Sonic Riders. Through thorns to the stars.

Let’s be frank with you. The most profitable series of arcade races today is Mario Karts . And to compete with this franchise, especially in the Western market, a rather difficult task, since you always compete with the proven years of gameplay and recognizable and from childhood beloved by all a series of games. But what to do if the hands are itching straight to create something similar? Lure the audience or attract new people in the genre?

Hello dear readers of the site. Today I want to tell you the story of the ambiguous game Sonic Riders . Talk about how a random idea of ​​a fan can lead to a new game. Talk about how a prototype, which did not pass the approval of the board of directors, eventually converted into a peculiar, but terrified interesting experiment in the genre and about how devoted fans to this day save this unique game.

Chapter One. Where do the hedgehogs grow borders from the hedgehog?

The first attempt

The very first game dedicated to the Hedgehog races was Sonic Drift . But do not deceive yourself, it was not engaged in its development Sonic Team, And directly Sega. However, the first attempt to transplant a hedgehog behind the wheel of a racing car was a sufficiently medium. The press praised the game for the schedule, but very much scolded for a boring gameplay. Soon, the second part of this race on the maps appeared. From the remarkable – in the first part we are first given under the management of AMI and Doctor Egmen.

After some time, the team came up with the idea to rebuild the races about Sonic. Then Sonic Team together with Traveller’s Tales Made Sonic R . The joke was that at that time Sonic Team was not fully understood that the racing game about Sonic (especially against the background of the failure of Sonic Drift). They only knew the conventional rules that, according to all the laws of the genre, the object should get from point A to point B faster than other objects, moving along the so -called highway. And since the hedgehog is already fast, he does not need a car. So it turned out a natural runner. Even before all these of your SubWays Surfs . The hedgehog literally fled the track racing with other participants in the “race”. The collection of rings and hunting for emeralds of chaos for the plot – are present. The game became quite successful by causing restrained praise of critics. But they praised her no longer for the gameplay, but for the schedule and technical performance at that time. Is it a joke, such a “heavyweight” by the standards of that era calmly worked at 30 FPS on Sega Saturn. With all these complex graphic things and breathtaking 3D. However, what is important to us first of all?

Firstly, Sonic Team They understood the main mistake for yourself-if you make a game about Sonic, then some plot there must be a priori there.

Secondly, making a game about a hedgehog on a typewriter is a die-time venture, because it will not work to create something unique. You will have to directly butt with competitors in the genre, and for the young racing arcade franchise – this is almost surely death. On the other hand, wrap the usual formula of racing in some interesting wrapper and people will reach for you. With these thoughts Takashi Yuda I sat down to develop a concept for a new racing game in the Sonic universe.

Tony Hawk and blue hedgehog.

In 2003, extreme sports found an unprecedented rise. Skateboarding, snowboarding, pokatushki on bmx-ah. And all this naturally was reflected in the form of video games. Tony Hawk, SSX and all that way. Little studio Vision Scape Interactive, Founded in 1997 and consisting of two people – husband and wife Mat and Tammy McDornald By 2003, a little overgrown with the state and was engaged in the development of games Seablade. They also tried to cooperate with ThQ, But because of the financial problems of the latter, they did not work out in the end. But we are interested a little not that.

Firstly. The state had a engine from the game Tony Hawk. Secondly, at one time, the children from Vision Scape Interactive collaborated with SEGA and Sonic Team, in particular, when creating symoticics for Sonic Heroes. And since they already had access to Renderwear and to the intellectual rights under Sonic, Mat McDonald decided to combine developments and in just a week, in May 2003 he riveted the craft of Tony Hawke and Sonic’s mixture. Naturally, in Sega they did not know anything about this. The prototype was developed for the original Xbox. Later it was possible to port up this prototype on PS2 and GameCube. Initially, the choice fell on Xbox solely because the team was familiar with its architecture best. All assets were pulled out of the last at that time of the game of the Sonic Adventure 2 series, including music and assets of the Green Hill location. But they did not ride on skateboards. And on hoverboards.

The prototype made it possible to jump on ramps and earn glasses.

