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Difference between revisions of "Sonic Nexus"

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After missing SAGE 2008 due to an extensive development time, as the new RSDK had to be re-built from the ground up, the 2008 Nexus demo released on Labor Day (September 2, 2008) to much praise and acclamation.  The game has since been featured on many blogs and popular websites, such as [http://www.racketboy.com racketboy].
 
After missing SAGE 2008 due to an extensive development time, as the new RSDK had to be re-built from the ground up, the 2008 Nexus demo released on Labor Day (September 2, 2008) to much praise and acclamation.  The game has since been featured on many blogs and popular websites, such as [http://www.racketboy.com racketboy].
  
Due to professional endeavors by the core members of the team, production was put on hold and the development blog disappeared.  Many wondered what had happened to the project.  After a long hiatus, [[The Taxman]] announced in 2011 that the game had been merged with [[Sonic XG]] and [[Retro-Sonic]] to form [[Retro Sonic Nexus]].
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Due to professional endeavors by the core members of the team, production was put on hold and the development blog disappeared.  Many wondered what had happened to the project.  After a long hiatus, The Taxman announced in 2011 that the game had been merged with [[Sonic XG]] and [[Retro Sonic]] to form [[Retro Sonic Nexus]].
  
 
==Gameplay==
 
==Gameplay==

Revision as of 05:23, 9 March 2011

NexusTitle.png
Sonic Nexus
Latest version: Summer 2008 Demo
Latest release date: 8/7/07
Engine: Retro Sonic
Credits: Slingerland, The Taxman, Hunter Bridges

Sonic Nexus was a game being created by Nexus Team, headed by Slingerland. At SAGE 2006, he acquired two more team members in Damizean and DimensionWarped, also of SFGHQ. The game currently uses the Retro Sonic engine by The Taxman. The game began development in the summer of 2006 and had three demo releases, two at the Sonic Amateur Games Expo and one during the summer of 2008. It is a critically acclaimed fangame, garnering comments such as, "absolute perfection of the classic Sonic style" from SAGE visitors and various tech blogs. The character lineup consisted of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles.

In 2011, The Taxman announced that in early 2010 the merged game Retro Sonic XG merged with Sonic Nexus, forming the newly merged title Retro Sonic Nexus. Most of the levels from Nexus were added to the game with the XG style. Some levels unfortunately didn't make the cut to be in the merged game due to similar levels being in each game.

Nexus Team

Core Members

Contributing Members

  • Damizean: Level and Character Graphics, 2007 Demo Lead Programmer
  • Patrick Long ("Boz"): Concept Artist
  • Tweaker: Genesis Music Mixer
  • The ParadoXx: Level Graphics

Former Members

Development History

Sonic Nexus’ development began in August of 2006 as a one-act demo at the 2006 Sonic Amateur Games Expo. The original demo was created in Multimedia Fusion 1.5 in the 360 v2.0 Sonic engine by Damizean. It featured the second zone of the game, Cosmic Chaos, a casino paradise. Nexus was originally created by one man, Slingerland, someone with aspirations of creating his own game akin to his all-time favorite, Sonic CD. With the help of Damizean, to fully maximize the potential of the engine, Nexus’ 2006 demo was a smashing success and, according to some, it became the face of the Sonic fangaming community.

Slingerland’s original intention for the 2006 demo was to wrangle a new programmer to help ease the development curve and to incorporate the more complicated concepts. DimensionWarped joined the team during SAGE 2006 to fulfill this vacancy and they both started working immediately, adding Sunset Shore to the completed Cosmic Chaos. They released a Christmas demo, Sonic NeXmas, to show that progress was still being made. This demo was the first time Hunter Bridges, the game’s composer, worked on the project, creating Christmas remixes of Sonic 2 songs. Work in this engine continued into 2007. However, Damizean was nearing completion of his Multimedia Fusion 2 engine, Sonic Worlds, an engine used by a majority of fangamers today, and change was on the horizon.

