Game design insights and in-depth info’ about gameplay features.
Returning (& Expanded!) Features
From Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Data Select Save Files and No Save Mode. 🌀 Super Forms and Hyper Forms. (For all characters!) 🌀 Chaos Emeralds, Super Emeralds and the Master Emerald. (Along with the Time Stones!) 🌀 The 3 classic Elemental Shields. (As well as new types!) 🌀 Character-specific level designs. (For all characters!) 🌀
Interconnected adventure through non-voiced level transitions. ⭐ Act 1 and Act 2 music and bosses. (And more unique audio for different actions!) ⭐ The 3 classic Bonus Stages. (Plus Sonic Mania’s Pincer Pinball and a new addition!) ⭐ Multiple playable characters with their own attacks and abilities. (Now starring Amy!) ⭐
Note #1: For gameplay and narrative reasons, the ability to play as Sonic and Tails simultaneously in single player is not returning from Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Note #2: To prioritise development time and resources on the main single player experience, the Base Game release of Sonic 5 Fan Game will not include Competition Mode.
Welcome To East Island Of Mobius!
From ethereal to extraordinary there’s variety galore,
so get ready for adventure and prepare to explore,
as you fight to free Little Planet once more,
and kill the Death Egg Mk.II for sure!
First Five Zones
Instruction book bios.
01: Deli Delight Zone
A delightful delicatessen district, brimming with iced cake geometry and other spectacularly sweet stuff. Experience a sugar rush as you bounce off jelly, swing from candy canes and breeze by marshmallow stacks! A deeply depressed Doctor Eggman stops off here and stuffs himself full of comfort junk food to cope with his previous defeat.
02: Splendid Seaside Zone
Sunny beaches complimented with unpolluted, clean sea air. Cruising through here should be fairly easy, but keep an eye out for rough tides and avoid lengthy submersion. What’s more, as you speed along sands and surf across sea, you just might spot a bloated Doctor Eggman lounging around the large lighthouse!
03: Gritty Garbage Zone
Gloomy dumping grounds littered with faulty and failed badniks and contraptions. In a land filled with bad rubbish bags and wacky wheelie bins, will you refuse to rummage through, or outright trash the place? One thing’s for sure, Metal Sonic feels very uncomfortable seeing the debris of other dead doppelgangers here!
04: Fluct Forest Zone
A fluctuating forest that’s home to bountiful wildlife variety and known for suddenly shifting seasons. It’s under threat of being wiped out to enlarge a garbage disposal area, and in the process of being demolished by Metal Knuckles under the command of an aching Doctor Eggman, who seems to be doing deforestation for more than just landfill expansion...
05: Crystal Cavern Zone
This shimmering cave is home to gorgeous shiny crystals, which have sparked the interest of Doctor Eggman’s resource hunting obsession, a near-perfect distraction from his self-imposed pains. While the striking stalactites may look pretty, their pointy ends and toxic liquid innards certainly aren’t nice to touch!
Behind The Scenes
Earlier in development, certain Zone names were different; some names were shortened to make them snappier visually and less of a mouthful verbally. Deli Delight Zone was initially called Delightful Delicatessen Zone. Fluct Forest Zone was initially called Flourishing Forest Zone, later truncated to Flourish Forest Zone before its third and final name was decided upon. Crystal Cavern Zone initially had a potential name of Crystal Cave Zone, this was scrapped for a greater visual and verbal distinction from Mystic Cave Zone.
What Else Lies Within East Island?
Can you guess their titles and topography?
06: B.B.Z.
07: C.C.Z.
08: B.B.Z.
09: I.I.Z.
10: V.V.Z.
11: L.L.Z.
12: A.A.Z.
13: T.T.Z.
14: P.P.Z.
15: C.C.Z.
Behind The Scenes
The 15th Main Zone went through 3 slightly different variations of its initial name before its completely different fourth and final name was decided upon.
A-Life abduction!
Robotnik has captured Chao inside Capsules dotted around secluded stages!
Touch a Mega CheckPoint’s ?-warp-sparkles to teleport to a Rescue Round, then find and free a trapped Chao.
Rescued Chao will get gameplay items for you to buy from the Chao Garden Black Market!
Behind The Scenes
Rescue Rounds are inspired by a combination of the Chao-finding in Sonic Advance 3 and the Bonus Rounds in Crash Bandicoot 2. While the Chao Garden Black Markets in Sonic Adventure DX, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity return in this project as far as naming and aesthetics go, its functionality is more closely based on the Skill Shop in Sonic Generations.
Robotnik has stolen the Time Stones, broken them in half,
and secured the halves inside time-locked Grandfather Stopclocks!
Acquire the Super, Hyper and Master Emeralds to activate Death Dash Teleport Thrones.
