Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island/Development

Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island had gone through several changes over its development process. There are several rejected ideas, level designs, and other things that were left on the cutting room floor. The following details several of these things.

Development process

Sonic 3D was developed primarily by the UK-based studio Traveller's Tales, with elements of the design and creative oversight handled by Sonic Team. Head of Traveller's Tales, Jon Burton, wrote most of the code, while artistic duties were headded by James Cunliffe. In the beginning, the project was known as Sonic Spindrift

A two-player split-screen was originally planned for the game, but was cancelled due to difficulties seeing what lay ahead with the isometric perspective.

The graphics were rendered on Silicon Graphics workstations running SoftImage.

The full-screen introduction video was kept secret from Sega, and revealed only two weeks before the game was set to be finished.

Some music tracks, originally composed for Sonic 3D were left out of the final game. The planned "Knuckles bonus stage" theme, scrapped due to cartridge restraints was later heard as part of Twinkle Park in Sonic Adventure, while a different boss music track, dropped because Jon Burton didn't like it, reappeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I.

In addition to the original Sega Mega Drive version, Sonic 3D was later ported to the Sega Saturn to make up for the cancellation of Sonic X-treme. The game was ported in seven weeks, and uses the same Motorola 68000 source code of the Mega Drive version, albeit one converted into C through a special compiler created for the project. Any enhanced graphics or special effects run on top of the game and do not interact with the original source code in any way.

A minigame called Sonic Pool was considered for inclusion in the Saturn version but was scrapped in favour of a more traditional "tube" special stage.

Prototypes

Many prototypes of Sonic 3D have been found over the years. The first to be found was this 2006 cartridge prototype. Then in 2008 drx released 7 more Mega Drive protos: beta 73, beta 814, beta 819, beta 825, beta 830, beta 831, and beta 94. The 825 beta is quite similar to the 2006 cartridge prototype. At this same time a Saturn tech demo was also found.

Test Plan

What seems to be a checklist used when testing Sonic 3D has been found. You can find images of it here.

Early Game Design

These scans come from various magazines. They display different aspects that were changed before the final game was compiled.

Mega Drive

The images in this section only apply to the Mega Drive version.

Various

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  E3 Demo title screen. This title screen is found on many of our prototypes.

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  This early title card image is similar to the ones found in Sonic & Knuckles.

Green Grove Zone

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  This early screenshot is thought to be a mockup, as it is wildly different to anything seen in the final product. The badnik (which looks like a Shellcracker) doesn't exist in the final game, nor should it exist, as all flickies are collected. It's also not possible to walk under a bridge and the HUD is missing. Also Sonic's shadow is circular.

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  Similarly, there is no HUD in this image and a Sonic has a circle shadow. Also he just lost all rings despite there being no enemies (the flickies, however, are retained). The shot is also off-center.

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  This is the same image but flipped horizontally.

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  This looks like a playable build, however the icons in the HUD are possibly simpler placeholders.

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  Again.

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  The flicky portion of the HUD may be static - despite having collected five flickies, the HUD only claims Sonic has two.

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  Three flickies following Sonic but again, only two are shown in the HUD.

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Saturn

The images in this section apply to the Saturn version only.

Various

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  This is likely an early piece of concept art or a mock-up.

Spring Stadium

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  The floor is different.