What do you think of the recent leak of Sonic Project Hero changes?
I only saw Hero himself address some of the changes, while also posting images of the revamped Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles models.
I’m a little concerned that the models look stiff. Project Hero had some very good, springy animation, so I’m sure it’ll look better in motion, but the models and their poses reminds me of, like, old old SRB2 in a bad way.
I also groaned a little bit at seeing Knuckles with his Sonic OVA hat. I feel like there are a few very specific fandom “tells” that used to be fun, weird, obscure things. Like saying “Oh, they should bring back Nack the Weasel Fang the Sniper.”
After a certain point, you see so many fan projects and things like that where they reference this obscure thing that its own obscurity fades away and it starts to feel a bit played out. Like it becomes almost this “built-in” fandom thing where the secret handshake has been turned in to a commodity and it stops feeling like a special fandom thing and instead just feels, I dunno, like “free brownie points”?
Like when a brand account uses internet slang to show how “cool” and “connected” they are, except here, it’s a fan doing something because it’s an easy way to boost their image.
The hat is played out, in other words. At least it is for me. I went through that phase 20 years ago. It doesn’t even necessarily compliment Knuckles’ design.
The main thing that really bums me out is the announcement that he’s starting over. That is the curse of all fan games (and indie games, to an extent). I’m speaking as somebody who spent LITERALLY A DECADE rewriting the same fan game over, and over, and over again.
How many years did it take Project Hero to release that first test level? Two? Three? Your coding is always improving. You are always constantly getting better at making games. If you say “Well since I’m so good now, if I start over, everything I do will be EVEN BETTER!” then you’re wasting valuable time you could be using to RELEASE AN ACTUAL GAME FOR PEOPLE TO PLAY.
Time is finite. Effort is finite. You may not think so when you’re younger, but you do not have infinite resources to screw around with. You will get bored. You will get burnt out. And you will leave unfinished projects to rot on the side of the road because they stopped being fun and started feeling like work. But work is how games get made!
It’s way too easy to be in love with the honeymoon period of breathing life in to an engine. To see a character animate for the first time, to write the player physics, etc. You can chase that vibe forever and have NOTHING to show for it. I know that as good or better than anyone.
Real game development is about working around your old code and releasing a finished project, not getting trapped in the loop of “starting over so it’ll be better next time.”
There can’t be a next time without a first time, my dude. You are making the sequel before you’re even done making anything to be a sequel to.
On the plus side, the screenshots appear to show an actual level, so that’s pretty cool, at least. But I’ve been paying attention to Sonic fan games for a very long time, and I know exactly what “We’re starting over” leads to. Too many promising games never moved beyond having one-level demos or engine tests because they were chasing the horizon and not an obtainable destination.
