Freedom Planet/Development

Development

This article is all about the development of:

Freedom Planet began development around 2011 in the form of a Sonic the Hedgehog Fangame filled with typical Sonic Game elements, but it was decided to be changed in order to become a commercial title. ^[1] The Game was developed using Multimedia Fusion 2 and is powered with a Sonic fan game engine called Sonic Worlds, with version 1.2c as its base, later including features from version 1.3 and above.

Character Development[]

Over the course of production and development, many characters received huge overhauls in their personal designs and characteristics. All Characters eventually received Cel Shadings as well.

Image	Description
	Sash Lilac (as a Hedgehog) Lilac likely received the most design changes. Her earliest known form is that of a Hedgehog, much like the Game's Original Inspiration: Sonic the Hedgehog. But when the game became a commercial title, she was redesigned as a Water Dragon, due to her having a lot of similarities to Sonic, such as super speed.^[2]
	Carol Tea (as a Black Cat) Originally an unnamed character, Carol was portrayed as a Black Cat with blonde hair rather than the green Wildcat we know now. She also had an orange shirt instead of a black one. Strife received permission from Ziyo Ling, the original owner of the character, to overlay Carol's old sprite into the new one of her as a Wildcat.^[3]
	Milla Basset Milla as well as Carol, were originally owned and created by Ziyo Ling before ultimately handing permission to Strife for use on Freedom Planet.
	Commander Torque An early sprite of Torque shows a much different design. Scrapped early on due to its resemblance to Sonic the Hedgehog style. Torque then received a more finalized redesign, with more vibrant green and additional detailing being added to his character designs/sprites in finalized builds compared to the more darker colors of the Kickstarter and early beta designs/sprites. Additionally an early character profile calls him a secret agent desperate to expose Lord Brevon's atrocities.^[4]
	Spade (as a Cavy) Spade was originally a cavy before being redesigned as a Panda. He also had shoes resembling Shadow the Hedgehog's Air Shoes. Overall, Spade went through numerous design changes.^[5]
	Neera Neera not only went through a few design changes, she also went through a couple of changes storywise.
	Serpentine (as a Slug) Serpentine was originally created as a slug rather than a viper, and he is seen riding on a large snake in earlier pre-release builds. He was redesigned as a viper likely to make a more intimidating foe.^[6] ^[7]
	Lord Brevon (as Dr.Brevon) Brevon was originally classified as a Doctor with a couple of design changes to his head and armor. Overall 'Lord' Brevon appears more muscular than his old 'Doctor' self.
	The Royal Magister (As a Bird) The Magister originally was depicted as a large blue Bird, this however was changed due to not being serious enough, so he was redesigned as an earth dragon, but was also given a silhouetted face to make him mysterious.
	Zao Zao originally had a darker outfit and shorter ears, he also was originally intended to be the one manipulated by Brevon rather than Dail. Other than giving his outfit a brighter red and giving him a seemingly comedic role, his overall design remained unchanged.

Stage Names/Order[]

Over the course of the development, Strife changed the names and order of the stages. Initially, the game only was supposed to have five stages, but they increased to ten finished stage, with five other (known) ending up scrapped. ^[8]

Initial Concept (Late 2011 - Early 2012)	SAGE/Late 2012	Kickstarter/Alpha Version (Early 2013)
Dragon Valley Relic Maze Robot Playground (Scrapped) Battle Glacier Thermal Base	Dragon Valley Relic Maze Fortune Night Battle Glacier Thermal Base	Dragon Valley Relic Maze Fortune Night Sky Battle (Sky Battalion) Chaos Creek (Jade Creek) Phoenix Road (Scrapped) Battle Glacier Thermal Base
Beta Version (2013)	Final Version
Horizon Starport (Currently Scrapped) Dragon Valley Relic Maze Rage Ravine (Currently Scrapped) Fortune Night Sky Battalion Aqua Tunnel Jade Creek Trap Hideout Thermal Base Pangu Lagoon Battle Glacier Final Dreadnought Unnamed Stage (Scrapped)	Aqua Tunnel Dragon Valley Relic Maze Fortune Night Sky Battalion Jade Creek Trap Hideout Thermal Base Pangu Lagoon Battle Glacier Final Dreadnought

