SAGE 2016 is here!

SAGE 2016 (Sonic Amateur Games Expo) is here!

   After being cancelled for 2015, SAGE (the Sonic Amateur Games Expo) has arrived for 2016 at their website! (SAGE 2016 info here). It is an annual, online convention where members of the Sonic fan community showcase their Sonic the Hedgehog and other personal indie video game projects for public exposure.

   EagleSoft Ltd has submitted both Colonial Combat v1.1 and Sonic CD Breakout Demo #3 as booths. There are also a lot of other fun fangames there for download and play (approximately 54 entries this year), and there will be gameplay streams of the event's booths and many other fun activities during the event (Oct 15-22 2016). If you are bored this week, go play some fun Sonic fan and other indie games, or join the streaming and other festivities this week!

-Tamkis (aka GenesisDoes)

SAGE Returns (for real)!

SAGE Returns (for real)!

   As mentioned many months ago in this and that EagleSoft Labs blog post, Demo #3 of Sonic CD Breakout was originally slated to be entered into SAGE 2015 Act 2. SAGE (Sonic Amateur Games Expo) is an annual event hosted by the Sonic Community at Sonic Retro to showcase various community members' Sonic the Hedgehog and non-Sonic the Hedgehog related fan/indie games. Unfortunately, SAGE 2015 act 2, originally slated to be from December 18-24 2015, was postponed to Spring, and then never happened. Fortunately, SAGE is back for 2016, specifically from October 15th through October 22nd, 2016! You can read all about the event's details at Sonic Retro's post. 

  With the new date/event, Sonic CD Breakout Demo #3 is being resubmitted for the event, and Colonial Combat is being submitted too as booths! These booths should help in bringing in public exposure to EagleSoft Ltd projects (something which, I admit, has always seemed to be lacking here). This is EagleSoft Ltd's first time in participating in some type of Indie game convention (albeit online), and I do plan for more of this type of thing in the future as EagleSoft Ltd grows.

Catch everybody at the event (online) this October! Looking forward to all of the fun fangames that will be there!

-Tamkis

SAGE 2015 Delayed

SAGE 2015 Delayed

 

    Bad news :(! The Sonic the Hedgehog fans who were going to host SAGE (Sonic Amateur Games Expo) for 2015 have decided to postpone the event from Dec 2015 until Spring 2016 now. Full details about this delay (and why) can be found at Sonic Retro's post. EagleSoft Ltd submitted a Demo #3 release of Sonic CD Breakout to the event, and was planning on submitting a first demo build of Colonial Combat to the event.

     The good news is that, if the fans running the event allow an extended submission deadline, this gives us a chance to receive and implement feedback and bugfixes from those who have played the Demo #3 release,  to incorporate into a v3.1 release to submit into the now-postponed SAGE event in Spring 2016. It also definitely gives us time to add more levels, FMVs, and improved code to Colonial Combat for the event.

  We will keep the EagleSoft fans/blog readers informed about the extended SAGE date
(and SCD Breakout/CC development) as it occurs :)

-Tamkis

Sonic CD Breakout: Demo #3 RELEASE!

Ho ho ho! Finally! It's here,
DEMO #3 of Sonic CD Breakout, just in time for Christmas 2015 and SAGE 2015!

    This demo has been in the works for 2 years (since 2013), and is finally ready for a release! To summarize the changes, bugs were squashed, two new zones were created (Desert Dazzle Zone and Quartz Quadrant Zone), 3 special stages were created, and time zone based backgrounds and borders were created for all levels. What is Sonic CD Breakout? It's a Sonic fan game, which is a Sonic CD themed breakout clone, using the BreakGOLD game engine as a total-conversion. For more information about the fan game project, see this page. The latest demo can always be downloaded from that page. READ the readme in order to learn how to install the game, because some "assembly" is required.

This demo #3 is planned to be released for SAGE (Sonic Amateur Games Expo) 2015 Act :)! Will created a post announcing when it has been submitted and hosted at the expo

 

Demo #3 Release Video

Demo #3 Download

Enjoy! C&CC welcomed!

