Sonic: TFH October Update news

Another month, another update, eh? If you recall, last month I said things had slowed down on the project since the SAGE 2008 demo in August, and that was true. Things remained slow as I collected content for my yearly Halloween media celebration, The Graveyard Shift. I didn't really think I'd have anything for this update I spent so long scouring the internet for music and video for Halloween goodies. That is, of course, until I noticed a couple of comments on the game's profile, declaring that they would like a new version of the SAGE demo with the improvements I had made to the game engine since then (as demonstrated in the September update). I figured that would be the focal point of my October update.

But, of course, with me, things are never that easy.

As I have a tendency to do, I went a little overboard. I decided that, instead of simply putting out the updated demo as-is, I'd go ahead and change some aspects of the demo I was not happy with. This began to snowball out of control a little bit as I began adding more and more stuff to the demo level. A full change log is available on the file's download page, but to summarize: You'll find new graphics, tweaked level design, a new enemy, and, most importantly, Mission NPCs.

If you remember pre-SAGE demo, I demonstrated a bit of mission code where the game would give you a task, and, upon completion, it would add a certain number of rings to your ring bank. Well, something I had wanted to do for the SAGE demo originally and did not have time to implement was giving the level some NPCs that would give you specific missions. Upon deciding to update the demo, I figured I would go ahead and add most of the stuff I left out of the original SAGE demo due to time constraints - thus, Vector the Crocodile and Espio the Chameleon can be found loitering around Dry Savannah, each with their own, unique Mission to give you. One of which is actually fairly involved - it alters the look of the level and how you play it. Also planned for the SAGE demo was a goof-ball extra that I flip-flopped on including and eventually bit the bullet and put it in for your enjoyment - problem is, you have to find it, first. I'm not telling how!

Unfortunately, due to all the changes contained within, all Time Trial and High Score data will be forcibly reset. If you try and re-use a Results.dat from an older version of the demo, it will be declared invalid and automatically erased by the game. If you're still on the fence (why would you be?) here's a short promo video demonstrating some of the new things in Version E.

So yeah. That makes up TFH's October update. Go download the new demo and have some fun, and Happy Halloween!