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Prerelease:Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric

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This page details prerelease information and/or media for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric.

Hmmm...
To do:
Loads of info. More here!

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric had a number of development troubles. The most damaging was likely the sudden shift to the Wii U, as the engine was not optimized for the platform and many of the features had to be cut either due to time constraints or the Wii U's gimmicky limitations. Sega's sudden decision to turn the project into a bigger franchise also contributed to the developmental disaster.

The finished product was ultimately rushed out the door in time for the holiday season, where it was greeted with a highly negative reception from both fans and critics.

Development Timeline

2011

  • Oct. - A new Sonic The Hedgehog game starts development by Big Red Button, as Sonic Synergy.

2012

  • Spring-Summer - The game is conceptualized.
  • Fall - Sega of Japan and Sonic Team overlooked development of the game, making several changes to character designs.
  • Nov - The first vertical slice trailer of the game was created.
  • Nov-Dec. - Nintendo requests the game to be released for the Wii U after the game is internally presented by Sega via a vertical slice.

2013

  • May 17 - Sega makes a deal with Nintendo to put at least three Sonic games on the Wii U and 3DS, where Sonic Boom's development is fully moved to the Wii U.[1]
  • Summer - The game is attempted to be ported to the Wii U.

2014

  • Feb. - The first trailer was uploaded, showing a radically different version of the game.
  • Mar-Apr. - Sega decides to change the story and characters of the game to match up with the Sonic Boom television series they had pitched around the time.
  • Jun. - Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric was shown off at E3 2014.
  • Jul. - Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric goes gold, where many of the staff at Big Red Button were laid off.[2]
  • Nov. 11-21 - Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is released on Wii U.

2011-2012

Early Ideas

Sonic Boom originally started out as a game where the development team wanted to have the game with a "LAN Party" approach towards it, codenamed as "BlockOut". The project was called Sonic Synergy, and at one point was called Sonic Origins. Development had started on Windows, using CryEngine 3 as the game's engine which is usually tailored towards first-person shooters rather than platformers.

It was originally planned to be a four-player cooperative game, with a focus of "80% exploration and 20% speed" and was originally slated to come out on Windows via Steam and a possible digital PS Store and Xbox Live port of the game.

Initial Concepts

The storyline was also very different; it would have focused on the origins of Sonic the Hedgehog where he was friends with a younger Doctor Eggman but an unexpected temporal paradox involving Eggman annoying something in the past causes their truce to begin. At that point, the synopsis had not been finalized yet but young Eggman was planned to be playable. Several concepts for the said character were drawn:

SonicBoomYoungEggmanConcept.jpg


In terms of environments, the team took inspiration from Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy in terms of style, citing Bob Rafei's work at his time in Naughty Dog and wanted to give the environments a more "natural and organic" vibe, whilst including hand-painted textures to give it a more animated style.

Fall

Developmental Changes

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Put info from there.

Sonic Team and Sega of Japan urged them to change up various aspects of the game. Sega of Japan requested the team to make the game focused on speed more than exploration, and completely scrap the "origin story" idea because they'd rather make a game out of it themselves.

Another notable change the developmental team had to handle were the designs of several characters, which were redesigned by Sonic Team so they could look closer to the original characters and some of the NPCs so they don't end up violating the character design guidelines.

UI Concepts

SonicBoomROL-Synergy.jpg

When development of the game was moved to Wii U, several mockups for the game were created by user interface design consultant Edward Moore, and used in a diagram to show how user interactions between the Wii U and 3DS would work. There are also numerous other UI Designs found.


(Source: Sonic Stadium)

November

Michael Horwitz Trailer

A "Sales Presentation" trailer was made by Michael Horwitz in 2015, but was deleted from Vimeo sometime after April 2017. This is the most drastically different version of the game. Almost everything seen in the trailer is not in the final game. At this point, the title was still "Sonic Synergy". An extended version of the trailer with different footage has also been found and uploaded.

(Source: Video Games — MICHAEL HORWITZ EDITOR•PRODUCER•CREATIVE DIRECTOR (original page))

Another extended trailer was also found which dates back from Nov. 2012.

