Giovanni

Giovanni Battaglia, more simply known as Giovanni, is a Sonic ROM hacker from Italy. He joined the Sonic ROM hacking scene in 2015, by first registering an account on SSRG, then eventually joining Sonic Retro. According to his account, he joined Sonic Retro in 2017.

Works

His early years mostly involved the creation of level layout ROM hacks of Sonic 1, ranging in quality from mediocre to bad. Nowadays, he is mostly known for the creation of Sonic 1 - Score Rush, winner of two trophies at the Sonic Hacking Contest 2022, as well as its followup, Sonic 2 - Score Rush. To this day, he still experiments with Sonic level design, however, in more elaborate ways, such as with Large Levels Tech Demo, a ROM hack that expands the level layout's size by a significant degree, allowing for levels eight times the size featured in Sonic 1.

Collaborations

At present, Giovanni collaborates with the RadiantNexus collective on the creation of Sonic 1 Definitive, winner of the Sonic Hacking Contest 2021's Retro Category, as a programmer, although his work is not currently featured in the latest release, as of the time of writing. He also provides programming and level design assistance on plenty other unannounced works across the Sonic ROM Hacking scene.

Presence

Giovanni can be found on many Sonic ROM hacking forums, as well as several Discord servers centered around Sonic ROM Hacking. He is also a moderator for the Sonic Hacking Contest's Discord server.