Craig Stitt art documents and interview (Sonic 2, Segapede, etc)

Aw yeah. Early Spyro the dragon concept art.

 

Anyone else get this when trying to look at the archive?

 

I just got in and holy fuck, there's a motherlode of Dark Empires and Astropede stuff here - and Sonic 2 concept art of the carnival level Stitt was conceptualizing (but was never approved by Sega), alongside what appears to be Hidden Palace depicted as a non-euclidean alien planet?

I haven't gotten a good look at any of the VHS tapes yet, the VGHF could sure invest in a video player that doesn't shit itself when you look at it funny.

 

Which document is the carnival level in? I can't seem to find it.

 

Sketchbook. Page 45.

 

That Spinny & Spike concept art looks awfully similar to Blue Sphere

 

Reminds me of Balloon Park Zone with the elephant. Probably just a coincidence since elephants aren't exactly an uncommon theme for a carnival I guess.

 

Another sidekick concept for the internal competition?

 

Balloon Park definitely features the prominent ferris wheel from the Neon zone concept art though

 

Are you talking about the Sonic Overture fangame?

Because as far as I know, there was never a "Neon Zone" with a ferris wheel planned for any official Sonic game.

 

No I mean Carnival Night Zone's WIP name from the Sonic 3 Dev docs:

 

It reminds me of the Noid. :P

 

A few fun things I'm seeing in his notebook...

1. There's a rotating mine cart carrying crystals next to what looks to be a sketch of the Hidden Palace wall tiles, hinting at a possible unused conveyer belt to stand on, similar to the ones seen in Labyrinth Zone. (Page 46?)

2. The concept for BoomBoom the Turtle is really neat on page 48. The way Sonic interacts with him seems overly complex, but the idea and sketch is cool. He's got a lot of personality, and I could argue he's now a new entirely unseen character for the franchise! Fan artists? Do your thing, spread the word, and give him some love!

3. With or without Sonic concepts, this is a treasure trove of 90s STI era art that's well worth preserving to show what early US game dev culture was like. Oh my god, so much oldschool D&D style art, the random star trek "get a life" sketch, just really gives you a snapshot of that 80s/90s vibe from an era of game dev that's so often rarely seen, given how much we tend to focus on preserving the JPN side of the culture. What an excellent find this whole batch is.

 

You mean this?



It immediately caught my eye, too. Also reminds me of the conveyor lifts in Metropolis. I wonder if these are what was meant to go in those long, diagonal shafts?

Other interesting things I noticed include this surreal zone which functions like an endless looping circle, kinda like the Sonic Superstars final boss arena:





Could be an early special stage or something similar. But whatever it may be, the concepts are dated 1991, so they probably didn't go any further than the carnival zone.

But the most fascinating thing to me is this:



It looks like some kind of cave/temple on an alien planet. We can also tell that it is indeed Sonic concept art from the loop. However...



This specific type of terrain looks very familiar, doesn't it?

 

Heads up, DefinitiveDubs interviewed Craig a few years back where the Sonic 2 related art was previously revealed with commentary:
https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/new-sonic-2-concept-art-uncovered.40020/

Basically the circus and ring world level ideas were sketched up after Craig found out he was on the project, but before meeting the Japanese side of the team and learning that they already had a plan for the project. The rabbit was another sidekick idea he had. Most of the pages with Sonic 2 stuff are mixed with Kid Chameleon/Spinny & Spike sketches.

 

Put Scratch and Grounder in there, and you'd have convinced me this was AOSTH concept art!

 

Hm. Going to share this again, from this recent post. Some, myself included, think it might be Stitt's artwork, possibly unused Sonic 2 art included in the Genesis SDK.



Then there's this mysterious screenshot by Alan Ackerman that's been floating around, for an unreleased STI "planet-hopping game".



Maybe not related but- vibes. Bringing it to everyone's attention.

 

Wouldn't be terribly surprised this is somehow Segapede related, as it does look fairly consistent with the footage in this video VGHF posted