Team Sonic Racing - Developer Interview

[Marco9966]

1 minute ago, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

Sounds more like that’s intentionally ignoring the point that it’s intended to be a kart racer from the start.

Yeah, the company's goal is not to try to fit the game with Sonic's abilities, the goal is just to make a fun kart-racer.

SEGA is even intending to make a story reason why Sonic is in a car,  I hope people will not search anything to nitpick in that later, the whole point of the game is to drive cars. Period.

[Sean]

13 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

You're right, let's just be glad there are also many people who are excited for it.

That's not the message I wanted you to take from my post. My point is that I see you constantly acting extremely forward with your opinions on this forum, parroting them at every possible opportunity, yet when you try to argue for your views, it amounts to little more than attacking the opposition and making them sound more idiotic and unreasonable than they (probably) are. And I think your forwardness strengthens the more other members, either directly or incidentally, agree with what you believe, and it's very grating because it doesn't feel like you have any legitimate grounds to tell other people to "stop nitpicking." And you really have to stop doing that, man.

Even this part:

8 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

SEGA is even intending to make a story reason why Sonic is in a car,  I hope people will not search anything to nitpick in that later, the whole point of the game is to drive cars. Period.

is a very common theme I see among your posts. "This is how it is/This is how it should be, end of story" is not a good form of argument to latch onto.

[Marco9966]

29 minutes ago, Sean said:

That's not the message I wanted you to take from my post. My point is that I see you constantly acting extremely forward with your opinions on this forum, parroting them at every possible opportunity, yet when you try to argue for your views, it amounts to little more than attacking the opposition and making them sound more idiotic and unreasonable than they (probably) are. And I think your forwardness strengthens the more other members, either directly or incidentally, agree with what you believe, and it's very grating because it doesn't feel like you have any legitimate grounds to tell other people to "stop nitpicking." And you really have to stop doing that, man.

Even this part:

is a very common theme I see among your posts. "This is how it is/This is how it should be, end of story" is not a good form of argument to latch onto.

I understand, it's just my frustration that we're gonna get a good (at least in certain of my preferences I will not deny it) game, but people also defend things they are also passionate about (getting other SEGA characters or having a new style of running race). Perhaps in another game SEGA can do another SEGA crossover or try a running race and we can all be satisfied.

Some people want a Sonic-only game but they don't get frustrated why is he in car, some people want a Sonic-crossover racing (we already got 2 before), some want a Sonic-only running racer, some want Lost World graphics, some want Color graphics... There's too many options and it's impossible for SEGA to satisfy everybody, I'd just prefer if people just take a step back try to view the game through the lens of what the goal of the game is in the first place: A Sonic-only car racer.  (I hope that's a better way of arguing, I tried to word it better this time :p)

I agree about my forwardness in general :p,  I'm just very frustrated before at SEGA for all their previous bad decisions, I'll try to be less "factionist" I guess?

[Diogenes]

3 hours ago, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

Sounds more like that’s intentionally ignoring the point that it’s intended to be a kart racer from the start.

Sounds like you're intentionally ignoring that that's exactly what the complaint is about; "why have you chosen to make a kart racer instead of exploring a 'sonic racing game' in a way that is more unique and more of a natural extension of the character's abilities?"

[Marco9966]

6 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Sounds like you're intentionally ignoring that that's exactly what the complaint is about; "why have you chosen to make a kart racer instead of exploring a 'sonic racing game' in a way that is more unique and more of a natural extension of the character's abilities?"

But Sonic (or Shadow or Metal Sonic) would always be first, unless Tails builds a car faster than Sonic.

[Diogenes]

2 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

But Sonic (or Shadow or Metal Sonic) would always be first, unless Tails builds a car faster than Sonic.

Or unless they actually design the game properly, which means balancing the characters, not blindly and ignorantly applying their canon abilities.

[Sean]

14 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

But Sonic (or Shadow or Metal Sonic) would always be first, unless Tails builds a car faster than Sonic.

