Developer Axanery has resurfaced with an update on a long-running project called Gateway Sonic, a framework aimed at making it easier to create fully standalone classic Sonic fangames. According to the developer, the project has been in active development for around three years and is intended to provide creators with a solid foundation for building complete games rather than small demos or engine experiments.
Gateway Sonic is built on the Hatch Engine, a modern 2D engine that is often mistakenly associated with Sonic Mania. While Sonic Mania runs on Christian Whitehead’s proprietary Retro Engine, Hatch is a separate, standalone engine developed within the fangame and indie scene. It is designed to support classic Sonic–style gameplay while offering more modern tooling, flexible rendering, and support for distributing self-contained games instead of mods or ROM hacks.
No public release date or download has been announced yet, but interest within the Sonic fangame community is already building. If Gateway Sonic delivers on its goals, it could significantly lower the technical barrier for developers looking to create full classic Sonic fangames without having to build an engine from scratch.