Sonic Megamix

Now that this has come up, I guess it's time to make it official. Recently, there was a "leak" of some Megamix material. This material contained updates made shortly AFTER Megamix's "cancellation". The reason - Megamix was only actually "cancelled" for a maximum of three days. Because the speculation and accusations have been annoying since day one, and they apparently haven't stopped to this day, we have decided to share that information, as well as what actually happened:

Something came up between me and Tweaker, and we had an argument shortly before he had to leave for the day. When he did, he left Upthorn to talk in his place. Because it was then a third-party argument, the discussion turned ugly, until Upthorn left. The next day, before I came back, Tweaker had been shown a log, and, having been under tremendous pressure during that time, decided that he couldn't deal with it, and left his departure message in the Megamix thread, leaving the project to me. When I came back, he wasn't ready to talk to me, and becoming frustrated with the situation myself, I told the rest of the team privately that I would leave so that he could take the project back. What happened instead was that he announced the project's cancellation. After having given up on the issue for a couple of days, I came back to talk to some of the rest of the group, and finally, to Tweaker. We resolved the problem, and found out that the entire thing was based purely on a complete misunderstanding. We decided to continue the project, but to keep it a secret to relieve some pressure

The situation is this - As was Tweaker's intent when he left, I am taking a more active role in this project's presentation. It's not as if this changes anything, as I've been lead programmer and co-producer since I first helped Tweaker turn this into more than a hex palette and music hack in 2004. I do remember people posting in response to the announcement that I was to become the new project leader, saying things like "That sucks. I don't think Stealth can lead this project in the right direction". Well, bite me. If I haven't screwed it up yet, I don't see how I'm going to now. The only difference is that now, Tweaker has taken a more relaxed role in development. We aren't changing staff, direction, or any of that business; you'll all just have to get used to the fact that there are and have been more people involved than you've paid very much attention to, and we've all had very important roles in development. This isn't Tweaker's fault - he tried many times to tell you in explicit detail. You've just largely not paid the fact any attention

With that said, you know how I feel about my projects, and this is no exception. It never has been, less of Tweaker's over-zealous promotion. I am protective, and I will remain so. We will do what we please with this project, and on a time-table of our own choosing. Requests and questions about release dates are annoying and pointless. There will be no further demos, or even "private" beta-tests. Fact is, Megamix was supposed to end development with "version 4" (at a later point in time), until this mess happened. There is no way we can possibly make another non-final release and keep it substantially fresh. Trust me - you'll thank us when you have much more to play with all at once than one level at the end of the game and a couple of menu text changes

This doesn't mean that there won't be occasional teaser updates. I generally don't like those, but development will be long, and some of the rest of the team just can't keep their pants on. That's why they'll be following-up with a few things to show for themselves since the "final" release, such as my addressing of the level->level load time "issue"

Finally, and this is important, we reserve the right to halt completely at any time. We owe a debt to no-one, and we don't have to publicize any newer builds. All we ask for is some decency and respect. Don't launch into actual complaints about how we choose to handle our business. Don't rip us off solely for the sake of riding off Megamix fame. Also, don't go asking for or looking for things that don't belong to you. If we hear about the leaked material, or see it being spread/used, that's it. If you want to do our jobs for us, we just won't, and when you can't handle it, you'll only have yourselves to blame

Otherwise, we will be happy to share further Megamix developments with you