Freedom Planet - Not a Sonic fangame. Really. I promise.

[Bobinator]

So, I'm presuming a lot of you already know about this, but for those who don't, it's a good thing I'm here, right?

So, there's been a game in development for a while, called Freedom Planet. Early on, it started off as a game set in the Sonic universe, with new characters. Eventually, though, it split off into its own thing entirely, with the character design and gameplay mechanics changed around to be just a bit more original. Sure, it's still pretty easy to compare to Sonic, but there's a little bit of Ristar and Rocket Knight Adventures, too.

The game's actually pretty far in development, and there's a great demo if you want to give it a shot. If you enjoyed the Sonic games on the Genesis, RKA, or any of Treasure's stuff, you'll probably enjoy this, too. I'd go ahead and say this is probably one of the best indie platformers I've seen since the Giana Sisters reboot, and honestly, this is looking way better. Just from the demo alone, there's some amazing spritework, and a great mix of speed and actual exploration, with a good number of alternate paths.

If you enjoy it, you might want to put money towards their Kickstarter. The more money that gets sent, the more extra features get thrown in, and you can get the game for yourself for only $10 USD. Keep in mind that it's less for actually getting the game out and more for extra features and getting it on as many formats as they can, including Steam. If you're interested in that, they've got a page on Steam Greenlight going.

Oh, yeah, here's a video.
Here's the Kickstarter. Remember, the more money they get, the more systems they can port to.
And here's the Greenlight page.

 

[Shadow Hog]

I hadn't realized it'd hit Kickstarter and Greenlight already. You should probably link those! (I mean, I found them myself on Sonic Retro, but still...)

 

[WedgeStratos]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/galaxytrail/freedom-planet-high-speed-platform-game

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=120841685

For easy grabbing.

Yeah, but Freedom Planet is a very interesting game, which, in the current state, slashes the priorities of the game between two characters. Lilac is the one playable in prior demos, and seems to be more combat oriented. Her attacks are more damaging, and she takes a bit more time to get speed, fitting a Rocket Knight feel. Carol appears in demo 1.3 (latest atm) and is movement oriented, complete with a motorcycle, and jump pads a'la Sonic Adventure, more fitting of a Sonic game. I can definitely agree with Bobinator, but I don't see the Ristar.

If you want to have a kickass game to enjoy, and see it get upgraded to not be just MMF2 (or at least, a slightly better MMF2 game) then go greenlight and donate. It's worth it, especially since anyone who puts down $10 gets a free copy of the game, and a Steam key when (not If) it gets greenlit. If I had money, i would put it down on this. It is too great.

 

[TheMarshMan]

I'll throw some cash at the kickstarter when I get a chance.

Site says that the music is apparently going to be done by the guys who did it for the Gundemonium games and Bunny Must Die, which all had great music. That alone is enough to get me to buy it.

Really looking forward to this.

 

[akb778]

It's really nice to see that this got on Steam Greenlight and Kickstarter. I'm definitely gonna toss some money to the Kickstarter at some point.

Can't wait for a full release!

 

[I'll Begin]

I remember seeing this in SAGE, and when I saw it on Greenlight I jumped on the chance to upvote it and spread the word right away.

I gave the demo a try. It's pretty gewd.

 

[MellowJacket]

Lawsuit when?

While I really enjoyed the demo and I will most likely pick this up if it gets released (assuming I don't donate first), I'm curious to see if Sega picks up on the fact it's a blatant Sonic clone in terms of character design and requests it to be taken down.

Still, I guess it's not much different to the extreme animal mascot games from the nineties which were trying to piggy-back on Sonic's success in terms of art design.

The $20,000 kickstarer reward is hillarious as well. More money being poured in to make the game better is great, but the reward being a series of in character lets plays instead of detail about how it will improve the game is pretty amusing.

Spoiler

Also this design makes me cringe every time I look at it because it reminds me of that delightful garbage, Zool.

Edit: Actually replaying the demo I found the quality quite questionable. I'll still probably buy and eat it up anyway because I'm a terrible person like that.

 

[Shadow Hog]

I already pledged $50 for the Alpha access. Seeing as it comes in April (assuming all goes according to schedule), that'd be a nice belated birthday present to myself.

 

[Ultimate]

o.O BlueWarrior's doing some of the music on this o.O
Wow. Awesome.

 

[Prime 2.0]

While I really enjoyed the demo and I will most likely pick this up if it gets released (assuming I don't donate first), I'm curious to see if Sega picks up on the fact it's a blatant Sonic clone in terms of character design and requests it to be taken down.

Honestly, I find the art style to be way closer to Ristar than sonic. Nevermind that you can't copyright an art-style. The only similarity to sonic in art design is that the main characters are stout, anthropomorphic animals... that's about as strong a tie to sonic as it is to mickey mouse.

