Balan Wonderworld

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

The way Naka seems to be selling it to the public is that he claims the ring mechanics of the original Sonic game (as in holding at least one will let you survive an attack) were not finalized until two weeks before the game was completed. He seems to be hoping that gamers don’t understand that making a modern 3D platformer is drastically different than making a 2D platformer three decades ago.

To be fair, 2D platformers were difficult to make back then too, you couldn't just boot up GameMaker Studio. Unless they used the same "engine" like Super Mario Bros 2, it was not easy.

And 6 months is a lot more than 2 weeks. He's got a bit of a point but still, it's pretty obvious the game wouldn't have been very good either way.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

To be fair, 2D platformers were difficult to make back then too, you couldn't just boot up GameMaker Studio. Unless they used the same "engine" like Super Mario Bros 2, it was not easy.

To expand on this, the genesis games were made using Hexadecimal numbers and binary coding, and unless you learned and understood the language (and was good at math) you weren't getting far modifying these games, which is why hacks on Sonic Retro in their early days were far and few between.

Now-a-days, Hex Editors exist to make the job more simpler to modify those same games.

 

[Raiken]

Reminder that the demo had painfuly slow Running animation and they fixed it before release, but things like giving every single costume a jump would require all new animations for all of them.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

Reminder that the demo had painfuly slow Running animation and they fixed it before release,

Weren't the colors all fucked up that it gave seizures to people so they had to fix that too?

Blind Squirrel's Sonic Colors Ultimate also had that same issue. How the fuck does that even happen in the first place.

 

[Raiken]

Weren't the colors all fucked up that it gave seizures to people so they had to fix that too?

Blind Squirrel's Sonic Colors Ultimate also had that same issue. How the fuck does that even happen in the first place.

It was ony in the full game when encountering the final boss.
What it did have is that the first boss would T pose for a ful second in the demo.

 

[XMassAllYearRound]

I'm so happy nobody in this thread is buying Naka's bullshit, I swear it's like people everywhere else haven't read about him played a game made by him produced in the last decade.

 

[Raiken]

I don't know how much blame there is on naka for rodeo the sky soldier failing, but he Drew the short end of the stick waiting for the 3ds version while he should have just released it on the Wii.
At least he did not toss it and made it a bundle with the wiiu version.(also who thought making the 3ds version into HD for wiiu needs to get fired.)

 

[NerdShamer]

I'm so happy nobody in this thread is buying Naka's bullshit, I swear it's like people everywhere else haven't read about him played a game made by him produced in the last decade.

I'm just waiting for him to go,"I'M MAKING MY OWN GAME, THEN! BUT IT'LL BE GREAT CUZ IT'LL HAVE BLACKJACK & HOOKERS!"

I don't know how much blame there is on naka for rodeo the sky soldier failing

That game was kind of doomed by design, tbh.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

it sounds like Arzest wanted to get this thing off their table asap and did not want to perform any bug fixing at all. Even for a D-list company, that's astoundingly unprofessional and makes me wonder if working with naka was such a pain that the group was willing to sacrifice what little reputation they had and burn their bridge with SE just to be rid of him.

That could also mean that they were only willing to work for the time they were paid for and towards the end he could have demanded X amounts of unpaid dev time from them and they said no.

To expand on this, the genesis games were made using Hexadecimal numbers and binary coding, and unless you learned and understood the language (and was good at math) you weren't getting far modifying these games, which is why hacks on Sonic Retro in their early days were far and few between.

Now-a-days, Hex Editors exist to make the job more simpler to modify those same games.

No, no one programmed those games in hex or binary. At the CPU level there's 68k assembly unless they were using a higher level language like C. Using hex editors to modify a game like that is because they are modifying the compiled version of the code and not the code itself.

 

[RX-78]

I'm so happy nobody in this thread is buying Naka's bullshit, I swear it's like people everywhere else haven't read about him played a game made by him produced in the last decade.

That's what legitimately bothers me, this game has a bonifide cult despite it being trash.

That could also mean that they were only willing to work for the time they were paid for and towards the end he could have demanded X amounts of unpaid dev time from them and they said no.

That's something I hadn't considered, but it also paints naka in a bad light for being unable to lead. I'm keeping an eye on this lolsuit for sure, I've got to know what actually happened with this title.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

That's something I hadn't considered, but it also paints naka in a bad light for being unable to lead. I'm keeping an eye on this lolsuit for sure, I've got to know what actually happened with this title.

It's not that unusual in the videogame business and it is a hard lesson learned for some developers, they probably worked undisclosed and unpaid overtime already and that's why a solid "no, pay us for it or fuck off" might look unreasonable to normal people when the details are fuzzy.

 

[BlazikenLover]

After finding out about the whole sonic xtreme thing I chalked him up as a cunt. I recently watched a video on the early 3D era development of sonic games and once again, Naka sounded like a cunt (the video mentioned his savior complex and talking about buying expensive cars during interviews). So as the news came up that he was suing, I knew he was full of shit.
By the way, why is he considered the father of sonic? Is it is an inafune type of situation where the actual creator was a somewhat shy guy and then a much louder guy who worked on the following games takes credit for it?

