49 Votes in Poll
Sonic colours ds
Plus sonic mania and CD aren't that different
I would advise you to make up your own Special Stage style if you can.
I've been trying to come up with my own for awhile. Something thats both speed-base but original and different at the same time.
My idea so far is something like a cross between Sonic CD special stages, Super Monkey Ball and maybe a bit of pinball. The idea is Sonic or the protagonist is sealed inside a sphere where they're able to run around fine but more prone to bumpers and ricochet. They have to collect enough rings to elevate to reveal the Chaos Emeralds and must avoid the exits.
If not collecting rings then maybe breaking through colour blocks to reach the emerald.
Another idea for an original Special Stage set-up I thought of is a cross between Sonic CD Special Stages and how Sonic 3D Blast zones are made with flat yet isometric angles. Throughout the stage there are spheres, similar to the ones found in S3&K Special Stages but they are non-solid. They start off red and you have to run into them to turn them blue. Touching them again will not end the stage as they're non-solid nor will they turn into rings if you circle them, the objective is to turn all the red spheres blue before time ends.
An idea is after the first Special Stage is finished you unlock "Versus Sphere", a game mode that takes place in unique symmetrical special stages. You and an opponent must run over the white spheres to turn them blue, however your opponent will turn the spheres red. By running over the red spheres you can turn them blue but your opponent can do the same to turn blue spheres into red
Sonic rush
Well, if I were to do a special stage in 3D, does GameMaker Studio allow for 3D level design?
It does. In my college years I was second best in game developer course when it came to GameMaker Studio (this was before Unity became more widely use.)
Why I was second best? The other guy actually knew how to make 3D games with it. I asked him for personal tutoring but he didn't get back to me on it.
I haven't used GameMaker Studio in probably over a decade or two so I dunno how different it is, but with the wisdom I have now I imagine you can use a sprite or an entity that represents a model and you can import a model type into GameMaker, I dunno.
You can make 2D games on Unity, I'd recommend you get to know the basics and grips with it for todays interest. You can even import .gmk files to it somehow.
What do you think?