It is on the occasion of the
Sonic release
Runners seen yesterday here, that Sega gave us the opportunity, and
l’French exclusivity, to talk to us
Takashi Iizuka.
At the same time Game designer, level designer, and producer, he is in charge of
the "Sonic Team", the Sega studio notably behind the famous
Sonic The Hedgehog franchise, which just delivered Sonic Runners
(ici
on the App Store)
He thus agreed to answer our questions about the game, the size of
the team, the launch in two phases, but not only that. He expresses himself
also on the challenges specific to mobile gaming, as well as its
recent and future developments:
Can you share with readers details about your
productions and your activity at Sega in recent years, and more recently
?
To begin with, as producer of the Sonic license, my mission is
to create Sonic Team titles, like Sonic Runners for example. Then I
oversees character development for Sonic games managed by others
studios like Sonic Team like Sonic Dash or Sonic Boom. And finally, I am
in charge of overseeing everything related to Sonic content
other than games, that is to say television animations, toys,
derivative products, etc. In particular, I devote myself more and more to this
final task to introduce Sonic to a wider audience.
It is the release of Sonic Runners which offers us the opportunity to discuss
today, can you present the game to us?
Sonic Runners is a freemium 2D “endless runner”. He is extremely
lively and entertaining. Players must complete sets of races in
trying to break records. All this also fits into
international competitionsagainst the players of the world
entire ! The game was already available in soft launch in some countries
since the end of February. The game was released on June 25 worldwide.
To read:our video and
test during the February release
Sonic Runners is an endless runner platform game.
», How is this a real Sonic? What are its specificities
?
The goal of all existing runners is in fact to avoid
obstacles. In Sonic Runners, players can jump, collect
rings, overcome enemies who block the road, ally with
characters giving access to bonuses and choosing the best path to
borrow. So they can enjoy the action of a real platform game
and discover the dynamic action that we already know from old games of
Sonic.
What were the main challenges, but also technical choices
and graphics related to use on mobiles of sizes but also of
various powers?
Compared to consoles, mobiles have different screen sizes and ratios
in terms of very variable dimensions. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account these
differences for playability on different terminals. This was one of the
the most delicate during development. For example, the screen of a
smartphone remains small but at the same time we had to work in detail on
the different graphic elements in order to avoid blurry display problems
on tablets or (larger) TV screens. However, we believe that
we have succeeded in achieving a quality which can stand comparison with the
console games.
What is the size of the team required for this type of game and the
development time?
The project started during the second half of 2013, so there are
one and a half. At the beginning, we started working with a small team of ten
people, and now there are a good fifteen of us. In fact, the load
work has increased quite a bit since the launch of the project, particularly in the
content production and server management.
In practice, the game was released in “soft launch” in
only a few countries several weeks ago, we were able to test it at this
occasion. What were the enrichments of this scale test phase?
reduced? What changes were made for launch following the
first returns?
Initially, we wanted to launch the game worldwide right after
limited start-up, but we wanted to make improvements to the
game following player feedback. Therefore, it took time to
finalize the game. For example, Tails can now be unlocked more quickly.
We also worked on a better evolution of the levels of
characters and on the leaderboards for players to visualize their
positions directly after the end of their game.
A secret to share about the game or its history? Of the
sequences that you particularly like?
Sonic Runners players have the option to equip their character
with two allies of their choice. Initially, we planned that players
only associate with Chaos. We thought that the variety of Chaos
(e.g. Dark, Hero) was enough to really enjoy the game. We have
discussed among ourselves and we realized that it would be more surprising
to add characters from other Sonic games, in the form of a wink.
So we decided to include Chip from "Sonic Unleashed" and
Shahra from “Sonic and the Secret Rings”. These are characters that we
not normally found outside of their original games. We have
also planned to add other elements like warships and
“Death Egg.” We are also considering adding more
characters.
Let's talk a little about the future, is mobile gaming likely to evolve,
get rich?
Before the creation of video games, we entertained ourselves by participating in
competitions with friends, while sharing your impressions. The birth
video games pushed players to have fun on their own. However, it is estimated that
playing online is the best way to meet up. We are certain that
this trend will accelerate in the future by allowing people to play
together, anytime, anywhere, with everyone. Sonic Runners is for
us one of the first steps in this ambition.
Other mobile games in the works that you could already talk about
?
Right now we are devoting all our time to Sonic updates
Runners. So we do not have availability for other projects.
And finally, regarding mobile gaming more generally, how do you see
its evolution in recent years and what are the trends that will
develop over the coming years in your opinion?
Mobile games have radically changed video game development.
Today, anyone can develop and publish their game by having a
minimum knowledge and budget. It is even possible to create a large
successful if it is based on an original idea. At the same time, this highlights
preferences and differences between different countries. This makes the
launching a game on a global scale even more difficult, but we
we wish to continue on this path and offer games to all our customers,
even the most distant.
Many thanks to Takashi Iizuka and the Sega press team.
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By : Keleops AG
