=== like da-thing said.. read, share, or whatever... === the point of this project is to help you guys with helping you find an engine and sprite app that's best for your needs, this can get long... so please pay attention. ^^ I recommend you always have a team or a game plan. before making anything public, if you have decided on an engine to use, run some tests! -------------------- art related stuff ------------------------- always, ALWAYS have a sprite style in mind, either from the megadrive era, 32x era, or mania eras, or make up your own, I would recommend Graphics Gale or Libresprite for making/modifying existing sprites, if you cannot find an idea for something, look into the megadrive Sonic prototypes, specifically Sonic 2 or CD, they have so many unused content that could be reused for your fan game, XG reused so many cut Sonic 2 badniks. if you plan on making a 32x sprite, be creative with the palette, remember, you don't have the same limitations as the megadrive, try to make it look somewhat 3D, take inspiration from XG or Sonic Nexus! they are both amazing games that have an amazing art style! if you know how to modify sprites and are ready for the big jump, PLEASE do not replicate green hill zone as your level tileset, it's not the 2000's anymore, remember that XG modified most assets from Sonic CD and Sonic 3, take inspiration from such! or heck, knuckles chaotix, that game had so many sprites that haven't really been in many fan games. all you really need is to make the standard "flat ground" sprite, then I would suggest using "Sonic Slope Maker" for making the rest of your tileset spritesheet. --------------------- level design ---------------------- this is partly what I meant by choosing an engine, by far, HedgeFusion framework for Clickteam 2.5+ is the hardest to use, if you misalign a few parts of the collision... its over, you gotta find the errors, and it can be tedious. Harmony Framework for Gamemaker studio 2 is a whole lot better, but the thing is, you also have to make sure the tileset fits on the standard collision sheet (yes, the collision tiles are SEPARATE than the tileset ones) once you get the hang of that, its a piece of cake using Harmony, trust me! but one thing, be careful if you do decide to join the server for Harmony, they can be pretty toxic and non helpful at times, but I'm sure it will be fine for you if you ask others, here, or on youtube. Oribinaut 2 for gamemaker is ok... I would recommend Harmony though, Harmony is simpler and is more versatile. CORE framework by Nihil for Clickteam Fusion 2.5+ is (by my standards) the best for level design, not only can you port the whole chunks of a level there and not one 16x16 piece at a time, but it's completely user friendly! there are a lot of modifications you can make there!! the big thing though is that clickteam is paid software, and you need the plus DLC... besides that you should be fine!! remember, Sonic Hoshi and Newtrogic Panic were made using this engine!! so you can accomplish big things there!! I hope this helps you with your fangame!! and please, if this did help you.. reach out to me once you finish a demo of your game... from the distant star, -dani.
modified sonic CD prototype sprite by me background is from harmony framework's arboreal agate 2 @da-thing for the original idea.