You are aware that games like Sonic 3, Heroes, Rivals, Mania, and the Advance games exist where everyone runs at precisely the same speed, right?

[Marco9966]

5 minutes ago, Sean said:

You are aware that games like Sonic 3, Heroes, Rivals, Mania, and the Advance games exist where everyone runs at precisely the same speed, right?

They could do an on-foot racing game, but then again people are still gonna come and say "why is everyone at same speed as Sonic" just like "why is Sonic in a car".

[Sean]

Okay. So do you have proof that people will react that way? And even if they do, what the hell does it even matter?

Also it's not like they have to be the same speed because nearly all racing games in existence have different stats for different characters/vehicles. Acceleration, top speed, handling, and so on. You're just inventing a problem here.

Edited June 6, 2018 by Sean

[Marco9966]

Just now, Sean said:

Okay. So do you have proof that people will react that way?

Also it's not like they HAVE to be exactly the same speed because nearly all racing games in existence have different stats for different characters/vehicles. Top speed, acceleration, handling, and so on.

I don't have proof, I'd like to be proven wrong. I hope Team Sonic Racing gets good reviews and that people focus on the game rather than asking "why is he in a car", the same way an on-foot racing would get a review without "why are they able to beat Sonic on foot".

[JezMM]

5 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

I don't have proof, I'd like to be proven wrong. I hope Team Sonic Racing gets good reviews and that people focus on the game rather than asking "why is he in a car", the same way an on-foot racing would get a review without "why are they able to beat Sonic on foot".

Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic Mania, Sonic Advance, Sonic Advance 2, Sonic Advance 3, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Rivals, Sonic Rivals 2, Sonic 2006, Sonic R.

A comprehensive list of games which contain on-foot racing modes where Sonic can be beaten by other characters who canonically are stated to be slower than him, and in a few cases, are slower than him in-gameplay too.

I have never encountered a single person complaining that these games are flawed because Sonic can be beaten in them.

 

If your entire reason to throw out a game concept is "people would question why they did this when looked at from a pure surface-level gut-based first-impression", you'd need to throw out a lot of Sonic games, many of them main series titles, let alone spin-offs.

[Marco9966]

1 minute ago, JezMM said:

"people would question why they did this when looked at from a pure surface-level gut-based first-impression".

This also applies to some (not all) people who ask about Sonic in a car.

-There are people who genuinely want an on-foot racer.

-There a people who wanna crack a joke and sound smart.

But about older games who apply same principles, older games also had cars (Sonc Drift, SA1, SA2).

Another thing for me that I love is being able to choose different vehicles or customize them, what would be customization in an on-foot racing game?

 

[Blue Blood]

1 hour ago, Marco9966 said:

Another thing for me that I love is being able to choose different vehicles or customize them, what would be customization in an on-foot racing game?

This is all just assuming that an on-foot racer has to follow in the foot-steps of R and can't offer customisation. If they wanted to do it, it would surely be possible. 

[Your Vest Friend]

I'd just say they did a kart racer instead of an on-foot racer because it's the most popular racing genre for mascot characters. 

[MegasonicZX]

49 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

This is all just assuming that an on-foot racer has to follow in the foot-steps of ASR and can't offer customisation. If they wanted to do it, it would surely be possible. 

Sonic rivals 2 had different outfits for all the characters so that is already a good base for this right there. They could go a step further and give detailed customization for each body part, maybe even have some stat boosted equips there or ones that give different abilities depending on which you pick.

[JezMM]

1 hour ago, Marco9966 said:

This also applies to some (not all) people who ask about Sonic in a car.

I was simply saying both "why is Sonic in a car" and "why can other racers beat Sonic on-foot" are equally idiotic reasons to scrap an entire game concept and aren't worth entertaining in any capacity.

And yeah it's pretty easy to imagine customisation features in an on-foot racer.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

2 hours ago, Diogenes said:

Sounds like you're intentionally ignoring that that's exactly what the complaint is about; "why have you chosen to make a kart racer instead of exploring a 'sonic racing game' in a way that is more unique and more of a natural extension of the character's abilities?"

