History Trivia / SonicXTreme

* Due to internal politics heavily affecting the game especially between the two teams due to how the management was structured. As mentioned by game producer Mike Walles:

** Due to eternal politics heavily affecting the game especially between the two teams due to how the management was structured. As mentioned by game producer Mike Walles:

** One of the animators would constantly complain about working too hard and verbally harassing the other employees. The final straw was when he walked out of a meeting leading to his firing the next day. He was described by producer Mike Walles as “Being an ass”.
** Implied with “Creator/YujiNaka” himself especially due to the fact that he was not supportive of the development of the game Feeling that Sonic Team should be the only developers of Sonic Games and he even had one moment of sabotaging the project witch involved him threatening of leaving SEGA if the team used the engine of ‘’VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams’’.

** Sonic Boom/Sonic Doom = ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheSecretRings'': Sonic gets cursed/infected with something that's going to kill him slowly and has to find a cure. A similar plot accurse in [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW Sonic IDW Comics]] [[Main/StoryArc Metal Virus Ark]].

** Christina Coffin, the game's lead programmer, contracted pneumonia from overworking to try and get the game finished in time, and she was told she had six months to live, forcing her to drop out of the project. However, she survived and continues to work on video games.

** Sonic Mars = ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'': Sonic has to saves his friends from being trapped in a virtual world.

** One of the animators would constantly complain about working too hard and verbally harassing the other employees for working too hard. One instance is when he walked out of a meeting leading to his firing the next day. He was described by producer Mike Walles as “Being an ass”.

---> '''Mike Walles''': We had artists doing art for levels that hadn’t even been concepted out, We had programmers waiting and waiting and waiting until every minute detail had been concepted out, And we had designers doing whatever the hell they wanted. It was a mess and because of the internal politics (The art director had trained his art team to hate the designers and programers)” It was more difficult to get any work done.

** Implied with “Creator/YujiNaka” himself especially due to the fact that he was not supportive of the development of the game Feeling that Sonic Team should be the only developers of Sonic Games and even had one moments of sabotaging the project witch involved his threatening of leaving SEGA if the team used the engine of ‘’VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams’’.

** Implied with “Creator/YujiNaka” himself especially due to the fact that he was not supportive of the development of the game and even had one of moments of sabatoshing the project witch involved his threatening of leaving sega if the team used the engine of ‘’VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams’’.

* TroubledProduction: AND HOW!!! See [[TroubledProduction/SonicTheHedgehog what happened and why here]].

* CreatorKiller: The game's infamous TroubledProduction and cancellation, on top of corporate restructuring, is ultimately what led to the demise of Creator/SegaTechnicalInstitute.

* WorkingTitle: There were many title names for the game, such as Sonic 32X, Sonic Mars, Sonic Saturn, Sonic Ringworlds, Sonic Twisted, Sonic Boom (not to be confused with [[VideoGame/SonicBoom the Sonic subseries set in an alternate continuity]] made in TheNewTens), Sonic Doom, and Sonic PC (possibly for the PC port), Other title ideas considered are Sonic Bluestreak and Super Sonic.

* TroubledProduction: See TroubledProduction.{{Sonic the Hedgehog}}.

* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: According to Sonic Retro, Chris Senn stated that the "Rings of Order" story was hastily thrown together for the specific purpose of the Red Shoe Diaries featured in ''Game Players Magazine'', the "final" story having yet to be solidified.

* CreatorBacklash: Creator/SonicTeam's Creator/YujiNaka was not fond of the game and at one point during the game's development, threatened to leave Sega if the team decided to go through with using the engine from ''VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams''. To this day, Sonic Team prefers to avoid acknowledging the game's existence and elements from it have not been carried forward in any of their games.

* CreatorBacklash: Creator/SonicTeam's Creator/YujiNaka was not fond of the game and at one point during the game's development, threatened to leave Sega if the team decided to go through with using the engine from ''VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams''. To this day, Sonic Team prefers to avoid acknowledging the game and elements from it have not appeared in any of their games.

