 Once upon a time, a little boy met a small, blue hedgehog. Christian Whitehead was only very young when he first came across the cartoon character that would define his life. He was visiting a local video rental store where his family regularly borrowed movies to watch together. There, on the wall, was a poster of one of gaming's most exciting new stars, Sonic the Hedgehog. Christian didn't know it then, but one day, his name would become synonymous with this character. He would become a hero. Fans would cheer and scream in excitement at the mere mention of his name. They'd queue for hours for a chance to get his autograph. One day, a long time in the future, Sonic the Hedgehog would transform Christian Whitehead into a video game mob star. It wasn't for several years after his first introduction to Sonic that Christian first got to play one of the character's games. Eventually, his family got a Sega Mega Drive, as it was known in his home country of Australia, and Christian got to play Sonic 2, although he never got particularly far in the game back then. As the years went by, Christian's love of Sonic games grew stronger and stronger. He used to invent levels in his spare time, drawing them on paper as he imagined his own take on a future Sonic game. He never took this very seriously, but as time went by after the release of Sonic & Knuckles, and no new games seemed to be forthcoming, Christian couldn't help but wonder what another classic Sonic experience might be like. Christian would often get together with a friend to make their own video games. They had access to a simple program called Click & Play that let them design their own games, and they invented some simple, silly works they were all fairly proud of. Who could forget the days they spent toiling to finish Parachute Pig, or Space Cows, their clone of space invaders that took place in Udder Space. These games were never very serious, but Christian had fun designing them, and that seemed to be reason enough to put effort into their creation. Then one day, Christian came across an online community known as the Sonic Stuff Research Group. The website, which covered a lot of the hidden secrets of the Sonic games, had a detailed look at some of the cut content from Sonic 2, including a mysterious missing level known as the Hidden Palace Zone. Christian was intrigued and found himself sucked into this big, complex world. It was here that he met a fellow gamer, and one of the founders of the website, Simon Tomley. Like Christian, Simon had first been exposed to Sonic at a young age, and his experience of learning game development was very similar. He'd had a master system at one point growing up, which was rare for American gamers, and while he preferred the NES that his family had owned previously, he enjoyed a lot of the console's games. When Sonic the Hedgehog first appeared on the Genesis, though, Simon was blown away. This was such an incredible game, with such speed and motion and unique physics, but he felt compelled to learn to write computer code just to try and replicate the Sonic experience in a game of his own design. It was this passion that led Simon to set up the Sonic Stuff Research Group, along with another eager online friend. The pair filled the website with all the secrets that they could find in Sonic games, before moving on to creating a resource tool to help fans to create their own Sonic platformers. At this time, official Sonic games were primarily focused on 3D polygonal experiences, and there wasn't a lot of love for the classic sprites and more traditional Sonic gameplay. As such, this little community that Simon and Christian found themselves part of grew rapidly as fans came to develop their own facsimiles of Sonic games, building custom game engines, drawing unique sprites, and even composing music. These fans kept the flame of Sonic fandom alive within their core. Fan games and hacks bounced back and forth between creators and players. In the wider circle, fan developers made unique Sonic artwork, while others composed remix versions of the classic Sonic game music. This community was all but invisible to Sega, as they labored in obscurity, entertaining each other through their continued drive to make new, more innovative creations from the basic Sonic framework. Then one day, something happened that made Sega sit up and pay attention to the Sonic fan community, and it was all thanks to Christian Whitehead. Christian had been working as a freelancer in media production, a job that didn't involve much games development at all. His coding skills were reserved solely for Sonic fan game design. Then, Christian caught wind of a call from Sega for suggestions on what classic game from their existing back catalog they should next port onto mobile devices. The original Sonic the Hedgehog and its sequel were already available on Apple devices, but the company wanted to know what else they should be bringing to mobile gamers. Christian decided to go one step beyond simply suggesting a game. Instead, he developed his own working prototype of the classic game Sonic CD, running on iOS. This game wasn't like most classic Sonic games in that, instead of being built for Genesis hardware, it was designed for PC, which would have made porting it to mobile a bit more challenging. Showing off his skills, Christian rebuilt the entire first level of the game within his homemade retro engine, displaying to Sega just what would be possible if they wanted to make Sonic CD something special on mobile devices. This was not the done thing at the time. Normally, mobile versions of retro games involved using cheap and generally lacklustre emulation to create a version of the game that didn't quite run as best it could. Christian instead was offering to create a full, shiny HD remaster of Sonic CD that would run even better than the original game, and that caught Sega's eye. After some back and forth, and somewhat to Christian's astonishment, Sega accepted his pitch and commissioned him to rebuild the entirety of Sonic CD in his modern engine. Christian was thrilled, but also not quite sure how he might make it work properly, and so he started seeking the advice of someone who was just as passionate about Sonic hacking as he