I found the Sonic 2 development sketches on the new Game History Library and just keep finding these developmental gems that never made the final cut of the game. And with the power of AI I decided to bring one to life in 3D. What a time to be alive!
As someone who filled childhood notebooks with Sonic character designs, stumbling across the actual development art that shaped the game feels like finding buried treasure. These sketches show a mechanical beetle-type badnik that was designed but never shipped. The craftsmanship in the original pencil and marker work is remarkable; you can see the designer working out how the segments connect, where the lights sit, how the character would animate.
Using AI to extrapolate a 3D model from a 1991 concept sketch feels like the kind of thing my eight-year-old self would have dreamt about.
Originally posted on Instagram.