Version Builds[]

Version #	Date Added	Features/Changes
NGIN Build	???	Early build featuring Dragon Valley and part of Relic Maze, meant for Nordic Game Indie Night 2012, ultimately rejected and instead released to early testers on Sonic Fan Games HQ.
1.0	August 4th, 2012	(Demo)
1.1	August 11th, 2012	(Demo): Comet Dash was no longer activates via 'double jump' command and instead is mapped on the Special button. Carol is selectable.
1.2	September 9th, 2012	(Demo): First Version to use Lilac's final design.
1.3	January 14th, 2013	(Demo): First public version to feature the Dragon Cyclone.
1.4.2	June 12th, 2013	(Demo): A shift in artstyle has begun.
1.4.5	July 11th, 2013	(Demo): Major overhaul redesigned towards the HUD window, specifically the Health and Stamina meters.
1.6.10	November 22th, 2013	(Demo): The Dragon Valley 1, Meanie Boss and Major Boss tracks have been finalised.
1.12.5	June 28th, 2014
1.13.4	July 21th, 2014
1.13.5	July 22th, 2014
1.14.0	July 27th, 2014
1.15.0	July 28th, 2014
1.15.3	August 4th, 2014
1.15.5	October 18th, 2014
1.21.5

Soundtracks[]

A majority of soundtrack also either went completely unused, or received upgrades and/or overhauls.

Soundtrack	description
	Dragon Valley 1 Has a different tone overall.
	Dragon Valley 2 Altered sounds for the tone quality.
	Relic Maze Has an overall lighter tune.
	Sky Battalion Completely changed in final builds.
	Rage Ravine/Sky Battalion An early version of Rage Ravine's track meant for a very early incarnation of Sky Battalion.
	Schmup Stage Sounds calmer and a bit slower beat compared to the final. This version was initially composed for Jade Creek.
	Battle Glacier Almost identical to the final. Like the Schmup Stage theme above this was initially intended for Jade Creek, then named Chaos Creek.
	Mid-Boss Sounds more techno-rock than the final variant, which has a more serious-softer tone.
	Main Boss Lower secondary tone and an altered sound near the end. The final variant is also extended.
	Aqua Tunnel Boss Slightly unfinished and missing a few sound effects portions.
	Prince Dail's Theme This track has a more intense/fierce quality of tone, rather than the sad/serious nature of tone heard within the Final. This track is actually used as a placeholder song for the Dail Boss fights. ^[9] Originating from a project of Woofle's, this track was eventually replaced by the final, official Dail Boss theme before the final release of Freedom Planet. This track's original project name is "Like A Boss"^[10]. interestingly it's filename within the build it is featured in is "m_bossfinal" implying that it potentially was initially intended as a placeholder for Brevon's Boss theme.
	Final Boss (First Phase) Altered pitch of quality and removed a line of audio sounds.
	Final Boss (Second Phase) Entirely different, sounds much more agressive and fierce than the final counterpart.
	Disaster A possible beta Variant of the final "Disaster" theme used in-game. This track is named "Disaster Strikes" in the official Soundtrack.
	Drowning A drowning theme. It's a leftover from the Sonic Worlds engine and was likely scrapped due to the game no longer being classified as a Sonic Fangame.
	Invincible Has a higher secondary tone in the final.
	Power-Up In the demos there existed a power-up which would grant infinitely rechargeable energy for a few seconds. It was usually seen within Dragon Valley act 1 in area 2 where a pushable block is needed to activate a switch. This tune would play when the power-up crystal is shattered and obtained. This power-up along with its associated track were ultimately cut from the final release. This song as well as an orchestral variant were both part of the game's official soundtrack.
	Super Form Test Leftover Super Form theme. Like the Drowning theme, both tracks are just leftovers from the game engine being used at the time.
	Title Theme The early title intro theme.
	Mahjong Theme Beta 1.1 build version of Mahjong. It was used in the demo as a mini-game tune. Behind the scenes, it is actually based off of one of Woofle's project songs, City Centre Groove.
	Robot Playground A Track for a Stage that was replaced by Fortune Night early in development. It was refined and reused as the Zao Land Boss theme in Freedom Planet 2.

