Sonic Mania team forms new studio focusing on original projects

They got struck with Sonic Mania

Some of the developers behind Sega’s Sonic Mania have founded their own studio called Evening Star. In the works for a few months now, the founding members of the team include Christian Whitehead (director of Sonic Mania), Dave Padilla (producer), Tom Fry (art director), Hunter Bridges (technical/audio director) and Brad Flick (design director). In a press release from the studio, the team states it intends to create “fresh, fun games which will stand the test of time.”

“Every member pursues a goal to make their own great games,” reads the official description. “By encouraging strong technical foundations in every discipline, members are given a voice and latitude to impact games in unique ways. By reinvigorating gaming history’s more cunning techniques, the team boldly explores directions long since left behind.”

In a really cool move, Whitehead will be taking the engine he created for Sonic Mania, known as the “Retro Engine,” with him. This architecture will form the basis of Evening Star’s titles, with a new title called the “Star Engine.” Whether that means more Sonic titles are on the horizon is anyone’s guess, but we’ll definitely be seeing some Genesis inspired games.

Sonic Mania dev Christian Whitehead co-founds new studio Evening Star [GamesIndustry.biz]

Christian Whitehead [Twitter]