Sage’19 – interesting original projects
Sage. Sonic Amateur Game Expo. Exhibition of amateur games based on Hedgehog Sonic. What is it, where did it come from and, most importantly, why did anyone even need to create a full-fledged network exhibition of games made on the basis of other people’s intellectual property, and actively maintain its existence for almost two decades. To answer all these questions, the organizers of the online event made an excellent video in which they give a quick historical course and talk about the philosophy of Sage in general, and I strongly recommend that you look at it first, the benefit of someone very kind and selflessly made Russian subtitles.
I’ll try to squeeze the already brief background to a pair of proposals. Sage arose in the distant 2000 due to three key reasons:
People just wanted to see more games about their beloved character, and with this, Segi had certain problems in the era of Saturn. Sonic R and a slightly powdery Sonic 3D Blast could not satisfy the hunger of the fan audience, and people began to make games themselves to fill the void formed due to the fault of the legal holder. But there is a problem.
The attitude of the copyright holders towards the fan games has always remained exceptionally negative, but if you could declare yourself in the Japan to the Dodzinzi-artist, come to the comic and live calmly, then beyond its borders, any activity that goes beyond the “acquisition-consumption” cycle was perceived as a direct encroachment on the financial scrapers of copyright owners. And Sage, with its appearance, was called to show that the fan movement comes from a great love for the original source and does not set himself the goal of cash in on someone else’s property.
Finally, the desire to be heard is characteristic of many artists, but at that time the search engines were just starting to gain mass, and large social networks and platforms for publishing a video did not even smell like. Sage promised to give the figures of an amateur video game front to the stands with which they could declare their work before a large international audience, albeit on the other side of the monitor.
Years passed, the exhibition grew up and developed: new headings appeared, their own podcast began to broadcast, people associated with official products on the blue hedgehog were invited to interviews. And what is most interesting for us, step by step Sage went beyond the boundaries of a purely local Sonikovskaya party and began to take almost any indie that the organizers would seem interesting. For example, in 2012, the exhibition showed a prototype Freedom Planet – a game that subsequently made a long way from a free amateur crafts to a full and very high -quality commercial product. In general, in its current form, Sage can be interesting not only to fans of Sonic, but also to lovers of video playing amateur performances, and then we will see what is interesting from non-shy developments of the event for us this year.
Project Z-Treme
I’ll start immediately from the https://independentcasinosites.co.uk/review/winit-casino/ place to the quarry – the first -person shooter for Sega Saturn behind the authorship of a very enthusiastic person under the nickname XL2! True, so far this is not a full-fledged game, but rather a very, very basic technical demonstration of the capabilities of the engine, consisting of ascets borrowed from other games, and capable of offering only one type of enemies, four types of weapons and two miniature test cards. But it is played smoothly and without brakes, which is already very cool for the engine, obliged to work on the console, known for its problem hardware filling (problematic). The author also for the sake of jokes included in the last assembly several adapted levels from Quake, but they work in a medium that is not universal for them very unstable, which XL2 honestly warned in the description. Technology also contains cooperative games and games against each other, however, field tests over the network through Mednafen showed that something does not work, and the second player (from his words) was happening a complete league. In any case, the Hombryu-Shuther for Saturn is already cool in itself, and if something more global hatches from this technology, I would not mind looking at the result.
By the way, in the first iteration of his engine, XL2 tried to recreate the gameplay of the canceled Sonic X-Treme, and it was this demo that he showed the public at last year’s exhibition. How could you come from a colorful three -dimensional platformer to a first -person shooter – only the author is known to one ..
Vertebreaker
Apparently, Simon Tomly did not want the game story to remember his company Headcannon as “those guys who ported several games about Sonic on mobile phones, and then made Sonic Mania,” and at Sage’19 he announced the people from their digital tribune that work on the new and the first, in the first and first original game of the studio, was in full swing. Simon did not unfold and attached a link to the working prototype, according to the game process of which you can already add an approximate stop of what you should expect from the new creation of Headcannon.
