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Sonic Mania > Guides > Aemony's Guides
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Access the Developer Menu & Debug Mode
By Aemony
Guide on how to access the developer menu and debug mode of Sonic Mania.
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Created by
Aemony
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Category: Modding or Configuration
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
29 Aug, 2017 @ 4:55pm
28 Mar, 2023 @ 9:26am
15,508 Unique Visitors
332 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
Introduction 
Developer Menu 
└ Menu Overview 
Debug Mode 
Turbo Mode 
Slow Mode (aka 1 frame per step) 
Advanced 
├ Reset all progress (save file wipe) 
└ Settings.ini parameters 
Comments
Introduction
This is a simple guide for how to unlock the developer menu (the "Dev Menu") within Sonic Mania.


Developer Menu
Instructions on how to access the developer menu of Sonic Mania.

  1. Open the folder used to store game settings:

    Steam:
    1. Navigate to the folder of the game by locating the game in the Steam Library, right-clicking on it, and selecting Manage > Browse local files.

        You can also click on the cog wheel to the far right of the Play button, and then Manage > Browse local files.

    Epic Games:
    1. Open the Run window of Windows by hitting WinKey+R, or by searching on it in the search of the taskbar/start menu.

    2. Within the Run window, type in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Sega\SonicMania and hit Enter or OK.

  2. The game folder where settings are stores should now be opened.

  3. Within the folder you will find a Settings.ini file. Open this file in Notepad by double-clicking on it. Other text editors will also work.

      If the file is missing the you have to launch the game once and then close it again. Doing so should create the file.

  4. Within the file locate the line that says [Game]. Add a new line just below it and write the following:
    devMenu=y

    • If done correctly you should have a couple of lines that looks like this:
      [Game] devMenu=y language=0

  5. Save and close the file.

  6. Launch the game.

  7. Click Escape anywhere to access the Developer Menu and use it to spoil yourself about everything the game includes. Please note that for progress to be saved you'll have to first have loaded a saved game before using the menu to jump to other stages.

      Warning: The developer menu uses F12 for its Slow Mode functionality. The Steam Screenshot feature bound to F12 will not function while the developer menu is enabled in Settings.ini. A workaround is to rebind the Steam Screenshot feature to another key (e.g. F10, +, Numpad +, or wherever works best for you).

└ Menu Overview
These are the options available in the Dev Menu:

Option
Description
Resume
Resumes the game (aka closes the Dev Menu)
Restart
Restarts the current "stage" you're on.
Stage Select
Lets you jump around between all the stages that makes up the game.
Options
Lets you access video/audio settings and rebind controls.
Exit
Terminates the game.

Stage Select
Please note that stages refers to basically everything within the game, not just the stages available in Mania Mode. So even the Main Menu is a "stage" in the Dev Menu.



Stages are separated into various categories:

Category
Description
Presentation
Main Menu and everything that includes.
Media Demo
Stages used for Media events.
Warning: trying to access bonus/special levels in these stages crashes the game!
Mania Mode
The main game mode of Sonic Mania.
Special Stage
"Catch The Ufo" bonus stages.
Blue Spheres
"Get Blue Spheres" bonus stages.
Extra Stages
Puyo Puyo - Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine mini-game[en.wikipedia.org].
D.A. Garden - "Music mode," access and play various tracks from the game.
Cutscenes
Access the various in-game cutscenes of the game.
Videos
Access the various FMV cutscenes of the game.

Debug Mode
Instructions on how to access the debug mode of Sonic Mania.
  1. Open the developer menu.

  2. Navigate to Stage Select -> Presentation -> Level Select and select a level of your choice.

  3. When the level have loaded, click on Q to enter the debug mode. This is signified by the character turning into a golden ring.

Keybindings

Keyboard
Controller
Action
Q
X
Toggle debug mode
A
A
Cycle through objects
S
B
Cycle through types of boxes (only when the box object is selected)
W
Y
Spawn an instance of the object

Turbo Mode
Hold down Backspace while outside of the Developer Menu to enable turbo mode, basically fast-foward the game a ton.

