14 DAY TRIAL // Sonic Boom might be one of the biggest initiatives that publisher SEGA has recently announced, and the development team working on the new intellectual property says that it has been careful to make sure the video game based on it and the cartoon series remain entirely consistent.
Stephen Frost, a producer working at the North American division of the company, tells Gamasutra that the reveal of new character Sticks shows how the two entertainment-focused products can support each other.
He states, “Sticks' personality and core being was established by the animation team, but there was no design for her, so we took her core personality, and Sonic Team started doing sketches and ideas after that, and then based off of that, Big Red Button took that and fleshed it out into a 3D design.”
The cartoon is designed by the team at SEGA to introduce the Boom story and the characters that are involved to a wide audience of potential players.
Once they get a clear idea about the narrative, all of them can pick up the Sonic Boom titles for the Wii U and the 3DS in order to explore more and battle the iconic villains that they already know.
SEGA has brought the game and cartoon teams together in order to make sure that they do not create content that allows contradictions.
Stephen Frost adds, “We met in many different locations and discussed just what are the core aspects of this world? How do these characters interact? What are the motivations for Eggman? Every little nuance you can imagine - we've had endless, endless meetings and that gave us the information to go off and build the game, the toys, and the cartoon, and make them feel very cohesive.”
Sonic Boom on the Wii U will focus on exploration and on combat, and all the characters included in the title have a new look and significant powers designed to take out robotic enemies and bosses.
During E3 2014, the company showed off an underground level where the puzzles were pretty simple to solve and cooperation was the key to success in battle.
SEGA says that it wants players to see a new side of the game series and that a more traditional set of gameplay mechanics will be offered on the 3DS handheld.
Sonic Boom will be launched before the end of the year on both Nintendo platforms, and the company has suggested that some bundles might be introduced.