  • The game is running on PC hardware in this trailer. Much like the reveal trailer.
  • Various concept art is seen in the trailer, likely due to the fact that the character models possibly weren't finished at the time. This is hinted as various designs for Dr. Eggman can be seen, obviously meaning they didn't have a chosen design for him yet.
  • Lyric's design seems to be completely finalized, looking very close to the final game.
  • A large number of character concept art can be seen in the extended version, featuring different designs for Sticks and various other background characters that were planned to appear.
  • Just like the reveal trailer, the graphics are more detailed in the trailer, featuring better lighting and more environmental effects, higher framerate, etc.
  • The characters have different textures like the early trailer, with cartoon-styled eyes and fluid animations.
  • Sonic's idle animation seems to have him flail his arms and legs around unlike the final game.
  • The HUD can be seen various times and looks different. The ring icon is instead a piggy bank, the robot part icon is different, and when multiple characters are with the player, the HUD appears below with a separate health bar and icon for each character.
  • Every single stage seen in the footage for this trailer is not in the final game. While the stages "The Pit", "Crater Lake", "Sky Citadel", and "Ocean Purification Plant" can be seen, the level design seems to be entirely different. It was likely these designs were changed due to the lack of processing power for the Wii U, forcing the developers to change the design to fit within the Wii U's hardware limitations.
  • The removed secret room cutscene is featured yet again like the early trailer, but this time with an extra line from Amy. Unlike the early trailer, what lies behind the door to the secret room is actually shown, which happens to be a large beach area named "Tropical Paradise".
  • None of the dialogue in the trailer is heard in the final game.
  • Interestingly, a spinning camera shot of the team ready to fight robots is shown various times, similar to the early trailer. In the early trailer, however, they are in a different area.
  • One scene has Sonic staring at the large door opening which appears to be in Sky Citadel.
  • Unknown Jungle/Island stages can be seen various times, as well as the secret room from the early trailer. Various clips in the Island stage show Sonic hopping across platforms floating on the water, and bouncing off bounce pads. Tails is also seen flying in it.
  • The ring sound effect that can be heard in the extended version is very different from the final game.
  • During the combat sequence in the unknown island stage, all the characters seem to do various attacks that the final game lacks. Sonic does various fast spins and kicks, and throws what appears to be blue-colored bombs. He even does kicks in mid air. Tails is also shown attack robots with fireworks in Ocean Purification Plant, as well as attack with his wrench and missile gun in the extended trailer.
  • Scenes of Crater Lake show that the stage was originally sized larger. We can also see Sonic slingshot himself with the enerbeam to kick down the bridge. In the final game, Sonic just pulls it downward rather than kicking it.
  • Roads that lead to speed sections can be seen in the trailer, although none of them appear in the final game. Strangely, the roads seem to be almost empty, with no obstacles aside from collectable rings.
  • A feet pad of some sort appears various times in the trailer, with Knuckles standing on it; it's likely a switch to activate the door in front of the characters.
  • The cutscene with Sonic's line when the trailer's song "Bangarang" finishes playing is not featured in the final game, nor is Sonic's quote about adventure. Interestingly, the extended trailer has Sonic saying the quote in a different location, which happens to be in the removed hub.
  • The removed hub world is seen various times in the trailer, with Tails attacking robots in it. In the extended trailer, Amy is seen walking out of a hut in it too.
  • The scene with the large army of robots is not in the game.
  • Near the door to Sky Citadel, the crystal lock seems to cause the characters around it to float up with rings hovering into them. Nothing like this is in the final game.
  • A unknown cave with a yellow chaos crystal can be seen.
  • Sonic can be seen in the Forest area of The Pit fighting robots. In the final game, a few robots can be found, but they are all broken and deactivated. Also, throughout gameplay of the level, Sonic appears to be alone. There is no sequence in the final game where you are not paired with a character to switch to and a special HUD on the top left corner of the screen seems to be made specifically for this.
  • Another shot shows Sonic riding on a zipwire. In the final game, this area is replaced with a puzzle in which you attempt to move a minecart with a bounce pad inside to get to higher places. Another section is shown with Sonic bouncing off pads collecting rings, which is absent in the final.
  • The unknown water section from the early trailer appears. It appears that Sonic would hydro dash going through hoops while collecting yellow chaos crystals. A HUD image is shown showing how much the player has collected too, which is also absent from the final. In the extended trailer, clips feature the characters jet skiing by holding their Enerbeams on Sonic as he runs across the water, which never happens in the final game.
  • Much like the early trailer, it appears that robot parts have to be collected manually rather than automatically.
  • The sequence with Knuckles climbing is not in the game. Also, his climbing animation is completely different.
  • One clip that takes in the unknown island stage has Sonic get slingshot by Tails with the Enerbeam, which cannot be done in the final game.
  • Another clip shows Amy and Tails using the Enerbeam to climb downward to activate switches below, which cannot be done in the final game.
  • Just like the early trailer, the driller worm cutscene is at the end.
  • Tails' idle animations differ through each build from Nov. 2012 to Michael Horwitz Trailer.
  • The character's eyes don't move in the Nov. 2012 trailer.
  • One scene in the Nov. 2012 trailer shows that Tails' goggles and tool belt are missing from his model.
  • In both trailers, the designs of the Bounce Pads look nothing like they do in the retail release

