Project: Sonic Retro Officially Canned

UPDATE: Tweaker Opens Door for Future Resurrection

Earlier this morning, all traces of development and progress regarding the Project: Sonic Retro community collaboration was purged from public view.  Originally known as the Sonic 4 project, the effort has now been officially cancelled.

The sacking was allegedly a staff decision, but it was Retro head Scarred Sun who was ultimately dissatisfied, after a Friday morning deadline set by her to meet certain specific progress points was not met.  Retro forum administrator Tweaker had originally threatened such action earlier in the week.

Scarred Sun offered this terse and diplomatic statement on the shutdown:

After over a year’s work and several different incarnations, the staff at Sonic Retro has decided to discontinue the fangame Project: Sonic Retro due to a lack of distinguishable progress. We thank all of you for your interest in the project and encourage you to check out Sonic 2 HD, one of our other community projects.

The administrator also warned that resurrecting what development there was on Project: Sonic Retro in any form will not be tolerated:

Please note that any attempts to resurrect the project after this announcement will be stopped, and any advertisement of an offsite version is prohibited.

Unclear in that statement is whether the threat extends to a continuation under the Sonic Retro name or whether attempts will be made to also apply it to previous names or a new name.  TSSZ News has put in an E-Mail to Sonic Retro administrators for clarification.

9:30 PM ET UPDATE: Though direct requests for comment went largely ignored, Retro admin Tweaker took some time to clarify the extent of the resurrection prohibitions this afternoon on the Retro forums, noting that while the project theoretically can continue, it just won’t be officially endorsed:

I’d like to stress that, as mentioned above, any attempts to unofficially continue this project will not be endorsed or featured in any form on this website.

Tweaker has also left open the possibility that the project could be officially resurrected in the future, but, in his words, “it’s certainly not going to be any time soon, nor with our current userbase.”  Still, perhaps the biggest sign leaning toward such prospects is the return of what was the Project: Sonic Retro forum–and what assets that remain from it–into public view.

Project: Sonic Retro was originally thrown into disarray early last week, when Chimpo abruptly resigned his post as director of the collaboration, taking offline several key components of the planned SFG.