One of the most popular elements of the Summer of Sonic convention that recently took place was the number of fantastic fan animations that were played throughout the day. Made by some of the Sonic Community’s best-known home animators, this was a chance to not only play some awesome material to the 400+ fans that attended in person (and the 4000+ viewers online), but also for SEGA and the Sonic Community elite to officially recognise the hard work and effort put in by these animators.
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Last year’s Summer of Sonic featured a cake that was painstakingly baked and decorated by Jemnezmy, of the Green Hill Zone. This year, Jemnezmy has done it again with another fantastic Sonic themed cake!

Knuckles’ Emerald Shrine from Sonic Adventure’s Angel Island is the location of your baked delights this time around, complete with stone staircase and Master Emerald sitting pretty at the very top. Forgive the low quality image, we only had a mobile phone camera to hand.

There were in fact two different sources Jemnezmy referred to for this piece, as the Mystic Ruins is represented in both the past and future in Sonic Adventure. Jem decided to combine both the flowing waters of the past Emerald Shrine with the mossy greens that surround the modern-day Master Emerald.

Although the whole of Angel Island hasn’t been represented here (Jem started from the stairs otherwise we’d be seeing a much bigger cake!), what has been imagined here is pretty awesome, don’t you agree?

And there’ll be a slice for anyone who asks for one at the Summer of Sonic convention! Even though it’s a pretty big cake for one (or three!) people, slices are likely to go pretty quickly so once cake is served, be sure to get your slice!

Kevin and I have been thinking of ideas to make this year’s Summer of Sonic incredibly special, and with some enormous help SEGA have produced this limited edition art book, that will be handed out to pre-registered attendees to the convention (one book will be handed out per family/group, and until stocks last I’m afraid, so get there early!).

They are designed in the style of a classic Mega Drive manual, with the checkered background and the image of Sonic from the original 1991 game adorning the cover. Inside, you can find countless montages of official SEGASonic artwork throughout the years. There’s even a foreword by myself and Kevin in the front, so that’s even more of a reason to get one right? You can read more about the booklet at SEGA’s Blognik page.

There’s only two more days left until the big day! Are you excited yet? Just to give you a bigger idea of what’s in store too, we’ve opened our final page on the website – the ‘On Stage’ section, which tells you what you can expect to occur on the Main Stage at various times of the day.

~ Svend

Hi there, peeps. bmn here to tell all you stay-at-home moaners who can’t make it to the show on Saturday about what you’ve all been wanting to know – What’s The Deal With The Video Feeds?!

Well, I can tell you that The Deal should be hella better than it was last year. Unfortunately, because our tech doods – namely, myself and Jay (AKA DiscoPonies) – live nowhere near London and didn’t have the budget to make it to the venue for early testing, and with the lack of Internet access Svend talked about in the FAQ last month, we can’t guarantee that this will all be in place, but we’ll do our best. I’ll just assume that it’s all going to work fine for the rest of this post…

On the video front, we’re going with the tried-and-tested uStream – we have an easy job putting it on, you have an easy job viewing it. We’ll have a camera perched in Dread’s Crow’s Nestâ„¢ with a good view of the crowd and the stage all through the day, and Jay up in the place will keep you up to date on developments with a live video ticker, so if you miss Lee’s presumedly excellent show or something similarly freaky – that’s freaky in a good way – you’ve only got yourself to blame. Or your computer. Or your annoying sibling cruely stealing the computer.

But wait! I know the… 17 of you… that watched the live feed last year had a good time with yours truly behind the camera and chilling with the partygoers. This time we’re going one better and sending a wireless camera out into the fray. We’ll cut between the two cameras throughout the day to give you a real view of the show.

On top of that, we’re broadcasting a special Summer of Sonic LiVECAST on SEGASonic Radio throughout the whole day. Hear the DJs spinning the wheels of… plastic! Tune in to all the stage events! Everything that goes through the speakers on stage will be pumped through the Internuts to your eardrums.

We’ll make sure to have both feeds here on the homepage on the day – if you tune in early you may just catch us setting up and testing everything. Now that’s something to use your 3G Internet on while you’re waiting for the doors to open…

B’man

Well, all I have to say is many, many thanks for your interest in the Summer of Sonic convention. This event, run by the fans for the fans, has certainly ballooned since its introduction in 2008! We have had a record number of advance registrants thus far, but now is the time where we regretfully announce that we will cease supply of registration tickets. We are now FULLY BOOKED so if you would like to turn up on the day without a ticket printed off, we cannot guarantee immediate entry to the convention venue.

We do apologise for this, but if we didn’t we’d have loads of people wanting to get in and the party could very well spill out onto the Brick Lane street. While we don’t mind waiting visitors having their own unofficial Sonic party outside, we certainly don’t condone it! So our priority is ensuring everyone who has asked to come can actually attend.

There are a few loose ends to tie up as we near the final week and a half until the big day, and we will be updating you here on the latest – prizes, stage schedules, performances, live feeds for non-attending fans, that sort of thing. So stay tuned!

We can now reveal that Sumo Digital – the developers behind such fan favourites as Sega Superstars Tennis, Virtua Tennis 2009 and OutRun Online Arcade – will be present at this year’s Summer of Sonic convention. Based in Sheffield in the United Kingdom, Sumo Digital is an independent studio that has close ties to SEGA, and their tennis recreations of classic Sonic stages have seen plenty of praise within the fan community.

As a special treat for those attending SoS09, we will be hosting a Q&A session with Steve Lycett, Executive Producer and Travis Ryan, Lead Designer on upcoming racer Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing. The duo will be talking on stage about their careers, the relationship Sumo Digital shares with Sega and the development processes behind their latest title. The floor will be opened for questions from the audience too, for those looking to learn more about the team.