Reaction from Nintendo

Sega's vertical slice, which included the work-in-progress Sonic Synergy game was presented to Nintendo, where they asked Big Red Button to port the game to Wii U and Nintendo 3DS systems. Sanzaru would later step in to work on what would eventually be the Nintendo 3DS game Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, leaving Big Red Button to do a port for the Wii U. Porting wouldn't start until much later in the game's developmental span.

2013

May

Nintendo Partnership Deal

Sega makes a deal with Nintendo to put at least three Sonic games on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. It would be the point where development of the game is fully moved to the Wii U.

Spring/Summer

Hub World

Character animator Tuan Nguyen created a number of animations for the game, some of which are shown here. In his demo reel, the hub world is much more detailed than what could be achieved in the final game. Judging by the high quality of the hub world, this was most likely running on a Windows PC. It was confirmed that the Hub World was actually a Test Level in a YouTube video called "Sonic Boom: Where Did It All Go Wrong?"

Martin Ocejo, one of the people who helped model the hub world, has shown screenshots of it on his ArtStation account.

Character Rigging

Remember when YT had a little indifferent face when a video went down? TCRF remembers.
This page or section has one or more broken YouTube links.
Please find an archived version of the video(s) or a suitable replacement.

Mark McCall's show reel for Rise of Lyric contains far more complex lighting in many of the cutscenes. It also has a 360-degrees rotation around the hub world, while focusing on the enemies. Different portraits for the characters are also used in the video. A video showing rigging in process was also uploaded to Vimeo. Dimitri Frazao, another character rigger, posted a video on Vimeo featuring all the characters models, with a few of them using an unused animation. He also has a rigging reel, containing rough versions of several cutscenes and some videos of the rigging in progress. Vimeo user Arlington Cruz also uploaded a few rigging shots, but those were removed for unknown reasons. It was reuploaded by Derek Crumb on YouTube and it features a plane diving animation possibly going to be used during the removed plane level. It also contains an odd Sonic throwing animation and an animation of Amy waving goodbye.

Summer/Fall

Wii U Porting Downgrades

In Mid-2013, the Sonic Synergy trailer would eventually be complete and fully approved of by Sega of Japan and Sonic Team, which was when the game started to get ported to the Wii U. It would be the point when the game would reach development hell.

One jarring problem that came to mind when porting the game to Wii U was the cutting of multiple features due to the console's overly-gimmicky Gamepad. As of a result, the four-player idea at that time was reduced to two, and many of the levels had to be changed;

  • Crater Lake was originally planned to be a 4-player water skiing area, but it was changed to include the worm boss fight.
  • The Chao system from Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 was planned to return but it was scrapped due to time constraints.
  • The Wii U's Gamepad was originally supposed to be used for features like controlling robots and moving across platforms, but technical limitations prevented the features from coming to fruition.
  • A ring banking system was planned to be in the game, but it was cut due to time constraints
  • Another feature was to upgrade your team's attacks, it was either cut due to time constraints or hardware limitations

Later on, the project was renamed to what would eventually be called Sonic Boom, because Sega wanted to create a brand that would be appealing to global markets.