* CreatorBacklash: Creator/SonicTeam's Creator/YujiNaka was not fond of the game and at one point during the game's development, threatened to leave Sega if the team decided to go through with using the engine from ''VideoGame/NightsIntoDreams''. To this day, Sonic Team prefers to avoid acknowledging the game in anyway.

* TroubledProduction: [[TroubledProduction/SonicXTreme Has its own page]].

* TroubledProduction: ''Sonic X-treme'' is perhaps the most notorious example of this. If the main page didn't give you a hint that many things went wrong with the development of what was supposed to be Sonic's VideoGame3DLeap on the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, here's a much deeper explanation.
** For starters, what would eventually become ''Sonic X-treme'' for the Sega Saturn [[DevelopmentHell was actually the byproduct of a slew of several failed pitches]] for a Sonic game developed by Sega Technical Institute, which underwent many ideas for stories, game design, and even platforms (with the game planned for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis, and then its add-on the Sega 32X, before finally being settled for the Saturn).
** When development finally got underway, the development staff was comprised of two teams: one for the main levels, led by lead designer Chris Senn and lead programmer Ofer Alon; the other for the boss levels, led by programmer Christina Coffin. Despite the presence of a project overseer (Mike Wallis) to monitor both teams, the two groups ended up practically building two separate games with minimal similarities to each other. Not helping matters were the smaller teams that formed within the main teams and proceeded to work on different aspects of the game's development, who while in theory were supposed to ease the development process made it more cumbersome in practice. This ultimately contributed to an overall lack of communication across the development team, which led to high tensions between both groups, not at all helped by Ofer's seclusive tendencies from the rest of his team.
** The development team for the main levels frequently ran into problems [[PortingDisaster porting the engine to the Saturn]] - the game was originally programmed on a Mac computer, then quickly ported to PC before finally being ported to Saturn. While the game ran smoothly on Mac and PC, the Saturn port had atrocious framerate issues, with the game playing at a consistently sluggish ''3-4'' FPS. This along with the aforementioned rocky relationship within the studio led to constant delays in the game's development cycle.
** As a result of all this, Sega of America [[ExecutiveMeddling finally forced their hand in the development process]] by bringing in third-party developer Point-Of-View (POV for short) to smooth out the development process...unfortunately, [[FromBadToWorse this only deepened the cracks for development.]] Despite POV's intended role being to assist porting the main game's engine to the Saturn, they ultimately took over development duties from Alon -- a decision which wouldn't had been so bad if POV didn't prove themselves largely inexperienced to the task. A very basic image of Sonic on a checkerboard background was what POV presented to demonstrate their programming skills (to say Senn and Alon were unimpressed would be an understatement), topped off by the developer also being unsuccessful at porting Alon's engine to the Saturn. Despite this change in the development process, a new group comprised of the main engine's original team was later established by Alon and Senn to continue their own work on the main engine.
** This all culminated into [[TaintedByThePreview a horribly botched presentation]] of the game to a group of Sega of Japan's representatives -- which included then-President Hayao Nakayama -- who visited STI's headquarters in March of 1996 to check out the game's progress. While the original team was polishing up their engine for a presentation to the [=SoJ=] staff (which had undergone a lot of development and had also been successfully ported to the Saturn), unknowingly to them another presentation with [=POV=]'s failed attempts to run an older version of Alon's engine on the Saturn had already been shown to the [=SoJ=] staff, with Nakayama being disgusted with the results. This was followed by a presentation of Coffin's boss engine in action, which led to Nakayama [[ExecutiveMeddling ordering for the entire game to be designed around that engine]] [[ScrewedByTheNetwork and be completed for that year's holiday season]]. The team members who were supposed to demo Alon's engine arrived a bit late, missing the representatives by a hair.
** As a result, development from this point forward was largely restricted to both Senn and Coffin's teams to finish the game in time for the fast-approaching holiday season deadline, with [=POV=], Ofer's team, and all work on the main engine effectively cancelled from the development process. In desperation, they asked for and was granted use of the engine used in ''[[VideoGame/NiGHTS NiGHTS Into Dreams...]]'' to hasten development so the game would be finished on time. After getting accustomed to the engine's use after two weeks, the engine was taken away due to ''[=NiGHTS=]/Sonic'' creator Yuji Naka learning about the engine's use (the engine had been taken without his consent) and threatening to quit Sega if the team continued using his engine, sending the team back to square one.[[note]]An alternative report that also exists claims that they’ve used ''[=NiGHTS=]'' as an inspiration when designing the game's levels, of which Naka may have mistaken as his engine being used and Naka's threats leading to them having to scrap the similarly designed levels he had made by that point.[[/note]] All of this resulted in Senn and Coffin doing most of the work themselves, tirelessly working 20 hours a day and sleeping in the offices. By then, both Senn and Coffin had become exhausted: Coffin contracted pneumonia and Senn was so exhausted, doctors told him he had only 6 months to live if he kept working as he did, and they were forced to exit development, and thus Wallis was forced to tell his superiors that the game would not be completed in time for Christmas. By that point, there was no other choice but to pull the plug on the game, which ended up cancelled before they solidified their level editor, with a later attempt by Senn and Ofer to get their work on the game released on PC rejected.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/SonicXTreme Also has it's own page]].

