Interview with Craig Duncan from Sega Germany ASR Event

Why Sonic’s in a Car, Demo Confirmed, & More

Our partners at German language Sonic site Spindash.de are also in on this media blitz for Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.  Spark also was able to interview Sumo Digital’s Craig Duncan about the game just last week, when he stopped by Sega of Germany to talk about it.

The interview, first in English here, confirms a demo will be produced for XBOX Live and PSN.  It also discusses the back and forth between the development house and the various Sega divisions on character choice.  Duncan also notes that Big the Cat is his most favorite to play–and with that giant Froggy as an All-Star Move, who can blame him?  Also of note is that while the current release dates are mostly aligning with this fact already, Duncan did reaffirm there will be a simultaneous release of ASR across all platforms.

Take a look at Spark’s interview below.  We again thank him and his website, Spindash.de, for allowing us to bring you this Q&A to you here on TSSZ News.

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Spark: We already know about Richard Jacques, who is doing the music for
the game. Can we expect some classic tunes remixed?

Craig Duncan: (laugh) Well, this is one of the thing, I can’t tell you
yet. All I can say is: You won’t be disappointed!

Spark: Who is your favourite character?

CD: (laugh) My favourite character in the game ins not revealed yet, but I
can tell you the character I like to play the most. It’s Big the Cat, who
is already revealed.

Spark: I wonder how Big’s All Star Move looks like?

CD: Well, Big’s All Star Move … that’s great. I can say that, can I?
(looks to Brand Manager) … No? Well, maybe not.

Spark: In Sega Superstar Tennis, I felt there was something missing! There
wasn’t anything about the History of the Sega IP’s, something like little
videos or artworks or at least some info text. Because it’s obvious
there’ll be a younger audience playing this games beside the Sega fans. Are
you planning something like an history section for this game?

CD: There won’t be a history section. The thing is, I grew up with all the
Sega games, and the players of the game maybe also. There will be a bit of
information on every character, so new players can get to know them and
Sega fans won’t be bored.

Spark: In the demo gameplay, Ryo said some words, or rather some bits. Was
his voice recorded new, or did you use old samples?

CD: Well, it’s always hard to use old material or even get access to old
material.

Spark What about the character model of Ryo Hazuki? Did you use the old
Dreamcast-one or a complete new one?

CD: Thats one of the things I was talking about. Ryo’s 3D Model is not of
today’s standards. It would look old, if you just put it in the game. So we
had to remodel him and give him knew animations, that fit into a racing
game.

Spark: I’ve read your developers at Sumo are reading in certain fan
forums, to look for opinions or suggestions for the game. And I think, this
is how Ryo got in the game. How did SoA or SoE react, when you presented
the idea to Ryo in the game?

CD: I don’t read the fan forums myself, but my developers do that very
often. Of course it’s important to us, to see what the fans want, and we
discussed every suggestion.
About the characters who get in the game: We don’t have to ask SoA, SoE or
even SoJ if we can use one character. We had a list of characters of what
we thought, would we cool, and SoA and SoE also had their lists. It can be
said, that Sega was open to our ideas and working with them weren’t
complicated.

Spark: I’d like to know if there is an option to turn the narrator off?

CD: You will be satisfied! There is an option to turn the narrator off! My
team and I discussed long about the narrator option. Is he really
necessary? The narrator describes the whole action on the track, also
things that you as the player can’t see. For example the narrator says
“Beat just got his all star move!” and you think, “hey, I just passed Beat,
he will come from behind!” you can avoid him! And by the way: The game is
totally localized, so if you don’t like the English narrator from the demo,
maybe you will like the German one?

Yellow: It think the most asked question is: Why is Sonic in a car? He
doesn’t need one!

CD: Believe me, we had endless discussions about putting Sonic in a car or
not. We tried out everything. We also thought about what would happened if
Sonic collides with Eggman’s big monster truck. Will Eggman overdrive him?
Or will the bounce each other off?
And when designing Sonic’s car, we wanted to fit Soni’s character (shows
Sonics car on the bis TV Screen). Look, this is how Sonic’s car should look
like!

Spark: Can we expect a simultaneous release on all platforms?

CD: Yes! Definitely!

Spark: Can we expect a demo on Xbox Live and PSN?

CD: Yes, I definitely want to make a demo with my team. I don’t know when
and the content is not sure yet, but a demo will come.

Spark: Thank you for the interview!