In addition there also exists these three soundtracks discovered in an old Alpha version of Freedom Planet. They have since been removed and only currently exist in an Alpha build only Strife herself has access to:

Soundtrack	description
	Dragon Valley Act 1
	Dragon Valley Act 2
	End-Stage boss

Unused/Scrapped[]

Alternate Color palettes/Costumes[]

It was originally possible to change the color of Lilac's clothes, Carol's scarf and Milla's hair/bracelets in five different colors for each, resulting in alternate Color Palettes for the girls. Milla also has one unused costume.

Lilac's Palettes[]

Carol's Palettes[]

Milla's Palettes[]

Screens[]

Debug Character Select[]

Present in build 1.4.0 up to build 1.15.5 was a debug character select, which allowed to select all five characters and between five different color palettes, each for Lilac, Carol & Milla.

HUB Areas[]

Hub World Areas were originally planned but scrapped. In addition, the soundtracks for some if not all the scrapped HUB World Data still exists within the files of Freedom Planet.

Soundtrack	Description
	HUB 01: Lilac's Treehouse This soundtrack is used for cutscenes involving the Dragon Valley setting (most notably Lilac's Treehouse Area, see section below).
	HUB 02: Shang Mu City Hall This soundtrack is used for a couple of cutscenes involving Mayor Zao, who is seen within the land of Shang Mu.
	HUB 03: Shang Tu Sewers This soundtrack is heard within the Shang Tu Sewers, specifically when Team Lilac is locked up in an underground small cell.
	HUB 04: The Snowfields This Soundtrack was heard within the caves of Pangu Lagoon, when Pangu played the message about the Kingdom Stone's origins. It was heard again in the Snowfields, when the Heroes were planning how to defeat Lord Brevon and recover the Kingdom Stone.
	HUB 05: Shang Tu Royal Palace Used for most cutscenes involving the Royal Palace of Shang Tu.

The concept of HUB World areas made a full return in Freedom Planet 2.

Lilac's Treehouse (Day)[]

Lilac's Treehouse at daytime. It's used as the location for cutscenes but isn't normally accessible. Originally, it was meant as a hub area in which the player can save their game and look at the special items (most likely the codecs) that have been collected.^[11]

A bit of the area can be explored. It's possible to go inside the treehouse and enter the living room but it's not possible to go upstairs to the bedroom.

When the area as entered with anyone other than Lilac, she can be seen sitting outside on a bench next to the bridge by the treehouse. Talking to her triggers a voice clip spoken by the player (carol_hililac as Carol and milla_hililac as Milla), with Lilac answering with another voice clip (lilac_whatsupcarol and lilac_hellomilla respectively).

Lilac's Treehouse (Night)[]

Nearly identical to Lilac's Treehouse (Day), but at nighttime instead. Torque in his shellduck disguise along with his tent can be seen in the left of the screen.

The following unused Voice Clips relate to this Area:

Character	Dialogue	Voice Clip
	What's up Carol?
Lilac	Hello Milla.
	Hey there Lilac.
Carol	Hey Milla.
Carol	'sup Torque?
	Hello Lilac.
	What's happenin' Carol?
Torque	Milla!

Dialogue[]

Hedgehog Lilac's voice recording had much lower audio when compared to Dragon Lilac's.

In addition, the following dialogue was either removed, altered, or never implemented into the final builds^[12]. Regardless, the voice recording for most, if not all, of the removed dialogue for the characters still exists: ^[13]

Dragon Valley[]

Carol: Try and catch me this time!
Lilac: Way ahead of you!
Carol: I can't wait! This is gonna be the best Charge-Up ever!
Lilac: Just take from the rich, okay?
Carol: Got it!
Lilac: You swear?
Carol: Pinky swear!

Lilac's Treehouse (Day)[]

Lilac: I'm sorry about running off on you back there...
Carol: Yeah, well, it happens...
Carol: We can trust this guy, right?
Lilac: Well, what if he's telling the truth? What if the stone really can be taken? You know what'll happen then, right?
Carol: No more Charge-ups?
Lilac: Exactly.