When the prototype was ready, the company introduced it Sega USA, and specifically Euggi Nake. That prototype was insanely liked. The team even prepared a commercial offer, which was supposed to show the board of directors for approval. The project itself was given the name Sonic Extreme. Vision Scape Interactive at that time already finished all the cats of the scenes for Sonic Heroes and waited for an answer from Sega to get to work on a new project. But Sega never contacted them. Mat, however, did not accept this silence as a personal insult, because he decided that at that time the Sega was interested in other projects, and the Sonic Extreme prototype simply did not shoot and the Sega bosses put it in a long box.

Suddenly, unexpectedly for everyone, in September 2005, SEGA announces that in honor of the fifteen years of the series they release a new racing game about blue hedgehog, called Sonic Riders. And remember about Sonic Extreme? Vision Scape Interactive also remembered and was surprised how much new game borrowed from their prototype. However, the team did not succeed in any court lawsuits, because according to their agreement with the Sega, everything that was developed by Vision Scape Interactive using the SEGA ASSUTS Belonged to the last. Vision Scape Interactive eventually closed in 2006, and the developer team was ordered to destroy all computers and girls who were involved in the development. However, one eczmetel of the Xbox girl with the prototype of Sonic Extreme still managed to preserve by some miracle. Subsequently, he found himself with a private collector under the nickname “Protonx”, who shared this in August 2011 on the Assembler Games website, and also posted all the necessary evidence on his YouTube channel. In 2014, it was possible to unload the prototype from the girl and pour it into the network. So an accidentally saved copy of the game is now available for downloading to everyone.

Clearly show the work of the demo on the same girl

Chapter two. EXTREME style development.

The prototype gains life.

The development of Sonic Riders headed Yuji Naka, The main producer of Sega, who will leave the post in the development of Sonic 06, but this is a completely different story. For Yuji Naki It was the last project on the universe of Sonic. The development was also in the development Takashi Yuda And Kenjiro Morimoto. All these guys were the old Guard Sonic Team. They attached a hand to the development of the first parts of the series, engaged in the development of an extremely successful Sonic Heroes. But in fact, the secret of the uniqueness of Sonic Riders is very simple. All these eminent fathers of the series were more likely assistants than direct participants in the development. This helped the team find a new vision and project style. Takashi Yuda In the interview Game Spy When asked about whether the developers inspired the creation of the game episode from Sonic Adventure 2 said that in fact they did not want and did not set themselves the goal of referring to the past games of the series.

“We tried to give a new experience for fans of the series and if you play the game yourself, then make sure that you have not seen anything like”.

Takashi Yuda

And in fact it is noticeable. Yuda from the very beginning did not want to create a regular racing game. Instead, having seen enough of the prototype Sonic Extreme, He decided that the player needs to feel the style and “spirit of his time” in the game about Sonic. The ability to perform tricks on cars looked wildly illogical. A clumsy piece of metal did not fit into the style and vision of the team. Surfing and snowboarding immediately came to mind. Speed, air flows, the steepness of the execution of tricks – all of the above was an integral part of these borders.

But at the same time, as in the case of cars, these boards suffered from one giant problem, which could not be solved – they could not move on any surface. Snowboard – you need snow and steep descent. Surfing – we need an ocean and waves. And then the prototype Sonic Extreme comes to the rescue again. Since the concept paid great attention in the concept of the development of the developers did not come up with anything better than taking hoverboards from the concept and making them the main means of movement. Hoverboard can move on any surface without losing in speed and style. Namely, this was necessary for the team of developers.

Since Sonic Riders is primarily a game from fans and for fans, the question arose – which of the characters to make playable? New problems got up right there. It was impossible to move the characters from the series to the style of driving on hoverboards without giving them a unique appearance that would fully comply with the theme of the game.

It was originally planned to give the characters a view of snowboarders. Still, the characters logically needed protection against cold wind flows that beat in the face. But they quickly abandoned this idea. On the first art concept, it can be seen that Sonic tried to put on a jacket, gave him glasses that would protect the character’s eyes from the runaway wind flow. The borders themselves were such bulky pieces of iron, while they tried to add a fraction of individuality from each character to each border. For example, Tales’s brot on the back possessed two wings on the motive of his aircraft, and a sticker with its tails was located behind. But in the end, the creators of the concept of art abolished the extra tinsel, left the canonical designs of the characters, but the characters were still left to the points from the first concepts of the arts.

