I know we all assumed they would be doing another episode being an episodic game and all. But this is the first official word from Sega that the game is indeed being developed. Brand manager Ken Balough has been involved in a Episode 2 Q & A thread on the Sega forums, answering fans questions about how this episode is being approached. Some highlights from the thread include: this episode will have a larger budget, Balough admits some aspects of Episode 1 could have been better and these are being addressed, and they plan on having new zones with things we have never seen before. Hit the jump to see all of his postings!
[Source: Sega Bits]
Episode II is in early development now. We already had some ideas fleshed out on development for Episode I in fact. No, you definetly wont have to wait years and years a la Duke Nukem Forever. source
SoA and SoE are both giving feedback and input on Episode II. Episode I did very well for SEGA commercially, and thanks to everyone’s support, we definetly have a lot of traction going into Epsiode II. This usually means better budgets, etc. That said – I see a lot of really great ideas going into the next installment. source
I know how many [episodes] there will be – but I can;t comment on that just yet We had determined the amount during the development of Episode I. source
I honestly don’t know about the puzzles yet – I have not seen the full level design layouts. But I can certainly pass the feedback along. source
I certainly cannot deny there were some elements that could have been done better – and I could say that about most games I’ve worked on. That’s why Episode II gives us that opportunity to address them (or as much as possible). Source
I can tell you that Ep II is not a Sonic CD remake. I can’t comment really on anything else – but I can tell you you are going to see new zones that look really cool. Re-hash kind of depends on how you look at the topography. I mean; we’ve gone to a lot of areas – Underground mines in Sonic 2, Deserts, Lush green hills, Jungle, Cities, etc. But yeah – the idea is to introduce new zones with things you haven’t seen. source