was. Christian messaged Simon Tomley to get his advice on the project, and while Simon wasn't directly involved with what Christian was submitting to Sega, he had plenty of suggestions and ideas for how to make the project run smoothly. Finally, when the game was completed, Sega and Christian agreed to continue their arrangement together. Sega wanted to bring Sonic 1 and 2 to Android devices as well as the Apple App Store, and with Christian on their side, it seemed logical to continue using this talented developer to make these games shine with modern HD gloss. Now, thanks to Christian's encouragement, Sega allowed Simon to join the project as well, and the pair made up the driving force of this modern remake of classic games. In remaking these classic games, Christian and Simon were eager to take advantage of the chance to rebuild both titles, and began adding in their own dream improvements to the titles. Now, for the first time, players of the first Sonic game could also choose to control the Blue Blur's sidekick Tails, as well as Sonic's friendly rival Knuckles. A special secret cheat code could also allow players to enjoy some of the benefits of the more recent 2D Sonic titles, making this game feel fresh and new, even to those players who'd enjoyed it a million times before. With Sonic 2, Simon and Christian went even further. With Sega's permission, they rebuilt the long-since scrapped level, Hidden Palace Zone, back into the game. For longtime fans of the series, this was a dream come true. The Zone was the most talked about urban legend from the history of the game's development, and to see it fully realized, fans began wondering what Christian and Simon, known primarily by their online usernames as Taxman and Stealth, could possibly have in store for future games. With Sonic 1, 2 and CD all remastered for a modern mobile audience, Sonic fans began eagerly awaiting the announcement of Sonic 3 and Knuckles, the two-part finale to the original series of 2D Genesis games. Surely, with every other mainline Sonic game of the era reworked for mobile, it would only be a matter of time before Sega greenlit these games released on mobile as well. But no word came. For a long time, there was silence, until, in a bittersweet celebration of the 20th anniversary of the release of Sonic and Knuckles, Stealth and Taxman showed off their rejected prototype for the game's release on mobile. Details were sketchy. Christian and Simon weren't able to say too much about their pitch, but a few things were clear. The pair had attempted to pitch a remake of Sonic 3 and Knuckles to Sega. They'd even gone so far as to make a working mobile prototype to show off how the game would look in this format. For whatever reason, though, their pitch had been rejected. Many Sonic fans would not take this lying down. Petitions were organised, letters were written in both English and Japanese, and those who'd fallen in love with Stealth and Taxman's work did everything in their power to convince Sega to change their minds and greenlight the Sonic 3 and Knuckles remake. Sadly, Sega would not be moved. There would be no Sonic 3 and Knuckles remake. The fans had lost. For a while, all seemed dumb, but those eager for more Sonic content couldn't possibly have guessed what was going on beneath the surface. Christian Whitehead and Simon Tomley were not going to give up on the future of Sonic just yet. Behind closed doors, they were assembling a crack team of fan game developers from across the Sonic community, bringing together artists who'd worked on some of the most high profile fan games to make something special. Simon and Christian weren't going to try pitching another Sonic remake to Sega. They were going to make the biggest, best fan game that had ever been created, and they wanted Sega to give it an official, licensed release. Christian Whitehead's new team was a who's who of Sonic fan game creators. Alongside himself and Simon, he'd also grab Jared Castle and Tom Fry, a designer artist team who'd formed a game development studio called Pagoda West, but who were known among the Sonic fan community first and foremost as the creators of a full HD remaster of Sonic 2. Rounding out the team was T-Lopes, a Portuguese musician who had gained attention online for remixing classic Sonic music, as well as lending his talents to Pagoda West's Sonic 2 remake. These five Sonic fans worked together to create a pitch for their new game, Sonic Discovery, which was envisioned as a brand new, all original 2D Sonic game that played like a classic Genesis title. But that featured a series of completely original levels. The plan was to imagine what might have happened if Sega had released a 2D Sonic game on their unpopular Sega Saturn console, as the team drew up ideas for how the series might have evolved if it had benefited from more impressive processing power. Together, the group created Studioopolis Zone, a busy original Sonic level that was themed around moviemaking and which featured plenty of in-jokes and references to obscure elements of the classic Sonic fandom. Christian managed to get a pitch meeting set up with Sonic series producer Takashi Izuka, and with some trepidation but ultimately feeling prepared and ready for anything, the core development team behind Sonic Discovery explained to Sega what they were hoping to make, what their game would look like, and what they needed in order to make it happen. After a lengthy meeting, Takashi Izuka sat in silence for a minute. There had been plenty of attempts up until this point to revisit the 2D Sonic era, and they all seemed to have fallen short of the premise in some way. By this point, Sega was apprehensive about trying again, especially considering the negative reactions that had often met their earlier attempts. The team nervously awaited his response with bated breath. This was their passion project, the game they'd been working for years to be able to produce. Rejection at this stage would be crushing, but if Sega approved their game, everything would change. Finally, Takashi spoke, simply stating, I have many questions. This wasn't exactly what Christian and his team were expecting to hear, but they also didn't get any more response in that moment. They were quickly ushered out of the room and sent off to another part of the building. After all, there was another important item on the agenda. It was time for lunch. The hour that the group spent waiting was excruciating. They had no idea whether their project would be accepted, or what kinds of questions Takashi Iizuka was going to ask them. What, they all wondered, was going to happen. When they finally were allowed to return to meet with Takashi again, the man in charge of the Sonic game series wheeled out a whiteboard. The group all exchanged quizzical glances as he took out a marker, pulled off the lid, and began to write squeakily upon the board. Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic CD, Sonic and Knuckles. It was a list of the five key Sonic games that had been released during the heyday of the Sega Genesis. They were games, of course, that everyone in the room had played countless times before, and had defined their lives to a great extent. Then, Takashi added one more name at the bottom of the list, Sonic Mania. As Christian and his team looked on in confusion, Takashi explained. He was greenlighting their game, but he wanted it to be even bigger and better than they'd planned. This wasn't just going to be a new Sonic title. This would be a celebration of the entire Sonic fan community, and of all the work they'd put into years of making Sonic fan games. Takashi's vision of the project would see Christian's team revisit classic stages from all of the original 2D Sonic games, giving their own unique spin on fan favorite levels. This game would be Sega's chance to show their fans that their contributions were appreciated. Takashi loved that Christian's entire team were super fans who'd been doing this for years. He felt that Sega needed to nurture their talent and create gaming superstars out of the fans who'd kept the Sonic flame burning in their hearts since the very beginning. Takashi Yuzuka announced the logic behind naming this game Sonic Mania. It would be a reflection, not just of the game itself, but of the fan passion that had inspired its creation to begin with. From this point on, the team's motto would be, for the Mania, by the Mania. And so, Christian, Simon, Jared, Tom, and T-Lopes all set to work. They had their green light, and permission from Sega to draft in as many Sonic fans as they needed to make this work. They snatched up sprite artists and level designers. They even grabbed Tyson Hess, a longtime fan favorite Sonic the Hedgehog comic book artist who'd got his start drawing parody comics and commissioned him to make a special animated intro to the game. In a special 25th anniversary party for Sonic the Hedgehog, the game was finally revealed. Crowds of avid Sonic fans watched in wonder as, on a big screen in front of them, a trailer announced that Sonic was traveling right back to the beginning. The crowd was excited from the start, but then the name Christian Whitehead flashed up on the screen. The fans exploded in cheers of joy. This was it. This was the game that they'd been waiting for ever since Christian had first emerged as the hero who bought Sonic CD to mobile. If Christian Whitehead was making an original Sonic game to rival the classics, then this, truly, was going to be an experience that was long overdue. Word quickly spread of this brand new old-school experience. Even outside of the tight Sonic fan community, the wider internet embraced footage of studio-opolis zone as the sign of great things to come. Gamers often left jaded after years of Sonic games that varied wildly in quality. Finally found themselves eagerly anticipating the release of another title in the series, and with every new piece of footage or playable demo at conventions, Sonic Mania gained more and more supporters, even winning a Best of Show award from IGN at E3 2017. At the center of all of this was Christian Whitehead, looking every bit the rock star with his huge hair and daring fashion sense. He and Simon had become internet celebrities in their own right, and while Simon filled in most of the interviews from journalists and was the primary mouthpiece for the project as a whole, it was hard to deny that Christian Whitehead's name alone was enough to turn heads at any gathering of video games. Christian, along with Simon, the team at Pagoda West, and everyone else who worked on Sonic Mania, had got a wide audience of people truly, did lyrically excited about a Sonic game for the first time in decades. They even found themselves besieged by fans at San Diego Comic-Con, signing autographs for hours in an experience that would have been completely unbelievable a few years previously, as they'd all, individually, started building their own Sonic fan games. Christian Whitehead had come a long way since his first experiences with Sonic the Hedgehog. His love of this series of video games had turned him into a nerdy superstar, a hero for anyone who loved the blue blur as much as he did himself. The moral of this story is that you never know where your passion will lead you. It's easy to think that the time you spend working on the things that matter to you are wasted, that something you enjoy doing for fun isn't as important as career development, or more traditional studies. While we all need to develop varied talents, it's not right to overlook the importance of the things you do that you enjoy the most. Your leisure pursuits are more than just wasted time. They give you the opportunity you need to develop key talents and to learn new skills. You never know where your passions might take you in life. Christian Whitehead spent his childhood playing Sonic the Hedgehog and building his own small, silly computer games. Because he kept pushing himself to learn and develop, one day he got the chance to work on building his own dream game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Just like Christian, you can see your talents take you to greater heights as you work your hardest. It's not always easy, and it means really pushing yourself as much as you can, but if you keep sight of what drives you, the things that occupy your thoughts the most can lead you to succeed in life. If you work at it, and if you're patient, you can one day turn your passion to something wonderful.