Relic Maze[]

Carol: Then why are you here?
Gong: She's protecting our guests this evening. Can't be too careful with all these robots runnin' around.
Neera: If you're here to recharge, there's a line over there. Otherwise I suggest you let us do our jobs.

(Scene between Lilac and Carol)

Lilac: Follow me!
Lilac: We're gonna steal the Kingdom Stone before they do!
Carol: Whoa, really?
Lilac: Well, we'll give it right back. Come on!

Lilac's Treehouse (Night)[]

Torque: Are you sure it's okay for me to set up a tent here?
Lilac: It's the least we can do after what happened today...
Torque: Eh, don't blame yourself. You did everything you could. I'll get the stone back somehow.
Lilac: Can I ask you something?

(Scene between Lilac, Carol & Milla)

Carol: Like what?
Lilac: Well... Do you ever think about your family? I mean, about seeing them again someday?
Carol: I think about my big sister sometimes. I dunno... It's not like I can go back there anytime soon.
Lilac: Yeah...
Milla: I wish I had a sister, but nothing's happened yet. I tried shooting stars, crystal balls, chewing grass...
Carol: How 'bout rubbing your ears? I did that when I was little.
Lilac: You know what? Carol and I can be your sisters!
Milla: You can DO THAT??
Lilac: Sure, why not?
Milla: I guess that works afterall! Thanks Carol!

(Scene between Lilac, Carol & Torque)

Lilac: So, you're an alien then?
Torque: Pretty much, yeah.
Carol: Space cooties!
Torque: You don't believe me.
Lilac: Actually, I do.
Torque: Really?
Lilac: They say that a long time ago, dragons came to Avalice and mixed with our ancestors.
Carol: And not just ones like Lilac. Huge ones, like in the movies!
Lilac: So I guess it's not much of a stretch for other things to be out there too.
Torque: I see...

(Scene between Lilac, Carol, Milla & Torque)

Torque: Just remember something really important... Don't talk about our mission unless I say so.
Torque: We do not want the whole world thinking we're crazy.
Lilac: Understood.
Carol: I dunno about you guys, but I'm exhausted.
Lilac: Yeah, we better get some shut-eye. We've got a big day ahead of us.
Torque: Lilac...
Torque: Thank you.

Fortune Night[]

Carol: He seems a little...
Lilac: Eccentric?
Carol: Un-Mayor-ish.
Lilac: That too.
Torque: We better play along anyway. This is our chance to prove that Brevon exists.
Torque: Might need to study this later...
Lilac: Let's ask

Zao's Palace[]

Carol: Me too!
Lilac: Whoawhoawhoawhoawhoa, you both like something? Is this the end of the world?

(Scene between Lilac, Carol and Milla)

Lilac: Good job, Milla!
Milla: Thanks!
Carol: What's going on?!

Zao's Airship[]

Torque: I gotta admit, your planet looks pretty cool.
Carol: Thanks, I guess.
Carol: What's your planet like?
Torque: Well, there's a lot of water. Over 80% of my world is covered in it.
Carol: Does it have sharks?
Torque: What?
Carol: Y'know, sharks. Big fish with lots of teeth.
Torque: Oh, yeah, quite a lot.
Carol: What about ninjas?
Torque: That's a weird name for a fish.
Carol: You got a lot to learn about this planet.

(Scene between Lilac, Carol, Milla & Torque)

Lilac: Torque, are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Torque: I think it's crazy enough to work!
Lilac: Alright girls, here's the plan. We're gonna run to the other ships and kung-fu their cannons.
Carol: Let's do it!
Milla: It's time to be brave!

Jiang River[]

Aqua Tunnel[]

Milla: What are you gonna do to me?
Neera: Relax. It's dishonorable to hurt small children.
Neera: Follow me.

Jade Creek Outskirts[]

Spade: I'm not doing the buddy-buddy thing with you. As soon as we're in, I'm flying solo.
Carol: Whatever you say, pal.

