From: The Needleteam

To: The Internet

March 2010

Hello again! It's been a while, and we thought it was about time to give a status update on Needlemouse: The Emerald Hills. Our production schedule currently has us wrapping a new internal build about every week, each build one closer to a time when those weekly builds will be public, published here on Needlemouse.com. For the time being, you can see a bit of the game in the two screenshots above.

The gameplay of Needlemouse: TEH is inspired by and a tribute to the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games; however, as you can see from the screenshots, Needlemouse: TEH is entirely 3D with 2D gameplay, with a drastically different aesthetic than the classics. We, Matt and Jono, started working on this project some time ago (before Sega's announcement, believe it or not!) to practice our skills and take a stroll down memory lane (which, it turns out, is a lot longer than we thought!), and we're thrilled about the great team and momentum that has grown around this project.

This is a big month for Needlemouse: TEH for many reasons, including that Matt and Jono will be attending the Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco next week. We'll be there Monday (3/8/10) through next Sunday, so drop us a line, or find us at Booth #1432 (our friends 3DVIA), if you wanna meet up!

For those still confused, we would like to make perfectly clear that our non-commercial, part-time fan project Needlemouse: TEH is not at all related to Sega's long-murmured Project Needlemouse, which is now Sonic 4. We'd like to extend to Sega our excitement and enthusiasm for what they're doing, creating a very true-to-form, true to the classics 2D game, from what we can tell from the one second of footage they've released so far. We are also relieved to see, at long last, that we and Sega are doing very different things, a difference which will become increasingly pronounced as we continue to pursue our plans for Needlemouse: TEH.

Thanks for checking in on Needlemouse: The Emerald Hills! We can't wait to show you more, and will be publishing public builds as soon as they're ready. Please feel free to join in on our forums, Facebook page and Twitter account.

Jono, Matt, and the Needleteam