But what about the antagonists? Characters who will have to prevent our hedgehog from reaching the top? Dr. Egman naturally first came to mind, but the team of developers considered it simply necessary to expand the number of villains. Yuji Wekava, a person responsible for developing a modern design for Sonic, which we know by all the last games, decided to creatively approach this task. Initially, he decided to push away from a simple animal issue. Who is the main enemy of hedgehogs in the wild? Foxes and ferrets! But if the fox is already in the game, then you can work on the design of the ferret. This is how the first concept of the main antagonist came out, who, as a result, did not like Yuji. As a result, he began to draw a fox, while giving her more fur, unlike Tales. But this option did not suit the artist. But the fur that he drew for the fox for some reason at that moment reminded him of the wings! The concept unrealistically fell on the essence of the game where the main topic was the wind. So the fox became a bird, or rather a hawk – another enemy of hedgehogs in the wild. So the canonical design of Jet’s hawk was born.

Later, Gromil and Technique were added to his team by analogy with blue hedgehog. Storm and Waive. And no one approached this role better than birds. Blue hedgehog has repeatedly proved that he is the fastest of all existing creatures on earth. But will he be able to overtake the birds into their native poems?

History about Babylonian thieves.

One night in Meti City Sonic, Talez and Nakles are trying to track down the emerald of chaos. However, the emerald detector Talez warns them that something is jamming the emerald signal. Moreover, the source is right above them. Suddenly three figures on houseboards, pursued by the police, fly out from the nearest window. Tales discovers that these extremals have an emerald chaos, and therefore the trio rushes in pursuit. While one of the green figures can easily bypass Sonic, Nakles knocks the gray one from his hoverboard. A violet figure picks up his companion and runs away, and Tayles notes that a symbol of a bird is depicted on a hoverboard thrown out by him. Sonic takes the hoverboard and rushes in pursuit. He manages to get to the green figure, which admits that Sonic knows how to use the hoverboard despite the fact that before that he had never used it. However, the figure finds Sonic by surprise and jumps over him, knocking him down. When the figure mocks Sonic and leaves with his teammates, Sonic reunits with Talez and Nakles, inspired by the fact that he now has a new rival with whom you can compete.

The next day, Sonic, Talez and Nakles notes that Dr. Eggman is broadcast on the local screen, which has been organizing that he was organized by a tournament known as “Ex World Grand Prix”, whose participants must pay an entrance fee in the form of emerald chaos, and that the winner will receive all seven emeralds of chaos. Although Sonic at first seems indifferent, Eggman represents the three current participants: Jet Hawk, Vave’s Swallow and Albatross Storm. These were the same three figures that Sonic faced. This attracts the attention of a hedgehog, forcing him to join the tournament.

At one point in the story, recalling the symbol on bird hoverboards, Tayles says that Jet, Wave and Storm are part of the legendary group of thieves known as the “Babylonian robbers”, who, according to rumors, live on a floating island known as the Babylonian garden. He also explains that, according to legends, the actions of the Babylonians brought into the fury of the gods, who overthrew the Babylonian garden in the depths of the earth. However, the same legends claim that there is a treasure on the island. It is this treasure that is the connecting link between the Babylonian robbers and the Jet detachment, because it turns out that Jet, Vave and Storm are descendants of these same robbers, who are destined to return to the Babylonian gardens and pick up what their distant ancestors could not mumble. The most funny part is that our feathered friends do not even know about it, and they signed up in the race solely in order to get rich for erased emeralds.

It is noteworthy that Sonic Team trying to register bad characters here does not slide into a banal confrontation between good against the bad. Despite all the pompous of the history and plans of Egman to capture the world, the main thing in this story is a competition. At one point, Jet even refuses to participate in the competition when he learns about the real plans of Egman. He has no desire to become the ruler of the whole world. His only interest lies in races and theft. This is what it is created for. Having discovered the treasure of Babylonian enemies and jointly overcoming the Babylonian guards, Sonic and Jett say goodbye in the last race. Jett will note that it is quite possible Sonic is really the fastest creature on the planet, because even the air can be submitted. And with such a cheerful spirit of rivalry, he and Sonic rush into the sunset, dissecting on hoverboards in the desert.

