Sonic Mania

Transcript
Did you know? Much of Sonic Mania’s development staff have a history in creating Sonic fan games and other projects. Christian Whitehead (also known as the “Taxman”) was known for creating the fan game, Retro Sonic. Retro Sonic ran on the Retro Engine, which was custom built by Whitehead and allowed him to replicate the physics of the classic Sonic games. This engine would become integral to Whitehead’s official involvement with Sega. In 2009, Whitehead developed a proof of concept for the iOS port of Sonic CD. Unlike Sega’s iOS ports, which ran on an emulator, Whitehead’s proof of concept was instead rebuilt from the ground up and used his Retro Engine software development kit. This allowed for new features to be added as well as a consistent frame rate and widescreen support. However, it was not the engine itself that replicated Sonic’s physics. Whitehead had to manually reconstruct them through rigorous frame by frame analysis of the original title. Whitehead emailed Sega to pitch the game to them, but did not receive a reply. Two weeks later, Sega asked the community on their blog which games they would like to see ported to iOS. In response, Whitehead publicly revealed his Sonic CD prototype, wanting to send them a clear message about what they should be working on. He also prompted fans to let Sega know if they were interested in seeing this prototype become a reality. The push was successful, with Sega responding to the video on Twitter. Whitehead’s version of Sonic CD was even published by Sega in 2011. Following his port’s success, Sega contacted Whitehead again, this time to handle ports of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2. Working with him was Simon Thomley (aka “Stealth”). Thomley also had a storied history with Sonic fan works. He was involved in the community during its formative years, heading the popular Sonic Megamix project, and was responsible for porting fan creations to the Wii and Sega CD. He also created an unofficial port of Sonic 1 for the GameBoy Advance, a response to the poor quality of the GameBoy Advance’s Sonic Genesis. While Whitehead reproduced the games through observation and recreation, Thomley was more familiar with the assembly code of the original games. The pair’s collaboration was fruitful, and their ports of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 boasted many advantages and were well-received by the community. Whitehead and Thomley (under his company name, “Headcannon”) would go on to form a core part of Sonic Mania’s development team. Joining them was PagodaWest Games, a company born of yet another Sonic fan project. This time, the unofficial remake, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 HD. PagodaWest’s Tom Fry and Jared Kasl met on the project, and formed a close friendship based on their similar outlooks on game design. Their experience on Sonic 2 HD was invaluable, teaching them the importance of keeping to deadlines and choosing the right team for the job. Joining them was musician Tee Lopes, known for his unofficial Sonic remixes. Sonic Mania was pitched to Sega by these three companies. The project was first presented to Sonic Team head, Takashi Iizuka in 2016. Only Studiopolis Zone was made at the time, and the game went under the title “Sonic Discovery”. After the presentation concluded, Iizuka simply told the team “I have many questions…” before they had to break for lunch. When they came back, Iizuka wrote a series of titles on a white board going from Sonic 1 through Sonic & Knuckles. He then added one more title: “Sonic Mania”. As the project advanced, more staff had to be brought on with many of these new members also boasting a history in the Sonic fan community. Programmer Hunter Bridges and designer Brad Flick previously worked on the fan game, Sonic Nexus. Artist Paul Veer (known for his work on Nuclear Throne) was commissioned to provide Cook & Becker’s official Sonic print. Audio engineer Falk Au Yeong is known for his contributions to several Sonic soundtracks, and artist Kieran Gates has helped organize the UK fan convention, “Summer of Sonic”. The game’s pre-order trailer and introduction were animated by Tyson Hesse, known for his work on Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog comics and the parody, “Sonic’s Big Fat Adventure”. One story considered for the game saw Eggman fall into a deep depression following Sonic & Knuckles. To fill the gap, a group of Egg Robos would become independent, calling themselves the Hard-Boiled Heavies. While the Eggman angle was dropped, the Hard-Boiled Heavies remained as major antagonists in the game. The Mania team were shown production material from the Genesis titles, including scrapped levels and concepts. Mirage Saloon was based on two levels that didn’t make the final cut: Dust Hill from Sonic 2, and Desert Dazzle from the 2011 re-release of Sonic CD. Sonic Mania was influenced by the aesthetics of the Saturn era Sonic titles. This choice allowed the limited team to produce a high quality title with a lot of content, rather than opt for HD graphics and have potential complications arise. The 3D models in the special stages pay homage to the characters’ Saturn models seen in games like Sonic R. Although, they are in fact brand new. To drive home the nineties aesthetic, Sega produced an advertisement for the game in the style of an old Sonic 2 commercial. Both spoof infomercials by comedically boasting about the game’s practical applications such as handling tough stains and acting as a hairpiece. Mania’s commercial even featured Kazuyuki Hoshino, a Sonic Team artist responsible for the character design on Sonic CD. As you might expect, Sonic Mania contains a huge number of nods and references to the rest of the Sonic series, as well as other Sega properties. Signs can be found in Studiopolis that read “COPE”. This is a reference to similar signs found in Spring Yard Zone in Sonic 1. Clipboards in Studiopolis have the following initials on them: CW, HC, and PWG. These stand for Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, and PagodaWest Games respectively. The Sega Sonic Popcorn Shop is named after a product released exclusively in Japan, a combination arcade game and popcorn vending machine. The televisions in Studiopolis show a symbol that highly resembles the logo of the Sega Game Gear. Signs in Studiopolis reading “Pink Bot” are a nod to signs in Streets of Rage that read “Pine Pot”. The Club Spin AGES signs seem to reference both Club Sega in Japan, and an old logo from UK Mega Drive commercials: “To be this good takes AGES”, with “AGES” being “Sega” backwards. Wanted posters of Nack the Weasel, Bark the Polar Bear, and Bean the Dynamite appear in the Mirage Saloon Zone. While this is a nod to the characters’ long absence from the series, it’s also a nod to Sonic Generations, where they also appeared on wanted posters in City Escape. The Studiopolis Zone shares its name with Studiopolis Inc, the production studio that records the English voiceovers for the Sonic series. Funnily enough, this was actually a complete coincidence. The team were unaware of the studio when they were naming the level. When they found out, they drafted some different titles for the zone, thinking that they would be asked to change it. Suggested titles included “Opening Night” and “Fame Plaza”. However, Studiopolis gave the go-ahead to use the name, and so it was kept with Whitehead thinking it was now a cool reference. And if you want more Sonic facts, why not check out the videos on screen. If you like this video, consider giving it a like and maybe subscribing to keep up with future videos.