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'Evening Star' game dev studio founded by Christian Whitehead


Wraith

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Well. Best of luck to them, Christian is undoubtedly a great and passionate dev. Really hope he and the team get to do all the games they want.

Maybe strike a deal with SEGA for a game or two... Perhaps a sequel to some game... IDK, just thinking out loud.

 

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A game studio with operations in Australia, with people I'd love to work with? Hmm... Very very curious and intriguing. I'll have to look into it sometime in the future.

I hope all goes well for Evening Star! Just, uh... That logo could use a little redesign, it's kinda awkward :p

Let's see what games they come out with!

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"The Retro Engine, which made Sonic Mania™ possible, has evolved into the Star Engine. It is now Evening Star's primary game engine, for which Christian continues to serve as the Lead Engine Architect."

I wanna see more of this new engine in action. Please let us have Mania successor one day.

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Interesting. Best of luck to Whitehead & co.

Wonder what they'll be cooking up. Using the star-engine will their projects still focus on 2d or could they make the move to 3D?

 

"Evening Star" is also the name of a piece of music from Knuckles Chaotix:

...and no, I seriously doubt they decided to name their studio after a piece of music from a 32x game, ha ha.

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8 hours ago, Polkadi~♪ said:

A game studio with operations in Australia, with people I'd love to work with? Hmm... Very very curious and intriguing. I'll have to look into it sometime in the future.

I hope all goes well for Evening Star! Just, uh... That logo could use a little redesign, it's kinda awkward :p

Let's see what games they come out with!

I like the vintage looking logo, it's coherent with the style of games they make. Out of the 90's! They couldn't just made it flat and minimal like every logo nowadays :P

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Glad I'm not the only one who's immediate thoughts were that the logo could use some work. It's pretty cool and retro looking, but it's way too busy. The name is good though. Clever Sonic reference that's sounds cook. Anyway...

This is awesome news. I look forward to seeing whatever this studio puts out in the future, because we already know what a dedicated and talented bunch they are. Hopefully they and SEGA will put out some more Sonic games, because obviously Sonic Mania is the best thing since 1995, but I'd also love to see their own unique IPs and any other series they can get their hands on. Just... Fix the logo plz.

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I really dig the logo as a brand reveal/website banner thing, but I think on an actual game product, it'd look better as just plain white text without the astral bodies but using the same typefaces to distinguish it.

But yeah, cool!  Very interested to see what original ideas they have.

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Best of luck to those guys. Obviously I'm wanting a Mania sequel or a fresh Sonic game using that engine but I'm eager to see whatever they come up with.

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Awesome to hear!

However as much I would like to be excited about them making more new games in general... For me it'll depend on exactly what kinds of games they will make and If I can actually like their original characters in order for me to get truly excited about them making any original games. I'm fairly picky so it's hard to say if they can make something original that'll appeal to me personally... so until then I'll just keep a casual eye on this and see what happens.

I do hope SEGA will still commission them for more classic Sonic style games in the future! Mania was good... But we need far more!

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4 hours ago, Indigo Rush said:

Probably goes without saying, but this is the Sonic fanbase here.

This does not necessarily mean they're going to be working on a Sonic Mania successor, or a Sonic game at all. While they're likely on Sega's speed dial due to their success with their brand, they're a true indie studio and likely have their own original ideas they want to work on. Don't be upset if they announce something without the hedgehog's face on it, but please do support them. 

As we all know, they're very talented in their respective fields and whatever they create will be worth checking out. I for one hope to see them take a stab at an original platformer or adventure game. Time will tell, but there's no way they formed this studio without having a handful of ideas or even some prototypes to start from. 

Good things are on the way.

Yeah I know a lot of people want another collaboration. I'd like another Sonic Mania but I would rather have them away from Sega's influence personally. These guys could create a mascot on their own power.

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2 hours ago, Wraith said:

Yeah I know a lot of people want another collaboration. I'd like another Sonic Mania but I would rather have them away from Sega's influence personally. These guys could create a mascot on their own power.

