The founder of Headcannon has commented that he and the team are “very unhappy” with the state of Sonic Origins. Contracted by Sega, Headcannon worked on the ports for the compilation. According to the developer, the group has come under fire for the various bugs present in Origins. However, Headcannon’s founder, Simon Thomley, took to Twitter to tell his side of the story.
Thomley claims Sega made changes to the project his studio submitted, which caused a lot of the current problems. He explains that, “Integration introduced some wild bugs that conventional logic would have one believe were our responsibility- a lot of them aren’t.” Apparently, Headcannon was originally hired to create a project that was then “wrangled into something entirely different.”
Headcannon’s founder does acknowledge that the version his studio submitted was “absolutely not perfect.” After all, Sonic Origins was produced under a “major time crunch” just to meet the given deadline. Even so, he insists that Sega are at fault for a lot of the issues. He claims Sega also didn’t give Headcannon the chance to fix the bugs that were known. The developer “asked about delays early and repeatedly,” but they were all rejected.
This is frustrating. I won't lie and say that there weren't issues in what we gave to Sega, but what is in Origins is also not what we turned in. Integration introduced some wild bugs that conventional logic would have one believe were our responsibility- a lot of them aren't.
— Stealth (@HCStealth) June 24, 2022
Tough call
The founder of Headcannon decided to talk about how unhappy he is with the state of Sonic Origins following harsh scrutiny. Some fans have apparently blamed the developer, which Thomley doesn’t seem to believe is entirely fair. He comments that he is “extremely proud” of his team’s efforts, despite conceding that he wasn’t “too thrilled” about Origins‘ pre-submission state. But that pre-submission state was still better than the end product, he states.
Game development brings with it a variety of challenges that most consumers will never consider. Speaking out on a matter like this is risky, as Sega may choose to not work with Headcannon again. Despite this, it’s nice to hear a side of development that often goes unheard.
