring all of the Christian Whitehead versions of classic Sonic's that are on iPhone to modern consoles.
Click to expand...

I don't think it is. It's been four years since those versions were released and I don't think there's even been so much as a hint that Sega ever considered putting them on anything but mobile.

People probably thought it was only a matter of time before S3 and S&K were released on PS3 as well. Sega is silly and unpredictable.
 
T

thepenguin55

Member
Shadio said:
I don't think it is. It's been four years since those versions were released and I don't think there's even been so much as a hint that Sega ever considered putting them on anything but mobile.

People probably thought it was only a matter of time before S3 and S&K were released on PS3 as well. Sega is silly and unpredictable.
Click to expand...

Sure. I mean, I hope they come to modern consoles. While I'm excited for a potential follow up to Sonic Mania I personally consider bringing the iPhone versions of all the classic Sonic's to modern consoles to be a higher priority but I could get why it might not be considered a high priority...
 
F

Falk

that puzzling face
Weltall Zero said:
OK, in literal, non-hyperbolic terms: "design by fan committee may be a bad situation, but having a designer decide those trees are OK is no better".
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No, I'm confused because I didn't type any of the stuff you quoted. For a wild moment I was thinking you fabricated a post completely or something for some bizarre reason.

Had the bright idea to Ctrl-F the page and found it was another person's post, hahah. My bad!
 
W

Weltall Zero

Member
Falk said:
No, I'm confused because I didn't type any of the stuff you quoted. For a wild moment I was thinking you fabricated a post completely or something for some bizarre reason.

Had the bright idea to Ctrl-F the page and found it was another person's post, hahah. My bad!
Click to expand...

Oh, whoops! No, it's my bad, actually; just corrected my original post; sorry for the confusion!

Actually, I know exactly what happened. I originally quoted your post that said "if only you knew the story of those trees" and was going to reply "well, don't leave us hanging like that!" when I came across that other post that seemed to explain that story, so I removed your post from my reply... and obviously deleted the wrong quote tag. >_<
 
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