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In a new interview posted on SEGA of Japan's recruitment page, members of Sonic Frontiers' development team have shed new light on the game's production, including the true size of the team at the height of the game's development. The interviewees include Sub-Lead Planner Masaya Hirano, Field/Environmental/Background Artist Yuki Takahashi, and Puzzle Lead Programmer Yuki Mitsuishi. This interview is in Japanese, a language I can't speak, so I did obviously run it through some AI translation. In addition to the Google translation people are currently using on Twitter, I also went ahead and ran it through DeepL. To start, the interview gave us a better idea of the size and structure of Sonic Frontiers' development team. While the team size is often cited as just 60 people, in reality the dev team reached a max size of 20 planners and 120 developers at one point, with the latter including designers, programmers, sound engineers, and 25 background designers. Technically, it's long been known that more than 60 people worked on the game, but this seems to be our first hard confirmation on how many people were working on the game concurrently. Developers and designers were also divided into several teams. Developers were divided by the kind of gameplay they were working on. For instance, the puzzles had their own team, led by the aforementioned Yuki Mitsuishi. The background artists were, likewise, divided into teams, with a "Ruins Team," Rock Team," and "Plant Team" given as examples. This was a first for Sonic Team. The interview also went into Sonic Frontiers' early growing pains. A year into the game's five year development cycle, the game's prototype was not yet at a satisfactory level in terms of graphics or game play, according to Takahashi. Originally, the open zone gameplay centered around solving puzzles, and the open zone prototype was three times the size of Kronos. But the prototype lacked a sense of speed and in Takahashi's words "didn't feel like a Sonic game." Hirano said "the team was too focused on the puzzle solving gameplay." For Hirano, things began to take off when a young developer who had only been at SEGA for three years suggested a "grind rail generator" gimmick. While the interview doesn't directly state it, this is presumably referring to the grind rails that would appear across the open zone as puzzles are completed. They then made a big change to how they were designing the open zone in order to lead the player to solve puzzles and battle while having fun moving through the world. Many also felt the island was boring because it was a wide expanse of similar scenery, so the background design was revisited and given a major overhaul. They wanted open zone environments to look natural and realistic from every angle, while also adding locations and exciting points that would not bore players. To that end, they created the aforementioned background artist teams. Finally, the interview also goes into the game's repeat playtesting. Many of you may remember that Sonic Frontiers was first leaked as "Sonic Rangers" from someone who claimed to have playtested it. It would seem Sonic Team did indeed conduct numerous playtests in the US, the feedback from which they repeatedly reworked the game. Initial playtest scores were low, but these increased overtime until they were finally getting 8s and 9s. This led to a feeling within the team that "we can do this." Notably, while Sonic Team has done playtesting before, Takahashi confirmed that this was the first time Sonic Team took the approach of making improvements through repeated playtesting. This interview may have been primarily to attract potential employees, but it does give us some interesting details about Frontiers itself, particularly in terms of things that were new for Sonic Team. Again, you can find the whole interview here. Original Post Content: View full story

This week, two former employees of Gamefam, the studio behind Sonic Speed Simulator on Roblox, have made public complaints about their treatment at the company while employed there and the lack of transparency in their dismissals. In a TwitLonger post, a 3D artist who worked on Sonic Speed Simulator going by the handle Digital Purgatory paints a grim picture of Gamefam as a studio, describing their behavior as "predatory." Digital Purgatory cites being underpaid compared to industry standard, salaried at $30,000 annual. Salary estimates for professional 3D modeling jobs vary, but this falls significantly below even the lowest estimates of roughly $50,000, and is less than half of the average estimate of $75,000. Beyond this, Digital Purgatory describes a pattern of crunch and lack of communication at the studio. Sonic Speed Simulator's frequent update schedule placed heavy demand on Digital Purgatory with little-to-no additional support: "Essentially I slaved away every week, working the nights while also taking care of my dad [...] just to be belittled and ignored and put on half-time cutting my pay in half." Following submission of assets for Sonic Speed Simulator's Werehog update, Digital Purgatory was informed that they were terminated without significant prior notification: "I get a notice that I was terminated from the company that I did not even notice until the next Monday to check on my tasks for the week." We attempted to contact Digital Purgatory for additional comment, but have not received a response at time of writing. Gamefam shows off Digital Purgatory's model/animation work in a Twitter post following their dismissal. This crunch and lack of communication is mirrored by former associate producer Alice in a separate TwitLonger post. While Alice was originally hired at a salary she was satisfied with, it did not ultimately match the demands of managing two high-demand projects, including training on the Roblox platform, managing international teammates across global time zones, and working within a culture that seemed to expect intense crunch: 'One such comparison was my boss telling me a fellow producer "Stayed up for an entire week" before his project launched, implying I should be more like him,' Alice describes. As her projects' progress was falling behind, she also became subject to a bizarre, opaque weekend dismissal like Digital Pergatory. Alice describes, 'The reason: "Leaking company secrets." When I asked what led him [the CEO] to believe this, I was told he had no proof but that it was the "only explanation" for my lack of productivity.' Her previous contract terminated over the weekend, Alice was offered a new contract to come later, and continued working until the new one was finalized; however, she would not get any clear answers as to when the new contract would start, its salary, or what compensation she would receive for her work between contracts. Alice adds, 'I was even told that I need to "Watch my tone" and "Be grateful" I was even being given a chance.' She opted to leave the position at the end of that week. In her post, she notes that she had not been compensated for her time between contracts or with previously offered severance pay. This comes at a time when Gamefam's website is touting major brand partnerships, including WildBrain, who recently premiered Sonic Prime's first episode within Sonic Speed Simulator. When asked for comment, Gamefam directed us to this public statement on Twitter: Fallout from these incidents have led to community backlash against Gamefam, including the hashtag "SonicSweatshopSimulator" trending on Twitter. On the official Sonic Speed Simulator Discord, there have been reports of users being banned for discussing the topic: Both Alice and Digital Purgatory stress not to harass other employees at Gamefam. Alice closes her post by stating "If you want to make change, focus your attention at the top of the pyramid - where it matters most," while Digital Purgatory added this message to their thread: While it could be very easy to cynically lump this in with the broader controversies surrounding the Roblox platform, it is worth noting that Gamefam, according to its website, maintains over 30 Roblox games with millions and billions of plays, partners with major brands for specialized content, and expects professional education and experience in its job listings. This is a studio that absolutely presents itself as professional and leans heavily on its engagement successes. This is not a fan project gone astray, this is a global game development studio allegedly putting the intense pressures of an ever shifting marketplace onto its employees without appropriate communication and resources. Gamefam lists their many of their projects, including play counts, on their official website. Whether or not you play Sonic Speed Simulator, it's important to understand that, even in the best circumstances, professional game development is a demanding field made even more so when the game in question is built on maintaining regular updates. Crunch, insufficient pay, and even a lack of basic respect multiply the demands involved in professional development. This pushes hard-working, talented creators to further life stress, burnout, or worse. As fans of the Sonic series, it's important for us to be aware of who SEGA partners with and how they operate, as the ethics of partner behavior reflects back on SEGA itself. Sonic games, and all games, cannot exist without the work of developers, artists, testers, producers, and more. Each deserve fair compensation and humane treatment. Thanks to Blacklighting, SSF1991, and Nuckles87 for providing resources for this story. View full story