 

[Flash Trickstar]

Freedom Planet Coming Soon!

And I could not be more excited for it! I managed to become a beta tester and some of the levels REALLY took my breath away in terms of design, concept, music and the bosses. some in particular that caught my eye were Sky Battalion, Jade Creek, Thermal Base and Pangu Lagoon. Jade Creek 2's theme used to be my favorite song from said game... but my opinion is slightly altering to Thermal Base 1's theme. Yeah i can be a bit of a boss and music junkie when it comes to video games. X3

 

[Cirom]

This game has ALL of my hype right now. I never got into the Kickstarter alphabeta, so I've basically just got the Dragon Valley demo to tide me down. :T (Although I HAVE managed to get it done in 03:17, soooo ;D - pretty sure the requirement for unlocking Carol was 06:00? And I remember when THAT was difficult, mostly due to my lack of skill.)

Been following this game since it got shown off at SAGE! ;D Super hyped!

 

[Daywalker]

I really like the style of Freedom Planet. To me it feels like it hearkens back to the Playstation/Saturn/PC-98 days of platforming games, which is the type of charm that I love seeing in games like this. It is great Freedom Planet was successfully funded. Looking forward to its release.

 

[Flash Trickstar]

Glad you all think that way. and once we actually get the textures from it. that'll leave us with options to make maps based off of it. just imagine making an level based off of Thermal Base in SRB2. =3

Also. if anyone wants to talk to me about some of the music. don't be afraid to PM me. XD

 

[Shadow Hog]

We already had a thread on this, so I went ahead and merged 'em together.

 

[Frostav]

I played the demo and really liked it (except for the voice actors clearly sounding like amateurs--they weren't BAD, but they clearly weren't professionals), but there's something about the physics which bugs me. Characters can pretty much walk up slopes freely and don't have any trouble going up them at all, and since Strife mentioned that that was intended...I'm like "what was even the point of emulating Sonic's sloping terrain when they don't affect you at all". I just replayed it, and it seems that they DO slow you down, but you eventually stop losing speed and start slowly climbing them no matter how slow you were going. It's like slp only calculates up to a certain angle when running the slp*sin(angle) function (assuming they are doing something similar to Sonic which they seem to be) and then it stops. Indeed since you lose no speed there appears to be NO function calculated at all, the game just stops you from accelerating...? You seem to gain speed moving down them just fine though.

Like I want to like this game but seriously, why. This game's got loops 'n' shit but if you can walk through them with no problem then why even have them?

EDIT: Okay, I just checked a little more and it seems like they DO slow you down, but it takes MUCH longer than Sonic. They must be using a REALLY low slp value in the function--after Dragon Valley's first encounter with the snake boss, you go down a really tall wall--if you try to go back up it, eventually you WILL fall back down, but it takes forever even if you start from dead still at the VERY bottom.

 

[clairebun]

Strife probably wanted the slopes to play a role in how certain parts of the game are played, but didn't want the player to have to fight the physics that much, in order to place more emphasis on the combat.

o.O BlueWarrior's doing some of the music on this o.O
Wow. Awesome.

eeeeh... not really. lol

I wanted to, but by the time I responded to his email, Strife had already found somebody. We tried to make something work and I made a couple remixes, but Strife had already decided on Woofle doing the remastering, so I kinda just felt like a third wheel and quietly shied away from it.

 

[Aegix]

0_o How did I not hear about this game?!

I just played the demo and dear GOD it's awesome.

Like Sonic, Megaman Zero and....some other awesome sidescroller did a fusion dance. :o

I'm going to be grabbing this on day 1.

 

[Lilly]

Like I want to like this game but seriously, why. This game's got loops 'n' shit but if you can walk through them with no problem then why even have them?

Older Freedom Planet demos do actually play like Sonic, but after trying to play one of them again recently, I was hating it. Sonic's momentum is, in all honesty, impractical for the serious, tight platforming that you will see in Freedom Planet's later stages. Its level design mannerisms take a different direction from Sonic's.

Try the challenges mode that the demo has. Mr. Pinball With Legs can't do any of the things Lilac can pull off there, at least not as easily as Lilac, and I'm liking that distinction a lot.

I know that sounds like a crazy thing to suggest, but we've been playing these games for as long as we could read, or even before then, so Sonic's physics is not hard for most of us. Does anyone remember their first time through Chemical Plant Zone 2?

 

[Mystic]

I would like to note that as a child, Sonic 2 was my first game. I knew nothing about games at the time and had zero eye-hand coordination to start. Chemical Plant 2 took me a solid month to beat. The very attempt I beat it I got all the way to the Mystic Caves boss. CPZ2 is a VERY bad difficulty spike and nobody should emulate that =P