How Sonic Mania paved the way for Penny's Big Breakaway

gamesindustry.biz:

It's been a fascinating journey for the developers behind indie game studio Evening Star. Much of the crew got their humble starts working together on Sonic the Hedgehog fan games. Their work was so highly regarded that they would eventually be recruited by Sega to develop Sonic Mania, a throwback to the franchise's 2D heyday that would go on to become the highest rated Sonic game in over 25 years.

Of course, at that point Evening Star wasn't a proper studio yet — more of a "loose federation of game developers," as chief technology officer Hunter Bridges puts it. On wrapping up development of Mania, the team knew they had to become a bit more structured if they wanted to grow.

"I think our experience working on Sonic Mania as independents led us to realize our limitations," Bridges tells GamesIndustry.biz. "In the game industry, you can only go so far if you are self-employed, especially when you're dealing with larger companies. Those companies want to deal with other companies, and it's more difficult for them to deal with individuals. After that, we were like, all right, if we want to keep doing things together, it's probably best to start a studio."

And so, they did just that. Evening Star was formally unveiled to the world in early 2019, and in mid-2021, they revealed their first original game as a studio, which finally saw release earlier this year: Penny's Big Breakaway.

This 3D platformer, set in the wacky world of Macaroon, stars the titular Penny, a young performer and expert yoyo-er looking for her big break. Unfortunately, her audition to become an entertainer at the royal palace goes horribly awry, leading to the emperor's embarrassment and Penny being labeled an enemy of the state. Instead of a noble quest to find and defeat the villain, as is common for the genre, Penny instead spends the game being chased across the game's 11 unique, colorful worlds, using her yoyo skills to flip, swing and dash around obstacles as she tries to elude the emperor's