Yeah, I'm all for them creating a new IP or working on an exisiting IP but not Sonic related. Doesn't seem like it would be a smart move if they were to just stick to making Sonic games. I'd imagine they are more ambitious.

Whitehead was working on his own 3D engine and his own new IP before he started work on Mania, so they probably have lots of ideas for new games and stuff. Fingers crossed they've already started working on something.

...and of course there are plently of other talented developers out there who could takeover the mantle of making Sonic games, porting the classics, albeit they wouldn't have the proven track-record & trust that Whitehead has developed with SEGA over the years.

 

Also, nice to see the announcement of their new studio is gettting a decent amount of media coverage.

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I'm all for new IPs. But it is always hard to get new ideas out if so many old ones still exist. After all, we humans only want the same old stuff and characters and stories, again and again, are not really open for new ideas. This is how we are. 

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Not true. That is what made the 90s so great. New ips both if they worked or not it was the fact companies tried new things. I am sure he would like to try his hand at something new instead of relying solely on sonic. 

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I think I'm more interested in an original IP by this studio than another classic Sonic game, actually. I love 90's platformers and I know Whitehead loves some of my favorites like Dynamite Headdy or Ristar, so a brand new IP by these guys will surely be interesting.

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  • 3 weeks later...

One day they may create a new co-op heavy game perhaps as the spiritual successor to Chaotix; though perhaps without the tethering mechanic and vertical zones!

Plus is in certain ways as good as already having such a game!

But, perhaps this theoretical game could include new perhaps slower but very rewarding ways of cooperative gameplay, such as more puzzles and different formats of them, than would fit into the main new 2D Sonic games!  

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I actually hope that this guy has the chance to create his own IP some day. He seems to have talent and he seems to have a passion for games, so it would be nice if we can see his own art turned into a game. I do not want him to be stuck in this loop, where the only thing he and his team are allowed to make, are just Sonic reboots. Mania wasn't even that great of a game, because of all the nostalgia pendering. At leats in my eyes.  

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Would love to see another Mania game but yeah , be pretty hyped if they come out with their own ip

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  • 1 year later...

After Team Mania finished up Mania Plus, they formed Evening Star. The name is taken from a music track from Knuckles Chaotix. This is either a hint at their Sonic connection or just a homage to what is seemingly a personal favourite game in the team.

The current members are (as was publicly revealed on their website) :

Dave Padilla (CEO)

Christian Whitehead (Team Mania)

Tom Fry (Team Mania)

Hunter Bridges (Team Mania)

Brad Flick (Team Mania)

Kieran Gates (Team Mania)

Esteban Fajardo (New Member)

Simon Thomley does not work with the company and the reason behind this is unclear. However, he did try to kickstart his own game Vertebreaker, which unfortunately failed. This is probably why he isn't with the team. Tee Lopes isn't with them either, I will get to my thinking behind why later on.

Elora Pautrat had also been employed by Evening Star between Jan 2019 to Nov 2019 (Linkedin). She no longer works with the company and is not listed on their website anymore. The fact she has worked with the team for a year and left suggests that the team are actually working on a project, rather than just existing as a Team for SEGA to contact. This is reinforced by the fact they Evening Star have been actively hiring artists and programmers in 2019-2020.

Dave Padilla as a CEO backs this up. He's an established game designer and founded the company in Nov 2018. He wouldn't just start a company if he didn't have a project in mind and just wanted to give SEGA a nice company name to give a call.

I know who a few other members of Evening Star are from my own research, but I'm not naming them because it's not data which has been consciously shared by the company's website. However, they do have a writer (listed on their LinkedIn group), which suggests that the game will have a storyline beyond what was shown in something like Mania. This suggests to me that it's unlikely to be Sonic related, because I cannot imagine that SEGA would release a 2D Sonic game which had a story that  warranted a writer.

I think it's especially likely that they aren't working on Sonic because Tee Lopes is not a part of their team. Tee Lopes is still contracted with SEGA and has worked on games recently (Team Sonic Racing) and on the Social Media channel, which suggests that he decided not to join Evening Star because he wanted to keep working with SEGA.

The upshot is that they are working on a new project and it probably isn't Sonic related.

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  • 1 year later...

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