But Not Without a Little Drama
When you consider it’s been nearly a year since anything substantive has been heard from the collaborative minds behind fan project Sonic 2 HD, it’s really an accomplishment to see anything out of it. But what was revealed this weekend, though seen through many positive eyes, left some at project host Sonic Retro quite irate.
The front page of the research hub was used periodically the past month by to plug a major announcement from the development team. A countdown clock was even established at the hosted project portal, leading a few to wonder if fans would get their first playable taste of the game since an early tech demo. There was no direct indication that would be the case, and that indeed held, with only a couple screenshots, wallpaper, and a short teaser trailer released early Sunday morning. You can watch the video below.
Accompanying the assets was the reveal that an alpha release would follow in the first quarter this year. All this, for some, was not enough, with reaction ranging from disappointment to anger–including a fair bit of it from Retro administrator Dustin Wyatt, who lambasted the S2HD team publicly shortly after for utilizing site resources toward an event he and others compared to Sonic 4′s first botched reveal:
I have no problem with the demo not being out; as far as I’m concerned, nobody is under obligation to release something until it’s done. What I am pissed about is that I was told this big fucking countdown and all of our site resources were being used to promote the alpha release and I even alluded to that with a front page post I recently made. Now I’m just learning, despite their happy use of all of our site notoriety and high traffic ranking to promote their fan project that they’ve constantly kept the “community” that’s supposed to be making it in the dark over, that all this use of our site was just to post 11 seconds of in-game footage and a couple of fucking screenshots. All that hype and they pulled a bullshit Sonic 4-esque PR move.
[....]
Why were we, the admins of the goddamn site whose resources they keep abusing still left in the dark over what was supposed to happen? I’m goddamn pissed. If you assholes want to keep everybody in the dark all the time including the people who are trying to help you, then you need to find another site to leech from. This gross amount of disregard is completely unacceptable and I can’t believe you’d pull all this PR trash just to disrespect your followers and the people who were trying to help you.
Project Manager Canned Karma started damage control shortly after, apologizing for any misconception, and promising to keep Retro administrators in the loop going forward:
We wanted to have an alpha release ready for tonight, but due to problems that came up since the countdown was posted that wasn’t a possibility. We are working to get a playable version out to the public as soon as we can. That’s why I put up the Q1 2011 note on the front page. S2HD has gotten a reputation for the project that will never be released; we’re going to change that in Q1 of this year.
I don’t think we did anyone a disservice by showing you where the project is right now. As for using a countdown to build hype to reveal a trailer and screenshots, that was not the initial idea, but we wanted to have everyone see what the art actually looks like now. I understand there’s a lot of frustration going around right now. And I understand it. We didn’t intend to troll you guys, though it’s apparent that’s how it came off as. If anything, we wanted to share with you our excitement for what’s being built.
In hindsight, it looks like it would have been in everyone’s better interest to say that we weren’t going to have a playable demo ready. That I will apologize for. That soured what we hoped to be a beautiful representation of the project’s current standing.
Discussion cooled off some after, with efforts underway to perhaps reclassify S2HD in Sonic Retro’s organization, given how it became, in their words, a “Closed Community Project” last year, with outside contributions no longer as necessary.
Despite the dramatics, there are more than a few very pleased at what they saw. Development continues behind the scenes, and as stated by Canned Karma, a playable version should soon follow. We’ll let you know when that becomes available.
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Personally I think people just need to get the fact that people are doing all this work for free, and that they’re under no obligation to do anything, and we should be grateful for anything that we get.
Alright. At least this needs to be said. The graphics are MUCH better than Sonic 4. MUCH, MUCH better. All the models are better, Sonic in particular looks incredible. Not that fucking cel shaded shit we got from Sega.
I don’t care about the drama. TL;DR, really. But the graphics are top-notch, congratulations to the people involved in the project. Amazing.
Tristan, why do you insist on dragging down this awesome fan project by bringing up all the drama bullshit that no one (but you, apparently) cares about? It’s starting to get old.
>implying anyone actually READ that shit and didn’t just watch the damn teaser instead
Yeah yeah I know. Still though, this looks pretty decent so far. At least they’ve gotten the presentation down. I’m just hoping that they’ll deliver on the full game within the next decade…. fingers crossed.
Hot
why are all Sonic fans so hard to please? Even if it’s a fan project people still aren’t pleased. This fanbase is so ungrateful.
I was very cool with the idea, even after the countdown.
People should understand if something doesn’t happen after the countdown is for a reason.
In fact, I’m glad they are working on it and making sure it’s a good playable alpha and not a broken alpha.
@Raggtime
Read it again. This is not about the fanbase. It’s just drama, but the fanbase on the whole is loving this project.