Sonic CD Breakout: Special Stages & Future Dev

Sonic CD Breakout: Special Stages & Future Dev

 

    Way back in 2014, we showed a preview of what was in the works for Demo #3 release of the Sonic CD Breakout fangame, including Desert Dazzle Zone, Quartz Quadrant Zone, and the training special stage. Although in that post we predicted having a release of Demo #3 for Act 2 of SAGE 2014, that did not happen, since we decided to hold off on doing so after we completed both of those zones and of the special stages. Not only did we do that, but we also added dynamic background images depending on each level's time zone. Since that post, we have finished Desert Dazzle Zone, Quartz Quadrant Zone, and also the Special Stages for all of the existing zones! (Desert Dazzle Zone does not have a special stage, as that would create 8 Time Stones, and is not exactly a "cannon" level in Sonic CD.)

Special Stages

   All of the special stages (except Quartz Quadrant Zone and Desert Dazzle Zone) are completed now. The special stage levels are accessible by hitting a silver ring monitor. In the special stages, the players must traverse various level layers (similar to the fan game's Time Zone system) by either moving up or down between by hitting certain up/down arrow blocks (instantaneously, instead of with a wait delay as with the time signposts), in order to find and collect the Time Stone. Certain blocks can be destroyed after up to 4 hits, some cannot be destroyed, and there is a slot machine system which could earn you rings and other prizes. The player must also avoid spike balls, which can cause damage. The layer system is intelligent, graying out and shrinking sprites as layer blocks appear in up to 3 farther layers. However, there are more to just these levels than these features; the players have only 4 "attempts" to get the time stone, as their ring count is set to 90 rings and counts down to zero (no overflow of rings with reset back to zero occurs). If the ring count reaches zero, the player dies, the rings reset to 90 rings, and an attempt is removed. Collecting rings in the stage naturally counteracts the ring countdown. After all attempts are removed, the player is kicked out of the level without the Time Stone! Collecting all 7 Time Stones will allow the player to fight the Final Boss in Final Fever Zone at the end of the game.

Video

 ___________________________________________________________________________

Future development

    However, in the process of making these levels and these further edits, a development roadblock was discovered; apparently, the BreakGOLD Level Editor seems to have some type of maximum, hard, internal limit of producing .bgl level packs upto 3.87 MB. Attempting to make any level pack greater than this (by adding more content) causes the saving of the level pack to fail. We are using the BreakGOLD Level Editor v2.0 that came with the full version of the v2.0 BreakGOLD game, which was acquired on an Breakout collection of games from an eGames Software CD-ROM called "Break!" from Big n' Small Lots (now Big Lots) back in 2004. It is unknown whether the latest, paid, PC, full version of the game has an updated Level Editor that fixes these (and other) known bugs with the v2.0 editor.

  If this bug is not fixed in a possible newer version of the Level Editor, we shall either try to create a small, personal assembly patch for the Level Editor to fix the issue, or just simply breakup the fan game into two parts: Part 1 (up to Quartz Quadrant Zone), and Part 2 (Quartz Quadrant Zone Special Stage up to end of game). If this split needs to occur, Part 2 shall start the player with a "perfect game" from Part 1 (5 Good futures, 3 Time Stones), and start the player with Quartz Quadrant Zone's special stage (it could not fit in the current level pack, due to the hard 3.87 MB limit). We have pushed the engine to its limits with this total conversion for the fan game!

  Regardless of which direction the Sonic CD Breakout fan game will be going with regards to possibly splitting up the project, before we make an executive decision, we are going to release a Demo #3 of what we have "very soon", with a potential patch to transplant the game to the Android port of the BreakGOLD engine!

Stay tuned!

Sonic CD Breakout: Quartz Quadrant Zone (Full)

Sonic CD Breakout: Quartz Quadrant Zone (Full)

    It's been exactly one year (Sept 2014) since any major progress was made on Sonic CD Breakout! However, we have finally put some effort and finally finished Quartz Quadrant Zone! Both main level acts involve finding the goal sign, which requires traveling through the Time Zones in order to hit a switch to reverse the direction of conveyor blocks, which are preventing access to the goal sign. Various enemies are in this zone, including a Caterkiller (with various destroyable parts), a jumping spider (which deals damage if you hit them when jumping), a Skorp (which shoots deadly lasers), and a moving snail (which can deal damage if you hit them when they unleash their spikes). The zone ends with a simple boss, which shoots bombs, which you must repel back towards Eggman in order to defeat him.

    Overall, the levels have plenty of gimmicks, different gameplay, and are challenging.

Check out the gameplay video below!

Sonic CD Breakout: Desert Dazzle Zone

Sonic CD Breakout: Desert Dazzle Zone completed!

As teased about in a previous post, a Desert Dazzle Zone was in development for Sonic CD Breakout. All 3 acts have been completed! Check out the video playthrough of the level below! The boss is difficult, what with him having a shield of rotating and destroyable blocks around him. and having to avoid falling stalactites. The stalactites, when they hit the problem, cause you to lose rings.