With the first build of Sonic Worlds in their hands, Slingerland, DimensionWarped, and Damizean went to work on the SAGE 2007 demo. Due to the annoyingly large number of projects that show off their “green tropical paradise” zone, Slingerland decided to go an alternate route. This detour involved flexing graphical muscle and complex platforming in Nexus’ water level, Pristine Palisade. Regardless of the general consensus that the “water levels suck,” the team pushed forward. The hang-up this year was that Slingerand was directing SAGE that year, so pulling double duty put even more stress on the team. However, the demo was finally released and was named “Best in Show” (co-winner via tie total score) by a panel of judges at SAGE, while enduring a lot of complaining and comparisons from many players.

Pristine Palisade illustrated the shortcomings of Multimedia Fusion 2. Lack of object management, resulting in horrendous lag for low-end computers, was the main factor. Contributing was MMF2s programming, which was not satisfactory, according to the duo of DimensionWarped and Damizean. MMF2s workspace was an issue throughout the second demo’s development. The project was too much for this Clickteam program to handle and it was announced that Nexus would move to a new engine to be written from the ground up. A few months into this new engine’s development, Damizean asked The Taxman, who is responsible for a famous, C based fangame, Retro Sonic, for assistance. Damizean simply wanted to use a build of Retro Sonic (pre-Sonic XG merger) as a base and point of reference for the foundation of the new engine, but after challenges adapting to this code, Taxman instead offered to further enhance the current XG build of the Retro-Sonic engine for Nexus. The result is Retro-Sonic 2008, a 2D engine now capable of completely custom games. During the development on the new RSDK, RGXSuperSonic was recruited to make the intro and outro cutscenes for the game.

After missing SAGE 2008 due to an extensive development time, as the new RSDK had to be re-built from the ground up, the 2008 Nexus demo released on Labor Day (September 2, 2008) to much praise and acclamation. The game has since been featured on many blogs and popular websites, such as racketboy.

Due to professional endeavors by the core members of the team, production was put on hold and the development blog disappeared. Many wondered what had happened to the project. After a long hiatus, The Taxman announced in 2011 that the game had been merged with Sonic XG and Retro Sonic to form Retro Sonic Nexus.

Gameplay

Sonic Nexus was classic Sonic in its finest form, an untarnished retro reboot without a homing attack or grind rail to be found. The classic Sonic experience is recaptured through its revolutionary new build of Retro Sonic, created by The Taxman.

Rather than simply duplicating the classic formula, Nexus introduces a few tweaks to it. The most notable are the new level-specific gimmicks that make their Sonic debut. While still re-introducing tried and true elements of previous Sonic titles, Sonic will have new gimmicks to interact with.

New shields, including the elemental shields from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, make their appearance as apart of a level-specific shields feature. In a given zone, there are a few different shields, but one will be best suited in a particular zone. These new shields are specially designed to interact with the surrounding environment and help Sonic find all the routes that a zone presents to him.

Story

Dr. Robotnik is back and this time, he is putting everything on the line! Using the scrap metal left over from his previous, failed attempts to destroy Sonic’s world, Robotnik builds a titanic clock tower in his image. Sonic the Hedgehog springs into action upon gazing at this technological monstrosity. Dr. Robotnik has been developing a paralyzing creation inside that clock tower and he vows to release it once the clock strikes a certain time. Will Robotnik stop Sonic from reaching the Egg Clock or can Sonic stop the ticking terror before the last bell tolls?

Screenshot Gallery

Christmas Spin-Off

Sonic NeXmas is a one-zone mini-game that was released every holiday season by the Nexus team. On Christmas Day of 2006, the old engine, created in Multimedia Fusion 1.5 by Damizean, played host to a holiday-themed version of Emerald Hill. The Christmas remixes of the Emerald Hill and Sonic 2 boss music were done by Nexus' composer, Hunter Bridges. The boss, which was rather rushed, was quickly sprited by Aerosol of SFGHQ and was programmed by DimensionWarped.

Accolades

  • SAGE 2006: Best in Show runner-up
  • SAGE 2007: Best in Show (tied 1st)
  • Sonic Site Awards 2006: "Fangame of the Year" nomination
  • Sonic Site Awards 2007: "Fangame of the Year" nomination
  • Sonic Site Awards 2007: "Best Music" nomination

Downloads

Download.svg Download Sonic Nexus
File: Nexus2008PC.zip (8.21 MB) (info)
Current version: Summer 2008 Demo for PC

Prior Versions

External links