Jaded Alyx
Member
No.mountain_duwe said:
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Sonic Unleashed First Cutscene & Hub World Revealed!
- Thread starter HUELEN10
- Start date
Community Forum
Member
ShadiWulf said:
SONIC BOOM!
Aaron Strife
Banned
To be fair though, they didn't really have much to go off of back then. There was Sonic 1 and Sonic 2.HUELEN10 said:
BlazeHedgehog
Member
Aaron Strife said:
Who's in-game manuals consisted of like, a single paragraph that basically said "DR. ROBOTNIK IS A BAD MAN, AND SONIC WANTS TO STOP HIM FROM BEING A BAD MAN BECAUSE SONIC IS A GOOD GUY."
Hero of Legend
Member
New four minute Japanese Wii Spagonia Day & Night video:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/mpd/permalink/m2CQMVST4NZU4T
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/mpd/permalink/m2CQMVST4NZU4T
grandjedi6
Master of the Google Search
HUELEN10 said:
HUELEN10 said:
HUELEN10 said:
HUELEN10 said:
AwakenedCloud
Member
Hero of Legend said:
Wait, wasn't that intro music from one of the Sonic Series - either Underground or SATAM. Its definitely recognizable.
AwakenedCloud
Member
nah, just like the first 5 seconds of the video. It sounds so familiar...
MiamiWesker
Member
I am going to have to wait a month for Sonic. 
RobbieNick
Junior Member
Glad to hear about the release date being bumped up. Just got my hands on a TRU Werehog fig. I have three days off next week (Wed, Thurs Fri). Just happens to be on the date that the Wii/PS2 and 360 versions come out! Awesome.
youngleaves
Banned
Dedication Through Light
Member
youngleaves said:
I guess that was in reference to the US versions?>
NTom64 said:The trailer for the Empire City level should popping up on Sega's FTP server sometime today
C'mon old school Sega CD style hip-hop music!
youngleaves said:
Nice. Hopefully we can get a demo really soon then, especially since they've released one for every console main series Sonic since SA1.
New stage names revealed:
Spagonia day time stages = Rooftop Run
Holoska day time stages = Cool Edge
Glad they've still got that nack for Sonic zone names.
So far thats: Windmill Isle, Dragon Road, Savannah Citadel, Rooftop Run, and Cool Edge.
Oh and apparently at some point, you'll be able to just go to whatever stage you want, out of order (meaning skipping stages if you arent interested in them atm.
Probably going to have something to do with Tails.
Spagonia day time stages = Rooftop Run
Holoska day time stages = Cool Edge
Glad they've still got that nack for Sonic zone names.
So far thats: Windmill Isle, Dragon Road, Savannah Citadel, Rooftop Run, and Cool Edge.
Oh and apparently at some point, you'll be able to just go to whatever stage you want, out of order (meaning skipping stages if you arent interested in them atm.
Probably going to have something to do with Tails.
The World of Sonic
Hello. My name is Sachiko Kawamura, and I am the Art Director for Sonic Unleashed.
For this installment of the Developer Diary, Id like to talk about the background art for the game.
World Travel in 5 Minutes a Day
When designing the stages and the environmental backgrounds for Sonic Unleashed, the key point we really wanted to get across was, Lets offer gamers a world-spanning travel experience right from their own homes.
We wanted playing Sonic Unleashed to feel like, each day, the player could head to any country in the world, and really get the feeling for these locations and the sights they had in store.
When building the world, we tried to make it so that all the places the player could go would be like someplace the player had never been to but had always wanted to. We looked at thousands of pictures and through hundreds of books, deciding which locations to design thematically and how wed need to capture that, so that someone could look at an image wed created and think, Ive never seen that before, but it feels like someplace I know. We all exchanged ideas internally, and it was really exciting and quite fun.
In the end, we decided on nine different locales. We choose a wide assortment: places scorched by the sun, places that were bone-chillingly cold, humid places, dry places, tiny villages and vast cities. We really wanted to strike a balance and try to represent places for all over the earth and really vary things up.
