A very fair question. In a word, slowly. A combination of life circumstances have meant I've had almost no time to work on this, so I've literally done bursts of a few dozen hours with 10 month breaks in between. The good news is things have settled down quite a bit in the last few months, and I'm picking up this project again. It's also very close, so with just a bit of consistent time I should be able to start doing releases. I haven't said anything publicly yet, because this has dragged on for so long and I want to release something concrete when I post next, but I'll announce something in the SpritesMind forum when I do.
Well thank goodness you didn't come across “Sonic Forces” first! Glad you are enjoying Mania! Just ignore that steaming heap called Sonic Forces. Edit: Beer makes me redundant.
I wonder if Project Plus is actually PC ports of the original games? I'd imagine they'd use the same engine as Mania, maybe it accidentally got snuck in in the build process?
Nice to see you, Nemesis. Although I was lurker for +10 years until recently, I've known and respected many of the old sceners here. I always get curious of what long-time-gone oldbies think about the game It depends on the intended presentation. If they intend to release them independent of the main Mania executable (with a custom launcher, or a Steam selection box upon launching the game), it will surely be a DLC (and Plus is not a DLC). If instead they want the remasters to be accessible from within Mania in the Main Menu, the content must be embedded in the Mania app, which justifies the Plus branch. The are games that opens another exe from within the game (like accessing Call of Duty multiplayer from the singleplayer exe) but I don't think it's likely in this case. Nevertheless, I don't think Plus includes the remasters. Porting them to Mania engine (v5) involves a certain amount of development and testing, avoidable if they just release the remasters in their original engines (v4). Besides, having the remasters inside the Mania game can get the user experience quite messy. Again, we have very little information, so it's all speculation for now.
Sup Nem. You may want to check out whatever this is about, as some development on LaserDisc dumping may have been done while you were away. (In case you weren't there when this happened, MAME now strives to emulate every non-arcade machine as well, since it merged with MESS)
ResetEra posted their Games of the Year Awards results. Results were based on ERA members were able to vote for / give honorable mentions to games under a list a criteria for a certain period. Votes for games applied to the overall GOTY award, awards for specific genres, and awards for specific platforms. Mania with 560 points and 19 honorable mentions was thus ranked... - #15 on the overall GOTY list - #4 in Best Action Genre - #7 in Best PC Game - #9 in Best PS4 Game - #4 in Best Xbox One Game - #5 in Best Nintendo Switch Game
Guys, if it's called "Plus", it's going to include the Space Cadet Pinball and some screensavers. (I wonder how many people are old enough to get the reference) It would actually fit the "let's use things created by fans" route that Sega took with Sonic Mania, they could use MainMemory's screensaver and call it a day. Besides, you know, I actually meant this post to be a joke, but while I was typing I realised that they could totally pull a Space Cadet Spinball and troll everyone. The Retro Engine already supports Puyo Puyo apparently, adding support for Spinball is more likely than you'd think.
Yeah Sonic Mania doing so well in the ResetERA awards is lovely to see. Keep in mind that ResetERA is essentially the ex-NeoGAF userbase and they were super negative about Sonic for years, with Mania being the first Sonic game they warmed up to in forever, so Mania's high placement speaks volumes as to the astounding quality of the game. As for all this Project Plus speculation, it could just be the remasters included, but I'm still predicting it'll be a re-release with more content. Just a hunch. Hope news comes and the mystery is solved soon.
So I know there's an element of "who gives a fuck" since it's NeoGAF and that place is doomed and on its way out as a gaming destination and has been replaced by ResetERA, which is where almost the entirety of the ex-NeoGAF community now resides, but Sonic Mania placed highly in NeoGAF's GOTY results too for those interested: Overall GOTY: Sonic Mania #19 Best plaformer: Sonic Mania #3 Best multi-platform game: Sonic Mania #1 Of note is that Sonic Mania is dominating all these end of the year GOTY awards across the gaming spectrum placing highly almost everywhere, mirroring its absolutely glowing critical reception upon release. Then you have its "multiple millions" of sales and it's clear that Mania is the best reviewed, most highly awarded, best selling Sonic game since probably the Genesis days. Lovely to see the game doing so well. Sega are crazy not to green light a sequel or continue Mania in some form. Hope Sega and Sonic Team are taking notes.
Holy shit it's Nemesis! you're an old face I remember seeing when I first joined. glad to see you back!! (Mania bringing back all these old Retro members pleases me)
Overall, I think it's alright. The comedy doesn't distract me as much as the influence it stems from. I see 'Seqelitis', 'JonTron', and 'Pat the NES Punk' in this vid.
So I was looking on RedBubble for Sega/Sonic t-shirts and typed in "Sonic Mania" just to see what came up and I think this is the coolest Sonic Mania t-shirt I've ever seen. The designer is a genius for creating mock Sega Genesis Japanese art for the game. Don't often jump on a t-shirt but I'm jumping on this one. Posted it here since I thought you guys might want it too.
It's cool but it kind of clashes. Why would there be Japanese text with the Sega "Genesis" name? Like the standard logo would have worked with the Genesis logo, or they could have had more of a JP Mega Drive styled influence and used the Japanese logo. *Although if they really wanted to be authentic they'd have used a Saturn logo :v:
Ah yeah, now that you mention it I see your point, in terms of it not being an entirely faultless design. Yeah the Japanese Megadrive logo would have worked better I think. That said I still think it's super cool and I'm a sucker for cool t-shirts so I think I'm still getting it. There is a version with just the Sonic Mania art but I don't think it's as cool. That said, RedBubble is a gold mine for Sonic and Sega retro t-shirts. Like, just took another cursory glance and found another cool Sonic Mania one here.
That's no genius, that just makes no sense. =P So... are people there just grabbing somebody else's artwork, adding a few elements and selling t-shirts with it?
