Big Red Button Entertainment suffered from staff losses before Sonic Boom launch

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Posted under News, Wii U
November 15, 2014 by Brian (@NE_Brian)

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is not a very good game. There are tons of glitches, some of which are game-breaking. The gameplay itself isn’t engaging. You could probably point out a bunch of other issues as well.

What exactly happened with Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric? While no one can say for sure, perhaps at least some of the problems stemmed from the departure of employees.

Liam Robertson from research site Unseen64 stated on Twitter yesterday (based on LinkedIn findings) that a number of Big Red Button Entertainment left the studio in July. Additionally, the original producer for Rise of Lyric moved on from the company in September 2013. Other employees who left Big Red Button Entertainment include senior designers and artists, the project manager, production assists, and more.

TSSZ news points out that if the Big Red Button Entertainment staff departures took place in July, then that would be when Rise of Lyric was heading towards the end of development. On the other hand, some say that something happened between builds shown early in the year and the final game that shipped this week.

Source

More: Big Red Button Entertainment, SEGA, Sonic Boom, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric

Sanya Marshall

That game was just all kinds of bad
- TalesOfBS
  
  Did you actually try it or you are saying that just because of the LyricIsWorseThan06 internet bandwagon?
http://myanimelist.net/profile/Tsurii897 The AWC

I guess you could say the Rise of Lyric was Big Red Button’s downfall :>
- shaw98
shaw98

This is a huge fail. Could you not wait until after you finished your game to leave? Probably would not matter. The game would still be repetitive, bland and annoying.
Vigilante_blade

What’s really sad is that it seems as if they actually trying to make a good game.
- Exposer
  
  Maybe it could be a good game…I saw potencial there.
  - TalesOfBS
    
    Despite the bugs, it still looks like a good game.
Taylor Ledbetter

Isn’t this like Big Red Button’s first game ever after just being formed? Why leave so early? Was the development experience that terrible for them?
- lucaslink2
  
  Apparently the Wii U is to much for any western developer to handle. They can barely handle the simple architecture of PS4 and Xbox One.
  - Taylor Ledbetter
    
    That would explain the lack of third-party games…
    - Exposer
      
      The lazy is strong in this part of the world.
    - lucaslink2
      
      Maybe so… I think I need an award.
starwars360

Blame Sega lol
Kenshin0011

I’m pretty bummed about it. I honestly liked the concept and when it was first announced I saw loads of potential. I was hoping we’d see a game similar to the PS2-era platforming genre glory. Which makes sense because BRB was made of ex-naughty dog devs who worked on Jak and Daxter. Really sucks!
- Adam Phillips
  
  I’m now bummed after hearing that employees actually left, Chris Senn included, and he was the one who had a working Sonic X-treme ready to be shown off before he got the axe from the project before Sonic X-treme was cancelled. I honestly thought the same thing; that the game had so much going for it because of who was working on it, which was former Naughty Dog employees. What happened at BRB that caused Rise of Lyric to take such a huge hit like this?
  
  On the other hand, at least playing the demo of Shattered Crystal shows that Sanzaru put together a working game. I know most people don’t even like that one, but after seeing Rise of Lyric gameplay, Shattered Crystal is at least better than that and I, personally, enjoy Shattered Crystal (from the demo). But Rise of Lyric….this is another mystery that needs to be answered why because this sounds like development problems rather than purposely bad gameplay.
  - Kenshin0011
    
    We’ll probably never know the details but the way this usually goes is that resources are limited and the devs are not given enough resources or time to properly develop the game. Then people start leaving and it gets even more strained. In this situation the devs left may be aware that the game is not where it should be but it’s beyond their control
    - Adam Phillips
      
      but the game was in development for over 2 years and it had so much potential. Shattered Crystal is better than Rise of Lyric and is at least stable from what I’ve played of the demo (then again, Sanzaru knows how to develop games properly), so seeing Rise of Lyric fall so short when it had the potential is saddening. At least the cartoon is great, but it’s sad that the WiiU version isn’t the same. What is it with Chris Senn and development hell with Sonic games? Is he just cursed to not get a Sonic game out without development hell? (see Sonic X-treme)
Saturday Morning Bowser

Even if the game was delayed I think it wouldn’t be better by much. The glitches are the only fun factor of the game it seems.
- sonicfan1373
  
  I agree. From what I have seen, it appears that BigRedButton designed the progression of levels to be quite button driven, which is workable but boring. For the most part, the game lacks the surreal environments and level specific objects to differentiate the levels and keep the players from expecting something different from each level. Furthermore, for a combat oriented game, the combat mechanics are quite basic, with players being unable to pull any combos.
  
  I was going to purchase this game (I probably still will at a much lower price just to experience it fully for myself), but I realized that nearly everything this game attempted to do (combat, exploration, platforming, interesting levels, interesting soundtrack, graphical fidelity, and adventure style story and structure) was done in a bigger and better way in Bayonetta 2.
  - TalesOfBS
    
    From what I have seen, it appears that BigRedButton designed the
    progression of levels to be quite button driven, which is workable but
    boring.
    
    I must be the only one who liked that?
    - sonicfan1373
      
      For me, I do not mind using buttons in order to progress in certain areas; I just feel they have overdone it. Although this is a personal opinion, because level progression using switches is still workable and there have been a lot of great games in the past that have used this style of progression.
SquareSide

It had Sonic in the title…
LightHouse

I’ve played the game, and I literally fell off the map while on a speed section.