Sonic R/Development

Sonic R had gone through several changes over its development process. There are several rejected ideas, level designs, and other things that were changed before the games final release. The following details several of these things.

Development process

Sonic R was the second Sonic the Hedgehog-related project to be entrusted to Traveller's Tales, a British studio previously responsible for Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island in 1996, and host of other projects prior. Many of the core members of the Traveller's Tales staff worked on both projects, including studio head Jon Burton (design and programming) and lead artist James Cunliffe. Similarly to Sonic 3D, the project was overseen by members of Sonic Team - Sonic Team would outline the requirements and provide feedback, and Traveller's Tales would implement their demands.

Sonic R began its life as a Formula One game, still developed for Sega, but without the Sonic license. Traveller's Tales' "arch rivals" Bizarre Creations had released the extremely popular PlayStation game Formula 1 in 1996 (and would coincidentally be picked up to create the Sega Dreamcast game Metropolis Street Racer on the grounds of its success)), and Sega wanted a response from the studio, who got to work on this project shortly after.

The team spent a few months working on the Formula One project (writing an engine and even producing 3D assets) before the troubled Sonic X-treme was cancelled. This led to Sega cancelling the Formula One project in its original form, and tasking Traveller's Tales with adapting the engine into a Sonic racing game in time for Christmas 1997.

For a while, Sonic R was referred to as "Sonic TT", with the source code still making reference to that original title. This was not a nod to Traveller's Tales, but was to fit in with other racing terms such as "Time Trial" or "Tourist Trophy" (and Manx TT SuperBike released by Sega two years prior).

Sonic Team designed all the tracks on paper, which Traveller's Tales would convert into 3D models. Some of the original texture work resembled the look of Sonic 3D, particularly with its distinctive bushes, but the artwork had been completely redone by the final game.

The game appeared at E3 1997 in a playable form, however Jon Burton noticed that people were giving up when Sonic ran into the water, on account of his underwater speed being so slow. This was sped up in response.

A "relay" mode was once planned, wherein each lap of the course would be completed by a different character. A mirror mode, where the tracks would be flipped, was also considered, but according to Jon Burton, was scrapped due to the draw code having to be re-written to compensate for the changes.

The in-game player models originally had a higher polygon count, but were adjusted for performance reasons. The result of these changes is that Tails lost his whiskers and hair, Knuckles curiously gained a different pair of shoes, and Robotnik's missile system was simplified, being turned into a cannon rather than a claw/missile contraption. Amy perhaps had the most radical redesign, however, having originally been given a giant circular saw at the front of her car to attack her opponents. In addition to this, the vehicle had a rear spoiler - it is missing in-game but continues to appear in promotional renders.

A planned flame shield was also removed from the game after it was considered to be too similar to the thunder shield in design.

Music

Similar to Sonic 3D's Saturn outing, the music of Sonic R was composed by Richard Jacques, however this time vocals were added by T.J. Davis. Wary of vocals in a Sonic game being deemed strange, Jon Burton added a switch to use non-vocal tracks (which he persuaded Sega to supply), before warming to the idea later in development. The default option was originally "off" for this reason.

Notably Resort Island's theme, Can You Feel the Sunshine? caused the level to be changed to take place in a different time of day. In earlier builds the game takes place at sunset, as opposed to a time of day where you would be more likely to actually "feel the sunshine".

Interestingly the PC version added the concept of racing at different times of day, meaning it is possible to race on Resort Island where there isn't any sunshine at all.

Prototype cover artwork

This early box art was found on Compuserve internet servers back in 1998. The artwork here is found in the ending scene in the game, and appears in earlier prototype title screens. It was rejected as it gave away that Metal Sonic was a secret character in the game.

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Prototypes

Version 0.1

A YouTube channel by the name of GameHut, which was created by Jon Burton of Traveller's Tales, had shown off the earliest version of Sonic R, dubbed Version 0.1. This tech demo has a first person perspective and shows off an unused level.

Version 0.3

Jon Burton also showed off a later version of the game which he called Version 0.3. This version has you play as Sonic without any running animations go around an early version of Resort Island.

Early public prototype

Sonic R was meant to be kept under wraps until E3 1997, however an earlier prototype made it into some portions of the press. At this point, Sonic had been given animations and the game was starting to take shape, but this build is far from polished. As well as having an incredibly simple HUD, it is not known if any other levels and racers aside from Sonic and Resort Island were implemented at this point.

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  Judging from the numbers, it appears Sonic can pick up rings now.

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  He can also walk on water.

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  100 rings to get through this door? The final only wants 50.

Pre-E3 1997 build

Sonic R was announced to the world at E3 1997. Two builds were visible, the earlier of which was used to create pre-recorded footage which was sent to the press. It can be identified by the soles of Sonic's shoes being red. While this version has a more appropriate HUD, it is using non-final icons and some elements have yet to be implemented.

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  The background consists of mountains in this prototypes, while in the final there were replaced by smaller mounds.

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  ...except in this screenshot, where there doesn't appear to be a background at all.

E3 1997 build

On the show floor, a "20% complete" build was playable, in which players could race Sonic around Resort Island. No other characters were selectable but were still in the race, being controlled by the computer.

Footage suggests this build had no voice over for the initial countdown, and that a non-final version of "Super Sonic Racing" was used as the in-game music. It was observed by Jon Burton that players would frequently fall into the water and then stop playing, as traversing in this state was slow and cumbersome. It was sped up for the final game as a result of this.

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  Start the demo and within fractions of a second, all of the other racers have ploughed ahead. As these screenshots show, players had a hard time keeping up with Knuckles.

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  This means this screenshot was likely staged. But it seems to be the same build all the same.

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  Sonic has white shoe soles in this prototype, which were changed back to red before the final game. Robotnik also has a different style of missile.

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  In the final game, the bigger HUD icons are used to represent the player. Here, it is reserved for whoever is in first place.

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  The upper path is accessible. The game is still indecisive about drawing a background though.

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  The bubble shield works.

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  At this point, Resort Island is virtually complete, though extra signs were added in later builds.

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  The right path.

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  The left path.

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  A 40 ring door. The final wants 20.

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  The door works...

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  ...but there's nothing to see in the tunnel.

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  The electric shield is a darker shade of red, looking more like the scrapped fire shield.

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  The UK's Sega Saturn Magazine demonstrating the fading in of polygons.

August(?) 1997 build

Two months later a second demo was released to the press. Sonic was still the only selectable character in single player but two more tracks were playable - Radical City and Reactive Factory. A 2-player versus mode was also included, with the second player controlling Tails.

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  The blank gold wall in the background should have a slot machine.

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  The time is right but the icons are wrong, and the draw distance (and geometry fogging) seems to be worse.

Preview

Main article: Sonic R (preview)

September(?) 1997 build

Traveller's Tales put out a third public demo four weeks after its second, this time with five playable characters and the addition of Regal Ruin. This version added the mini-map at the bottom right hand side of the screen and the collectable coins, as well as the ability for Sonic to double jump. 2-player mode was still restricted to Resort Island, some powerups were non-functional and the replay mode was not always stable.

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Later build

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  The trail after hitting a speed boost is yellow instead of a large array of colors.

Miscellaneous

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  An early render of the map. It's missing pillars in the water at the start of the track, more sand is present on the top of the model, and the loop is larger.

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  The icons for the unlockable metal characters are different. It's possible the magazine made this change.