Sonic Chaos Battles (tentative title)

[Sapphire Flame]

Well, I don't know how it happened, but I'm finding myself making a MUGEN full game. Specifically, a Sonic the Hedgehog-based fighting game. Yes, you read that correctly. I don't know why I decided to make one, the idea came to me one day and refused to leave, so here I am.

Basic info:

• The game will be a four-button fighter, with the other two used for special functions. Two punch buttons, two kick buttons, a button to dodge/block, and a throw button. It will not be based on Sonic Battle. We already have one of those.
• The game will use advance-style sprites. Custom sprites and sprite edits will be used when no suitable sprites can be found
• The game's roster will consist only of official characters that originate from the games. That means no Sally Acorn, no Scratch or Grounder, and no Ashura.
• The game will be released as a series of betas so that the general public can give report bugs and give constructive criticism.
• As for the roster itself, the game will attempt to incorporate both older characters and recent additions. I will attempt to incorporate most of the popular or major characters with a few minor characters and fan favorites.

Screenshots:

As work on the game only started a week or so ago as of his post, I don't have much. This is mostly to prove that I'm working on the game.

Spoiler (click to show)

Staff members:

Current Staff members:

Sapphire Flame (Project head, character programmer)
home32 (Spriter)
Doctor Cow (Spriter)
PsycoCutman (Stage programmer)

Now hiring:

I will need people who can fill the following positions-

Spriter- It is vital that we have at least one spriter on the team before the release of Beta 1. I have absolutely no spriting skill, and I will need someone who can sprite. Spriters will at least need to have experience with sprite editing.

Character programmer- Someone who understands the MUGEN programming language and is capable of programming in MUGEN. While I could conceivably make every single character by myself, it would take quite some time before I would finish.

Stage programmer-I'm sure I could figure out how to make stages by myself, but I'd prefer someone who has experience with stage programming.

Screenpack designer- We're going to need to design a screenpack at some point. While a custom-made screenpack is not an urgen need at the moment, I'd like to have someone who can do it.

If you want to join one of these positions, simply PM me with your name, desired position, and previous work. If you're clearly competent enough, I'll add you to the list.

So, are there any thoughts? Suggestions? Note that anything along the lines of "Sonic sux, don't make this game" or "Sonic was ruined forever after <insert game here>" will be ignored. This is about the MUGEN game, not the source material.

Update: We now have a board to discuss the project.

[Average Mugen Guild Poster]

I can sprite, but I can only be on and off, as I have my own projects and life to account for right now. 
I can be a part-time spriter if you want. 

[Sapphire Flame]

I see. Well, any help is better than none! Can I put you down as a spriter?

[Average Mugen Guild Poster]

I see. Well, any help is better than none! Can I put you down as a spriter?

For now, yes.

[Nnaajj]

I'll sprite aswell. May be busy sometimes but I'll be pretty active.

[Sapphire Flame]

I'll sprite aswell. May be busy sometimes but I'll be pretty active.

Can you PM me an example of your work? I'd like to see your level of skill first.

[Dken2021]

I'm kinda interested in the stage making job, just tell me what stages you want and I'll go make them.

btw, don't you need music as well?

[Sapphire Flame]

I'm kinda interested in the stage making job, just tell me what stages you want and I'll go make them.

btw, don't you need music as well?

All right then, for starters, how about Green Hill Zone? It wouldn't be a sonic game without it.

Yeah, I guess we could use a few custom songs. I was mostly planning to use already existing songs, but a few others wouldn't hurt.

[Cyanide]

Got any more details? Character list? More info in the fight style. I mean if you want 2 kicks and 2 punches you have a lot of editing to do as someone like amy has no kicks whatsoever and rouge doesn't punch at all.

[Sapphire Flame]

Got any more details? Character list? More info in the fight style. I mean if you want 2 kicks and 2 punches you have a lot of editing to do as someone like amy has no kicks whatsoever and rouge doesn't punch at all.

Much like Balrog in Street Fighter, not every character uses "kicks" per se when the kick button is pushed. Knuckles, for example, will have four different punches: LP and HP will be jabs, and I'm thinking he'll be using his "chops" for lack of a better word from Sonic Battle for his kicks. Amy will use her hammer for her kicking moves. As for Rouge, I'm not sure whether she should have 4 kicking moves or have something else. Any suggestions would be welcome. The fighting style isn't really "based" on any particular pre-existing style, but it has elements of Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, and Super Smash Bros.

