Sonic Maker

Sonic Maker v2.5 running in Windows 7 with a level currently being edited. Including the added labels and outlines the the object icons.

Sonic Maker is an PC game creation application being made by Sonica as his response to Play SEGA's level editor. It is designed to be a user-friendly 'point and click' level editor offering common objects, including platforms, rings, boxes, and loops. Its easy-to-use interface allows users to simply choose and place items in a level grid, as every object fills a set number of squares. Currently, there are functions to save or test layouts, but these are still in a testing phase.

First appearance

Sonic Maker was first mentioned on this thread on the Sonic Retro message board, to spark attention and see what the community thought of the idea. After a good response, development was intensified.

Programming

Sonic Maker's editor is developed using Visual Basic 2010 (initially Visual Basic 2008). Playing the levels will be possible with a variety of engines, ranging from Game Maker to Visual Basic.

Runners

The 'runners' in Sonic Maker are the engines that will play the users' games/levels. They will be implemented using many different engines and programs. The only runner at the moment is one made in Game Maker, an edited version of Sonic Dash, but in the future more will be implemented, with different exporting methods. Other engines may include Multimedia Fusion's Sonic Worlds, an engine made in Visual Basic, and any others the community suggest that will be suitable and adaptable to Sonic Maker's features.

Unreleased Progress on the Game Maker Runner

The current Game Maker runner is undergoing a 'face lift', in order to give it an official feel, using the Sonic Physics Guide to fix the physics and camera movement, and the entire feel of the movement.

The engine may well be changed from the Sonic Dash base to an entirely new one, but until this time, the Dash engine will be perfected.

Current Features

Sonic Maker currently allows the user to create levels by point and click, save levels, export levels and play levels. The load feature doesn't work, but has been implemented for the next build.

Future versions

Future versions of Sonic Maker will include more features and access to many different ways of creating Sonic games. The next version will include an entirely new interface. A screenshot of the new inteface was posted in Sonic Maker's topic.

Planned additions

• Finish Tile Scrolling List
  • Give it a smooth sorta scrolling effect, instead of just swapping for the next one.
• Copy For Objects
  • The object editor needs a scrolling list aswell, just as effective.
• Add Selection Options
  • If you hold control, click and drag, you can select objects, depending on what editor you're in. All you can do at the moment is delete. I want copy, cut and just for collsion, change what type of shape it is (what platform, what layer).
• Add Zoom For Main Editing
  • I can't actually add zoom, I don't think, but I can add a small window which shows a zoomed in view following the mouse.
• Add Tile Maker (not what you think)
  • The tile maker that you might have seen on the Sonic Maker youtube channel has been scrapped, in favour of the new collision placement system. What I am talking about, is adding tiles to the tile list within Sonic Maker, the whole point of it is to make the entire game inside it.
• Add Layout Size Options
  • Options to change the level size, basically...
• Add BG Parallax Maker =)
  • Oh yes! Every Sonic game needs parallax backgrounds, and so should yours! This will allow you to import 1 image, the size of the view, or wider, and let you slide sliders, to seperate the image into up to 20 slices, and you can set the scrolling properties of each section. Simples!
• Sprite Editor
  • Hmm. After all I learnt making 'Doodle Pad' in GM (Can be found on GMC, if sounds interesting), I can now easy create painting programs, and to take advantage of that, you will be able to customise nearly all the sprites in the games you make.
• Music Import
  • Of course.
• Physics Change
  • Not all people want perfect Genesis physics, although most do, so I will make it possible for people to change the following:
    • Accelleration
    • Deacceleration
    • Friction
    • Jump height
    • Jump limit
    • Jump limitation
    • Gravity
    • Top speed
  • ...I might have missed stuff, but oh well.
• Animation Speeds Change
  • Yeah, animation speed changing.

Videos

Updates Sonic Maker can now be easily seen on its own Youtube channel: SonicaMaker's Youtube channel It currently contains 2 videos:

• A preview of Sonic Maker v3 beta, including a preview of the upgraded runner Link.
• A preview of the brand new TileEditor, that will allow you to import 256x256 images, and draw collision shapes over them Link.
• Announcement of a GREAT new feature Link.
• How to use tile editor, and actually save tiles Link.

Downloads

Download Sonic Maker File: Sonic Maker V2.7z (5.28 MB) (info) Current version: 2.5

Remember this is the testing demo, but you can play your games using the GM Runner.

Prior versions

• Sonic Maker v1 ^(info) (91 kB) (91KB)

Production Credits

• Programmer: Sonica
• Runners: Sonica, Damizean, Rougeyoshi

Screenshots

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