Topic: Sonic Advance 2 (GBA)

[TerraEsperZ]

I hope nobody's bothered by me seemingly starting several projects in close succession. I just had a rough time this summer dealing with personal stuff but now that most of it has been sorted out (I'm not going to discuss it here, but the slight change in my avatar might clue you in), I've been feeling re-energized and I've had an urge to map I hadn't felt in years. That, and I've been feeling nostalgic for Sonic. Again.

Anyway, I gave the second game in the series a try. Given how huge its maps get, I wanted to know if it was possible to map the levels in a timely fashion using my camera Lua script (it is, it just took a few evenings to capture everything from the first level) and if MS Paint could handle the image size (it can't, nor can GIMP with only 2 GB of RAM without pausing for minutes every time I do something, but creative use of Irfanview has allowed me to paste together smaller sections together until I had the whole stage).

Concerning the first map (in case, hopefully, that I make more), which is Leaf Forest, as with the first Sonic Advance game, I had to be creative with the backgrounds which had parts that aren't really tileable in every direction. I did some pixel editing to turn the clouds on the horizon into a standalone cloud to cover the sky, and also edited both layers of "trees" (I'm *guessing* they're incredibly stylized trees given the name of the stage, Leaf Forest) so that tiling them horizontally would give them a bit of a slope in order to follow the flow of your movement across the stage (otherwise, they would have either covered too much or too little of the whole thing). There was also a lot of empty space under the stage which I've filled by repeating the patterns above the void to make the whole thing look better.

The map is practically final but I haven't assembled a header for it yet (as always, the header is rarely final until the whole game has been mapped anyway) so JonLeung, in case you wanted to post it to the site right now from this thread, just know an updated version will be made in the future. I've also finally got used to Photobucket's interface and what not, so the map is linked directly this time. Nope, Photobucket is still being a piece of shit, just less of one than most other hosting site. *sigh*

Leaf Forest - Act 1:


Leaf Forest - Special Stage 1:

[TerraEsperZ]

Updated first post with Leaf Forest - Special Stage 1.

Normally, special stages in Sonic games aren't really worth mapping at best, or aren't really mappable at worst, taking place inside a half-pipe or a full tube with rings, mines and obstacles coming at you from every possible angle. But in this game, they take place on a huge flat arena using a third-person perspective where you can walk around as much as you want and the position of objects can be captured precisely.

I could have made a flat overhead map (in fact, there are already such maps on GameFAQs) but I decided to use what little experience I acquired while mapping those arenas in Sonic Battle to do the whole thing using an isometric view. It took a while to achieve the right size and proportions for the best objects-to-arena ratio, and then more time to capture the position of every ring and finally some memory hacking to find the starting position of the robot. I'm not that happy with the background but it serves its purpose in filling the void and fitting in harmoniously with the graphics of the arena.

For someone who's always been so obsessed with accuracy and such, I'm enjoying putting my own personal touches on maps like these.

[Zeupar]

Hey TerraEsperz! Those maps look incredibly pretty. Awesome work. The problem now is that I need more. :P

I've also finally got used to Photobucket's interface and what not, so the map is linked directly this time. Nope, Photobucket is still being a piece of shit, just less of one than most other hosting site. *sigh*

Have you tried postimage.org?

[TerraEsperZ]

You'll have to be patient! Right now, I seem to have hit my stride with Sonic 3D Blast and might, *might*, be finished with it in a few months. Only then do I see myself resuming work on this game and I'm warning you in advance, even then they take a long time to make, assuming I do nothing else but mapping in all my free time.

I'll give postimage.org a try, but I'm a bit skeptical. All free image hosting sites seem to crap out in some way at some point.