2014

February

First Trailer

The first trailer was released in February 2014, but due to the amount of differences compared to the final game, SEGA's YouTube channel made the trailer video private. Many YouTube users re-uploaded the trailer.

  • The game is running on PC hardware in this trailer.
  • The graphics are more detailed in the trailer, featuring better lighting and more environmental effects. The framerate also seems to be running at a higher amount, presumably 60 FPS. However, the video is 30 FPS.
  • The removed hub world is seen in the trailer, featuring sheep in the background.
  • The textures for the characters are different. Their eyes don't have much color compared to the final game that uses the eye textures seen normally for the characters.
  • The area the characters are standing in is not present in the final game. One segment in the game has all the characters standing in a position similar to the clip. If you look closely during the clip, you can see a bounce pad with a few rings.
  • A cutscene follows after having the characters fall into a secret room. This isn't in the final game.
  • The speed roads featured in many different shots are not in the final game.
  • Most of the actions used from the characters are faster.
  • Punch buttons are red rather than green like the final game.
  • Sonic is seen hydro-dashing in a level not present in the final.
  • Amy is seen running into Robot parts to collect them. The final game's robot parts home into the character automatically.
  • The giant worm cutscene at the end of the trailer is different.

Behind the Scenes

A behind the scenes trailer was released at the same time the first trailer was released.

  • A clip of a removed speed road is seen at 0:17.
  • A clip of the removed hub world is seen at 5:47. It is running on a Windows PC. Amy's running animation is also different.

March/April

Change of Story and Characters

After the first trailer was revealed, Sega decided to internally change the story and characters to line up with the then forthcoming Sonic Boom television series. That resulted making characters like Sticks and Knuckles act different from their original selves in comparison to the original design document.

June

E3 Demo

A demo was released at E3 2014. It is close to the final version, But there are many differences. Only 4 stages were playable.

  • The title screen says the name of the game is simply "Sonic Boom". So it's possible that a official name wasn't developed at the time of this demo.
  • The title screen shows the removed hub world. It was most likely a placeholder, since that level is a test level.
  • The menu sound effects are different.
  • The arrows that point to your next destination are instead yellow squares in the demo.
  • The music starts are different points during cutscenes.
  • Sound effects are missing, but the ring sound effect is still present. According to players of the demo, the sound effects would only play on the gamepad.
  • The character select image at the top-left corner shows 2D characters, rather than 3D models in the final game.
  • It is unknown if a Pause Menu is present in this demo, as no footage can be found of one.
  • Like the first trailer, punch buttons are red instead of green. They turn green when pressed however.
  • The sound effect for collecting a Shiny is completely different.
  • The font is slightly moved away from each other.
  • The music during the Drill Boss Battle is completely different from the final. It continues to play for the rest of the level.
  • The lighting during the Sonic and Amy cutscene is different.
  • The music in the Ocean Purification Plant level is completely different and the Chase music is completely different too.
  • Some dialogue is not heard in the final game.
  • The Robotic Voice in Ocean Purification Plant has no effect over it.
  • The Player 1 and 2 icons that are above the characters are instead 3D P1 and P2 icons.
  • The music glitches out in the middle of Ocean Purification Plant gameplay.
  • The game is less colorful during speed sections, as many lighting effects are missing.
  • The Eggman boss battle music is a placeholder loop song. It was heard during the combat tutorial in the first level of the final game.
  • When Team Sonic is running fast, they each leave a colored trail that is removed in the final game. It's removal is unknown

July

Mass Exodus

In a NeoGAF thread, a former employee of Big Red Button said that the game had finished development in July, one month after it was shown off at E3 2014 where the time between back then and the game's released focused on playtesting.[3]