Christian Whitehead Explains Sonic Mania, Penny's Big Breakaway

We had the chance to interview the rock star of Sonic fangames, the Taxman himself, Christian Whitehead, about his work on Sonic Mania and Penny's Big Breakaway!

Despite being kind of a big deal among the Sonic fan community, Christian Whitehead tends to keep a low profile most of the time, with occasional posts on Twitter (or whatever it's called now) being the only normal glimpse into his soul.

In a classic case of Don't Ask, Don't Get, we were privileged to have the chance to interview Christian about his work past and present, about his thoughts on game development, the future of momentum-based platformers, and how if you don't push yourself out of your comfort zone and learn new things, you'll never reach your full potential.

Many of his words during our interview, which took place about a week after Penny's Big Breakaway shadowdropped following the February Nintendo Partner Direct, suggest that Christian is eager to experiment and try new things, rather than doing the same as everyone else.

While he doesn't sound completely satisfied with the reaction that Penny's Big Breakaway has received, he's clearly very proud of his work on the game and eager to take the lessons he and his team at Evening Star have learned, and apply them to whatever they do next.

Special thanks to Private Division for arranging this interview, and for providing review codes for Penny's Big Breakaway for the creation of this video.