I lost my friend because of a Sonic fan game.

Me and Jacob were very big Sonic fans, and after Jacob graduated college for game design and programming, he decided to make a Sonic fan game. Development started 2 weeks after he had graduated, and he was calling the fan game Sonic Overpowered, and it was about Sonic rescuing Tails after Dr. Eggman kidnapped him, sort of like the plot of Sonic 2 for the Game Gear.

Jacob was developing the game in Unity, using the Bumper Engine, which is a Sonic fan game engine for Unity if you don’t know what it is. I helped him playtest it on weekends whenever he finished a level, I would tell him what could be better about it, such as enemy placement, platform placement, things like that. Jacob would always manage to improve the level based off my feedback, he was smart like that.

One day as I was watching TV, until Jacob had messaged me on Discord.

“Hey Carl(my name,) this guy messaged me through email about my Sonic fan game.”

“What did he say?” I asked/

He sent me a screenshot of the email.

“Hello, in the demo you released for Sonic Overpowered I noticed you were using Roger Craig Smith voice clips for Sonic, please remove these and use one of the other voice actors.”

I scoffed, it must’ve been some Jason Griffith or Ryan Drummond fanboy. With a smirk on my face I messaged Jacob back.

“I’d say ignore him, he’s really not worth your time.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I’ll tell you if anything comes up at all, talk to you later man.”

I set my phone aside and continued watching TV, thinking that was the end of it, however as more weeks passed by and as Jacob continued to update his followers more and more about the game’s progress, the emailer was harassing him in the comments of the Gamejolt page. Saying things like “Change the voice clips, now,” or “Change it or I will make you change it.”

Jacob was getting annoyed by this, luckily Jacob and I, as well as some of the followers reported the commenter. Soon he had been banned, and his comments were deleted. What happens next still makes me tear up from grief. Sometime after the commenter had been banned, Jacob told me that he had gotten a phone call from the guy, stating that he knew Jacob’s address and shit, it really shook him up.

I told Jacob that he should report him to the police, I mean, this was getting straight up ridiculous! He was threatening my friend over a goddamn Sonic fan game, over the voice lines used for Sonic when he performed actions like the homing attack or spindash. Over the last 5 months, Jacob had gotten the police to search for the guy who knew his personal information, they kept him up to date on what they were doing, but they usually came up with nothing.

They managed to trace the guy's phone number, but he wasn't at his house, the police described the way his house was left as if he was in a rush to leave. Drawers were pulled out and left over food was spilled out on the kitchen floor, it was obvious; the man had fled.

Long after Jacob reported the guy to the authorities, and as I was in a Discord call with him, I heard a very loud thud from his end.

“Did you hear that?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be right back, I gotta go check it out.”

Jacob placed his ear buds down and left his room, what I heard next left me pale as a ghost. I heard Jacob screaming, glass shattering, and grunts from a struggle.

“Jacob? Jacob!?” I yelled his name in fear and desperation, but he couldn’t hear me. Soon, everything fell quiet, until I heard footsteps slowly come to his computer. I heard a hand grip Jacob’s computer mouse, and end the call. That was the day I lost my friend because of a Sonic fan game. The police did manage to find the guy, but I still really miss Jacob. At least that man can't hurt anyone else now.