PIC
Our goal when designing the actual backgrounds and environment was to come up with something that would make players go, I want to come here again. I want to see that again. Sort of like the feeling that people get after going on vacation, and even before theyve gone back home are already hoping theyll get to come back in the future.
Of course, we always want the game itself to be fun, but we also hope that maybe players might stop for a moment and look around and really feel like theyre in that place weve created for them. For example, the dazzling sun pouring down on them, or with those torrential waterfalls that lead into rivers that then lead into streams; with smoke pouring out of chimneys as they look out over the city, as they venture through rural backroads, ancient ruins, and so many other places that might feel real to them.
To further enhance that feeling of the player really being there, weve tried to realistically recreate everything about the atmosphere, from heat to cold, dryness and greenery, the difference in air temperature and humidity, sunlight and moonlight and streetlights...
This was the focus we kept in mind when creating both the action stages and the town stages for Sonic Unleashed. And even for us, while we were making it, we got to enjoy a little bit of our own travel spirit.
I hope that the rest of you out there get to enjoy our little world travel in just five minutes a day, too!
Realistic Components for Cartoon-like Models
When we were designing the backgrounds for the game, we kept reminding ourselves that our goal wasnt to recreate anything from real life. We wanted to capture the feel of famous sights and monuments from different countries around the world, not simply make copies of them.
PIC
One of our goals was to meetor even surpassthe visual quality of CG animated films.
Capturing that tangible feeling was something we really sought to do. Each texture needed to feel realistic. The lighting had to be realistic; realistic in a way that we could proudly compare to a hardcore First-Person Shooter. At the same time, though, the models and colors we were using were for cartoon-like designs. So, our challenge was to convey this realism and atmosphere while remaining true to the visual style and already-familiar worldview of Sonic the Hedgehog.
You might say that we wanted the player to feel like theyd entered some kind of theme park.
In the next Developer Diary, well get into the Hedgehog Engine and its Global Illumination Technology, and how we used that along with our artistic efforts to create the cutscenes, village stages and all the friendly people you get to meet all around the world!
Grandiose 15km Backgrounds
You probably already know by know that Sonic Unleashed is a dual-structured game, where you get to play as Sonic the Hedgehog during the day and Sonic the Werehog at night. One of the big points of consternation for the artists who had to make the background models were the daytime action stages.
Again, as you probably already know, Sonic has always been a character whose design has been based on being able to run really fast, but Hashimoto-san, the director of Sonic Unleashed, wanted to make Sonic faster than ever before. What this translates to in gameplay terms is that sometimes, Sonic is moving upwards of 100 to 150 meters per second, which is magnitudes faster than weve ever had to take into account.
Now that Sonic is this unbelievably fast, it meant that we needed to create action stages that were well over 10 miles long in some cases. At the same time, the image quality needed to be good enough for those times when Sonic wasnt going to just be rushing past things too fast for the player to see them. Creating a 12 mile stretch of background environment is a nightmare, let me tell you. But we had to press on!
This is an action game, and its also a Sonic the Hedgehog game. Youre in control of a super-fast blue hedgehog who runs side to side, backwards and forwards, and every which way. He can run along walls and ceilings just as easily as on floors. There are impossible loops and dips and turns that dont even slow him down. The level designers didnt hold back in the least in coming up with exciting, acrobatic terrain for the little blue guy to run around. Getting our backgrounds to fit naturally with these tricked-out stages was a big challenge for our artists.
PIC
Actually, that was kind of a nightmare, too.
Still, we artists dont back down from challenges like that. We wanted our stages to look great, so that if you took a screenshot at any point along that 12-mile stretch, itd look greatand at the same time, that along that 12-mile stretch, the background wouldnt just look the same. Everywhere you stopped, we wanted the player to be able to spot something new.
And this is with Sonic moving at 150 meters per second!
If you look closely at the environment, youll see all sorts of things, like butterflies amidst the flowers, fish swimming just under the surface of the water, windmills spinning around... you can even hear old men singing in the shower if you get close enough to the window. Theres a ton of little things to find, so we hope that gamers take the time to take things slow, every now and again, and see whats there in this world weve built.