Battle Glacier[]

Lilac: Uh, excuse me...
Gong: You're alive?
Lilac: Of course! I was the one who led that dragon here.
Carol: And guess what, Mayor Zao? Lilac said that the invaders have a lot of treasure on their ship!
Zao: Of course! Hear this, my friends! There's treasure to be won from this battle! Even if you don't fight for freedom, fight for wealth! For glory! For everlasting chow mein!

(while the heroes go riding into battle)

Zao: Gyaah!
Gong: It's an ambush! Keep moving! We'll hold them off!
Zao: You better! Alright. While you're driving my tank, I only have two rules... Aim, and fire!

(Boss fight)

Dail: It seems that I have underestimated your strength. Not this time!
Lilac: Do your worst!
Torque: We've beaten you before and we'll do it again!
Carol: Yeah, what are you gonna do? Throw robots at us? Giant robots with lasers in their buttcheeks maybe?
Lilac: Carol, you jinxed us!
Carol: So did you and Torque!
Milla: Is anyone else feeling a little scared right now?

(After defeating Dail's Shade Beast)

Milla: LOOK OUT!

(Scene between the heroes & Spade)

Carol: Y'know, for once I'm actually glad to see you show up.

Final Dreadnought 3[]

Brevon: Remove the device!
Lilac: Milla!
Brevon: I won't ask you again. Throw it to me!
Brevon: Just like I said... right in harm's way.
Lilac: Let her go!
Brevon: Let her go? Hmm... What do you think about that, little one?
Lilac: Milla, it's gonna be okay! Listen to me!
Brevon: I bet she doesn't like you very much now!
Brevon: Go on, then. Show your friends just how angry you are!

(after the fight against Mutant Milla)

Lilac: Milla, I... You need to understand. I didn't mean to... I'm sorry, Milla. I'm so sorry...
Lilac: crying sounds

Ending Scenes[]

Torque: C'mon! Lilac!
Lilac: The stone!
Torque: We're out of time!
Lilac: But our world won't survive without it! Take Milla and go! I'll catch up!
Carol: I gotta help her!
Carol: No no no NO!!
Torque: We'll blast our way through it! To the ship!

(later scene after the Kingdom Stone's new form was revealed)

Carol: Hmm...
Carol: Brevon still got your tongue?
Lilac: Do you think he was telling the truth? About trying to save his homeworld and all?
Carol: I don't know, but, if he was, then, well, we showed him how it was done.
Lilac: Yeah...
Carol: Hey... Who's a grumpy little Lilac? Who's a gwumpy little Wiwac?
Lilac: Hey! Thanks.

(before Torque's rocket lifts off)

Torque: It's funny... I'll be taking off exactly where I crashed in the first place.

(after Torque's rocket leaves)

Lilac: Aww, don't worry girls. We'll get Space Cooties back here someday.
Carol: Yeah.

Enemy Changes[]

Over the course of some Beta/Pre-release Demos seen, there have been numerous enemy design changes as well:

Character	Description
	It appears to be an old design of an Axle Turret. Interestingly this one is programmed into Jade Creek, despite never appearing there in the Final Build.
	Old coloration of a Dragonfly enemy seen in the August prototype build.
	What appears to be an old variation of a BuoyBuoy enemy.
	An older (possibly unfinished) design of an Extractor enemy. It appears to be in pieces.
	Older coloration of a Hopper enemy.
	Old sprite of an Iris enemy.
	Older design of a Pushup enemy.
	Beta design of a Shade Elite enemy.
	Old design of a Slug enemy.
	Old design of Terreon, unlike the final design this one appears to simply be a recolor of Cacteon.
	Old sprite of Bullfrag, strangely loaded in Sky Battalion in old builds such as 1.5.0.

Shang Mu Mercenary[]

An enemy character labeled as Shang Mu Mercenary appears in a few Prerelease screenshots of Freedom Planet, primarily the early beta/demos where he is seen driving a plane and the Shang Mu Caravan. Unlike most other scrapped characters this one has quite a few sprites associated with it such as running and piloting animations. It is also currently unknown if Shang Mu Mercenary was the character's actual in-game name around the time of its development. The Shang Mu Mercenary naturally resembles a another scrapped character (see below) and a Shade enemy, most notably the Shuigang enemy pilots. Eventually the planes the Mercenary piloted were replaced with the Shuigang Helicopters seen in the final, however the original plane object remained in the game and was changed to use a placeholder sprite.