This is the point. Why is this game in the series for me located on a pedestal among all racing games on Sonic? Because despite the fact that the main focus is the races, the developers’ team tried to preserve with all my might, as I call it, the structure of the fanservice. It is not enough to make just a good game. Sonic games are vital to supply a plot and a fanservice, since this is what will ultimately pull the game from the bottom. What work was done on history and on characters’ designs along with a gameplay basis allow the community of the game to live so far. And here it is necessary to leave all the grandeur and the entire pathos of the plot, but at the same time it is necessary to give it a mundane shell. No matter how it is important what is happening outside the races with all these Babylons and the gods, the main thing is why we are here – races. And the main reason for the fate in the competition is to prove who is the fastest and most dexterous. And it is precisely on this that the emphasis is on, and everything else is just a grand background, on which the races look even brighter. By the way, let’s, in fact, talk about races.

About gameplay and features.

Trying to somehow unambiguously stuff the game in a particular https://mindepositcasino.co.uk/sizzling-hot-deluxe-slot/ genre is quite difficult. By and large, if you change the hoverboards for cars, you get a very strange focus, because there are even some kind of Pauer-APs and boxes with random improvements at the levels, but since they are not of all kinds of weapons that we can use against our opponents, I will still allow us to write this game in a fairly executive genre of arcade races.

Screenshots from the game

Sonic Riders is a three -dimensional racing video game from a third person. Here, players compete with seven other participants on sixteen routes, nine of which must be unlocked by passing the plot mode, and two open after receiving a gold medal in each global Grand Prix (5 tracks of the Grand Prix). As in Sonic Heroes, although all the characters are played identically, each of them has different characteristics and types of characters that determine what they are strong.

– Type of speed: these characters have the highest characteristics of maximum speed, but average acceleration and endurance. They can accelerate on the rails, which are located in some sections of the highway by pressing the jump button twice (once to jump onto the rails, the second to cling to them).

– Type of flight: these characters have the highest acceleration characteristics and good characteristics of maximum speed. However, their endurance and passage of turns differ from the character to the character, which makes them somewhat ambiguous in terms of controllability. They can fly through special rings of accelerators, as well as during the flight to “cut” into other parts of the highway.

– Type of force: these characters have better endurance on off -road and can break through the barricades and other objects on the tracks, although their characteristics of speed and acceleration are sufficiently medium.

The races in Sonic Riders begin with the fact that the game character and his opponents on the legs, foot, go through a small start -up territory with a backfall and electric barrier. As soon as the countdown reaches zero, the barrier will be deactivated, and riders will be able to go through by starting the race. However, if the player touches the barrier before the start of the race, he will be amazed at an electric discharge, which will provide him with the last place at the beginning of the race.

As I already said, in Sonic Riders we use hoverboards as vehicles, which, in fact, are soaring vehicles in the form of borders, motorcycles or missile skates. Each such hoverboard (and in the original Extreme Gear or extreme equipment) is characterized by performance and characteristics and can even give a character the ability and classes that it usually does not have. Extreme Gear is powered by air, the number of which is limited and stored in an air tank, the condition of which we can observe, looking at the scale on the right side of the screen. Under it is our speed.

Extreme Gear initially has a small air supply that the player spends on jumping, drift and braking. However, if the player ends with air, the steering and braking will be given to the player multiplying. As soon as the air ends in Extreme Gear, the game character jumps off him and begins to run to his two. The air can be obtained by performing air tricks by selecting air boxes or using splitrum. After performing the tricks in the air, the player will be assigned a certain rank depending on its results and the complexity of execution. The higher the rank, the more air the character receives.

Sonic Riders also have famous rings that can be found on the tracks in certain areas. Rings can be used to improve the player’s extreme equipment to make it faster and increase the maximum amount of air in them. Thirty rings allow the player to move faster and attack opponents at the distance of the character without special animation. Sixty will make us even faster, and our attacks will begin to withdraw opponents from the game for a long time.