And the first thought that arose in my head after what I saw: “So, someone did not play enough at Umihara Kawase, did not find additives and decided to make it himself, diversity for the sake of changing the setting to a dagger?”And indeed, the nameless skeleton we have to play, with his habits, very much resembles the main character of the” fish “series: runs and jumps extremely reluctantly and can barely even rise in the hill. In order to somehow compensate for his weakness, the main character armed himself with someone’s spine, which he can not only whip the ill-wishers, but also cling to any bulging pixel and thus cover much long distances compared to walking around the walk. In general, if you think about it, the hero Vertebreaker was not shown to us during his lifetime, and his similarity with a girl with a fishing rod is striking … That’s all suspicious.
If you have not been familiar with Umihara Kawase earlier, the creation of Simon Tomley and Headcannon can initially be decently puzzled in terms of control. It’s just one thing to catch on something, another is to gain acceleration in the right direction and at least take it at all, because in the process you can participate up to five buttons: to catch, pull up, weaken, pull yourself sharply, jump. Not yet a piano, but you have to quite quickly think what action at what time needs to be used so that the protagonist flew to where it is necessary. Well, for some time it will go about the addiction to local physics.
For those who liked the game, I have two news. I’ll start with a bad one: the release of Vertebreaker is assigned to the second half of 2021. Good: at the end of October, the project plans to reach Kickstarter, and Simon Tomly promises to fit a new demo for the collection campaign to collect finance. Well, you have to wait.
Phantom Gear
The Argentinean Bits Rule India Studio with a demo version of its platformer for SMD was also noted at the exhibition, which successfully received funding for Kickstarter this summer. Although the developers say that by the time of the release planned for the fall of next year, much in the game will have time to change a hundred times, now it is quite possible to add the first impression of how exactly the creation of Bits Rule will play. AND…
The game looks definitely very beautiful. Well -developed rear backgrounds and the surrounding environment and pleasant animation of the main character are tuned in the right way, and excellent soundtrack also facilitates this. But regarding how the game is actually playing, I have a number of uncomfortable questions. Firstly, a controversial levela design. Due to the presence of microscopic platforms, which need to be jumped with special accuracy, the character is very short of the opportunity to perform tiny steps for a couple of pixels. Each press on the cross leads to a small but tangible inertia, because of which attempts to straighten the initially incorrect trajectory of the heroine’s jump create only extra problems. There are also “blind” jumps, when it is incomprehensible whether the platform is below, or the abyss. Secondly, the game in places is clearly trying to encroach on the laurels of hardcore platformers like Super Meat Boy or Celeste;Well, you know, when you need to jump into the abyss, in the process to make a jerk to the side, and then also a jump, along the way without falling on the spikes. Maybe this is with me some problems, and other players will not have this, but I did not always manage to accurately get into a timing and make the right action before the character signs into the abyss of ends. Thirdly, the rebound back after receiving damage. Just … just a rebound back after getting damage. Of course, straight into the abyss. Otherwise, how?!
Although I have complaints about the game, I can’t say that I have not enjoyed passing the first and only level in the demo version.
Brock Crocodile
Despite the fact that the earliest references to this game date back to the year 2014, the first public demo version saw the light only recently. What, by the way, she called a certain excitement on Sage’19, and some users were waiting for the beginning of the exhibition only to get acquainted with this amateur long -term construction.
As a result, the people squeaks with delight in the comments, and I am in complete bewilderment from what I saw. An unattractive motley and flat picture, in which there is nothing to eye on the eye, is supplemented by a twitched control. However, I did not have time to go through a third of the demo, the eyes stopped bleeding, and the character began to better obey the teams. I played, apparently. There are two locations in the demo version. The first is a city in which the hero begins his adventure and where he can return from time to time to chat with non -playful characters about the pressing and replenish stocks in stores. The second affordable location is a spacious and moderately non -linear level, which is not enough just to run from the edge to the edge – it would also be nice to find all the cache with the treasures. For this, the hero is armed with a pistol, which can be charged with various cartridges, as well as a multifunctional whip, which can not only be admonished, but also the irregularities of the landscape.
The gun, however, seemed to me unbalanced. Having charged him with cherry bones, I stuffed the first boss so much that I felt like a chiter in the end. Well, you need to do something with the management, since making aimed jumping with such a tiny spriting of the character is not so easy.
