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Sonic the Hedgehog FreeRunner

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Revision as of 16:16, 29 January 2012 by Azukara (talk | contribs) (Levels)
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The game's logo

Sonic the Hedgehog FreeRunner is a fan game project created by Azukara and 8-Bit Dragon. It began development from under a heavily modified build of Damizean and Mark the Echidna's Blitz Sonic engine, but has now transferred development to Unity.

History

Sonic Freerunner began under the title of "Project: FreeRunner" in January 2010. The game's concept was invented by Azukara, and was originally in the planning form for the previous four years; and finalized enough for announcement of the project's concept. For enough footage to be shown as proof of working being done on the project, Azukara teamed up with programmer Carrierhack as they both revealed several concept shots of the title. Interest and momentum gained for the game's progress as many others joined, including project co-leader 8-Bit Dragon, which without him the game wouldn't be getting nearly as much progress as it was, is and continues to gain.

After several speedbumps and issues over the months of development, Sonic Freerunner has appeared and disappeared from the public eye, but is still being worked on behind closed doors. Azukara and 8-Bit Dragon are making sure that the game is good enough quality before they show off the game.

A demo (Alpha vers. 1.1) was released on March 19, 2011; and an update featuring some bugfixes and gameplay changes (Alpha 1.2) was released on March 25, 2011.

Officially announced as of 12/26/11, Sonic Freerunner's development has been moved from the Blitz Sonic engine to Unity.

Story

. . .

All is well on Planet Freedom.

Doctor Eggman has been absent for quite for some time, leaving Sonic free to do as he pleases, and the world in complete peace. The doctor's efforts had fallen to shame one too many times in a row, leading him to disappear, with no one ever expecting his return.

..little does the world know that Eggman has been working on an entirely new scheme down in the Land of Darkness that will change absolutely everything.

Doctor Eggman secretly builds bases under each floating continent of Planet Freedom. In each base is a port built to fit each piece of land to make it one with the Land of Darkness, allowing Eggman to take full control of everything. Eggman attached giant chains to each piece of land in order to pull it into the Land of Darkness and have it bound to the ground.

In order to commence his new plan, he needs the power of the 7 Chaos Emeralds at his disposal. With them, he will have enough energy to power the binding of the floating land masses. He steals the Emeralds from Hidden Palace Zone, along with the Master Emerald, and leaves behind a huge machine powered by Chaos Energy. With this he is able to decieve Knuckles into thinking that the Emeralds are in place and safe. With the Emeralds, Eggman then commences Operation Landfall.

Sonic wakes up to the ground shaking ferociously, then realizing that the entire island is descending. He then feels the tremors rumbling within the island come to an abrupt halt. Once each piece of land is in place, Eggman sends his badniks in to take over each area. Eggman's Operation Landfall is a success. It is up to Sonic to end Eggman's reign of terror all over Planet Freedom; by finding the Chaos Generators powering the chains and destroying them, freeing the encaged emeralds. With the generators destroyed, he can then break the chain holding the land in place, allowing it to float back to it's proper vicinity. Along the way, he meets up with friends Tails and Knuckles, and with their help, he goes on to bring Doctor Eggman's plan into shambles.

Characters

Sonic the Hedgehog: The world's fastest hedgehog; He has a heart of gold, a laid back-yet-impatient nature, and doesn't afraid of anything

Miles "Tails" Prower: Sonic's best buddy, sidekick and admirer; Also is a mechanic and flight engineer, ace pilot and the hedgehog's right hand man

Knuckles the Echidna: Sonic's rival; Protector of the Master Emerald on Angel Island, adventurer, trouble maker, Amazon warrior and part-time treasure hunter

Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik: A maniacal, rotund, bombastic evil genius that has destined himself to take over the world under his image and make the world a robotic fortress

Gameplay

Sonic Freerunner is a game made to bring in a gameplay that introduces a blend of momentum-based gameplay from the classic Mega Drive / Genesis games, and realistic movement and level design cues from Sonic Adventure, and the modern stages in Sonic Generations. The environments are meant to be made with a basic A-to-B layout, but also be massive scale, and chock-full of alternate routes and nooks and crannies; with the intentions of either to progress through them directly in Story Mode, race throughout them for the best ranking and timing in Time Attack Mode, or to just run around and explore all areas, discovering secrets and talking to NPCs and the like during Free Run Mode.

Sonic's main moves and abilities are subcategorized in relation to running, jumping, and spinning.

Running is fairly tight in movement, with moderate acceleration and deceleration. Pressing in the opposite direction of current movement makes Sonic skid to a halt. Running comes with a speed cap on flat ground that can be partially penetrated when moving down hills, but not by a large margin. When running at high speeds Sonic may be harder to steer from side-to-side or around curves, and because of that Sonic has the (recurring from modern titles) Quick Step and the Spin Dash Drift.