Because 

1) that wasn’t the complaint I was referring to when I brought it up, and

2) that’s ignoring that the it was intended to be a kart racer from the start. Like how Nintendo makes Mario Kart instead of exploring a racing platformer that’s more unique and a natural extension of the character’s abilities.

You wanna make a huge deal about that second point? Be my guest. But I’ll still continue to refer you to point 1.

[Tornado]

19 hours ago, Marcello said:

Question: Is there a reason you decided against not using the plane and boat from ASRT?

Answer: Well, you see, it's been a while since there's been a Sonic-only racer, so we really wanted to do that again!

This reminds me of that Miyamoto interview for NSMB Wii from around it's release (paraphrased, but not as much as you would think):

Magazine: "Was there a reason that you didn't try to implement Peach or Daisy or other characters from the series into this installment for the 3rd and 4th player character?"

Miyamoto: *laughs* "Why would we put any effort into it?"

[Diogenes]

18 minutes ago, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

Because 

1) that wasn’t the complaint I was referring to when I brought it up,

Then what are you referring to, exactly?

Quote

2) that’s ignoring that the it was intended to be a kart racer from the start.

Again, that's not a response to the question, that's the subject of the question. "Why are you making a kart racer rather than an on-foot racer?" "We're making a kart racer." "We know. Why?" "Because it's a kart racer." "But why did you choose to make a kart racer?" "Because we chose to make a kart racer".

Quote

Like how Nintendo makes Mario Kart instead of exploring a racing platformer that’s more unique and a natural extension of the character’s abilities.

Probably because Mario is not inherently about going fast and thus his gameplay and aesthetics do not inherently align with racing, unlike Sonic's, as well as Mario having already been portrayed as a jack of all trades meaning that participating in different sports is aligned with the character's identity.

[JaidynReiman]

9 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Again, that's not a response to the question, that's the subject of the question. "Why are you making a kart racer rather than an on-foot racer?" "We're making a kart racer." "We know. Why?" "Because it's a kart racer." "But why did you choose to make a kart racer?" "Because we chose to make a kart racer".

The answer is pretty simple. Sonic is inherently about Speed. If Sonic is going his fastest, he'd always win without more than one exception, and that's Shadow. Other than Shadow, no one can truly keep up with Sonic in an on-foot race. Not when Sonic is actually trying to run as fast as he possibly can.

Tails cannot keep up with Sonic. Even in Sonic 2/3 he can't. Tails only catches up once Sonic slows down. And Tails is faster than Knuckles. Amy varies, but is sometimes on-par with Tails or about as fast as Knuckles/slower.

 

If you're being true to the characters, its not possible to have a balanced on-foot racer.

[Diogenes]

1 minute ago, JaidynReiman said:

The answer is pretty simple. Sonic is inherently about Speed. If Sonic is going his fastest, he'd always win without more than one exception, and that's Shadow. Other than Shadow, no one can truly keep up with Sonic in an on-foot race. Not when Sonic is actually trying to run as fast as he possibly can.

Come on. Seriously. Seriously.

It's a video game. They would balance the characters to the best of their ability just as they do in every other mulitplayer game ever (and a lot of single player games with multiple characters). The canonical differences in characters do not override good game design.

They had Mario and Sonic do foot races in the olympics games!

[EmmBee]

46 minutes ago, Tornado said:

This reminds me of that Miyamoto interview for NSMB Wii from around it's release (paraphrased, but not as much as you would think):

Magazine: "Was there a reason that you didn't try to implement Peach or Daisy or other characters from the series into this installment for the 3rd and 4th player character?"

Miyamoto: *laughs* "Why would we put any effort into it?"

I remember that, but I recall him saying something about animating dresses being the problem.

But it's not like a game like that would've needed Smash Bros-like physics for dresses. And 3D World eventually did it no problem so it always sounded like a bullshit reason.

That is if I'm remembering that right. It's kind of been a while.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

41 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Then what are you referring to, exactly?