The acceleration button is responsible for the attack. She will simultaneously accelerate our character and transfer him to the “attacking regime”. At the same time, the character in the back of the acceleration will also remain a peculiar split – a huge flow of air that looks like a ramp, but from the air. At the entrance to this “pipe”, the enemy accelerates, and also gets the opportunity to perform jumping in this pipe moving from edge to edge, thereby filling out air stocks. Upon contact with the opponent, our character attacks him, slows down (or becomes if you have 60 rings), and also knocks out all the rings he had gained from the opponent.

A little recording of gameplay in the screen

The tracks are quite simple, but at the same time “two -level”. Why in quotation marks? Because the second level of the track is usually cut. You can get into these cuts in two ways. The first is to break through the second level of the track from below. If the enemy rides under the second level and reserved a split, then swaying on it we will be able to jump to this very second level. The second way is to jump there on your own. In most cases, the track is divided into two levels in front of a large ramp.

If you squeeze the jump button, starting to charge the air in our board, and then in front of the edge to let it go, our character will fly higher and further, getting the opportunity to execute more complex tricks. At the same time, jumping can be directed either forward, having received a long jump, or up, getting a high jump. Having completed a jump from the ramp and giving the correct impulse to the character direction, we will get the opportunity to “fly” into this cut. But here there is a kind of “depth”. You see, usually cutting in the race, especially Arcadus, is always a priority. But the characters’ abilities bring their zest to this all.

Suppose you play for a character like strength or speed at the first level. The second level of the route will really reduce your way, but on the first there are rails for the high -speed type and cars pass, which can destroy the type of force, thereby replenishing the reserves of their air. It is not always profitable to fly through all rings for the air type, sometimes it will be more priority to turn aside somewhere, lose in speed, but to be on a shorter section of the track. The type of force has the opportunity to shoot obstacles by replenishing the air supply not only in specially designated areas, but in general throughout the track. Yes, even some cuts will not always be highlighted for you, as they say, on the forehead. Sometimes you can find out about the existence of a shorter section of the track by absolutely accidentally crashing into the wall.

This “depth”, as such a thing is commonly called in circles of gamers, makes it possible to experiment a lot. Experiment not only with the environment, but also with the behavior of the player on the track. Where it is better to jump off the cut, at which it is better to squeeze the jump button, so that less time to slow down. In what points is it better to completely refuse a jump. Learning tracks, a cut and a reduction in time to pass the circle – all this rises at the forefront.

But all this makes sense exclusively within the framework of the multiplayer, which, unfortunately, in the original game, due to its attachment to the platform, was completely absent. The game had the opportunity to divide the screen into 4 parts and play in the same room with friends. But when the friends of which peaks can be done can be achieved? The answer to this question was given by multidimensional people who are engaged in the development of mods.

Chapter Three. How fans the game finished.

Delphin fountain.

Frankly, the game was poorly balanced for serious competitions. Some borders and characters in the game were absolutely superfluous, I will not even be afraid to say useless. The problem is that Sonic Team in the process of development has never been priority for the competitive moment. They planned to make just funny pokatushki on cheerful borders. But for such a “simple”, at first glance, the games added too much depth, forgetting to sufficiently work on this depth.

So, for example, from the banal, each character in the game for some reason has a weight parameter. Or rather, it is quite clear why he could be there. Heavier characters, as planned by the authors, were supposed to land faster plus should be less affected by slowing down when “leaving” on the side of the road. But either due to the lack of time for the development of this mechanics, or due to the fact that they considered the introduction of this function by the solution of the gameplay, it remained in the backyards when developing, but they forgot the data about it from the game. Each character in the game files is spelled out, but at the same time it does not affect the gameplay in any way. Forgot to work on things such as monitoring the behavior of the character. Carrying through air streams is certainly fun, but the player cannot control the process of entering this pipe.

In fact, such game-issues are often created when such an air pipe is created by your opponent right in front of an important jump that solves the entire outcome of the race. And leaving this pipe before jumping, we will not always have enough time to charge a powerful jump. As a result, the character in front of you is always in great advantage. In addition, unlike their Sonic Riders genre brothers, he did not have a single mechanics of “returning” to the race.

