All you readers already know that this game has three soundtracks: the original Nexus soundtrack, the “Retro Remixes,” and the “Genesis Mixes.”  How will all of this music be presented in the game though?

Well, at first, you will only be able to listen to Hunter’s original compositions for the game to start.  In Act 1 and 2 of each zone, you will find one TV monitor in each with a music note on it.  Act 1’s monitor, when hit, will permanently unlock the “Retro Remix” for that zone.  Act 2’s music monitor will unlock that zone’s “Genesis Mix.”  Once you’ve unlocked some music, you should head over to the options menu.

In the options menu, you can select which music that you want to hear for each zone, allowing you to completely customize your soundtrack.  You could have all Genesis Mixes or all Retro Remixes.  Better yet, one zone could be the original Nexus soundtrack and the next could be the Retro Remix.  The choice yours!

Will this function make it into the SAGE 2009 demo?  Hopefully.  The music is ready for the three stages that are going to be in the demo, but this feature is low on the priorities list compared to other, more awesome things.  Maybe the unlocking aspect won’t be there and the music already unlocked, but we’ll see, eh?

-Flick

I always have some sort of gimmick going on in my demos at each SAGE, but I still think that the first one that I ever did was the most fun to put together.  SAGE 2006 was Nexus’ debut and Cosmic Chaos, the casino stage, was on display.  Before the show, I had a whole bunch of SFGHQ members make some neon & pinball table signs that were all over the level.  The catch for demo players was to find all the signs in order to win an extra playable level, which was the old Sunset Shore.  One of my favorites was the pinball table sign that Euan gave me to promote Sonic XG:

With Cosmic Chaos returning, I’m putting out a call to all readers to sprite some neon signs.  I will not be accepting “pinball table graphics,” like the one above.  It has to be a sprited neon sign.  It can advertise you, your project, or anything that you want (it doesn’t even have to advertise anything, but that’s what people usually do).  All you have to do is make it and send it via the “Contribute” page up top.  Sound easy enough?  If you have any questions, leave a comment.

-Flick

As readers know, there is an about page that has a small profile on each team member.  If you head over there now, you’ll notice people missing or moved into a smaller role.  With production having been in full swing since the end of the school year, those who have shown little to no activity have been spoken to and have talked through, with the team, a release or a reduced role for the upcoming demo.

Core team members who have not been released, but cannot commit to the upcoming demo have been moved to the “contributors” section of the list.  Those who were already in a reduced, “contributing” role (Hector, Dustin, & Neostalker) have been moved there as well and were not involved in any discussion.

Another move to note is Hunter’s new role as assistant programmer.

Progress continues at a fantastic pace.  These moves were only made to facilitate an even faster flow of work.  The last thing we need, as a team, is waiting on somebody.

Brad: As of today, June 15th, Nexus becomes his day job.  He has finished another feature film and will only be working nights with American Legion baseball.  He recently finished re-designing the upper half of Pristine Palisade Act 1 and will be starting on the “Atlantis” area today.

Christian: Currently off Nexus duty and is working on another Sonic-related project (not RSXG) that is rather important to him.  He might show the world someday, but for right now, it’s still a mystery.  He will be programming level gimmicks, badniks, and bosses once Brad finishes.

Hunter: Only has Cosmic Chaos and Sunset Shore Genesis Mixes to do.  He has been on top of his work from Day 1.  There’s just no let up from this guy.

Jonathon: Still somewhat lost in the transition to Retro-Sonic.  Once levels go up, his level and boss programming begins with Christian.

Miscellaneous: Sonic Nexus has never had a menu system in its past three demos.  The game always just goes to the start of the level being presented.  Now that this demo has all three of the past levels, characters to select from, and soundtracks to choose, we will be implementing a menu system.  The RSXG merger utilizes Sonic XG’s menu system, so the original Retro-Sonic menus are going unused.  Retro-Sonic’s menus are stylized and fit Nexus well, so we will be recycling them.  We wouldn’t want them to go to waste.  A few visual tweaks might be made from the RS original (below) in order for them to match perfectly:

Hey everyone. Figured it’s about time to give you some new content to consume. This time, I’ve added two new tracks to the music player. The first is Zone 7 (Angelic Airway), located between Pristine Palisade and Wicked Works. The second is the retro remix for the Boss Battle, which is at the end of the playlist. Make sure to turn Shuffle off before you try to thumb through the tracks. Also, clear your cache and refresh the page if the tracks aren’t showing up.

