Taxman Gives More Details on How Mania Actually Started

[Zippo]

A lot of this wasn't known before, so I figured I would make a thread about it:

https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=35709&st=5370

"Mania's dev story is pretty neat actually, and I'm sure we'll discuss it in the fullness of time but the short of it is this:

Our initial proposal was actually to do a rather modest little original 2D game & bundle in the remasters to sweeten the deal. Iizuka-san then suggested the "Mania" concept of re-imagining the classic Zones along with our new Zones as one cohesive game, and our team went to work coming up with a new story and ideas to go with it. So yeah, we've really been able to run with it, and produce something considerably more grandiose (classic zones have new BGs, layouts, bosses & gimmicks after all).

Anyway, it's back to work for me!"

 

[Phos]

My admittedly reductive and knee jerk reaction to this is that Iizuka is is responsible for another green hill zone remake.  

[Ajavalo]

One thing I get from this is that they had a standard-length game of original levels, then they added a bunch of reimagined zones on top of them. More proof that this game is gonna be HUGE!

In all honesty, this is one of the reasons why I totally welcomed the reimagined stages all the way since last year's announcement, because I know they'll extend the game's length considerably -all-new levels are harder to produce-.

 

[Salamander]

Indeed, it seems the idea of a Mania-length game with all-new zones was never on the table; just a kind of core Mania of only the new levels that we'll be getting anyway.  Since the reimagined levels appear to be well-executed now that I understand more about them, I've made my peace with the revisits.

[molul]

1 hour ago, Ajavalo said:

One thing I get from this is that they had a standard-length game of original levels

"Our initial proposal was actually to do a rather modest little original 2D game"

I don't think "rather modest little" means "standard-length". I'd say 5 zones maximum.

[Salamander]

Yes, even Sonic 1 and Sonic 3 only really had six zones each.  Perhaps the original proposal was shorter than that, or would've lacked flourishes like minibosses and special stages.

[FReaK]

38 minutes ago, FFWF said:

Yes, even Sonic 1 and Sonic 3 only really had six zones each.  Perhaps the original proposal was shorter than that, or would've lacked flourishes like minibosses and special stages.

probably. I do think that the hard boiled heavies would have been the real enemy of that game though. I have to give credit to Iizuka though, it was a brilliant idea to combine completely revamped classic stages with that, rather than releasing ports for the 2413141th time. Let's just hope that this isn't a one time thing.

[gato]

I don't think the idea of adding remastered zones into Mania to celebrate classic Sonic's era in itself is bad, but I do question the idea of remastering zones for Mania while you are remastering zones for Forces after you remastered zones (arguably) just one (mainline) game ago.

Oh well. For all we know Green Hill could be the only remastered zone on Forces just because Classic's side of the story has to start somewhere (keeping low expectations tho).

[molul]

2 hours ago, FReaK said:

probably. I do think that the hard boiled heavies would have been the real enemy of that game though. I have to give credit to Iizuka though, it was a brilliant idea to combine completely revamped classic stages with that, rather than releasing ports for the 2413141th time. Let's just hope that this isn't a one time thing.

I think it's a brilliant idea in terms of strategy. If you launch Mania, you bring Sonic back to its root but with a NEW game. Another remaster wouldn't be so attractive for most people. This is something to sell to a bigger audience.

After that, coming back to remasters (well, S3&K remaster) would make more sense. And a bundle with Sonic 1, 2, 3&K and CD remasters with Sonic Mania would be quite a big product.

[Tenko]

I find it interesting that he mentions "our team went to work coming up with a new story, and ideas to go with it". That sounds like they were even given free reign on the story and direction for this title too. That we may get something more interesting than Sonic Teams usual boiled down English story treatment. While our manuals did have story for the classic games they weren't anywhere near Japan's depth or use of continuity for the classics from their manuals etc. 

[Chris Knopps]

17 hours ago, gato said:

For all we know Green Hill could be the only remastered zone on Forces just because Classic's side of the story has to start somewhere

Chemical Plant Zone is mentioned by characters in Forces, don't hold your breath.

[pppp]

.....I still wanna play Taxstealth's remakes on my PS4 though....

[TheOcelot]

Thought I'd post this recent insight from Taxman (over on Retro) about Mania :

Quote

While stylistically it's modeled after a Saturn game, the engine is designed for a more modern workflow, so we'd basically have to do a lot of code and asset rejiggering if we actually wanted the game to run on a Saturn. Might be a fun personal challenge one day if/when Saturn development becomes possible without burning a load of CDs  

 

[molul]

This "modeled after a Saturn game" thing confuses me. Mega Drive had a 320x240 resolution, while Sega Saturn had up to 720x576. Ok, it was compatible with 320x224, so technically it would fit a lo-res Saturn game, but it still confuses me. For me it makes more sense calling it a Sega CD 32x game (CD for the music, 32x for the graphic quality).