Christian Whitehead

Game Dev / Musician / All-round tinkerer. Friend to pixels and polys alike. Creative Director and Lead Engine Architect @EveningStarStdo

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

Penny and Yo-Yo find their groove in our new vinyl pressing of Macaroon tunes! 4 sides of eclectic, eccentric and electric bangers 🪀

[Kid Katana Records @kidkatanarec]

Spin it, bump it, loop it! Penny’s Big Breakaway OST is coming to vinyl 🤩
🔴🟡 2xLP in Penny’s fav companion & weapon colors
🖼 Exclusive art by @EveningStarStdo @PrivateDivision game Art Director @TomFryPWG
🎶@TeeLopes @SeanBialo
🎉 Preorder at https://t.co/sMISqeMWdE

[Kazuyuki Hoshino @KazuyukiHoshino]

Can you guess who is who?

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

Boosting this link too:
https://t.co/WgLd65nVUv

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

I have some sad but important news to share. We didn't want to reduce our team size but it is now an unavoidable reality for us. Those leaving are such lovely, well rounded and capable team mates so anyone hiring please reach out

[Hunter Bridges @HunterBridges]

Unfortunately, due to volatile market conditions in the games industry and operational realities of our business, Evening Star is having to part ways with 6 team members from our Penny’s Big Breakaway development team.

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

This game has been something of a passion project for my friend and colleague @HunterBridges, combining his love of the Shinkansen & Sound Canvas. If you own a PlayDate and feel like dutifully driving some denizens to their destination please pick it up!

[Hunter Bridges @HunterBridges]

Zero Zero: Perfect Stop - Launch Trailer

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

@TeeLopes ...and he's only scratching the surface of the iceberg folks!

[Paul Veer @pietepiet]

Hey! It's Sonic Mania's 7th anniversary today. I dug around my sketchbooks a bit and found the original pencil sketches I did for Chemical Plant Zone Act 2's background layers! The third image is actually pretty close to what the in-game version came out to be.

[Tee Lopes @TeeLopes]

7 Years of 'Sonic Mania'! 🎉 It's incredible how this non-mainline game is still so widely celebrated, in an oversaturated market!

Let's celebrate with an unreleased track, "Pulp Friction Zone" (scrapped for "Press Garden Zone")

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

Did you know that the Special Stage UFO was meant to get angry after you reached the Chaos Emerald and chase you down in sudden death for 10 seconds? Thankfully we had mercy and realized it would be challenging enough just reaching Mach 3 on the courses 😅

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

I guess I gotta dig up another piece of Sonic Mania trivia since we've reached 7 years now...

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

@dark1x High art mate 🎨

[Hunter Bridges @HunterBridges]

Any friends or referrals of artists who would be interested in doing a key art piece in the style of 80s Sunsoft box art? I need to find someone who can help me make the Catalog promo art for Zero Zero!

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

@TeeLopes @dark1x

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

A big thank you to @dark1x for taking the time and effort to make such an in-depth BTS video. Penny was such a massive learning experience for me, I’m really excited where it will take me next!

[Digital Foundry @digitalfoundry]

Today on Digital Foundry, it's @dark1x with one of the best developer deep dives we've ever done, going in-depth with @EveningStarStdo on Penny's Big Breakaway. Bespoke tech, amazing access and a unique presentation - check it out! https://t.co/yx5IXWoKYU

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

@HunterBridges @falco_girgis It's been so long since I programmed on the Dreamcast using the WinCE SDK and some burnt CDs haha. Being able to use a modern C++ toolchain with KallistOS sounds amazing!

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

@HunterBridges @falco_girgis Wow this is awesome! I have thought about how to get Mania running on DC using its GPU in the past. There's definitely some interesting challenges with stuff like the tile layer per-line raster effects

[Hunter Bridges @HunterBridges]

Penny’s Big Breakaway OST has been nominated among many other worthy game music contenders for the 2024 World Soundtrack Awards! Give us a vote if you could… cc @TeeLopes @SeanBialo

https://t.co/9FiJOOAEAm

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

@Sonicninj Nah we weren't trying to do anything artistic with the game numbers, It just ended up that way based on the final mix of Zones

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

I loved this demo track! This was Heavy Rider's original stage, which was meant to be separate to Lava Reef. Sadly there was not enough time in the development schedule to realize another full Zone so we had to move Heavy Rider into Angel Island's HPZ.

[Tee Lopes @TeeLopes]

Fun fact for Sonic's Bday!

"Lagoon City Zone Act 2"'s theme derives from a demo I created for a proposed "Hidden Palace Zone" in Sonic Mania. The idea marinated for 7 years, matured, and finally found a home in "Sonic Superstars" last year.

This is the 2016 demo!

I'm happy that the final version was so well received by the community!

[Christian Whitehead @CFWhitehead]

@EPH_00 Since HPZ was already done in the Sonic 2 Mobile game, we wanted to do a fresh take, music graphics and all. Similar to how Mirage Saloon shares nothing but vibes with the original lost desert Zone from Sonic 2