@Andre
HA!
What was wrong with just remaking the logo in HD? Does it really need to look like the logos of SA2 and Heroes with a extra dash of pretentious Japanese (The box for 2 in Japan doesn’t even do this so whats the point?)
man, if only Sonic 4 was like this
I’m simply amazed at what the fanbase are capable of. I mean this game is gorgeous and even the music is slightly updated. I think despite all of the drama over this game, if you are a Sonic fan there’s absolutely nothing that looks disappointing about this game (although we all know those people who aren’t impressed with anything). Needless to say, this is definitely going onto my list of highly anticipated fan games.
@zeldafanboy23ify
Yeah it’s such a shame that Sonic 4 couldn’t be a remake of Sonic 2.
“… a bullshit Sonic 4-esque PR move.”
Sonic Retro: Second only to SEGA.
This is coming out beautifully. I don’t care about the drama, it’s just forum bullshit. The real thing people should look at is the turnout. The game looks great, and hopefully it plays as good, if not even better than the original.
About the miss of alpha version:
Let the men to work….
About the Sonic 4 discusses:
After Sonic 2 HD, Sonic 3 & Knuckles HD will come! So, next will be Sonic 4 HD.
We just need be pacient…
A little joke to show that are two things differents.
Oh man, that logo is hot as hell. That’s my favorite thing about this project so far.
To be honest, this trailer is a little bit of a letdown. My most favorite 16-bit game of Sonic to play is, in fact, Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I know it’s just a first trailer, and at least two months or so before the working alpha is out, but it’s still very lacking in the graphics department.
The physics are awesome, they’re how they should be. Not a problem there. However, I was expecting more attention to detail as far as the background and even the models themselves. the badniks and Sonic are fine thus far, they have some added depth that’s hard to achieve with sprites. Could possibly use some polish, but what I really REALLY want to see done is a lot more work put into the backgrounds.
As they are now, they’re just re-drawn, traced over and re-done as merely high-resolution vectors. The water is reflective, but doesn’t shimmer like in the original, and adding some waves would be fantastic. The clouds don’t move at all and don’t have nearly enough depth or proper form: they look painted on, cheap.
I like the bushes and the corkscrews, tho the latter could use some more texture. The trees definitely need more texture and depth, they look like plastic poles in that trailer. The grass needs to be completely redone. You don’t have to do away with the “mowed rows” pattern completely, just make it more subtle, and make the grass in general look like grass. same thing for the rocks, add some natural colors, textures, and patterns. Keep to the original, but make it look natural! I can imagine Emerald Hill Zone being this beautiful hilly meadow area broken up by lifted lands and cliffs overlooking a shimmering deep blue ocean and bright clouds that lazily drift overhead, bright wildflowers gently swaying in a breeze, and it would still be completely recognizable right off the bat. That was the challenge I was expecting this team to tackle when I first saw the countdown image for Sonic2HD. Son, I am disappoint. Y’all are being lazy asses neglecting the art of the game like this.
Personally I care a little about the drama. Whether or not it has any place on a fan-site dedicated to news and all things Sonic is debatable- but I do like to know if a certain administrator for a site uses slander and profanity that I personally don’t condone, thus I won’t be giving said website any hits. Ignoring the drama won’t cure it- though expressing it in a negative light will at least show said people their wrongdoings thus giving them a chance to not bicker about a fictional blue hedgehog again.
Regardless, this was one epic trailer. Everything from the logo to the gameplay looks stunning, and am looking forward to playing the alpha. =]
P.S.: Countdowns for announcements are pretty absurd, so I can see where the frustration comes from.
The more I look at that trailer, the more amazed I get.
11/10 graphics (extra point for how awesome Sonic looks)
10/10 sound
Physics seem to be just right.
Incredible.
Love the trailer. Better than the Needlemouse teaser.
I agree about the logo as well. Very classy. Can’t wait for the game.
I also agree about the drama. I’m not always against this site posting community issues, but this seems even more petty than usual. What next, are you gonna do a full-on feature on Vulpine?
“Here’s a trailer! And somebody being upset about it! FILM AT 11!”
If you wanna turn it into a news article everytime a community member gets butthurt about something you’d be posting drivel pretty much 24/7. Significant community issues are one thing, but this just makes me scratch my head and wonder how on earth you thought it was significant enough to even put a second thought towards.
Heh heh. Even if it’s a fan project Sonic Retro will find a way to bitch about it.
“S2HD has gotten a reputation for the project that will never be released; we’re going to change that in Q1 of this year.”
LOL… or not. Q1 of 2013, maybe Emerald Hill Zone will be finished.