This can be used even during the intro sequence of the game to skip straight to the main menu.

Slow Mode (aka 1 frame per step)
While in-game with the Developer Menu closed, click on F12 (or Pause) to enable this mode. If done correctly the game will "pause", albeit the music continues as usual.

Now, use F11 (or Insert) to step forward one frame at a time. Hold down the key to step forward continuously until you let go of the key.

Advanced
Advanced guides and stuff generally not recommended. These are only here to easily link to if necessary.

├ Reset all progress (save file wipe)
This will reset your save file completely. Be sure to back up your save file before doing this!

  1. Launch the game and leave it on the main menu.

    This is to ensure that the new save overwrites the one stored in the Steam Cloud

  2. Switch back to Windows while the game is running (e.g. by using Alt+Tab).

  3. Navigate to the following folder:
    Steam\userdata\[YOUR UNIQUE steamID3]\584400\remote

  4. Back up SaveData.bin in a place of your choosing. This is your current save file and you'll need it if any issues occur.

  5. Download the following file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wkib456bsevssiv/SaveData.bin?dl=0

  6. Move the downloaded file to the save folder you located, and overwrite the existing SaveData.bin when asked to.

  7. Close the running game. Steam will now automatically upload the clean save file to Steam Cloud.

  8. Launch the game again. All progress should now be wiped.

└ Settings.ini parameters
Here's a bunch of parameters Settings.ini recognizes.

Legend
Format: Section:Parameter
Example: "Game:devMenu" =>
[Game] devMenu=y

%d refers to decimal numbers (0-9)
%s refers to a string.

Parameters

Game:language Game:dataFile Game:devMenu Video:windowed Video:border Video:exclusiveFS Video:vsync Video:tripleBuffering Video:pixWidth Video:winWidth Video:winHeight Video:fsWidth Video:fsHeight Video:refreshRate Video:shaderSupport Video:screenShader Audio:streamsEnabled Audio:streamVolume Audio:sfxVolume GamePad Map %d Keyboard Map 1:up Keyboard Map 1:down Keyboard Map 1:left Keyboard Map 1:right Keyboard Map 1:buttonA Keyboard Map 1:buttonB Keyboard Map 1:buttonC Keyboard Map 1:buttonX Keyboard Map 1:buttonY Keyboard Map 1:buttonZ Keyboard Map 1:start Keyboard Map %d:up Keyboard Map %d:down Keyboard Map %d:left Keyboard Map %d:right Keyboard Map %d:buttonA Keyboard Map %d:buttonB Keyboard Map %d:buttonC Keyboard Map %d:buttonX Keyboard Map %d:buttonY Keyboard Map %d:buttonZ Keyboard Map %d:start Keyboard Map %d:select GamePad Map %d:name GamePad Map %d:icon GamePad Map %d:vendorID GamePad Map %d:productID GamePad Map %d:mappingTypes GamePad Map %d:offsets GamePad Map %d:maskVals

And yes, that means you might be able to rebind the gamepad keys if you figure out the bindings of it, and take vendorID and productID from Windows' Device Manager.

135 Comments
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Valfe™ 4 Jun @ 10:54am 
its works! ty for that:steamthumbsup:
Bowser78820 30 Apr @ 1:29pm 
how do you do it for origins
joegamingdud 9 Mar @ 10:55am 
sonicmanoia
joegamingdud 9 Mar @ 10:54am 
sonicmania
joegamingdud 9 Mar @ 10:54am 
s9
SnakeFist 9 Jan @ 8:37am 
Up, Down, Left, Right at the main menu when sonic is waving his finger.

Oh wait that is for sonic 1 my bad.
SonicX 31 Aug, 2023 @ 8:52am 
sonic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SonicX 31 Aug, 2023 @ 8:52am 
cool
Aemony  [author] 28 Mar, 2023 @ 9:27am 
@Kebipo: A year and a half later, but thanks for mentioning Epic's location. I've added it to the guide. :)
SSOS 26 Mar, 2023 @ 9:09pm 
TYSM, imma never miss a special stage again