In the end, though, for a developer, its the greatest feeling in the world to see that we overcame all of these difficulties and created really amazing stages for our very own Sonic the Hedgehog that we love so much. I really do think we succeeded in creating a great action game as well as an experience to really get across that world travel feeling that we were shooting for.
Speaking of which, we really put our all into both the Wii and PS2 versions and the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, so whichever version you end up playing, I hope you like what you see!
In the next Developer Diary, well talk about characters.
Until next time!
http://blogs.ign.com/SEGA_SonicUnleashed/2008/11/14/105898/
REALLY GOOD READ! The pictures are amazingly beautiful.
Hello. My name is Sachiko Kawamura, and I am the Art Director for Sonic Unleashed.
For this installment of the Developer Diary, Id like to talk about the background art for the game.
World Travel in 5 Minutes a Day
When designing the stages and the environmental backgrounds for Sonic Unleashed, the key point we really wanted to get across was, Lets offer gamers a world-spanning travel experience right from their own homes.
We wanted playing Sonic Unleashed to feel like, each day, the player could head to any country in the world, and really get the feeling for these locations and the sights they had in store.
When building the world, we tried to make it so that all the places the player could go would be like someplace the player had never been to but had always wanted to. We looked at thousands of pictures and through hundreds of books, deciding which locations to design thematically and how wed need to capture that, so that someone could look at an image wed created and think, Ive never seen that before, but it feels like someplace I know. We all exchanged ideas internally, and it was really exciting and quite fun.
In the end, we decided on nine different locales. We choose a wide assortment: places scorched by the sun, places that were bone-chillingly cold, humid places, dry places, tiny villages and vast cities. We really wanted to strike a balance and try to represent places for all over the earth and really vary things up.
PIC
Our goal when designing the actual backgrounds and environment was to come up with something that would make players go, I want to come here again. I want to see that again. Sort of like the feeling that people get after going on vacation, and even before theyve gone back home are already hoping theyll get to come back in the future.
Of course, we always want the game itself to be fun, but we also hope that maybe players might stop for a moment and look around and really feel like theyre in that place weve created for them. For example, the dazzling sun pouring down on them, or with those torrential waterfalls that lead into rivers that then lead into streams; with smoke pouring out of chimneys as they look out over the city, as they venture through rural backroads, ancient ruins, and so many other places that might feel real to them.
To further enhance that feeling of the player really being there, weve tried to realistically recreate everything about the atmosphere, from heat to cold, dryness and greenery, the difference in air temperature and humidity, sunlight and moonlight and streetlights...
This was the focus we kept in mind when creating both the action stages and the town stages for Sonic Unleashed. And even for us, while we were making it, we got to enjoy a little bit of our own travel spirit.
I hope that the rest of you out there get to enjoy our little world travel in just five minutes a day, too!
Realistic Components for Cartoon-like Models
When we were designing the backgrounds for the game, we kept reminding ourselves that our goal wasnt to recreate anything from real life. We wanted to capture the feel of famous sights and monuments from different countries around the world, not simply make copies of them.
PIC
One of our goals was to meetor even surpassthe visual quality of CG animated films.
Capturing that tangible feeling was something we really sought to do. Each texture needed to feel realistic. The lighting had to be realistic; realistic in a way that we could proudly compare to a hardcore First-Person Shooter. At the same time, though, the models and colors we were using were for cartoon-like designs. So, our challenge was to convey this realism and atmosphere while remaining true to the visual style and already-familiar worldview of Sonic the Hedgehog.
You might say that we wanted the player to feel like theyd entered some kind of theme park.
In the next Developer Diary, well get into the Hedgehog Engine and its Global Illumination Technology, and how we used that along with our artistic efforts to create the cutscenes, village stages and all the friendly people you get to meet all around the world!
Grandiose 15km Backgrounds
You probably already know by know that Sonic Unleashed is a dual-structured game, where you get to play as Sonic the Hedgehog during the day and Sonic the Werehog at night. One of the big points of consternation for the artists who had to make the background models were the daytime action stages.