In the same Mario Kart, a weapon player is always in the advantage of the opponent who goes in front of him, since the first has the opportunity to shoot the second, and the second, in most cases, cannot contrast anything in response. Moreover, sometimes in the games of a similar genre for a player who is in last place, various kinds of APs are always provided, which will provide him with a return to the race. There were no such mechanics in Sonic Riders. Moreover, remember about the mechanics of the set of rings that I spoke about earlier? There are boxes in the game, in which 100 rings lies right away. That is, literally in the first circle, you can pump our boat to the last level, while receiving a higher speed and a larger supply of air. And what is the most unpleasant – this box is not restored. You can pick it up only once per race. Because of such small flaws, the game could not acquire a cult status.

The players saw the excellent base of the competitive game that needed urgent polishing. So the Sonic Rider Tournament Edition is entering the stage.

Somewhere in the area of ​​2017, a small team of moders begins to slowly delve into the game files, making here and there minor changes that as a result grew up to a rather large team of the modding industry and a whole project to promote Sonic Reders into the masses. Is it a joke? To work with the Tournament Edition mod, the team prefers to use its own modification of the GameCube Dolphine emulator called Riders Dolphine. The team is constantly working on improving the basic game. Capture and correction of the original bugs, new textures, faster and smooth loads, work on the frequency of personnel, amendments to the balance and this is only a small part of the front of the work of the mode of moders, which still do all this in pure enthusiasm.

And what changed?

Yes, in fact, almost everything. To begin, perhaps, with the fact that all those metrics that the developers planned to add, but in the end they forgot in the process, like the same weight, were returned to the game. The same weight is now honestly displayed in the characteristics of the character and directly affects handling and inertia. We processed the high -speed class, giving it a greater acceleration on the rails, unlike the original. Worked on handling, giving more control over the character player. The barrels with rings and air are completely processed at the level.

Remove the barrels like “100 rings”. They removed the opportunity to knock the rings from the enemy, because before that the blow from the enemy guaranteed you a return to the first level of equipment and, as a result, the inability to adequately control the hoverboard in the later stages of the race, taking you out of the game. Added mechanics of magnetic acceleration, a direct analogue of the usual, all of us familiar normal splitrm without pipes, which is called “magnetic impulse” here (although the pipes from the air in the game also remained). We worked on the balance of all characters, cut out all non -tug skates, boards and motorcycles, leaving only the most popular and working on their balance sheet. Well, in addition, they gave textures a higher resolution and added a couple of characters, which were not in the original game. In the game, thanks to fashion as a whole, it becomes much smaller than the random, from which I would like to beat myself on the forehead.

In the photo, characters who are not in the original game, but for which you can safely play in modification.

How to play it?

We need to get the original ISO game file for Gamecube. The game should be from the American region. You can find the necessary ISO file by taking off a copy of the legally purchased copy of the game for GameCube, well, or ask your friends to throw you an ISO file (‿‿). Next, go to the official modification site. There we download a patcher for the game and the Riders Dolphine emulator. Then following the instructions, roll the patch on the original game, the changed ISO file is thrown in the Riders Dolphine and run to conquer circles on the track.

The most important advantage that the Dolphine emulator gives is NetPlay mode. It allows you to configure online sessions for any GameCube or WII game with a local multiplayer regime. In fact, the game begins to think that a new gamepad has been connected to the console, although a person with this gamepad can be at a distance of thousands of kilometers from you. It is this feature that allows Sonic Riders on Dolphine to become a competitive discipline. Everything is tuned too to the funny simply. It is only necessary to create a room and share a code with a person with whom you want to spend an unforgettable online session. The only condition is the same version of the emulator and the same version of the game. You can find opponents on a special discord service, which is conducted by modification developers.

Bonus! Interview with SRTE developers.

Driving the next races on the Discord community service, I was lucky enough to get acquainted with the Bob “SUPP INS” by Gellerts, the commander of the developer team manager. During our conversation, he kindly agreed to give me an exclusive interview, the translation of which you can familiarize yourself below.

