Status Updates

I mean....I can see why you would think that 

Keep it up! You look like you're coming through smoothly!

GG!

Good game!

On a similar note, it's been ages since i played Tools of Destruction, but has Angela Cross being referenced at all after Going Commando? I remember a throwaway joke line on the radio in A Crack in Time, but that's it.

Not explicitly, the line in ACiT isn't actually a joke though, it confirms she's a lombax, and the comic explains where she's been during the Future series - she was hunted down by Tachyon, and was able to escape thanks to Max Apogee's help (she's why Max is missing in the games, he shifted dimensions to save her).

I remember me and  some Twitter friends arguing over Rivets species and they referenced that line as an argument as to why Rivet wasn't a Lombax due to having a tail. Lol

Welcome to the next level!

Yeah, sounds like it could be a new movie from what I was reading earlier. Makes me wonder, if that is what's happening, if they're adapting anything from the manga currently or if it's gonna go its own way.

I was really taken aback when I played Unleashed in the first time forever last year. And in a good way. Sonic is slippery as fuck in Unleashed, but I think he's much nicer to control there than in any of the games since. Everything from Colours onwards is stiff and unresponsive, or just plain janky as far as Lost World is concerned. I'd take "slippery and responsive" over "controls like a car on the ground and can barely turn an in after jumping" any day. I genuinely don't think that they improvemed Sonic's controls at all after Unleashed, apart from the drift (which wasn't even available in Forces anyway). They "fixed" the slippery controls by making Sonic less responsive. It's a crap solution.

@Blue Blood That's pretty much how I feel. My complaints with Sonic's controls are mainly down to the drift. Later levels become a crapshoot on whether I'm gonna make the drift-focused corner or not, usually leading to a death that could've been avoided.

Aside from that, I don't have much issue with Sonic's controls. I guess my issue is mores with the later level design.

I'm assuming that the fandom might start complaining if SEGA told them that they can no longer do fan games (which is something we don't want to happen).  But, if it comes down to only Sonic Omens being taken down because of the creator making a profit off of the game, when they aren't supposed to make profits off of SEGA's character, then I guess the fanbase would be okay with that, as long as it doesn't lead to SEGA telling everyone to not do fangames anymore, like what happened with Nintendo.

Plausible deniability? No wait, that's not the right term. But they could ignore it if they wanted to, provided it's lowkey enough, or heck, maybe Sega really does not know of it. For the former, the more it spreads the more likely it can't be fake ignored. Has there been some terms/conditions Sega has put up in regards to fan projects?

I'm not well versed at all in this stuff, but their patreon doesn't mention Sonic in any shape or form. Some vague hints to it like "Tornado" exist, but otherwise, you're just giving money to an indie studio working on an undefined game. Nowhere on the page mentions you are giving them money for their Sonic project, you're just supporting the studio in general. Chances are there isn't really a case to be made against them, compared to other patreons, where they directly advertise and even have perks for the game if you pledge. 
That's my guess, anyway.

Not sure if you guys knew this. But fans have been making money off of fan content already for ages. There is near endless amounts of Sonic fan artists making money from their fan art on their patrons, and in japan they straight up openly sell fan manga over there. I understand those are not fan games so they are bit different. But just saying.

copying is easy

They're all working off the same pool of engines, and those engines are too focused on throwing every Sonic mechanic from under the sun in instead of focusing on a few key ideas.

Good luck!

Best of luck and have fun with that!

Good luck!

For someone with a clown avatar, you certainly avoid being the clown. Well done.

Haha, y-yeah!

*hides the fact that I pre-ordered KH3 on EGS the day it was announced*

I'm buying it as soon as I secure a PS5

My brother got a PS5 somehow so I'll be able to play it when it comes out yippee

Sonic is a bad omen

G'morning!

Poor poor Raiku. The true OTP is a throuple relationship with the three.

*Riku

I know what I said.

I always feel so awkward because I don't ship SoRiku or SoKai. I just sit here in my little RiKai corner hiding from all the chaos.

Yeah!

Sora and Kari are here! So is Mimi!

It's also backlash from the over-hype and praise. That and people overlooking egregious flaws in the project too.

I saw it a couple of days ago. Had no idea it was controversial and I didn't see any hint of it being so in the comments I saw.  