* TroubledProduction: [[TroubledProduction/SonicXTreme Has its own page]]

* WorkingTitle: There were many title names for the game, such as Sonic 32X, Sonic Mars, Sonic Saturn, Sonic Twisted, Sonic Boom (not to be confused with [[VideoGame/SonicBoom the Sonic subseries set in an alternate continuity]] made in TheNewTens), Sonic Doom, and Sonic PC (possibly for the PC port).

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/SonicXTreme Has it's own page]].

* TroubledProduction: ''Sonic X-treme'' is perhaps the most notorious example of this. If the main page didn't give you a hint that many things went wrong with the development of what was supposed to be Sonic's VideoGame3DLeap on the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, here's a much deeper explanation.
** For starters, what would eventually become ''Sonic X-treme'' for the Sega Saturn [[DevelopmentHell was actually the byproduct of a slew of several failed pitches]] for a Sonic game developed by Sega Technical Institute, which underwent many ideas for stories, game design, and even platforms (with the game planned for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis, and then its add-on the Sega 32X, before finally being settled for the Saturn).
** When development finally got underway, the development staff was comprised of two teams: one for the main levels, led by lead designer Chris Senn and lead programmer Ofer Alon; the other for the boss levels, led by programmer Christina Coffin. Despite the presence of a project overseer (Mike Wallis) to monitor both teams, the two groups ended up practically building two separate games with minimal similarities to each other. Not helping matters were the smaller teams that formed within the main teams and proceeded to work on different aspects of the game's development, who while in theory were supposed to ease the development process made it more cumbersome in practice. This ultimately contributed to an overall lack of communication across the development team, which led to high tensions between both groups, not at all helped by Ofer's seclusive tendencies from the rest of his team.
** The development team for the main levels frequently ran into problems [[PortingDisaster porting the engine to the Saturn]] - the game was originally programmed on a Mac computer, then quickly ported to PC before finally being ported to Saturn. While the game ran smoothly on Mac and PC, the Saturn port had atrocious framerate issues, with the game playing at a consistently sluggish ''3-4'' FPS. This along with the aforementioned rocky relationship within the studio led to constant delays in the game's development cycle.
** As a result of all this, Sega of America [[ExecutiveMeddling finally forced their hand in the development process]] by bringing in third-party developer Point-Of-View (POV for short) to smooth out the development process...unfortunately, [[FromBadToWorse this only deepened the cracks for development.]] Despite POV's intended role being to assist porting the main game's engine to the Saturn, they ultimately took over development duties from Alon -- a decision which wouldn't had been so bad if POV didn't prove themselves largely inexperienced to the task. A very basic image of Sonic on a checkerboard background was what POV presented to demonstrate their programming skills (to say Senn and Alon were unimpressed would be an understatement), topped off by the developer also being unsuccessful at porting Alon's engine to the Saturn. Despite this change in the development process, a new group comprised of the main engine's original team was later established by Alon and Senn to continue their own work on the main engine.
** This all culminated into [[TaintedByThePreview a horribly botched presentation]] of the game to a group of Sega of Japan's representatives -- which included then-President Hayao Nakayama -- who visited STI's headquarters in March of 1996 to check out the game's progress. While the original team was polishing up their engine for a presentation to the [=SoJ=] staff (which had undergone a lot of development and had also been successfully ported to the Saturn), unknowingly to them another presentation with [=POV=]'s failed attempts to run an older version of Alon's engine on the Saturn had already been shown to the [=SoJ=] staff, with Nakayama being disgusted with the results. This was followed by a presentation of Coffin's boss engine in action, which led to Nakayama [[ExecutiveMeddling ordering for the entire game to be designed around that engine]] [[ScrewedByTheNetwork and be completed for that year's holiday season]]. The team members who were supposed to demo Alon's engine arrived a bit late, missing the representatives by a hair.
