Evening Star will operate in a lean capacity using this engine with its 3D action platformer, and the engine is designed to “allow low friction experimentation with non-photorealistic rendering techniques and contains a robust set of APIs and authoring tools suited for creating stylistic 3D games, eschewing many of the heavier elements demanded of workflows focused on realism, and leveraging automation where possible to allow our team to punch above our weight.”Įvening Star isn’t the first group of developers to garner massive popularity with a 2D game and then pivot to 3D. Star Engine is described as a high-definition companion to Creative Director and Lead Engine Architect Christian Whitehead’s Retro Engine, which fueled Sonic Mania. However, Star Engine and StarSDK themselves provide a bit more information. Following the release of Sonic Mania in 2017, a number of the game’s developers, including project lead Christian Whitehead, formed a new studio named Evening Star.The company, founded in 2019, recently updated its website with some brief information on its upcoming game.
#Sonic mania developers plus
We’ve updated our website with a fresh new look, plus a bit of info about our upcoming original game! We are also hiring for the following roles: For instance, the 3D artist will create “low- to mid-poly environment and character models.”
#Sonic mania developers series
Only the most minor additional clues might be scraped together from looking at the job listings. Sonic Mania, and its follow up re-release Sonic Mania Plus, are considered the high-water marks of the Sonic the Hedgehog series in the last few years. The content introduced in this version was also made available as downloadable content to digital copies of the original. It was released in July 2018 both physically for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One consoles, and as a digital-only release on Steam for the PC. It has an unspecified publisher lined up for the game as well, and further details will come “soon.”Įvening Star hasn’t been forthright with providing additional details on its 3D action platformer, except to provide a silhouette (above) of what is likely the game’s protagonist. Sonic Mania Plus (, Sonikku Mania Purasu) is an expanded version of Sonic Mania.
However, today, Evening Star announced that it is hiring a 3D artist, level designer, gameplay programmer, and engine programmer for a new 3D action platformer game it is developing with its proprietary “HD 3D” Star Engine. Development of Sonic Mania began in 2015, led by Australian programmer Christian 'Taxman' Whitehead.Whitehead was a prominent member of the Sonic fangame community, and had previously been contracted by Sega to develop remastered ports of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, and Sonic CD for mobile phones. Back in February 2019, core members of the Sonic Mania development team formed new distributed game studio Evening Star, and the studio has been quiet almost ever since.