If you fancy playing the latest games as well, Summer of Sonic has you covered. A demo version of Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing will be available to play at the convention, months ahead of its public release! You can even try your luck at the trial course against Steve and Travis – can you beat the developers at their own game?

What would you like to ask the studio? Have a good think about it, and maybe your questions will be answered on stage! If not, there will be the chance to meet them at the signing booth shortly after the session.

A lot of you have been wondering where these tickets that you are supposed to get when pre-registering. Well after a few nights of solid work on them, they are done, and will be sent out to you within the next week (hopefully). Here is a little explanation on what you are expecting. Click the image to see it in full size.

And here are some questions I know will be asked so let’s go through ‘em:

Q: Do I have to print my ticket?
A: No, but if you don’t print your ticket you will need to remember your code (or preferably write it down) because if you forget it, you’ll have to go through the registration queue again.

Q: Can I print my ticket in Black & White?
A: Yes Black and White tickets are no problem.

Q: My Character sucks, I want a new one!
A: Characters have been assigned randomly however we can not change them anymore.

Q: I need to change the amount of guests I am bringing, can I do that?
A: Yes, please email summerofsonic[at]googlemail[dot]com with your ticket number and we will see what we can do about getting you a new ticket. This is more important if you need to bring more guests than your ticket says rather than less.

Q: I have not received my ticket, where is it?
A: The earlier you registered the sooner your ticket will be out but all people who registered before August should get their tickets by the 10th, if you do not receive it before then please contact summerofsonic[at]googlemail[dot]com.

Q: What are the symbols for on the top of the tickets?
A: You’ll have to come and find out on the day!

We look forward to seeing you on the day.

Shadow Urtheart

Hi guys! It’s about time we talked about the biggest section in the convention – both in terms of size and its relative popularity. The Fan Artwork corner dominated last year’s Summer of Sonic, with fans so eager to get on board with drawing their favourite character that they were sitting on the stage doing it! Of course, you won’t be able to do that now, because the Fan Artwork corner has increased tenfold, with room for about 90 people to sit and scribble at leisure this year.

But the Fan Art corner was meant to be more than just sitting there drawing – we really wanted to showcase art made by fans as a creative homage to the Sonic franchise. This year, we’ll be setting up a few initiatives to celebrate Sonic a bit more.

Art Contest

First off, as last year, there will be an Art Contest. Attendees will be able to draw throughout the day and hand in their best work, with the winners announced on stage. Whether you win or not, we will have a huge wall dedicated to artwork made by fans on the day! So once you’re done with a picture you can get it stuck on the Fan Art wall and have everyone else admire your handiwork.

Featured Artists

Another wall will be present at the event, and will focus on ‘Featured Artists’. This is a section that the organisers at Summer of Sonic will arrange, as we scour the Internet for some incredible Sonic fan art talent! Jemnezmy, our resident Art Maestro, will be contacting several people on deviantArt very soon about putting your art in an extra-special showcase, so keep an eye on those inboxes!

Fan Favourites

More space on the walls will be dedicated to your own favourite pieces of artwork! Courtesy of Sega Europe, you – the Sonic fans and potential attendees – will get the chance to tell us about ONE piece of fan artwork that you would like to see displayed at the Summer of Sonic 2009. Send your chosen favourite to incoming@sonic-city.com with the subject “Summer Of Sonic Fanart Wall”. Remember, one entry per person.

We can now reveal that Lee Brotherton, also known as dance artist Bentley Jones, will be attending the Summer of Sonic convention for a second time to meet fans of his work. What’s more, he’ll be giving a special performance on stage! Those who missed his singing last year will be excited to get another chance to meet the man behind fan favourite theme, ‘Dreams of an Absolution’.

A Sonic fan even before he hit the spotlight, Bentley Jones was well known in online community circles as popular OverClocked Remixer ‘LeeBro’. After a string of dance remix hits via his Remix Factory label, he was offered to work on the soundtrack to Shadow the Hedgehog, and his feet hasn’t touched the ground since. Now a solo artist, he has released his first album to the Japanese market consisting of J-Pop covers, called TRANS//LATION. On top of remix work and continuing efforts in the Sonic franchise, Bentley is working on his second album whilst planning an assault on the UK music charts.

The artist will be more than happy to mingle with the crowd, as he has done at last year’s convention – and was rather surprised at the number of fans he truly has in the Sonic community. Be sure to give him a warm greeting if you bump into him.

Last year, we were surprised to find that so many people were already taking the opportunity to cosplay at the very first Summer of Sonic convention! We gave away a Nintendo DS prize to CloudChaser, who very bravely shaved her head and dressed as Dr. Eggman for the special day.

Noticing a good thing when we see one, we’re going to hold a proper Sonic Cosplay contest at this year’s convention. There will be a special prize going to the best costume as chosen by SoS staff and the crowd in general, so start creating your costume as soon as possible and try to be the best! You’ll likely find that the winner will be the one who is most imaginitive with their cosplay (I doubt that anyone will be able to truly ‘be’ Sonic the Hedgehog, lest they steal one of the suits at Sega somewhere!), so get creative!

Late in the afternoon, we will be hosting an event at the Stage area with a selection of cosplay finalists, at which point the audience will cast a vote as to their favourite! We hope you’ll be game enough to take part in this fun contest!

In other news, we have opened up a new information page – ‘What’ll Be There’. This is a page that will inform you of exactly what you can expect at the convention this year — although we’ve not announced everything yet…….. so bear in mind that page is subject to change. Multiple times. Enjoy!

~ Svend