C&CC welcomed!

Demo #3 tentatively pending to be released Christmas 2014!

Demo #3 preview of Sonic CD Breakout

No, it is not dead yet; Sonic CD Breakout is still in development!

 

 

   The previous demo release of this fangame, Sonic CD Breakout, occurred almost half a year ago during the Christmas 2013 season. (If you have never heard about my fangame, go check it out here.) Due to real-life responsibilties (including university life, a job, professional development as a future software engineer/video game designer, and other things), development has slowed with Sonic CD Breakout. However, development has not halted altogether!

 

   Sporadically, within the past half year, I have been worked on optimizing the game, and have been working on 2 new rounds: Desert Dazzle Zone (DDZ), and Quartz Quadrant Zone (QQZ). The former is a fan implementation of a scraped level from the 2011 remake of Sonic CD, which was supposed to replace the scrapped Round 2 level from the original 1993 Sega CD version of Sonic CD. In the fangame, I used some fan art from others to make fan created past, good future, and bad future versions of DDZ. The past timezone is based upon an island level, the present based upon Dust Hill Zone from Sonic 2 Beta, the bad future timezone based upon a railroad zone, and the good future based upon an osasis zone. Enemies and the boss from the Desert Dazzle Zone are used in the levels too. (People with fanart to be properly credited in the Demo #3 release)

 

 

Past timezone artwork source

(From a Sonic hack)

 

Present timezone artwork source

(From Esrael's Sonic 2 Delta hacks,
based on scrapped Dust Hill Zone from Sonic 2 Beta)

Bad Future timezone artwork source

(Sunset Park Zone 16-bit remake art)

 

Good Future timezone artwork source

 

Enemies and Boss



 

   The latter is a standard Sonic CD Level, and futures most of the enemies and gimmicks from the original zone.

 

   Also in development are a fan recreation of the Sonic CD Beta Special Stages, which appear to be based upon the Sonic 1 Special stage concept, with layers that can be traversed, similar to the Knuckles Chaotix bonus stage levels. I designed the special stage levels to be like stationary Sonic 1 special stages (even some of its ripped art), but with bricks that let the player go up or down a layer.

 

 



 

  Currently, only the 1st acts of DDZ and QQZ are created, and only a training special stage level is made (for the Training Zone). These levels can be seen in action in the video below. I plan on releasing what I have as Demo #3 for Act 2 of the Sonic Amateur Games Expo (SAGE) 2014.

 

 



 



Stay tuned for more development previews for Sonic CD Breakout summer 2014!

 

--"Tamkis"

(aka Anthony)

 

 

Sonic CD Breakout, Demo #2, RELEASED!

Ho ho ho! Finally! It's here, DEMO #2 of Sonic CD Breakout, just in time for Christmas 2013!

      Due to SAGE (Sonic Amateur Games Expo) 2013 not happening this year, and due to lack of leisure time recently for working on this due to real world things like college, I decided that I should release a demo instead of just sitting on the game. Don't know what Sonic CD Breakout is? It's a Sonic fan game, which is a Sonic CD themed breakout clone, using the BreakGOLD game engine. For more information about the fan game project, see this page. The latest demo can always be downloaded from that page. READ the readme in order to learn how to install the game, because some "assembly" is required.

I am hoping to get a third demo made for Act 1 of SAGE 2014; if not by then, then for Act 2 of SAGE 2014.

Demo #2 Release Video

Demo #2 Download

Enjoy!
(Want to comment on this YouTube video? Do so here, at this blog post!)

Sonic CD Breakout

What is Sonic CD Breakout?

Sonic CD Breakout is a PC fan game developed by me. It is a level set for an old breakout game called Break GOLD!, by Kjell Anderson. The game utilizes a Frankenstein of an Motorola 68k virtual machine and M68k scripts to make things work, and the author created a Level editor for the game, which is included with the full-version of the game. The Sonic CD Breakout level set is, obviously, themed around Sonic CD, a Sonic game made for an add-on for the Sega Genesis known as the Sega CD. It is a fan game which I started over summer 2009, but have worked on sporadically due to high school and now college life. Still, it is a fan game which I am quickly trying to finish. In future posts, I will document and give announcements about its development.

Metal Sonic race, from Sonic CD

Vanilla BreakGOLD Engine

  

A Model 2 Sega CD unit