Sonic City - Official SoE Sonic site launches

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big_smile
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Sonic City - Official SoE Sonic site launches

Post by big_smile »

:FUK: Sonic City - Official SoE Sonic site launches

Given the fervent popularity Sonic enjoys in Europe, it is somewhat surprising that the SoE website doesn’t have an area for the blue blur. The newly launched Sonic City aims to rectify this deficiency, but, at the moment, it is more of a desolate village than a bustling city, being sparse in both design and content.

Design wise, the website is structured around a simple blue-coloured 3D render of a city that bares no resemblance to the imaginative locations found in the Sonic universe.

The content consists of a single-sentence profile for each of the three upcoming Sonic games. The English language translation of the interview with Masato Nakamura, which first appeared on Sonic Central, has also been included.

Despite this minimalist approach, visitors will need to use a fairly advanced system to access the site, as it can only be comfortably browsed on a 1152x864 monitor resolution.

Image
^ There’s not much to discover at the moment

SoE’s web efforts are often of a fairly good standard – Sega City, for example, contains several exclusive Sega interviews, while the original SoE website received an award for its design – so hopefully Sonic City will develop with future updates.

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Post by Brazillian Cara »

It's a friggin' pretzel.

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Post by Rom »

Think of it as a holding page ;)

We wanted to get something up quickly for E3, see... Lots more in the works...

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Do you really work at Sonic City?

Post by big_smile »

Rom wrote:Think of it as a holding page ;)

We wanted to get something up quickly for E3, see... Lots more in the works...
Here are a few friendly suggestions for future updates. ^_^

An official website works best when it contains items that fans cannot produce, or at least can’t produce easily. Therefore, the best forms of content include:
-- Interviews with the game creators
-- Galleries of concept artwork or game design documents
-- A collection of game manuals (especially of manuals of older games and Japanese manuals)
-- English language translations of Japanese content (e.g. the story and character content from the Japanese game manuals or Japanese websites, both of which differ greatly from their official English counterparts)
-- A collection of advertising and promotional materials (including television advertisements and photographs of merchandise), particularly for the older Sonic titles
-- Galleries of official artwork (particularly artwork that isn’t commonly available)
-- Scans of any other material Sega Europe uses in promoting and localising the Sonic games

Sonic Central is an example of a terrible official website because, other than the odd exclusive interview, most of its content (which is already fairly sparse) is identical to that found on fan websites.

Good luck with the site. ^_^

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Post by Rom »

Thanks mate.

Very good suggestions - we'll certainly see what we can do :grin:

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Post by Brazillian Cara »

You're new, aren't ya?

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Post by CM August »

Well, that was surprising.

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Post by Delphine »

Brazillian Cara wrote:You're new, aren't ya?
Rom



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Hmmmmm.

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Post by Rom »

Yeah, I'm very new.

I work over at SOE on its websites - figured it was finally worth dipping my oar in, although I've been a leacher round here for a while :cool:

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Post by j-man »

Wow, we have a guy on the inside. Do you get free stuff?

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Post by Delphine »

More importantly: can you get US free stuff?

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Post by Baba O'Reily »

Possibly even more important than that: Can you get ME free stuff?

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Post by Rom »

It's hard enough getting ME free stuff :shock:

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Post by Cuckooguy »

Stop avoiding the question!

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Post by Rom »

Ok ok, sorry. So, what's the definition of free stuff? They give me a coffee break sometimes, that count?

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Post by Bo »

Can you get me free coffee?

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Post by Rom »

No, fraid not, but I can get you a free break.

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Post by Seymour »

Do you have any inside info about the games?

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Post by Rom »

Well, yeah, plenty. However, I obviously can't start going on about stuff that's still under wraps. I'd lose my job, for starters. But anything that's already announced I can go on about ad infinitum, no probs.

But then, saying that, I probably won't. I like reading these forums cos they're interesting and funny, rather than being here as a hired SEGA evangelist.

If I can answer any questions, or help out with website assets etc (if possible), then I will though.

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Post by j-man »

I was thinking t-shirts and stuff, mainly. YOU ARE USELESS TO ME.

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Post by Rom »

Haha.

Yeah, I get the shirts. Tell you what, we're hopefully getting some more in soon. I could run a prize draw on here or something...

Just a thought.

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Post by j-man »

I am suddenly in love with you.

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Post by Rom »

Don't think any of them are pink though, sorry.

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Post by plasticwingsband »

Rom wrote:Haha.

Yeah, I get the shirts. Tell you what, we're hopefully getting some more in soon. I could run a prize draw on here or something...

Just a thought.
Wow, you're like Big_Smile's good twin.

Also, if there are any shirts in pink, sign me up too as one can never have too many pink shirts if they currently own less than 2.

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Post by Locit »

That's me all over.

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