Again, as you probably already know, Sonic has always been a character whose design has been based on being able to run really fast, but Hashimoto-san, the director of Sonic Unleashed, wanted to make Sonic faster than ever before. What this translates to in gameplay terms is that sometimes, Sonic is moving upwards of 100 to 150 meters per second, which is magnitudes faster than weve ever had to take into account.
Now that Sonic is this unbelievably fast, it meant that we needed to create action stages that were well over 10 miles long in some cases. At the same time, the image quality needed to be good enough for those times when Sonic wasnt going to just be rushing past things too fast for the player to see them. Creating a 12 mile stretch of background environment is a nightmare, let me tell you. But we had to press on!
This is an action game, and its also a Sonic the Hedgehog game. Youre in control of a super-fast blue hedgehog who runs side to side, backwards and forwards, and every which way. He can run along walls and ceilings just as easily as on floors. There are impossible loops and dips and turns that dont even slow him down. The level designers didnt hold back in the least in coming up with exciting, acrobatic terrain for the little blue guy to run around. Getting our backgrounds to fit naturally with these tricked-out stages was a big challenge for our artists.
PIC
Actually, that was kind of a nightmare, too.
Still, we artists dont back down from challenges like that. We wanted our stages to look great, so that if you took a screenshot at any point along that 12-mile stretch, itd look greatand at the same time, that along that 12-mile stretch, the background wouldnt just look the same. Everywhere you stopped, we wanted the player to be able to spot something new.
And this is with Sonic moving at 150 meters per second!
If you look closely at the environment, youll see all sorts of things, like butterflies amidst the flowers, fish swimming just under the surface of the water, windmills spinning around... you can even hear old men singing in the shower if you get close enough to the window. Theres a ton of little things to find, so we hope that gamers take the time to take things slow, every now and again, and see whats there in this world weve built.
In the end, though, for a developer, its the greatest feeling in the world to see that we overcame all of these difficulties and created really amazing stages for our very own Sonic the Hedgehog that we love so much. I really do think we succeeded in creating a great action game as well as an experience to really get across that world travel feeling that we were shooting for.
Speaking of which, we really put our all into both the Wii and PS2 versions and the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, so whichever version you end up playing, I hope you like what you see!
In the next Developer Diary, well talk about characters.
Until next time!
http://blogs.ign.com/SEGA_SonicUnleashed/2008/11/14/105898/
REALLY GOOD READ! The pictures are amazingly beautiful.
The Empire City Trailer is now up on Sega's FTP server :
ftp://segapr.segaamerica.com/SEGA_G...ashed - Empire City Gameplay - November 14th/
:ftp://segapr.segaamerica.com/SEGA_G...ashed - Empire City Gameplay - November 14th/
BlazeHedgehog
Member
Firestorm said:
Seriously. Best Sonic game in years.
Especially about the time you try the 2D version somebody made.
Azure Dream
Member
Sega1991 said:
Damn that's awesome. I mean really, really entertaining.
The Wii's Holoska trailer is also up as well.NTom64 said:The Empire City Trailer is now up on Sega's FTP server
ftp://segapr.segaamerica.com/SEGA_G...ashed - Empire City Gameplay - November 14th/
HUELEN10
Member
We have an offical threadYaceka said:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=342126
please let this one die in peace.
BlazeHedgehog
Member
Kulock said:
If you like it, that guy has made other games similar to that - if you've ever heard of Fancy Pants Adventure, it's basically the same engine he used for Mirror's Edge 2D.
http://www.bornegames.com/?page_id=66
http://www.bornegames.com/?page_id=67
The Mirror's Edge 2D engine is a little bit different (on order to make it fit with the theme of the game, obviously), but FPA is still remarkably entertaining and I can't help but wonder if Sonic Rush didn't come along, if that's the sort of game 2D Sonic could have become - big, smooth slopes and lots of cool acrobatic flair. Not necessarily 300mph, but still fast feeling, regardless.