Sprites[]

Miscellaneous[]

Sprite Changes[]

Besides the aforementioned sprites above, some sprites were completely changed in later builds and releases:

The Girls' drowning animations have been changed numerous times. In Beta 1.2 build, players can still move the drowned characters, causing glitches. In Beta 1.4 build, the moving glitch was fixed. Additionally, Lilac/Carol would make produce a sound effect similar to the Sonic-stlye of games. Starting with Version 1.15.5, drowning animations (as well as the previously mentioned sound effect) have been removed completely, though why the removal remains unclear. When the character in play drowns, an instant kill flag is triggered, thus defeating the character instantly (similar to Final Dreadnought 2).

In version 1.20.2, Milla's swimming animation has been significantly altered to less resemble her running animation.

Starting at around version 1.21.4, Mayor Zao's sprites received more solid shading (see Zao/Gallery#Sprites).

The Sprite for the Planet of Avalice originally had more land. Sometime during the final build's release, an extra landmass was removed from the sprite itself.
- Coincidentally, Freedom Planet 2 introduces a new area called Parusa, which is an island chain located some distance away from the other Three Kingdoms of Avalice.

Gameplay Changes[]

During development many gameplay elements were changed or scrapped, such as:

Crystals initially healed the player when the energy meter was maxed out, this however proved to be too complicated and was replaced with Rings (and later Petals) healing the player.
Builds prior 1.4.0 had a mechanic where the most collected type of 5 collected keystones would determine which type of shield would be given, this however was removed as it often worked against the player.
Builds prior 1.2 had a shield swapping mechanic, this was however removed to expand on player combat.
After 1.1 and before 1.4 there was plans for a mechanic where collecting a key stone of every type would grant the player invincibility, this however ended up scrapped before even being implemented, most likely due to being nearly impossible to achieve.
At one point hitting a runestone would drop keystones if the player hit or rolled into it, a leftover of this mechanic can be found in the SAGE demo.
A lot of moves such as the Cyclone, Wild Kick or Dual Crash didn't exist in builds prior 1.3, due to the previously mentioned shield swapping mechanic taking up the hotkey for those attacks.
Initially a health bar was shown during boss battles, this however was removed to make bosses feel more organic.

Items[]

Monitors[]

Some monitors icons received overhauls or were just completely unused. In order starting left scrolling:

Crystal, Petals, Fire shield, Lightning shield.
Water Shield, Invincible, Energy Power-up, 1-up (Lilac).
Empty (possibly Carol 1-up), Leaf Shield, Earth Shield, Keystone.
Yen, Chicken, Empty, Blank

In the August 4th prototype, all monitor power-ups were finalized, but not their shape. Eventually, the five shield power-ups and the invincibility were redesigned in the final release. The Crystal Box was completely reshaped differently from the others.

Potions[]

Potions can be found, but are ultimately unused. There are five total, and each potion color corresponds to a Shield Crystal of the matching color. Interestingly, the concept idea is reused for Freedom Planet 2.

Leftover Objects[]

A handful of leftover objects remains^[14]:

Object	Description
	Text found within the list of Stage names. Unknown purpose, but possibly for DLC content?
	Stage Select icon for Relic Maze. This stage is unavailable in the pre-release versions, so the icon ultimately goes unused.
	A signpost (spinning). These objects were never used at all.
	These unused sprites of the signpost would have shown who completed the stage (Shows Lilac in her old design).
	A Basketball with accompanying Hoop. Data suggests they belongs in the Shang Mu Academy.
	An unused Question Mark icon from the scrapped Shang Tu Dojo Stage. Would likely have been used to show enemies needed to unlock.
	A Red Plane seen in the August 2012 Prototype.

PlayStation Vita and Android Ports[]

Strife considered making an Android port of the game but decided to save up money to port the game to PlayStation Vita, which sadly never released. However though, eventually there would be a PlayStation 4 port of the game.^[15]