This will be a short one because VimJam2 just started, and I need all the time I can get if I want to submit a game this time.

The theme for this year is "On the edge". The jam will run for 10 days.

If you are participating in the jam, please remember to add Godot to the "made with" section of your game, so I can track it.

Sonic Colors: Ultimate...Again

In case you missed it, Sonic Colors: Ultimate, a remake of the 2010 DS game, Sonic Colors, was made using the Godot Engine.

I've talked about it twice so far. First, it was an unconfirmed rumor based on some pictures. And then last week, when the rumor was confirmed by a Sonic modder.

But we have to talk about it again because the launch (or pre-launch, as the game only came out officially three days ago) was quite the ordeal.

Blind Squirrel Engine

Let's start from the beginning.

Once the game was out, and user @bsthlc confirmed the fact that Godot was used for, at least, the graphical backend of the game, something was immediately apparent: Godot was not mentioned by Blind Squirrel Games, the company in charge of the port. No credit for the FOSS engine.

This quickly became enough of a thing on Twitter that they had to release a statement saying it was an oversight:

But here's the thing: They did credit their own engine on the game's splash screen. The Blind Squirrel Engine.

Speculations about the Squirrel Engine being a refurbished version of Godot started to pop up on Twitter.

The general sentiment I got from this whole deal could be summed up in one sentence: They are perfectly in their rights to do it, but it was still a dick move.

And that was it. I was sure I wouldn't need to talk about the game anymore until the aforementioned patch they promised showed proper credits for Godot.

I was wrong.

Glitches galore

To make the story as short as possible: the game has glitches. A lot of them, apparently.

On September 3, Sonic was trending on Twitter because of people posting a myriad of seizure inducing glitches, freezes, and some corrupted saves.

Just a big mess.

But was it as bad as it seemed? Surprisingly, no.

You see, a lot of the worst glitches making the rounds that day weren't from an actual Nintendo Switch, but from playing the game on Yuzu, a Nintendo Switch emulator.

The user everyone was mentioning as one of the original perpetrators of posting Yuzy glitches, who later remove the thread and even his Twitter account (although it's back up now) was @extrakotaru

The game still has glitches, just not as insane as some people made it look that day.

What does any of this have to do with Godot?

In theory, not much. A game probably rushed out of the door before getting fully ready is not an interesting story in today's gaming industry, sadly.

But because of the previous conversation about the game using the Godot engine, some people jumped to put the blame not on the publisher of the game, but on the tool used to make it:

You get the idea. There are not many of them tho, and for every negative comment, you can find ten positives.

At the end of the day, any publicity is good publicity, right?  (well, not so much for Blind Squirrel Games)

I'm pretty sure a lot of people got to learn about the Godot engine thanks to Sonic, so I'll call this a win. At least for Godot.

Interesting Twitter threads you should read:

• Why Sega used Godot? by @reduzio
• Data mining Sonic Colors: Ultimate by @bsthlc
• Bittersweet Birthday - A Game of Heart & Horror Indiegogo campaign reached 108% of their goal, for a total of $24,965 USD
• Gogodotjam survey results - 66 people participated.
• Gd_dialog - a new Godot dialogue system made by reddit user Qin_Tin.

📰 Godot news round-up

If you have anything you want to share with the Godot development community please let me know by sending an email to contact@godotes.com