The character list is very tentative right now. It will mostly depend on who we can get decent sprites for. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Cream, and Rouge are shoe-ins. Characters I'm considering are Blaze, Silver, Espio, Omega, Metal Sonic, and Mighty. If we can get decent sprites, we might also add Jet, Vector, Charmy, and Nack. Suggestions will be considered. I'm going to be going for quality over quantity, though. Unless we can get a crapload of programmers, it'll be some time before most of the high-priority characters are added.

[Cyanide]

Blaze, Silver, Espio, Omega, Metal Sonic, and Mighty.

Omega was in SB as e-102r. Mighty has a decent SB styled sheet available.

The rest there's nothing worth speaking of. The only good full sheet i've seen has been e-101, which is pretty small but was cool. There is no full espio sheet. If you wish to add all those you have a lot of editing ahead of you.

[Nnaajj]

I've seen a Espio sheet and Silver sheet 

[Sapphire Flame]

I have a good number of sheets available, including Espio, Silver, Omega, Metal Sonic, and Blaze. The question is whether the original spriters will allow edits. I see your point, though.

[Cyanide]

I've never seen a "good" sheet of many of those. I've seen some partial sheets (espio) but the rest take a swing and a miss at the style. Or are of quite a low quality. When you're doing a game everything has to synch up or it lowers the experience.

I always meant to update SBME with a couple extra characters but there were no acceptable sheets, and still aren't.

[Nnaajj]

You've got a big point there.
The only sheets I thought that followed the style right was Mighty and Espio.
Me and home32 will have to make some of our own for the rest.

Anyway, I'll start on Tails now.

[Average Mugen Guild Poster]

Blaze, Silver, Espio, Omega, Metal Sonic, and Mighty.

Omega was in SB as e-102r. Mighty has a decent SB styled sheet available.

The rest there's nothing worth speaking of. The only good full sheet i've seen has been e-101, which is pretty small but was cool. There is no full espio sheet. If you wish to add all those you have a lot of editing ahead of you.

Wrong, E-102y is Gamma, And was the one in Sonic Batte. Omega is E-123 U.

[Cyanide]

They spend most of sonic battle calling him omega. It's just a robot and it looks bloody similar. If you were planning to edit a totally new sheet of something that looks pretty much exactly the same you're really wasting your time.

That's kinda beside the point. He's THERE. He doesn't need to have new sprites cos they already exist. Full sheets i've seen

Mighty
Super Sonic
Wave (this is incredibly disappointing when awesome people like espio are passed over)
super shadow (ick)

Almost full
Espio
E-101

Everything else fails on style and should not be used.

[Average Mugen Guild Poster]

Omega and Gamma look and act completely different, I have no clue what your talking about. 

[Cyanide]

Sorry you're right it was gamma in sonic battle. But he was e-102r there, i assume R was rebuilt. I'm mostly speaking of the sprites. Gamma and omega don't look that dissimilar. Same colour scheme, the biggest difference is probably that omega has bigger feet. And in sprites this size you wouldn't notice the rest that much.

You shouldn't be too ambitious with any game you take on. Using existing sprites and calling them something else is far more sensible than taking more time to do another sheet. At least the style will match properly. And in terms of moves, gamma has them all there already.

I think there's a dark spine sonic sheet somewhere as well that was pretty good, although he's not part of this game.

[Sapphire Flame]

Well, I've already found an Omega sprite sheet, but now that I think about it, it doesn't fully adhere to the style. Maybe I'll just put in Gamma and have Omega be low-priority, if I put him in at all. Trust me, people will notice if I just use Gamma's battle sprites and call him Omega. The feet are not the only difference by far; Omega's hands are longer and silver-colored, his body is shorter yet wider, he has bulkier shoulderpads, and his eyes are red instead of green (though the last one can easily be fixed).

As for your concerns about advance-style sprites, I've managed to find several sheets that fit the style almost perfectly, though you seem to have a much more critical eye than I do, so I don't know if all of them fit your standards. I'm uploading some of them to the forum, actually. You can check them out if you want.

So far, I've managed to find some good sheets (with plenty of poses) for Blaze, Silver, Metal Sonic, and Espio. The only problem is that none of them have enough poses for the project, so I'm going to have to ask the permission of the original creators. Blaze, however, was actually edited from official pixel art that was played over the credits of Sonic Rush, so making poses directly from the official sprites wouldn't actually be unauthorized editing.

Still, it'll be a while before I get to the point where I start to have to use custom spritesheets. Right now, I'm just focusing on getting Beta 1 out, which will only have 4-5 characters straight from Battle.