I’ve seen far more anger over this thing than I ever saw “over hype and praise” lmao, unless you’re one of those who watches sonictube orsomething.

Also find it awfully weird that people seem to say they’re averse to the “sega hire this man” mindset and then criticize the game for not being good enough to meet their standards for what they think should be hired by sega. (especially when this is the closest I’ve seen fans get to something bigger than a lot of 3D fangames do).

almost as if there’s a double standard here.. or that the Patreon fiasco is clouding their judgment from being fair. feel like it should be celebrated that fans could do this much and do a half decent job at it. not blind praise but acknowledgement at the very least 

lol I noticed the X music in some footage and had a similar reaction. It's like the fan made Sonic OVA sequel (now cancelled) that went out of its way to make sure that we saw Sonic, Knuckles and Tails' bare feet, with all of them being uniquely design. That project never looked official, but it was trying to be worthy successor to the original OVA. I get it; these are all fan projects that and everyone is free to express their creativity any way that they see fit. But yeah, when they have such good production values or are at least trying to match the standards of official productions, quirks like these really hurt the whole experience. Eggman only ever had visible eyes in '06, but even then it was rare that you got to see them and Eggman had a very different design for that game. 

Does this mean in the 2030s-2040s we're going to get a bunch of cutting edge Sonic Boom fangames?

Tbh I'd love for character letimoffs to be used more in the series in cutscenes and stuff. But that fucking 4Kids Sonic theme is the worst one you could've picked. 

The idea of Sonic having a phone or living in a house didn't fit my head canon for some reason. Lol

Yeah, the Eggman eyes were weird as hell in 2006 but they weren't so weird since it was a different art style (and they at least made the wise choice to keep the sunglasses opaque from the front).  This game seems to really want to look Unleashed-esque in terms of art style and then they make an odd choice like that.

The thing I don't like is the first boss fight. I hate "wait to attack" fights and the fact that the window of opportunity to attack is so small is incredibly frustrating combined with how repetitive the boss attack pattern cycle is and how much health the thing has and how little damage you do. That part is bad design IMO.

Its easy to not care about the potential for Lawsuit here, but the fact of the matter is once that bridge is crossed there is no coming back from it.

Sure, Sega has let some stuff slide in the past and is more open to this kind of thing than some other companies we all know, but you are playing with fire if you try to monetize this kind of endeavor.

Sonic has an extremely strong fan-game community and it would be a dang-shame if Omens pushes Sega into cease-and-desist mode, because we have so much to lose from that.

That being said, Omens is certainly much farther along than almost any other 3D fangame. It still looks too automated at times, and it also seems to feign depth by railroading you down extremely linear sections - but its got some good ideas behind it. I've always liked the idea of a grapple swing in Sonic (yay momentum physics) and this takes that idea father than boom or forces. I also like the free-fall mechanic that kicks in. High Adrenaline. Very Sonic. But there is a lot of game-breaking potential there too...

Wathever, my favorite 3D fangame is still Sonic GT, even after they added that annoying and glitchy boss that you fight on the rails.

This is fancy but it looks way less fun.

I have yet to try it out but like DogTagz said, this is sort of a slippery slope thing. If Sega does decide to go all C&D mode... who knows how far that new push would go (and they'd be very much in the right to do so).

This fanbase has a massive fan-game community that, imo, needs protecting. Mania is far from the only fruit that tree has produced thus far and it grows by the year. Anything that calls its future into question, no matter how good the end result is, should be checked.

Though that is just my 2 cents on a topic I'm, again, not really caught up on atm.

"Looks good", sure. But how it plays is a different story. At best it's another one of those "lol, hire these guys SEGA", until you actually dissect the actual product. 

Not that good or refined in the end. Ambivalence or not.

I don't turn a blind eye to that kind of stuff.

Although it's really impressive for a fan game, I can't say that it doesn't give me "SEGA HIRE THIS MAN!!11!1!" vibes.

As for the Patreon stuff, it's easy to not care until you look at the bigger picture. It could encourage more fan game creators to set one up; the more people profiting from Sega's IP, the more likely they are to notice and start sending out C&Ds. Sega's lenience toward fanmade work is one of the main reasons why Sonic's fan game scene is so huge and it would suck to see that disappear because of a few people taking advantage of that.