During 1996 development of Sonic X-Treme had shifted platforms from the prototype NVIDIA based cartridge system to the Saturn. At this particular time multiple characters were considered as a possibility, and while a storyline was yet to be devised that would incorporate these characters into the game, Christian Senn had a clear vision in his mind for the way in which these characters were to be played.
In total four playable characters were planned (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Tiara), with management insisting that an effort be made to tie the game in with other Sonic franchises such as the SatAM cartoon series. Senn had hoped that each character would have a style of play unique to they’re own abilities, and a unique perspective from which that player would view the action:
“I made the Knuckles Demo exclusive to Knuckles, the Sonic one for Sonic, etc. The idea was to explore not only the technical and gameplay pros and cons of these game concepts, but to consider making them unique to each character’s strengths, etc. This whole concept was very short-lived, though… Tiara’s side-view test was done around the same time, as well… Initially, management hoped we’d incorporate characters from the Saturday Morning Cartoon show (i.e. Sally Acorn, etc.).”
Unfortunately as the project progressed it was clear time would not allow for the use of more than one playable character, and so the idea was scrapped:
“In the end, and for the majority of the project, the decision was to stick to the minimum that would allow us to make a great Sonic game… which meant only Sonic as playable.”
Knuckles Sprite Sheet:
These sprites were modelled and animated using Imagine 3.0. If the Knuckles test demo was allowed to continue then Senn would have developed more complex environments with which to make use of them:
“We’d planned for Knuckles to be a playable character early on. I modeled and animated him in Imagine 3.0 to create these run frames to suit the different angles running through loops and corkscrews would require.”
Knuckles Demo:
The Knuckles demo was devised to explore how his character would play in two different environments. The top left demo show Knuckles in an environment with a rotating camera, while the bottom right does not. Had the concept for multiple characters been allowed to continue, then Senn would have developed environments that made use of Knuckles and his unique abilities.
Sonic and Tiara Demos:
Tiara’s demo is an example of how multiple characters could be played from a unique perspective, and how that perspective would effect the gameplay.
This Sonic demo was devised to explore the effects on Sonic’s shadow and camera issues within a rotating environment.