– Before we start, I would like you to tell readers a little about yourself. What is your position in the SRTE team, from what year do you occupy it?

– Hi, I’m Bob Supp Inss Gellarts. Currently, I am an active manager of the community Sonic Riders Tournament Edition/Sonic Riders Competitive since the beginning of December 2022 (behind the scenes) and January 2023 (publicly). I myself joined the server as a participant/ordinary player in May 2022, when I decided to take a break in my career on the Leagends e -sports scene, played for the Benelux team, and found time to relax from the league itself. During this period, I was embarking on the Sonic Reders Tournament Edition (SRTE) team and gradually began to help the then community manager Jem, and also raised his rating as a player. Ultimately, this brought me to the Balancing team and to the new structured team for organizing events (it was my initiative to help Jam better manage the events), and when Jam wanted to leave the post of a commander-manager, the head of the team turned to me with a proposal to take its place, and we did it. I am still steadily engaged in this work.

– Perhaps you have no answer to this question, but in what year the development of the modification began? How did this idea occur to you?

– As far as I remember, Protag [head of the SRTE team] and the original team began about 2017 from the fashion. At that time it was not something so large as now, only a couple of devoted fans who very slightly corrected the game. Around 2021, if I remember correctly, the development team was divided and became TE and DX, respectively. This means that since that time the Tournament Edition has become a separate thing, and we went in our direction. At the same time, we all, fans of Riders, share the same feeling: “This game could be much better”. Remembering this only thought, everyone intended to do this, working to demonstrate the hidden potential that Sonic Reders possesses.

– Your community is more like a community of fans of the game or to a community of e -sportsmen in SR?

– Oh, it’s simple, both. Although we are called Tournament Edition and hold many tournaments, we welcome everyone who loves Sonic the Hedgehog and the Sonic Riders series, damn it, we welcome everyone who belongs to all layers of society, as well as other games. We have people who have never even touched the games in the Sonic universe, which are also part of the community. So here everyone is really happy. Usually you may notice that the sports community is a little more active, but let it not deceive you, here everyone will find a place.

– By the way, about tournaments! When you felt that they were ready for them? Do you have any information about how many people have registered for the first tournament? How often do you spend them?

– Feeling ready for tournaments is great if it were true, hahaha. I want to say that players / rivals are never really ready for their first tournament, and, frankly, this is more likely a myth. However! This should never bother you, because there is a great value in just participating in the tournament, are you ready for it or not. You will learn much more by participating in it, and indeed, you will be very fun if you stop worrying about whether you are ready or not. Listen, believe me, at present I am considered one of the best players on the server, but, frankly, every time I am waiting for the tournament, I am nervous and afraid to touch my controller. Naturally, we do not feel ready, and this is good, it pushes us as players, competitors, or even just people to surpass our own and other people’s expectations.

Now I don’t know when the first tournament was held and how many people signed up for it, but the first tournament that I held was a tournament dedicated to the release of update 1.4.2 in September 2022. As for my first tournament, in which I have ever participated, it was in May 2022, just a week or two after I first joined the server. The largest tournament that I personally held as the organizer was the newcomer No. 15 tournament in May 2023, where we had a total of 63 participants. As for how often we hold tournaments, on average we have from 5 to 6 tournaments per month, as well as 1 or 2 additional events that are not included in this number. There are tournaments that are divided into different subsections in importance, but in general we are trying to maintain a good balance between the most serious and trash tournaments with funny changes in the rules in order to give the arrival of piquancy.

– But the most difficult thing when organizing tournaments, especially in games of this class is to find players. As a community manager, you should be well aware of how many new persons appear in tournaments? How quickly/stably your audience is growing? How people generally learn about you?

People join us every day, but for them participation in tournaments is just a matter of time. Our audience is constantly growing, but the number of participants fluctuates. We add that during this year we hold more tournaments for beginners to make it easier for new players to enter the game. People usually find us themselves or through other people and even through the creators of content. Another popular way that people find us is a video from AKSHON ESports, in addition, we have ties with many other Sonic and Gamecube game communities. First of all, we are closely cooperating with the Sonic Adventure Era speed-sinoes community, and Protag is also actively involved in the Kirby Air-Ride competition on their Discord server. And there are people such as Sigmastingray and others who show how they play Sonic Riders on their fighting streams. They play openly in them, which also attracts attention. We also have a channel on YouTube, there is an account in “X”, and we even have Tiktok. So we are looking for an audience in all available ways.

