Sonic Nexus Programmer Quits
Tristan Oliver | February 28, 2010
In Statement, Hints of Internal Disagreement
One of the programmers behind the highly anticipated Sonic Nexus fan project announced Thursday he is leaving the team, and he made it known publicly on the Nexus blog.
Noting he “can’t pretend” to be leaving in ideal circumstances, Jonathan Rose, known in the community as DimensionWarped, said he had been off Nexus development since Tuesday–a decision that, despite the circumstances, sounds to be his own.
Rose principally cited his contributions to the project as they relate to the game’s overall high standards as the reason for his departure, and admits a bit of a learning curve regarding the Retro Engine he can’t overcome.
Rose had been involved with Nexus since 2006.
While Rose’s decision may be on his own accord, it sounds like there were problems amid some of the remaining Nexus staff as to what he did contribute, as illustrated in this excerpt:
In light of the displeasure my faults are causing among some of this crew, I’ll no longer work on Sonic Nexus or this blog.
Despite the loss, it remains assured that Sonic Nexus is not going anywhere, any time soon. It’s not yet clear whether the Nexus Team will seek a new member to fill the void.
Rose’s full statement is below.
Hi, I’m Jonathan Rose, better known to some as DimensionWarped or DW. Since Tuesday, February 23rd, I’ve been formally off the development staff of this fan game. I can’t honestly pretend to be leaving under the most favorable circumstances. Since a lot of you probably don’t know me, I’ll just say that I did some of the programming on the pre-RetroSonic builds of Sonic Nexus. I’ve also spent a little bit of my time writing for this blog (some of you may remember the segment “Meet That Badnik”) and working on some of the designs that have been planned for Nexus. That said, I’ve been struggling to adapt to the new engine for some time now and frankly haven’t been able to keep up. Very little of what I have made using Retro engine has been up to either my standards or the standards of this project, and yes, both of those sets of standards are very high. I’d say equally so. In light of the displeasure my faults are causing among some of this crew, I’ll no longer work on Sonic Nexus or this blog.
I have nothing but the highest hopes for this project. I always have. The fact that there is now a Sonic the Hedgehog 4 in development has only strengthened my reliance on it. There is little that could pain me more than leaving this project behind, but frankly them’s the breaks and I can either move on gracefully or get stuck in a rut. With the blessings of my host, I will be writing one last Meet That Badnik article on the first weekend of March and then terminating my involvement with this project. Thank you all for your support and comments.
Filed Under Sonic Fan Flash, Sonic Scene
Ah, the typicalness of fan game development.
LOL DRAMA!!11
It’s too hard?
Who do you work for, Valve?
Morons this isn’t drama just an honest statement from an honest guy. Mike where’s your fan game that’s so great? You don’t have any idea what your talking about so just shut it.
Internet is serious bizzness
I totally called this one. Big Sonic fan game, drama ensues, developer leaves. Happens with alot of Sonic fan projects, too. loldramaz
FYI guys he just left because he couldn’t really wrap his head around the Retro Sonic engine.
It’s much harder than Sonic Worlds – the previous engine Nexus used. Worlds is neatly organized and documented as it’s meant to be a learning tool and tutorial. The Retro engine is waaaay more complicated and is not neatly organized and documented the way Worlds is, and frankly when they made the switch DW knew his primary role as lead programmer came to an end.
This isn’t bad news for Nexus. Taxman has taken over as head programmer years ago. DW is just finally leaving rather than struggling to understand the complex Retro engine that Taxman is already so familiar with.
A lot of people wish the Retro engine were made public, but if it were, no one would know how to use it. It’s so much more complicated than Worlds.
Feel free to question me about my departure if it’ll ease your curiosity.
Rael you’re talking to a brick wall called TSSZ.
john, are you interested in starting a new project?
@Snowy: I’ve already put myself in for contribution on two other projects. Nothing as high-profile as Nexus, but I think they are both high quality projects by clever people. I also want to start working on a few independent projects including some technical writings and something else that I might talk about later if anything pans out of it.
blimey,well if u find u want to start anything else i’m looking at starting a project i’ve been working on over the past two years, u don’t know any sites that are good for finding ppl looking to join projects? Cheers
Snowy, have you considered showing your project off to Sonic Fangames HQ?
also, JQP… hahaha. Thanks.
@Snowy: What Rael just said. Here’s a link.
http://www.sonicfangameshq.com/forum/index.php
Ta, i’ll look into those…
[...] was very awkward,” Rose told TSSZ News, speaking of his good-bye message from a week and a half ago. “I felt pretty awkward at the time. Truth be told, I still [...]