[FANGAME][ENGINE][PLAYABLE] Aria of Destiny/Sonic Construct Worlds

[Candescence]

There is a reason for the two titles and three tags. One is a major project of mine. The other is basically a sub-project to make the actual engine, since I'm revamping the engine itself.

Aria of Destiny (Haven't updated this blog in ages, btw)

There are three aspects of the multiverse which keep everything in check. Creation, Existance, and Destruction. These aspects revolve in harmony with each other. However, evil can disrupt this balance, and now it intends to use the aspect of destruction to eliminate existance, and halt creation...





God-knows how long ago, I started a crossover game project called Aria of Destiny. The basic objective was to create an involving story surrounding several characters who had been thrown into a new world by an unknown force. Both heroes and villains are forced to battle over the very forces of Creation, Existence and Destruction themselves.

It's a Metroidvania. Basically? A mixture of the more recent Castlevania games and Metroid, with multiple playable characters, levelling, exploration, sub-weapons, bosses... The works.

However, a while ago, I decided to revamp the whole project with a new engine. The progress of doing so has been VERY slow, until recently, which I'm gonna show below. These days, there's quite a few things I would do differently, and better. For instance, I plan on not using an experience level system for the revamp, rather, I'm gonna use equipable items as a way for players to 'level up', which encourages exploration and dodges the issue of level grinding.

Also, I was thinking of eight-directional attacking for certain characters, such as Julius. Ironically, Konami beat me to that only recently with Castlevania: Harmony of Despair's Julius DLC, as he has a new running animation, eight-directional whip attacks, among other things... Unfortunately, it's an XLBA game, which means nobody's probably gonna bother ripping sprites from it anytime soon. GAH.

- Download the demo here. -


Now, as for the new engine itself... Well, it's a sub-project, essentially, and it's open source. Some of you would probably know about the open-source MMF2 Sonic engine, Sonic Worlds...

Sonic Construct Worlds

Construct, for those who are unaware (you probably will be since it's listed in the game makers topic), is a lesser-known, open-source game creator that provides a free alternative for those who don't want to fork out the cash for MMF2 and GM. In many ways, it's like the former, but its event system makes MMF2's look utterly archaic by comparison.

Though it's not very well known, and it can be somewhat buggy due to its 'beta' status, I love it to bits. I've seen some absolutely incredible things come out from its community, and, well, I tried to port Sonic Worlds over, using Damizean's original attempt at a port as a foundation.

Then I realised that a straight port was not worth it, and started from scratch using Construct's 'Custom Movement Behaviour', trying to replicate the classic Sonic physics in a different manner. I'm no expert on engine creation, though, so you know how well that went. After a ton of hard knocks, some help from one of Construct's devs who even helpfully incorporated a feature into the behaviour to make things a lot easier, and some work, well... I managed to come up with this.



This project used to be a straight port of the MMF version, but, as shown at SAGE 2010, Sonic Construct Worlds is now effectively its own beast. And it comes with two levels - the basic test level (which is highly incomplete), and the Clock Tower, a Castlevania-based level that has Sonic run in, and run out, while dodging enemies and Death along the way. The 'custom edition' has gone through multiple iterations, with this being the best so far.

However, it doesn't really need to be said that this engine needs a LOT of improvement before it can be anywhere near as good as its MMF cousin. Seriously. The physics need serious improvements, for starters. In its current state, it's kinda shite, to be honest. Even Sonic 4's physics are probably better than this.

Current Features:

* On Step movement, and automatic velocity angle change. I couldn't have done it without Davo's additions!
* Sonic 2-level movement functionality (though the physics need serious work)
* Loops and stuff!
* Platforms!
* Rings!
* Some monitors!
* Shields! (which don't have any special abilities yet)
* Multiple skins, including Tails, Knuckles, two versions of Sonic...
* A multiplayer prototype, allowing for literally up to ten players. Four is more realistic, though.
* And did I mention it's open source?

To be done:

* Implement skidding
* Fix side Springs
* Basically, momentum in general needs serious work.
* The current way of handling falling off slopes and stuff isn't very good, that needs to be fixed as well.
* Currently, the player doesn't move along with moving platforms. This needs to be rectified as well.
* The rest of the test level needs to be filled in.
* Need to fix up the additional skins, and add special abilities.
* The last five monitors.
* Super Forms.
* Some gimmicks.
* Unfortunately, the multiplayer prototype has made a nasty problem rear its head - the current method of utilising 'loop layers' is more or less useless with more than one player.
* It's also caused the shields to not destroy themselves when replaced or the user is damaged.

Basically, the whole engine is open for people to get into and improve. I intend to iron out all the bugs, fix up the momentum stuff, and all that jazz, over time.

- Sonic Construct Worlds Alpha 5! -


Don't be afraid to criticise and let me know about any bugs and stuff. Don't bother with bug reporting for AoD, since I'm gonna revamp that game with the SCW engine, but regardless, feedback would be much appreciated.

[Vipershark]

Does the sonic engine follow the genesis games exactly (as in, using the information from Sonic Retro's disassemblies to get exact, perfectly replicated movement) or did you make how sonic moves on your own?

[GrooveMan.exe]

I would disagree with a direct copy of the physics from the original games - although using them as a base would be understandable.

Off-hand, have they also done deconstructions for Advance and DS-generation Sonic?

[Candescence]

Well, I use Retro's stuff (including the Physics Guide) as guidelines, and also as a source of info on how to go about implementing various stuff. That said, a fairly close approximation of the 'classic physics' is ideal in this case, because they work, and it's very easy to extend out to make it work like the Advance and DS Sonic games.

Off-hand, have they also done deconstructions for Advance and DS-generation Sonic?

I haven't checked, but probably not, and I can see why. The Advance games are, physics wise, similar to the classics (SA1 especially), the DS games have hilarious physics issues if you don't play the games like the devs intended... And I don't need to mention Sonic 4.