In order to improve my development workflow on Linux, I decided to implement a GTK3 front-end for CPCEC, an accurate Amstrad CPC / Plus / GX-4000 emulator from Cngsoft.
Project details can be found here.

Today I'm sharing with you an update on Sonic GX's development !

What was done since the last update:

• The game now features 4 unique zones, with their own set of visual styles, each made of 2 levels: the Green Hill Zone, the Bridge Zone, the Climb Zone and finally the Sky Scrap Zone. This was made possible thanks to newer technical approaches and reorganizing data. All of that remains perfectly coherent with the game story.
• The complete game-through of the game is achieved ! Yes, you read it: the game is now fully playable from Level 1 to end of Level 8, without any blockers. Of course there are many remaining things to tweak, but this represents a major step for us that we finally reached.
• Because of level-design restrictions (the Climb Zone required a vertical layout, while the Sky Scrap Zone features a labyrinth in DrEggman's bunker), we had to upgrade our tile engine to support squared-maps, vertical-maps... this means the engine is not stuck anymore to horizontal levels only.
• We also added a new enemy - Spike - and added few new screens (a new dedicated "Act Screen" for the Sky Scrap Zone, the Scoring Screen that appears at the end of each levels, etc).
• Our musician Targhan delivered all the audio required for the game: levels (including the newer additions), act screens, bonus level, end screen, game sounds and more. What I can say is that his work completely match the game theme as we know on Sega consoles !

Remaining work:

• We are still good regarding our development plan. Our target is to get the game "feature completed" end of this year (major work to focus: implement the Bonus Level + the End Screen of the game).
• Next year will be the year of the bug-fixings / game improvements. Since we don't want to disappoint, we won't release the game till we don't consider it's good for shipping -- or, in other words: till TotO is not satisfied with :)
• Hopefully End of 2022 as Release Date, if everything still goes OK! :)

Find here attached some new screens (that completes the ones in previous update). Please keep in mind all of that remains a work in progress: many things can change.

I realize I did not give major updates regarding progress on development of Sonic GX (our game for the Amstrad GX-4000) since the Alchimie Treize (held in November 2019 in France). So today after months of silence (and some published articles), I would like to share with you an official update regarding the project.

What was done since PREVIEW 1 ?

• 4-6 months following the Alchimie party, I spent most of my time rewriting some parts of the game, with better technical approaches. The tile engine got a major refactor, providing better performance and a reduced memory footprint.
• This summer, I had lots of fun adding the support of sprite multiplexing into the game engine. It can now manage up to 40 rings on screen !
• The game engine now supports multiple ground positions for the same horizontal position in the world ; in other words, the Level 2 is featuring tunnels. :)
• Gameplay improvements: new sprite animations bringing more life to the game (a small "smoke" animation is now displayed when Sonic jumps onto an enemy, and a set of tiny "stars" is displayed when Sonic takes a ring) ; the sky (made of horizontal lines) in background is now always slightly animated vertically ; enemies can now fire projectiles (that Sonic must avoid); when Sonic jumps too high and gets hidden from the game's viewport, a small arrow is now displayed to determine what will be the position of the landing ; added support of water (Sonic walks slower in it)...
• Levels 1 & 2 are now finalized. They both feature new visuals. Level 3 is a WIP. CeD did a great job by providing new visuals for the tiles, new enemies too!
• Audio improvements: Targhan did an amazing job by translating new musics and sounds.
• Various bug-fixings / other internal optimizations / improvements..

Remaining work to provide / the future

• With the help of TotO, we now have a better idea of the game content. We focus on providing a coherent game experience, featuring a progressive difficulty for the gameplay and finally -- a game fun to play.
• There are still some low-level stuff that bothers me in the game engine..
• More enemies, new levels.. it's actually bigger and more ambitious from what we initially envisioned during the Alchimie Treize. Right now the original direction did not change, the game still features a completely new level design, taking a large inspiration from the SMS/GameGear versions -- so it's not a remake, but clearly a new "episode".
• We are planning a Bonus zone!
• I estimate that we reached approx. 50%-60% of what should be the final game. So it means we still have a long way to go before releasing this game..
• Consequence of the above point ; as you could expect, the game won't be released this year. 2021 will be a very intense year for me on the professional side, I plan to be more exhausted than usual. So, the new target for release is 2022 (in other words: "it will be ready when it's ready"). I know this will be a disappointing news for some ; but really, there is no rush here.

The first preview of the game shown on Youtube was quite popular. Based on that success, I initially planned to release this today's update as a video. But we finally decided to keep this private to avoid revealing too much the game. So instead, I'm releasing here some exclusive screenshots of the game. Please keep in mind this is WIP -- the final version of the game may be slightly different.

I want to thank a lot my friends (they know who they are) that are helping me to keep the motivation on this project !! And I also would like to send a special mention to Novabug and Xyphoe, they made a great job on Youtube to advertise the game and bring general interest to the Amstrad GX-4000.

I'm glad to announce you that BLAST ANNUAL 2020 Vol.2 is now available.

It features numerous articles related to the Amstrad's 8-bit machines : programming tutorials, game reviews, Batman Group interview and finally, pages related to the making of SonicGX (what motivated us to create the game, what were the challenges, how it compares to other versions of Sonic on Sega platforms, some details about development processes, etc).

Finally, as a reminder to people that did not follow SonicGX's development from the beginning ; know that BLAST ANNUAL is also an amazing sponsor to us. They gifted me the flight Montreal (Canada) <-> Paris (France) last year to attend Alchimie 2019 and that allowed us present there our game in person for the very first time.

But this does not alter our judgment on this Vol.2 ; it's great and cheap with nice content, so make sure to grab your copy right now !

Link: https://blastannual.com/product/blast-annual-2020-vol-2/

I had the honour and the privilege to discuss 1 hour about the Amstrad GX-4000 and bring some updates on Sonic GX (our conversion of Sonic the Hedgehog for the GX-4000) during the AMSTREAM held on Youtube by Xyphoe !