“If we used what you have now and fix it, it will take 2 years. If we can start fresh, it’ll take half a year.”

This is a quote from the late, great Satoru Iwata, Nintendo president and programmer. Nintendo was trying to finish Earthbound for the NES, but had hit a wall in development. Iwata looked the game’s source code and offered two options: continue building on a poor foundation or start all over.

There I was, working hard to get an act Great Turquoise ready for the SAGE expo demo and I did something crazy. I scrapped the whole level I had been working on since October. I started over.

This is all part of the epiphany I wrote about last dev blog, about making this remake better than just a literal translation with 16-bit graphics. I had originally built my levels on top of maps of the original Game Gear stages. By doing so, I had hit a wall. I had a choice. I could continue to be limited by the 8-bit map, or I could start fresh.

I chose to start fresh.

Now, here I am, looking at what I’ve managed to create in only few days. I can say that it is a vast improvement from what I had before. It feels much more like the Genesis Sonic games, while still maintaining the spirit and the general level contours of the original Game Gear stages.

The level is not completely done yet, though. I’m working hard to get this up-to-snuff for SAGE. I just really want you all to enjoy playing this game and that it’s fun. I hope you like it!