"They made major modifications to the build": Sonic Origins developer points at Sega for the game's bugs

One of the developers hired by Sega to work on Sonic Origins recently broke his silence regarding the mixed and negative reviews doled out by players on the newly released collection. The employee spoke about the work that went into the title, the time crunch they faced, mistakes made, and more.

Sonic Origins was slated to be a nostalgic trip for fans of the long-running series. The remastered anthology is comprised of Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic CD. It was marketed as featuring new areas to explore, additional animations, and a brand new Anniversary mode, where players will get to experience the classic adventures in polished High Definition. However, reactions to the collection have been more negative than Sega would have expected.

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Software developer for Sonic Origins accepts that there were issues with the title but that a part of blame also lies with Sega

In a series of tweets, Simon "Stealth" Thomley, software developer at Headcannon, explained that the current condition of the collection was frustrating. He agreed that there were issues with what they provided to Sega, "but what is in Origins is also not what we turned in." He went on to state that integration had introduced wild bugs that were not their responsibility, even though conventional logic suggested so.

Thomley continued by saying that they were outsiders working on a separate project that was "wrangled into something entirely different." They were also aware that there was going to be a "major time crunch" and for that reason, they worked themselves into the ground "to meet it, just so this would even be made and released."

Regarding the issues with Origins and how the team feels about the negative feedback, he continued:

"I can take responsibility for my and my team's mistakes, and there were some. Some actual mistakes, some overlooking, some rushjobs, some stuff we noticed but weren't allowed to correct near the end. It's absolutely not perfect and some of it is from us. It's complicated. I'm extremely proud of my team for their performance under such pressure, but every one of us is very unhappy about the state of Origins and even the Sonic 3 component. We weren't too thrilled about its pre-submission state either but a lot was beyond our control."

Thomley stated that they wanted to work on major fixes near the submission date, but were not allowed to do so. Apparently, they had even asked for delays, but those requests were denied as well. They had also offered "to come back for post-release fixes and updates," but did not know if that was going to happen. He clarified that the developers wanted the issues addressed and have done a good chunk of work "to fix things, support Sega, and prepare for future updates."

Speaking about why he chose to open up on the issue, Thomley explained:

"I have to apologize for not addressing anything like this sooner, but you must understand - many things of this sort are considered "unprofessional" and can hurt our relationship with Sega, meaning no origins updates, and no further 2D pixel Sonic games from us. Why am I talking about it now, then? Well, there's just too much scrutiny over things that both are and are not related to us, and I don't want to sit in back in silence while people are asking why and how things happened to a product they put so much hope and money into."

Thomley acknowledged that his statements might cause friction with Sega. He clarified that he did not intend to fight the company and had not cut them off either. He is "willing to do more work under the right conditions; whether they want to work with me again is an entirely separate matter."

The release of the collection has seen many complaining about bugs and glitches, although others said that they did not face any such issues. The Steam page for Origins currently shows a mixed reception with detailed negative reviews from fans explaining their disappointment. Fans have also been disappointed with the new Sonic 3 soundtrack, possibly due to a nostalgic preference for the older one.