The part where I directly said,  “I still do not understand how people single out Sonic for driving a car like every-fucking-body else doing the same.”

As in Sonic the character driving a car in a kart racer, not the game being about kart racing.

Quote

Again, that's not a response to the question, that's the subject of the question. "Why are you making a kart racer rather than an on-foot racer?" "We're making a kart racer." "We know. Why?" "Because it's a kart racer." "But why did you choose to make a kart racer?" "Because we chose to make a kart racer".

Yeah, and that is essentially what it sums up to. Again, you want to make a huge deal of it, be my guest.

Quote

Probably because Mario is not inherently about going fast and thus his gameplay and aesthetics do not inherently align with racing, unlike Sonic's, as well as Mario having already been portrayed as a jack of all trades meaning that participating in different sports is aligned with the character's identity.

It doesn’t really stop Mario from doing so, so that’s really a moot point.

[Diogenes]

3 minutes ago, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

The part where I directly said,  “I still do not understand how people single out Sonic for driving a car like every-fucking-body else doing the same.”

As in Sonic the character driving a car, not the game being about kart racing.

Then the answer is obvious: for the unique aesthetics offered by a character with the ability to keep up with vehicles while not using one. It's a similar line of thought to wanting a character to use a signature vehicle from their game rather than some generic kart; people want something that represents the character in a unique and interesting way. Why did Shadow have a motorcycle in the first All Stars Racing? Because it was a thing he did in ShtH and it makes him stand out more than if they had given him a car like most other characters.

And if you're wondering why people single out Sonic rather than including Knuckles and Tails and whoever else, it's because Sonic is the face of the series and running is his "thing" even more than for any other Sonic character. People probably aren't against some or all of the other Sonic characters also being on foot but Sonic is the most obvious one to talk about.

3 minutes ago, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

It doesn’t really stop him from doing, so that’s really a moot point.

I guess if you don't actually care about the reasoning behind anything, sure, everything's a moot point.

[Wraith]

55 minutes ago, JaidynReiman said:

The answer is pretty simple. Sonic is inherently about Speed. If Sonic is going his fastest, he'd always win without more than one exception, and that's Shadow. Other than Shadow, no one can truly keep up with Sonic in an on-foot race. Not when Sonic is actually trying to run as fast as he possibly can.

Tails cannot keep up with Sonic. Even in Sonic 2/3 he can't. Tails only catches up once Sonic slows down. And Tails is faster than Knuckles. Amy varies, but is sometimes on-par with Tails or about as fast as Knuckles/slower.

 

If you're being true to the characters, its not possible to have a balanced on-foot racer.

This is dumb. It's a video game. An on foot racer would have tweaks to make it balanced. There's not a Sonic game that puts lore over half decent mechanics. Sonic wasn't made to be inherently faster than the others in most of the classic games even if he is canonically. 

 

19 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Then the answer is obvious: for the unique aesthetics offered by a character with the ability to keep up with vehicles while not using one. It's a similar line of thought to wanting a character to use a signature vehicle from their game rather than some generic kart; people want something that represents the character in a unique and interesting way. Why did Shadow have a motorcycle in the first All Stars Racing? Because it was a thing he did in ShtH and it makes him stand out more than if they had given him a car like most other characters.

And if you're wondering why people single out Sonic rather than including Knuckles and Tails and whoever else, it's because Sonic is the face of the series and running is his "thing" even more than for any other Sonic character. People probably aren't against some or all of the other Sonic characters also being on foot but Sonic is the most obvious one to talk about.

The answer to the question is that tapping the Kart racer studio for another Kart racer is easier, cheaper, and faster than hiring a new studio to work on a completely new set of mechanics that might not even pan out compared to the safe bet that is a fun Kart racer for younger audiences. That's the answer to the question. It doesn't address what you want but it's the truth. You can criticize the game for not being a completely different genre of game with this in mind, if you want, but your desires for an on foot racing game have nothing at all to do with this one, realistically.