Okay so, why are we not doing this as Sonic?

[Diogenes]

Why can't we do things like that in Sonic games?

And I mean, I know that these are specific tricks planned in advance and practiced and repeated until he got the one good take. I know you can't just plop a Sonic model into that game and expect it to morph into a proper Sonic game.

But it's like, there are pieces here. The puzzle's not finished, but you're starting to see how it'll get there. The physics, the way you "snap" to surfaces...if you had better control of yourself while in the air, so you could line things up...the ability to "snap" to them with a button press...

I'm not the only one who sees this, right?

edit: For clarity's sake, I guess the point of conversation is how skateboarding mechanics/skateboarding games relate to/can be scavenged to improve Sonic gameplay. I guess.

Edited November 14, 2011 by Diogenes

[SenEDDtor Missile]

One does wonder why Sonic Team does not incoporate some aspects of a skate park into a Sonic game; they both rely on physics to build up speed, they both currently use tricks and grind rails, and all of dem curvy level design!

(that sounded wrong >_>)

Edited November 14, 2011 by Enigma2

[Indigo Rush]

I can't explain how I'm thinking this, but a lot of those aspects seems like they could be counter-intuitive in a 3D platformer who's focus is getting to the goal in a mostly linear fashion. I'm not saying that we can't take cues from half-pipes and slopes like this, but Sonic in 3D has always struck me as the kind of action platformer that maintains focus on jumping and dashing rather than physics puzzles. It's easy to make good use of rolling mechanics on a single 2D plane, and rolling downhill slopes to gain speed in 3D is plausible enough, but in 3D I can't imagine those half-pipe tricks accomplishing much of anything.

I dunno. In 3D it just seems like it'd be more complicated than it's worth, but if you can find a way to make it work without compromising flow, then you have my support.

Edited November 14, 2011 by Indigo Rush

[Kuzu]

Hmm, I do see where you're coming from, but the problem seems that would require Sonic games to be a bit more open ended, and ya know...open ended platformers aren't really ideal.

[Nepenthe]

I've always liked the idea of having Sonic be able to abuse non-horizontal surfaces and muck about in a large 3D space like that, but on the other end I kinda see where Indigo is coming from about the level design when applied practically to a platforming level. Considering both Sonic's general form as a bipedal character and his abilities, he's undoubtedly going to have to utilize air time in a multitude of ways and subsequently encounter vertical landscaping as well as pits. But this type of ramp-based design is best left for when the thing you're controlling will almost always be constrained to the floor. I think it's a notable disconnect that doesn't address the entire issue of what the next major step for the franchise should be because it doesn't take into account interesting options or potential oversights when the player is forced (or merely wants) to actually start jumping and moving up. And I'm not entirely on board with letting the landscape and gravity do most of the work for me anymore.

[Eternal EX]

I see where dio is coming from. I mean sonic has been on more adventures than any other character I can think of. But yet he doesn't do most of the stuff that Skate video showed. I mean basic skate boarding down San Francisco is a start and some of the crap in the Riders games are a little step farther but come on. All of what we saw in that video, sonic and co could...well should be able to do without a question. Big, Cream, cheese, amy and Rouge being the exception.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I can definitely see where your coming from. But it depends on the structure. A lot of that game in the video is basically sandbox style, and while I've been one of the biggest supporters or such a style for a Sonic game, I've also been aware of how incredibly difficult it would be to actually make one work for Sonic.

The easier way to go about this would be to make things more open than how Generations made it in some of their levels, and implement a way to give more freedom in conjunction with the straightfowardness that is used to get to the end among other things.

[Rusty Spy]

Having payed the Skate 3 demo I've come to realize that your character doesn't actually snap to the surface like you described (unless you are playing with the easiest physics settings). Really, your board much like how you'd expect a real board to react to rails and such.

I can see where you're going, but it feels too much on the other extreme end of the scale between proper physics and...... not-physics.

Frankly, all this boils down to is Sonic should have proper physics and hilly level design. To which I say; yeah.

[Onyx Leo]

Honestly, we'd have to go back to the Adventure (Or, dare I say...) Slower 06 gameplay to make this type of thing work. I just can't see myself barreling down a group of falling platforms moving at Generations speed, unless it was scripted.

[Chibinuva]

Honestly, we'd have to go back to the Adventure (Or, dare I say...) Slower 06 gameplay to make this type of thing work. I just can't see myself barreling down a group of falling platforms moving at Generations speed, unless it was scripted.

Okay, so it plays more like Adventure-style with slower gameplay, and more open worlds. Also, give Sonic the ability not only to charge the spindash for bursts of speed, but to go into a ball form whenever he wants, and subsequently move around freely while in said ball form. Also, he would keep the wall-jump from Unleashed, and be able to jump onto walls, either simply jumping onto them to do a wall-jump, or boosting/spindashing/airdashing (depending on if he retains the homing attack or boost,) which would allow him to run on the wall, depending on how fast he's running and the angle/slope of said wall.

[Scar]

Fundementally, as in with all the slopes and inclined surfaces. But in every other way no.

The hassle of having slope physics in a platformer where the levels have to stick to a conformed area, which is never really going to be as large as a Sandbox game, it will result in physics and slope-abuse allowing players to break the game. Plus the skate-park level design is really very empty with nothing interesting, in terms of platforming, actually happening.

[Eternal EX]

Honestly, we'd have to go back to the Adventure (Or, dare I say...) Slower 06 gameplay to make this type of thing work. I just can't see myself barreling down a group of falling platforms moving at Generations speed, unless it was scripted.

Look at city escape and then come back. You moved fast, yes. But was it uncontrollably fast? No. It's possible it would work w/o going back in time to the slower gameplay but it does take A LOT OF EFFORT!

[Sami]

Because this is a lot more fun.

No, really.

[Nitwit_Speed]

A lot of the elements from the Genesis games are present in this game as far as verticle exploration (and by that i mean platforming like no other can) and rolling go. If Sonic Team woke up one morning and decided to make a 3D Classic game, with the same rolling physics as the classics and the whole enchilada, this kind of level geometry would be the best way to go. Personally, in designing Sonic Adventure, i would've spent a month playing skating games before/instead of taking a trip to South America.

[Spooky Mulder]

Personally, I like the idea and think it could be a lot of fun, even though I do enjoy the Generations style of gameplay (especially in acts like Sky Sanctuary and Seaside Hill.) The problem with this concept has to do with implementation; in order to make this work you'd need an absolutely massive environment and it would probably need to be open-world. I don't see this style being remotely compatible with current "run to find the end of the stage" Sonic games.

I'm not opposed to an open-world Sonic game, but it would absolutely require changing things up from a standard "Race to the goal ring/signpost" style that we've grown accustomed to since the franchise's inception. If I was the one designing a game in this style, I'd probably have 9 or so giant, fully explorable zones that would probably only be possible to store on a next gen console. I would assume that the game would replace goal rings with missions to complete.

Ex: Find Tails in Green Hill Zone and bring him X number of rings

Destroy all of the badniks to save the Zone

Find and destroy the animal capsule

Chase the Egg Carrier and find a way to board it

Environments would have to be dynamic, ever changing places that you can play through multiple times and still have new things today. Perhaps you could have a zone similar to Angel Island where it starts off as a lush tropical environment but get's destroyed later in the game. Or a zone like Planet Wisp, where you arrive to find a virtually untouched alien ecosystem, save for a few scouting badniks, but as you return to the zone you start to see bits of a construction site popping up.

EDIT: I recall this image being posted here a while ago. It seems relevant:

Edited November 14, 2011 by Spooky Mulder