Then, without dying in the process, find and touch an activated teleporter in a Zone to warp to a hidden area.
After teleportation, dash through a deadly level fast enough to collect a Time Stone fragment.
Restore all Time Stones to their former glory to gain the Speedbreaker ability,
allowing you to temporarily slow down gameplay for precise movement!
Behind The Scenes
Earlier in development, there were plans to implement Challenge Courses and a playable World Map, both inspired by Sonic Generations. The World Map idea was later scrapped to minimise main gameplay interruptions. Challenge Courses eventually became Death Dashes instead, incorporated into the story and streamlined into a more continuous gameplay experience, rather than being more clunkily separated by World Map travel and extra menu navigation. Death Dashes are inspired by a combination of the Challenge Rooms in Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice, the Time Trials in Crash Bandicoot 3 and the Gem Paths / Death Routes in Crash Bandicoot 2.
Deli Delight Zone
🔓 Gimmick concept art.
Behind The Scenes
For Deli Delight Zone, I challenged myself to create my own spin on a food-themed Zone, taking inspiration from Sweet Mountain in Sonic Colours and Des(s)ert Ruins: Zone 3 in Sonic Lost World, but also aiming to be distinct overall. Furthermore, as illustrated on sheet #01, another goal that I aim to achieve in this project across multiple Zones is evolving loop-de-loops beyond their typical samey functionality, something which I think is long overdue. Without spoiling too much, Deli Delight Zone is the tamest in this regard, and it gives players a taste of what’s to come as the first different loop-de-loop design of the game in its first Zone.
Splendid Seaside Zone
🔓 Gimmick concept art.
Behind The Scenes
For Splendid Seaside Zone, I challenged myself to create my own spin on a coastal-themed Zone, taking inspiration from Emerald Coast in Sonic Adventure, but also aiming to be distinct overall. (That said, the launch panels gimmick is returning from Emerald Coast, albeit recontextualised for 2D. gameplay.) Furthermore, as illustrated on sheets #01, #03 and #04, another goal that I aim to achieve in this project across multiple Zones is utilising Elemental Shields in many different ways, plus expanding Shield variety with more Elements and abilities, as exemplified on the sand windmills gimmick.
Gritty Garbage Zone
🔓 Gimmick concept art.
Behind The Scenes
For Gritty Garbage Zone, I challenged myself to create my own spin on a landfill-themed Zone, taking inspiration from Rust in Unravel, Toxic Waste in Crash Bandicoot, New Junk City in Earthworm Jim, Lava Reef Zone in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, RuptureFarms in Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, Robot Facility in Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Casinopolis: Dilapidated Way in Sonic Adventure, as well as the general gloomy and uneasy aesthetics of Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto IV (particularly during rainy, stormy and dark cloudy weather conditions), but also aiming to be distinct overall. Special thanks to Sound Of A Shadow Productions for some additional level gimmick concepts! 😃
Fluct Forest Zone
🔒 Gimmick concept art.
Comin’ on 25 July, stay tuned! 🔔
Crystal Cavern Zone
🔒 Gimmick concept art.
Comin’ on 25 August, stay tuned! 🔔
Retro Game With Retro Rules
No rewinds, no save states, no warp-ahead items.
Just old-school skill and overcoming challenges.
This project is designed around a traditional gaming attitude:
“The more you play, the better you get; the better you get, the faster you go.”
Game replays and level exploration should be challenging and rewarding
as alternative approaches are discovered and player skills are increased.
This fan game won’t feature functions that allow people to disregard skill and bypass level design.
Excessively abusing rewinds, save states and warp-ahead abilities, to mindlessly
brute force the way past gameplay challenges, is an atrocious affront to gaming.
If you’re spending more time skipping gameplay than actually engaging with the levels,
you’re defeating the very point of it being a video game instead of defeating the gameplay challenges.
While this fan game will include Super Forms and the even more powerful Hyper Forms, it’s crucial that their
swifter speeds, invincible states and additional abilities cannot be activated at any time from the get-go;
they first require Zone exploration to find Giant Rings, then conquering Special Stages, followed by
minimum Ring counts to activate transformations and Ring consumption necessities to remain transformed.
Additionally, this project will have classic fixed respawn points upon death and manual restart, such as
activated CheckPoints and the start of levels; however, modern spontaneous rewinds will not be available.
Summarised:
No hand-holding.
Accept the difficulties.
Overcome the challenges.
Practise the levels.
Master the game.
📖 RELATED FURTHER READING
Disclaimer
Sonic 5 Fan Game is an unofficial, non-profit project. Series and its characters belong to SEGA.
This video game, and all of its related media, will be released 100% for free, with zero paywalled content.