Angelic Airway is a pretty wild song, incorporating elements of funk and trance. I went a little nuts with vocoders. In the songwriting, I incorporate some specifically retro elements. Gotta love FM synths.

The Boss Battle retro remix song is a really kickass remix of Scrambled Egg Zone from Sonic 2 on the Master System. It’s also the first attempt at my recording with my new guitar amp. Cool, huh?

In other news, I took my name off of the track names on the player. This should make it easier for you to browse tracks.

Let me know what you think!

-Hunter

Like I’ve said before, the spring time release was never a guarantee.  Go read about it. Cool developments, designs, and the home stretch of the spring semester set us back a bit, but it’s never dead.  I didn’t think that I would have to repeat myself again: this project never dies.

I had a nice, stressfull, and appropriately fantastic end to the school year.  I’m currently working on a feature film and after that, my time will return to Nexus amongst my summer jobs.

The aforementioned “redesign” is happening within the art department of Cosmic Chaos.  I was unhappy with the look that I showcased a few months ago.  So, we’re working on it again.

Christian, as mentioned in the previous post, re-did the Retro-Sonic Development Kit (now called the “Retro-Engine Software Development Kit”) and its ease of use.  It also can be ported to iPhone:

Now, this port was just to test the waters of the engine’s versatility across other platforms.  Neither Nexus or Retro-Sonic XG will make its way to the platform.  That doesn’t throw out other options, though, which is something that we have also been working on.

Expect this demo at or around SAGE 2009.  We are making it our mission to not miss the show again this year, but you never know.  I said that nearly a year go that I am quite tired of making promises, so I’ll leave you with the following:

“It’ll happen, when it happens.”

~Flick

Hey gang, I thought I’d make a post since there hasn’t been many Nexus updates as of late.

While the others have been dealing with Cosmic Chaos and Pristine Palisade, I’ve been working hard on some major updates to both the RSDK and the Retro engine. The first thing ironically enough, is the removal of Sonic. What? I hear you say, well allow me to explain. It’s been mentioned before that since the 2008 revision of the Retro-Sonic engine, the scripting system allows for completely custom games. Now, the focus of the RSDK has shifted away from Sonic, to a multi-platform 32bit sega saturn-esque game engine. I’m actually working on a new game with the RSDK that isn’t Sonic related, but it’s very much under wraps at the moment

The naming scheme is now as follows:
Retro-Engine
RSDK (Retro Software Development Kit)

Now for a quick glossing over of a few of the things that have been added!

The RSDK is now project based, which makes it easy to manage multiple games (in my case Sonic Nexus, RSXG, and my other game)

The Player Animation Editor has been revamped, making it easier to setup animations from a sprite sheet:

A 16×16 Tileset Editor has also been added (Much to the delight of Brad)

In the Retro-Engine itself, true colour blending effects are now implemented including:
-50/50 optimized blend
-Alpha Blending
-Additive Blending
-Subtractive Blending

And one of the coolest additions, the ability to specify which engine files to use along with building for multiple platforms from the one machine

Anyway that’s probably enough for the moment. The purpose of this post was really just to keep you informed that work is still going ahead. I’m hoping that version 3.2 of the RSDK will also increase the increase the productivity and independence of the other Nexus guys from myself, so that the next release comes sooner!

Cheerio!

-Christian (The Taxman)

Sad day.  Another engine change.

Christian (Taxman) has had enough with his engine, the Retro Sonic Development Kit.  The setup was fine for about a zone or two, but the engine couldn’t take any more code, as it got really messy and impossible to decipher and organize.  Zones implemented after Sunset Shore and Cosmic Chaos just bugged out and exploded.  There was too much conflicting code.  Rather than redesign the engine once more, Christian decided that enough was enough.  He pulled the plug on the Retro Sonic Development Kit two days ago.

Nexus lives on, though.  Last night, I struck a deal with saxman, the creator of the greatest Sonic engine of all time, ProSonic.  I mean, you can’t be a “pro” without “ProSonic,” right?  Am I right?!  The lackluster performance of the engine at SAGE 2008 showed me that Nexus can help build it into something worth respecting.  It’ll take me a while to port engines (again), but you’ll see the new Nexus on display at SAGE 2009.  Get ready for us to go PRO!

