Summary:
-Big Red Button (Wii U) and Sanzaru (3DS) are making the game. The two SKUs are different games in the same universe.
-Sonic Boom Wii U is what the info below pertains to.
-The game runs on CryEngine.
-Big Red Button is lead by Bob Rafei, a Naughty Dog veteran of the Jak & Daxter series and Uncharted 1. A lot of the team members also worked on Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank.
-The Sonic Boom series as a whole is being run out of Sega of America as a fully Westernized version of the franchise, whereas Sonic Team in Japan is managing the Japanese based series. The concept actually started with the TV show (made in France) and then they decided to make games with Western devs to support that.
-While speed is an element in the game, it's not the main focus for the Sonic Boom series.
-Combat and "strong narrative" are major aspects of the game.
-While not an open world, the levels are notably more open to allow for more exploration based gameplay. They describe it as "a series of classic sandbox levels branching out into more levels in a spoke-like system".
-There is a "critical path" and also a lot of side content that you can do if you want to, similar to other open world/sandbox type games.
-The game director notes that his experience on Uncharted was part of their influence in making the game in a more action/adventure direction, and that the team is making a game they would want to play. However, they want to make sure it still feels like a Sonic game instead of just Jak or Ratchet with a Sonic skin.
-Each character has different special abilities which tie into both combat and exploration.
-They made Amy Rose a much bigger character in the game because they wanted there to be more strong female characters and also for the game to appeal to girls more. They also note "If she was to break out and have a game of her own you'd probably get an idea of what that would look like based on this game."
-Their goal is that each of the four characters feel unique gameplay wise and like main characters instead of just Sonic and a bunch of supporting cast.
-The game has 2 to 4 player co-op. I'm having issues finding it right now, but I believe I saw another preview that said the game features 2 player co-op for the whole campaign and some modes that support 4 player, but I could be wrong.
-The new main enemy is "darker and more foreboding than Eggman is."
-Sonic Team will still make games focused on speed that aren't part of the Sonic Boom series. These are being developed in parallel, so (Nirolak's conjecture) expecting annualization is not unreasonable.