Jumping is obviously Sonic's main method of attack and his basic means of aerial movement. Sonic curls into a ball and spins in midair, allowing him to hurt any enemy that happens to touch him (unless the part of the enemy that touches Sonic is the enemy's weapon and/or projectile). Since targeting an object in midair may become an issue in three dimensional space, Sonic also has a short ranged variation of the Homing Attack, which gives him a slight jolt of forward momentum after hitting an enemy. Alternatively, precision aiming and landing on a badnik or object in quick descent and/or consecutively can lead to rewarding results such as bouncing at extended heights. Lastly, without anything to home into, pressing the jump button in midair does a quick jump dash that also works as an "insta-shield", giving Sonic the split second capability of dodging and/or blocking various projectile or weapon attacks.

Spinning is in fact one of the most important factors of Sonic because it introduces one of the biggest addtions to the speed and spectacle of Sonic gameplay: the spin attack. When mobile, pressing the spin button curls Sonic up into a whirling blue ball as he rolls across the ground. In this mode Sonic functions like a moderately heavy ball; where his acceleration is not affected by input by keys, but the steepness of the slope he traverses across. The steeper the slope the faster Sonic goes down it, and this can be chained to where Sonic can continuously gain speed (since spinning has no speed cap). Spinning can also break through tough surfaces, slide under crevices / inbetween tight spaces, and break nearly every "breakable" object in the game. Also, if you need a quick speed boost, pressing and holding the spin button at a stand-still enables the Spin Dash Attack, which revs up Sonic in a ball form and launches him forward. When reaching to slower speeds whilst spinning, Sonic will automatically uncurl back into a run.

Extra moves are also available and unlockable for use (such as the lightspeed dash, stomp, etc.), and some moves can be attained by collecting the special-operating elemental shields.

Levels

The levels in the game are as followed:

  • Cascade Grove Zone- The first level in the game. A checkered forest-valley filled with waterfalls, flowing streams, greenery and blue skies galore, floating loftily in the breezy air with a glistening ocean view. The perfect paradise. No wonder Sonic comes by these areas so often.
  • Alpine Eruption Zone- Here you navigate the chilly bellowing mountains covered in pine trees and the great white. Slopestyle courses are abundant here, but then again so is uncontrollable lava flow! Hopefully the dazzling aurora borealis will keep your mind off your troubles.
  • Bumper Boulevard Zone- As the natural light of the world goes dim, the electric candlelight grows brighter. Sonic makes it to a colorful, lounge-like casino laden with springs, bumpers and flippers, red carpets and chandelliers hanging through the rooms. It's quite a luxurious and attractive place, but the amount of objects in this stage make everything surprisingly bouncy. Expect to be ricocheted every which-way.
  • Floral Springs Zone- Exiting the hustling and bustling casinos and higher life, we make it to a wonderous place.. a hillside flowing with cherry blossoms, coy ponds, banzai trees, hot springs... geysers?! The currents are strong in these waters; as they tend to drag you through their own special paths and the like. Water gushes all around as you make it through this beautiful but deadly aquatic landscape.
  • Deserted Ridge Zone- a sweltering, dry canyon with desert windows forming into loop-de-loops. The heat isn't so bad when you grind your way down into the glistening mines, caves and aquifers below, but you have little to make it by on besides a few cliffs and the fragmented railings from rusted over minecart trails.
  • Windy Ruins Zone- Storms are brewing. This is the remains of a lost ancient civilization that's been preserved by nature.. that is until now. With all the natural disasters occurring across the planet, everything is falling apart and the clouds are rushing in, starting monsoons and wind gusts that blow away the landscape. Something big is coming..
  • Transit Metropolis Zone- The city capital of Planet Egg. Rushing across the tops and surrealistically-warped walls of skyscrapers; A shining neon utopia on the outside, but it's inner workings are pure laboratoric nightmare. The center of this place is an electronic database and artillery harboring for all of Robotnik's machinery. Pulsating electricity, chemicals, smoke and fumes, a cyberpunk ghetto dystopia with the doctor's name literally written all over it.
  • Cosmic Armada- ???
  • SPECIAL STAGE: In this ever fluxating inter-dimensional realm lie the Chaos Emeralds.. use the halfpipe to collect the rings and surpass the obstacle course so you can the Chaos Emerald!

Gallery

Credits (as of September 20, 2011)

Project creator / Lead game designer: Azukara

Project producers: Azukara (creative department; decision making), EightBitDragon (management)

Programming: EightBitDragon, Morph / SonicFreak94, Carrierhack, Twilightzoney, angelXwind

Concept Art: Azukara, Greg the Cat, Mimi / Zee-Cat, BlazeCake, KKM, Death72, Overbound

Artists: Azukara, EightBitDragon, Death72, Tobbii, Twilightzoney

3D modelers: EightBitDragon, Exo_Chaoslava, SefirothDB, Twilightzoney

Animators: Twilightzoney, Morph / SonicFreak94, EightBitDragon

Music: DJ MAX-E, Carbo / Columind, Aptiva, Ritz190

Storywriters: Azukara, Needle-IFE, Cola, Impish, Tidbit, Volpino

Original Coding: Damizean

Site: angelXwind, ReimuHakurei

External links