Voted Best Fan-Project for Winter 2015! Sonic Defenders is a multiplayer strategy game featuring retroacted characters reminiscent of those from the Sonic franchise. Its initial release in late 2015 to early 2016 will be geared for Windows 7 and higher, and then a potential release for Linux and possibly Mac OS 10 to be rolled out in the upcoming year.
Plot[]
While any sense of a plot won't be enacted into the game, it should be known that the story is a retroactive continuity, or retcon, of the Sonic the Hedgehog series of games and comics. Characters will be nearly identical to their canon representations, save for several differences from their biographies.
The plot itself is about the main characters being drafted by a powerful nation called FREM, or the Federal Republic of Eastern Mobius in response to a cold war between them and the Robotnik Faction. In the midst of a negotiation crisis, the two superpowers' relations boil over into an all out war over a volatile superconducting material found in the caves under the border regions between FREM and the Kintobor Faction.
As the story continues, slight tweaking may be made upon the game, but no such change is planned for the time being.
Gameplay[]
Players join a multiplayer game—via either IP address or menu selection—with a randomly assigned character that hasn't already been played by another player. This forces the user to be resourceful since each character carries individual skill, attack, strength, and weakness, and at the same time this ensures only one unique character per game.
Health points, action points, and rings are three things in the game that the player should be aware of. Health points are controlled by a percentage that lowers depending on the potential of an attack, and action points dictate whether or not a special move is possible or not. In events where ammunition for weapons is required, those overlay the action bar to allow users to keep track of how much ammo they have to properly allocate resources to attacks.
Rings are utilized as a wild card for points, they can be spent on obtaining more health or more action points. It should be noted that when a player reaches a point where they have no health or action points, whatever actions that subtract from either of those will instead take away in rings until they run out, in which case the player is dead. Rings can be shared, allowing users to help each other should such an event be needed.
The game is placed in a side-scrolling platform perspective, requiring players to use their individual skills to conquer obstacles together, however, for the better ease of use, almost all obstacles in game should be capable of being maneuvered through by each class. Resupply lockers can also heal players, and if a character requires a special item such as bullets, they will be provided.
Omochao is a robotic chao who serves as a tutorial provider in the beginning of the game in order to aid new users. He possesses little health altogether and typically appears as the wrong place at the wrong time, often inadvertently insulting the user they are trying to help. Almost always being a complete nuisance, he can be desummoned by being hit by the player or another teammate, which often times occurs on accident.
Modes[]
To prevent staleness in game, there are multiple modes and maps that are incorporated in the default game. With the use of scripts, players can create their own servers with custom maps, gamemodes, characters, etc. Below is a list of all default game modes, and maps that are included within the game.
Emerald Rush[]
This game mode is very simple and the most competitive because enemies can partake in this game given their AI supports it. The players must make their way through a large amount of enemies, traps, and riddles in order to find a single Chaos Emerald. Once the player manages to find the emerald and take it back to base, another is unlocked, and the process goes on until the seventh emerald is found. Players can not attack while in the possession of an emerald, but can drop it when dead or pressing the alternate attack key. At that point, the player, or the enemy, has sixty seconds to find the emerald and carry it back. When the sixty seconds are up the emerald is teleported back to it's original holding spot.
Secure the Point[]
Among the most varying of all game modes. The players must find their way through large amounts of enemies, and get to a specific point that must be secured for a certain period of time. While in the point, enemies have the advantage of killing the player, which means that it is best that other players accompany the one who will secure it. Given that the map supports the option, the longer the players secure the point, the more enemies will appear.
WARNING: If the time needed to secure a point to win is too long, an over-abundance of enemies can result. This can lead to large amounts of lag, and at the same time, may result in errors that will cause enemies to potentially spawn themselves in the same position as other entities, including players.
Characters[]
Sonic Defenders, by default, features retroactive characters from the popular Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. With the advantage of scripts for customization, characters can be added, changed, or even deleted. Features can vary between sprite, speed, attacks, and more.
Development[]
Sonic Defenders is currently being developed by Akrivus. It will use SFML, a more practical modification/wrapper of OpenGL. Currently in a pre-released, early development stage, nightly releases are expected to appear in the coming weeks, and open beta scenarios are planned to be rolled out around the middle of July (we are aiming towards July 22nd for the first open build)
Releases[]
At the moment, the game is in no state of public release.
Modding[]
Game elements will be made in a way that makes them easy to be modified. Asset programs with object support and scripters with Lua will allow modders to make their own modifiable game elements like maps, enemies, characters, and more. All modifications will be for servers, so that server owners can manage their plugins and scripters can stay fixed on one specific platform.