Keep it real, broskis.

Contests are over.  No more.  It has been replaced with the “contribute” button.  What is the contribute button, you ask?

Well, we’ve talked community projects before.  Work gets funneled through me and I decide whether or not it is in the game or not.  Now, you can “freelance,” so to speak, and submit to us.  More resources means less work for us!

We have set up an “e-mail dropbox” for the public’s use.  If you have some sprites, backgrounds, objects, anything graphic related that you’d like to contribute to the project, plonk it in the Nexus dropbox.  There are rules and restrictions to it all, though, so PLEASE read the following before submitting:

• We are only accepting graphics. That entails badniks, bosses, level foregrounds, level backgrounds, and level objects.  Only these things should be left in the dropbox.
• That means we do not want concept art, engines, or anything that isn’t a badnik, boss, or level related.
• We are only accepting Genesis style.  NO Advance style!
• Do not send us your fancharacter.  Please, just don’t.

Got that?  Now, before you ship it over to us, consider the following:

• Submitting graphics, if it is used, will earn a space for your name in the credits.
• By sending us graphics, you are handing over the rights to your work.  The graphics become property of the Nexus Team.
• However, as the author of the graphics, you are still able to use them in your projects.

PLEASE re-read all of those rules, head on over to the contribute page, re-read the rules AGAIN, then submit.

-Flick

OK, so I’ve noticed that whenever anybody makes a blog post, we get more questions along with the critiques and comments.  The questions frequently repeat themselves from post to post, so I’m going to address them all with a long list.  Get ready to have your curiosity quenched.

OMG OMG OMG WHERE NEXT DEMO?!  COME OUT SOON, YES?!

We said it back in September, but you probably forgot.  Our “plan” is to release it by the end of the winter season.  Note how “plan” is in quotes, because it is no guarantee.  We’re shooting for that in order to keep us motivated, but you never know what snags, either in development or in life, you will hit along the way.  Plus, we have a surprise for you all that might take longer than scheduled.

EDIT: The next demo will have Sunset Shore, Cosmic Chaos, and Pristine Palisade.

Which characters are in this game?

Sonic, Tails, & Knuckles.  Eff all those other dudes.

Is there a special stage and when will we get to see it?  What’s it like?

Yes, there is one.  You’ll probably see screens of it down the road, but it will not surface in playable form for quite some time.  I mean, like, not for a while, dawg.  The stage itself is accessed at the end of a level (a la Sonic 1/CD) and you will collect a Chaos Emerald upon completing it.  Yes, that means that Super Sonic is playable.  Spoiler alert.

Where’s the boss on Sunset Shore’s demo?

Uh, not there…like I said that it would be.  Doy.  Most of the time was spent recreating a brand new Retro-Sonic, so there was no time for it.

How do you access the alternate music tracks?

Nexus has 3 soundtracks: the OST, the Retro Remix, and the Genesis Mix.  The latter two soundtracks have to be unlocked track by track and I will explain how you do so in a later post.  Once you unlock a track for a zone, you can go to the options menu and select which one you want to hear.  So, for example, you could play Sunset Shore with the OST and go to Cosmic Chaos and have it play the Genesis Mix.  Of the three tracks per zone, you get to choose which one you hear when you play the game.

Are you going to make this game a community project?

Hell, no.  Never.  Community fangames are the worst!  It’s all just a bunch of talking and nobody doing anything.  You can only fit so many cooks in a kitchen.  So, by keeping the team size small and having myself call the shots on everything, more things get done.  Trust me on this one, ok?  Community fangames fail.  If anybody from Project: Sonic Retro asks me to merge Nexus with that mess they call a fangame again, I will surely flip.  It has happened numerous times already and I have responded with a resounding “no.”

I already consider the project to be a decent enough representation of the community anyway.  I hand pick the best of the best and ask them to join.  Think of it as a “highly selective community project.”  If you want to ride with us, be the best.

If I offended you and your community project, I really don’t care.  I had to address this question and you got my honest answer.  Maybe now, people will stop asking me about it.

–

If there are any more questions, ask away.  I might make a “FAQ: Part 2″ if I get enough general questions.

-Flick