SEGA launches the Sonic 2020 project, promises to release Sonic news on the 20th of every month

Just because you give the dev team more time, doesn't mean the game will be any better. Didn't Forces boast a 5 year development or something?

Granted, 3 of those years was messing around with the character creator.

 

I've heard, but am not sure if this is true, that Forces wasn't actually meant to be a boost game and only became one at the last minute. Apparently Sonic Team didn't want to make any more boost games after Generations and Lost World was supposed to begin a new era for the franchise. They apparently got cold feet and instead of going back to the Generations gameplay engine, just tried to twist the Lost World one into something it wasn't.

 

Never heard this claim before. It's a pretty big leap. So, source please.

 

Well, the very best games in the franchise (1, 2, 3 & K) had 1-year development times. What makes games bad is not how long it takes for them to be made, it's how they're designed. If SEGA hadn't replaced the physics and exploration-based gameplay with linear paths filled with boost pads and scripted actions maybe the franchise wouldn't be in the hole that it currently is.

 

Game development changed a lot since the 90's tho, when developers could pump out sequels in 9 months or less. I suspect it's not as easy to do nowadays.

 

I'm looking but I haven't been able to find it. I'll post it here ASAP. (But, I mean, I feel like it's quite possible this is true from just playing the game itself, it feels so rushed that it feels like there's no way that was the result of four years of development.)

 

It's a bit like the major label debut from previously unknown artists (they are often criticized for being "too" overproduced). They either gonna fuck it up and will be soon forgotten or gain commercial success and become part of the mainstream. Regardless of your ability or skill, you'll eventually lose your fanbase in exchange for another, and that's no good!

 

I guess. Considering how complex game engines have gotten, and the fact that most games get released in multiple platforms nowadays, I think it's fair to say that games just can't be pumped out as fast as back in the day. But still, all the work put into the technical aspects of a game go to waste if the underlying design is flawed, no matter how long you spend refining it. Time is the least of SEGA's problem if you ask me.

 

While time allotted for development is important, who they're putting in charge of the game design process is crucial. And I mean the people, specifically, who are conceiving and building these play-structures, not whatever faceless "studio" is credited in general.

For instance, I don't expect to be excited for another Boost game unless they have, like, Yu Suzuki helming the project, or something. If they want to make a racing game, then they should have someone experienced and good at make racing games in charge of making said racing game.

 

Assuming that people can just pump out games in a year is pretty dangerous given all the work involved.

Yes, Pokemon games come out yearly. Except that now they work on and release DLC instead of putting out a "full" game a year later, and the credits of the latest titles had like ten additional teams in it that they likely outsourced work to to make that yearly deadline to begin with, indicating that it is not one bit sustainable for them and they're trying to stop. Pokemon aside I legitimately can't think of anyone who releases titles yearly save for sports games (and even those are legendarily awful these days).

16-bit games had teams of 20 people at most, with like three of those being programmers. Games these days have credits that last ten minutes of all the people involved. Games today have to deal with: engines across multiple platforms (unless you're lucky enough to be a Sony first party and even then PC ports are happening); modeling, rigging, textures for characters; modeling, texturing, collision, programming of environments; any gimmicks/features you want to implement; a full music score; QA testing and fixes; internet features, including netcode and server infrastructure...

The only way to do all that shit in a year is to perform a ton of reuse or to outsource/hand over your work to other teams while your programmers make sure your engine doesn't make your Switch explode. Time is needed for development and if you don't have it, you get horrific crunch and/or a broken, buggy, unfinished game release. It's as simple as that.

 

What I personally miss in a Sonic game is being in control... deciding where to go and how to get there. In my limited experience with modern games it just felt like I only had one path to follow and that I was forced to use gimmicks with little interactivity such as boost pads, rail grinding and homing attack chains (on enemies that didn't even do anything but stand/float in place). And the 2D sections just felt like basic platforming with uninteresting floaty physics.

 

Honestly you can say all the modern games, yes even SA1, are like this. Reading this my train of thought went "well then the game's challenge is how you dodge the obstacles" -> me working on getting all emblems in SA2, which was all learning how to adequately handle obstacles in a linear layout -> "oh shit this is older than I thought come to think of it".

 

Was just Googling for some shits and giggles, and came across this...

I don't think I've ever seen such a fake "leak" before, this is quite amusing.

 

Yup. And it's not only Sonic games, a lot of games nowadays are pretty much on rails adventures with opportunities for players to do some cool looking tricks along the way. I really don't like being told how to play a game, I much prefer when I'm given an objective and a world with set rules and it's up to me to figure out a way (out of many possible ways) to solve the problem.

 

Every time I see a 4chan leak my mind flashes back to that old SSBU leak where a guy was like "theres goin to be everyone that ever appeared in the series" and no one believed him. But yeah this smells of fake leak.

 

I'm pretty sure Forces had a troubled development.

If you look at that scene when Sonic is getting beaten by Infinite and the Phantom Ruby illusions at the beginning of the game, when Eggman says "Nice!" his mustache is half-grown. That is probably a reference to Lost World, when at the end of the game his mustache is half-shaved.
Then you think "oh look! Sega is paying attention to continuity", even if they ignore completely the moon issue and pretend that we just see its other side.
But at the very beginning of Forces there is a scene in which Eggman is looking at Infinite in a machine (?), preparing for the attack. This scene happens before Sonic gets beaten, but Eggman's mustache is full-grown.

Probably they added this scene after some change in the script, maybe due to Mania.

 

To add to this:

I still haven't been able to find the source that I read this in, but just playing the game is enough to make me confident there may be some truth to it. Plus, unused level layouts indicate the levels would have been significantly longer and more expansive. Sunset Heights, for instance, was once supposed to be about five minutes long, have many alternate routes, and Red Gate Bridge and Park Avenue were part of the original layout before being split into separate levels.

 

At some point the developers were desperate with the progress of the game and then Iizuka said "despair is a luxury we don't have".

 

Yeah I really wish the music portion of that post was legit lol.. would have been really special to have all the soundtracks for the Genesis games in 1 collection, but yeah I knew it was too good to be true