** As a result, development from this point forward was largely restricted to both Senn and Coffin's teams to finish the game in time for the fast-approaching holiday season deadline, with [=POV=], Ofer's team, and all work on the main engine effectively cancelled from the development process. In desperation, they asked for and was granted use of the engine used in ''[[VideoGame/NiGHTS NiGHTS Into Dreams...]]'' to hasten development so the game would be finished on time. After getting accustomed to the engine's use after two weeks, the engine was taken away due to ''[=NiGHTS=]/Sonic'' creator Yuji Naka learning about the engine's use (the engine had been taken without his consent) and threatening to quit Sega if the team continued using his engine, sending the team back to square one.[[note]]An alternative report that also exists claims that they’ve used ''[=NiGHTS=]'' as an inspiration when designing the game's levels, of which Naka may have mistaken as his engine being used and Naka's threats leading to them having to scrap the similarly designed levels he had made by that point.[[/note]] All of this resulted in Senn and Coffin doing most of the work themselves, tirelessly working 20 hours a day and sleeping in the offices. By then, both Senn and Coffin had become exhausted: Coffin contracted pneumonia and Senn was so exhausted, doctors told him he had only 6 months to live if he kept working as he did, and they were forced to exit development, and thus Wallis was forced to tell his superiors that the game would not be completed in time for Christmas. By that point, there was no other choice but to pull the plug on the game, which ended up cancelled before they solidified their level editor, with a later attempt by Senn and Ofer to get their work on the game released on PC rejected.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Most obviously, there's the game itself. But on a larger front, many fans to this day debate the larger impact this game's release might've had on the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, whose failure was partially attributed to the lack of a major flagship Sonic game to drive sales, and Sega's ultimate fate as a console manufacturer. See TroubledProduction for more on that.
** The game has a lot of planned content such as characters, plot (having several revisions and re-writes), levels and gameplay mechanics. Some of these ideas [[RefittedForSequel were later used in games]] such as ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' and ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld''.
** The game was also planned to be a tie into the ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'' TV series early on in its 32X stage of development. It was scrapped after Creator/YujiNaka took at look at the demo and decried it due to its slower pace going against what the Sonic franchise was known for and the fact that the [=SatAM=] TV show never saw [[NoDubForYou a release in Japan]].
** After the game was canceled, Chris Senn and Ofer Alon wanted to develop the game for PC as a last-ditch effort to keep the game alive but the idea was rejected by the [[Creator/SegaSoft Sega PC division]], who only developed pre-existing titles for PC [[VideoGame/SonicsSchoolhouse with some exceptions]].
** The special ''WesternAnimation/SonicChristmasBlast'' was tied into this game as "An Extreamly Sonic Christmas" but was changed to tie into the game ''VideoGame/Sonic3DFlickiesIsland''.
** At one point the game would have been featured prominently in a Sonic film "Sonic: Wonder of the World" that was planned to release sometime in 1996, which is the year the game was planned to be released. The film never saw the light of day, [[DevelopmentHell mainly for the same reason as this game]], [[SavedFromDevelopmentHell until]] [[Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020 24 years later]].