 

[Celebrate Nite]

By the way, why is he considered the father of sonic? Is it is an inafune type of situation where the actual creator was a somewhat shy guy and then a much louder guy who worked on the following games takes credit for it?

From Sega Retro:

Regarding the other two he teamed up with, Yasuhara was the stage/map designer while Oshima was the character designer, including Sonic. Yuji Naka was the one that decided to give Sonic his trademark speed

What Yuji Naka did in the Sonic Games:

 

[NerdShamer]

What Yuji Naka did in the Sonic Games:

Well, at least this explains why he's out of his scope when it came to designing something in 3D. But even then, it shouldn't be that hard of an transition, going by how Nintendo handled it.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

Well, at least this explains why he's out of his scope when it came to designing something in 3D. But even then, it shouldn't be that hard of an transition, going by how Nintendo handled it.

Yea last thing he actually had hands on in (at least from a programming level) was Nights. Every other project he's been involved in at SEGA was a Producer/Supervisor roll, so he DOES have 3D experience (even though it's a little bit).

 

[Titos]

Weren't the colors all fucked up that it gave seizures to people so they had to fix that too?

Blind Squirrel's Sonic Colors Ultimate also had that same issue. How the fuck does that even happen in the first place.

Blind Squirrel are also the devs that made the Sunset Overdrive PC port which has aiming that is absolutely FUCKED so them giving people seizures isn't really surprising.

 

[Thiletonomics]

Weren't the colors all fucked up that it gave seizures to people so they had to fix that too?

Blind Squirrel's Sonic Colors Ultimate also had that same issue. How the fuck does that even happen in the first place.

Blind Squirrel are also the devs that made the Sunset Overdrive PC port which has aiming that is absolutely FUCKED so them giving people seizures isn't really surprising.

In addition, Blind Squirrel was in charge of the infamous Nintendo Switch port of WWE 2K18, which ran horribly on that console, and was considered to be one of the worst wrestling games ever made, until WWE 2K20 came out, and we all know how much of a shitshow that game was.

 

[Neet Tokusatsu]

Well, at least this explains why he's out of his scope when it came to designing something in 3D. But even then, it shouldn't be that hard of an transition, going by how Nintendo handled it.

Yea last thing he actually had hands on in (at least from a programming level) was Nights. Every other project he's been involved in at SEGA was a Producer/Supervisor roll, so he DOES have 3D experience (even though it's a little bit).

Even if that was case, i flat out refuse to believe Naka hasn't played or at the very least heard of any 3D platformer made in the last 15 years. Call me cynical, but i believe Naka was fully aware that Balan Wonderwolrd and it's core mechanic about being an "one button platformer" was deeply flawed at best or non-funtional at worst, he just didn't care. He thought that his name, the music, and the childish tone of the game would be enough to turn Balan into a brand, it truly feels that way, the lack of dialog and weird designs to appeal younger kids, the disguise mechanic to have an excuse to create and sell lots of merchandise and possibly make an animated series, fucking game feels like a cash grab for a brand that didn't exist yet.

I have no proof, but not doubts either.

After finding out about the whole sonic xtreme thing I chalked him up as a cunt. I recently watched a video on the early 3D era development of sonic games and once again, Naka sounded like a cunt (the video mentioned his savior complex and talking about buying expensive cars during interviews). So as the news came up that he was suing, I knew he was full of shit.
By the way, why is he considered the father of sonic? Is it is an inafune type of situation where the actual creator was a somewhat shy guy and then a much louder guy who worked on the following games takes credit for it?

Was it this one?

This video pretty much made me believe that Balan's main problem was Naka's ego.

 

[Disc]

But as far as I can tell, most of the costumes in both games aren't exactly useful outside of the immediate areas that you find them.

Definitely true with Odyssey... which is why the game's Capture mechanic is based around taking things in the world and grabbing them then and there. It's why Mario in his platformers always has a power-up block from the moment you step in to a level

Balan Wonderworld was trying to do some weird consumable costume loadout thing instead.

 

[BlazikenLover]

Even if that was case, i flat out refuse to believe Naka hasn't played or at the very least heard of any 3D platformer made in the last 15 years. Call me cynical, but i believe Naka was fully aware that Balan Wonderwolrd and it's core mechanic about being an "one button platformer" was deeply flawed at best or non-funtional at worst, he just didn't care. He thought that his name, the music, and the childish tone of the game would be enough to turn Balan into a brand, it truly feels that way, the lack of dialog and weird designs to appeal younger kids, the disguise mechanic to have an excuse to create and sell lots of merchandise and possibly make an animated series, fucking game feels like a cash grab for a brand that didn't exist yet.

I have no proof, but not doubts either.



Was it this one?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lixTJBSJTzY
This video pretty much made me believe that Balan's main problem was Naka's ego.

Yeah thats the one.
Personally, at first I thought the problem with Balan was Naka simply being out of touch and not being familiar with the gameplay and design of more recent games (a similar situation to shenmue 3). Now I am leaning more towards your theory of him not caring.