Just a week after the release of Sonic Frontiers, SEGA’s looking to hire new developers to work on future games in the franchise. SEGA of Japan’s Twitter account made the announcement yesterday, saying it was “looking for people to work on the Sonic the Hedgehog series,” before linking to a job listing. Whether this is an expansion of existing development capability, or filling in existing positions, is currently unknown. via Twitter View full story

So, I thought of making this topic a while ago but never did. I saw that a couple people were working on fan games, so I figured, why not. This isn't much of a game development forum but I know you guys all like games, so for us here who are making them, would probably love to show you! So onto the basics of this thread, rules and such: To people posting projects; you must have a screenshot, video, and or music piece to show! (if it's music it must be apart of the game you're making or the team you're in's game) No requests for help unless you you have something to show and even then keep that to a minimum. When posting screenshots, videos, etc. It must be your own project! Give credit where credit is due and don't post claiming your making a project you're not! If someone gives you negative feedback, don't lash out at them. Think about why they may have those thoughts try to improve. To people posting critique and feedback: It doesn't have to be positive but keep it nice! If something to you feels wrong with a person's game or you encountered a glitch or just something you don't like, don't be afraid to tell them but don't be rude about it. Lets keep a good vibe. Now because you don't like something doesn't mean it's bad and if the creator feels it's not a problem it's not your place to tell them otherwise, even if it's a glitch or bad design. If it's something thats morally wrong or against the rules, please report them, instead of taking it into your own hands. It makes the topic more enjoyable to read. With that out of the way, I guess I should show my project!... Sonic Reboot: First Development Video, Features Knuckles first gameplay: Elemental Shields! Screenshots!

Discuss anything about Sonic The Hedgehog (2006)'s development, ideas, demos, betas, anything to do with its development and production. Post articles, videos, news, etc related to the game's development if you wish. The game started out in 2005 as Project SONIC THE HEDGEHOG when SEGA showcased a "Behind Closed Doors" demonstration at TGS 2005, which showed how Sonic could fare on the XBOX 360, and a teaser for Sonic's all-new adventure. The game was supposed to take Sonic in a realistic direction, and bring Sonic "back to his roots", which in other words, emulating the Sonic Adventure-styled gameplay. The TGS 2005 demo had many features that brought promise to the public, and Sonic fans alike, such as a day & night system, Sonic Adventure-styled running animation, spammable homing attack, RPG-styled gameplay, like gathering the more rings make you go faster, a BEARABLE realistic Sonic model and the action gauge was supposed to limit gem's powers. A "Rainbow Gem" found in the game's data would have allowed you to go Super Sonic in-game. Other features would have included Metal Sonic in the story, and as a playable character and several character stories instead of an amigo system. The E3 2006 demo brought more promise, showcasing Sonic's new abilities. It would be safe to say that the game was the most hyped Sonic game of all-time. When we got the demo released on XBLA in September of 2006, most of the features were still holding up. But unexpectedly, when the game was released in late November of 2006, these features were either not to be seen anywhere, or buggy/broken. Ever since, it is considered by most to be one of Sonic's worst moments in his history, and one of the worst games ever created, promising too much, and not delivering. Here are some beta footage of the game from TGS 2005 and E3 2006 demos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y_jxuiklRs&feature=related