– Currently in the industry there is a clear tendency to create remakes and remasters. More and more companies are trying to rethink their classics. Whether representatives of the Sega or Sonic Team are connected with your team?

– Unfortunately, the answer is negative, but it would be 100% great if it were true. Especially if they wanted us to work for them or something like that. It would also improve my professional portfolio, since I am studying at the game designer, haha.

– Do I understand correctly that your team does not have former SEGA or Sonic Team employees?

– As far as I know, there is no one in our team who would be associated with Sega or Sonic Team.

– Let’s talk about more urgent problems of any team of developers, namely financing. How much people are currently working in your team? How much is the development of modification? Are there prizes for your tournaments, and if so, how do you sponsor these tournaments?

– The entire team of developers (divisions 1 and 2) has about 15 people, some of them want to remain anonymous, so I am not entirely sure of the exact number of people in the developer team. As for the Ivent command, which is under my jurisdiction, it has only 8 people in it. And we have more than 20 testers (active and inactive). For the most part, all this is done on a voluntary basis, completely free, but Protag invests its own money in such things as ordering models and rendering for our trailers. As for our prizes, this is again our personal winning contribution from our own pocket. Some large tournaments receive prizes, and large tournaments at the end of the year receive the maximum bank from this. Recently, in December 2023, we had a Grand Tour, which was a competition in regions in which the best players from each region competed for $ 600. Before that, we had the largest prize pool today-“World Grand Prix” in April 2023 with a prize pool of more than $ 1,000, and this year we have another world Grand Prix, but before that we will have a regional Grand Prix, where in November, players from America will receive a chance to fly to Dallas, Texas, take part in the main stageEXPO “, one of the largest events of the year for the fans of the community Sonic the Hedgehog.

– Thank you very much for the open and detailed answers. Finally, what would you like to wish the community of games in the Universe of the Blue Hedgehog, what would you like to tell readers of the article?

– Let’s continue to do what we do! Show our passion and continue to work on our mods and games! Welcome, join us at Sonic Riders Tournament Edition, compete and enjoy what our community may offer you! I hope to see you on the track in the future! And subscribe to all our channels, which, I am sure, the author will share with you;)

Conclusion.

The fan community is the strongest and most significant that may have a series of games. Sonic for the first time saw digital light as long as 1991. And since then to this day the community of fans of the blue hedgehog only grew and grew. And the franchise herself grew with them. The universe expanded, games, comics, films came out. The number of events that were dedicated to these games multiplied. And what is paradoxical – not a single game in the Sonic series can be called a masterpiece. The Riders series was able to grow up as many as three games. Moreover, both Zero Gravity and Free Riders were not accepted even by the newly made fans of the series. The first was too haunted by the game with gravity. The second was more likely a joke for the unfortunate kinect than something serious.

Paradoxically. On methasritis of the game only 55 points. But at the same time, fans rated the game at 7.8 out of 10. And here everyone already decides for himself what is more important. Undetered press points or windy community points. Still, the fact remains. It is the community of the game that allows the game not to die for long and many years. No one ever knew that a series about skater would give one person the idea of ​​collecting a prototype, and change the character for a hedgehog. That then this prototype will gain a different form, appear in the form of a game and find fans. And then these same fans on the screws will cherish the balance of the game and try to present it to the world as a new serious racing discipline. And she does not have to be something serious. Immediately the most important contact. And so it has always been in all online activities. The game is not only a reason to win everyone and prove how cool you are. Often this is an occasion to meet new people, plunge into a new atmosphere. And a friendly competition is just a reason. At the request of Bob I leave a link to the discord community channel.

Thank you all for reading. Put the pluses, write good and exclusively positive comments below. And I’ll go. I’ll go try to go through the voyowon that fucking turn for 0 more.0000002 seconds faster. Otherwise I will not get to the tournament.