Möbius strip
Lately I've been hard at work porting things from the Fusion engine to Game Maker and in that time. I've learned few things...
For one I've realized that the tropical madness zone tiles are a pain to put together. They don't neatly go together like regular tiles do and its a very chaotic set of assets. I have to give serious credit to Felik when he was in charge of the project. Back then I would make an asset and then beg him to put it into the engine as soon as possible. I never knew how badly I was hurting development with my raw assets. Some of what I did had to be completely tossed or reworked to fit work in Click Team Fusion. I would often wonder why it would take whole weeks just to get a section of an Act up and running. Now I know, and it's not at all the simple task I thought it was.
Now that the game is in Game Maker things have to be further formatted for this new system and it's talking a tole on me. However, it's always a nice payoff when testing. Even though I'm just porting, I get to see results of all the work that I've done in action.
The next thing I learned is that SAGE (Sonic Amateur Games Expo) 2017 is just around the corner(September 30th). When I read the announcement the I thought the timing couldn't be worst. Here I am porting assets over to a new system and this comes up. Part of me was hoping that the event wouldn't happen this year. SAGE has spotty track record when it comes to consistency so I was hoping I'd have enough time to present something new when it came back. Hopefully something like a Final Demo or even a full game who knows, but now all I'll have time to submit this Port+.
What makes the situation worst is that this year's SAGE will be HOT off the heals of the latest sonic game, Sonic Mania; and if you have heard the mild controversy about Mania looking like a fan-game,(A controversy which is also responsible for baring me from being a community member of Sonic Retro's Forums) you can see why this can be a problem.
This Year's Expo has a rule in place that NO ONE will be allowed to participate if they posses MANIA contraband in their games ie. assets from Mania. This isn't just limited to rips taken from the game, this also includes assets that resemble things found in Sonic Mania. Personally, I found this rule to be ridiculous. It treats the situation as if someone is stealing assets from a fellow fan game developer. It's offering a special brand of protection that no other official game has gotten. I know they have their reasons, but pirates will be pirates and the way I see it having such restrictions wont help anything. SEGA could easily pull a Nintendo and say any free 2D sprite based Sonic experience is now hurting their sales. Ironically though, this SAGE rule put me in the fear that it has the serious potential to hurt this game. Leading me to....
The next thing I've learned, Mania and Neo Genesis share the same loop. Before I clarify what that means I feel like this must be said...
I know because of my opinions and view point I'm not at all a popular person in the Sonic community. I strongly believe that there are more than a few people that have a bias against me.(The intensity varies from person to person.)
Regardless of what I state, there will be a "pack" of fans ready to mock me and burn me down.
Whatever proof I have or had will be torn apart, disregard, stamped as nonsense.
My reasoning will be misinterpreted, taken to extremes, and used to make me look stupid.
There have been times where the recoil got so toxic it felt like I insulted their god or something. They were so hell bent on putting me down it actually made me cry, BUT in their defense at the time I was struggling with serious depression .(That will teach me to look for comfort on the internet.) So from my experiences I know that there is a very big bias in favor of Sonic Mania. That game will always be held up to look good in any situation even if that "worship" contradicts itself later down the line. I've stated all this as foot note, to what I'm about clarify with the loop statement. I know full well that it wont be taken too kindly to some, but here goes...
Mania has a bit of my ideas, both in aesthetics and concept. Now DON'T get me wrong here. I'm not saying they came to my house looked at my MAC/PC/LINUX and said that's what we'll take. That's not it at all; what I'm saying is that there are quite a few things that COINCIDENTALLY are in Mania that are also in Neo Genesis. There people out there that have said Neo Genesis gets the Combine Ring idea from Mania, but in reality Sonic Neo Genesis predates Sonic Mania's Development Cycle. Back then it was called Sonic Mega Drive and that was in 2014 (yes, before comics too). Going even further the Combine Ring isn't the only idea that Mania and Neo Genesis share. As the more is revealed about Mania the more similarities I find. The issue compounded itself when all could think was about was how much it would suck to be bared from SAGE because of a few similar assets or other things.(This was a real threat and it scared me) Then given the nature of the internet, having such similarities is not a good look for this game. Not to mention all those people out there that don't do their research and make comments on their Let's plays and Showcases that "X feature/asset comes from Mania." This isn't limited to Neo Genesis either. There are people that have said that Sonic Time Twisted Special Stages are somehow inspired by Sonic Mania, prompting the developer Overbound get ahead of it and post Beta footage. Which leads me to wonder... How much will SAGE be eclipsed by Sonic Mania?
Anyway...
With all that said I'm not oblivious as to why this such parallels exist to begin with. The reason is really simple. Both Mania and Neo Genesis have virtually the same goal in mind, we both have the internet, and we are both pulling from the same gene pool. So there is bound to be some overlap. There's only so far you can go when your main inspirations come from the same set of games that haven't seen a proper update in years. They talk/talked with the very same people I talk with now. Not only that, the members of Team Mania aren't at all strangers to fan works and the fan community (that's how a few of them got their professional start). However, I'd be lying if i said there is not a single idea I lifted directly from Mania
For a while I think my biggest reason for all my worries with this situation is that I struggle with an inferiority complex that possess me with need to be noticed/recognized (its really difficult to live with). There where things in and planed for Neo Genesis that made me feel special for coming up with or borrowing X idea. It felt like a really novel thing being able to implement something that hasn't been done before or something that hasn't been seen in a long time in a sonic game. But, as things got revealed for Mania it felt like I was being robed of that. The idea(s)/asset(s) became no longer novel, and suddenly the public perception will now be "SNG got X from Mania". It put me in a position to feel like I'm competing against a Official, Licensed, and Paid for Project(with a team of professionals). While my anxieties didn't stop there, I'll save you the sob story and jump ahead.
All those thoughts added to my depression as I worked on porting this game. Its like I've been running a in a Möbius strip trying to sort out my head. Thankfully, the coders on my team have helped me in my dark days and they didn't know it. Thanks to them I've learned how to look at SNG going forward. Not as something that is Under the Shadow of Mania but as something only we can do (despite the similarities). They gave me advice to not focus so much on the "Impending doom" and just focus on making something fun. Even just the fact that they where there helping me with game did a lot. I didn't feel so alone. Now my only concern is that we aren't bared from SAGE. SAGE is really the only time this game gets any attention. This game has never been a show stopper like Overture or Utopia or even Project Survival or Emerald Tides so people don't talk about it on the off-season. SAGE is really important to the potential reach of this game.
As for those who don't care about all that drama I outlined above here is the bottom line. Progress on the game is now going some what smoothly. I'm a bit fatigued with Sonic since that's all I breath now... but if I stop what I'm doing now there's no way we will make that SAGE DEADLINE and that would be just as bad as being bared.
I must say thanks to everyone for sticking by us, There will be more (positive) updates soon so be sure to check back here...
PS: The Combine Ring Predates the first fully fledged Sonic fan game and that was 1995... so there you go.