I don't know how to write a post here without restating what everyone else here has already said (and what I myself have said in other news threads), but I've been persuaded to anyway because bread warmers make for extremely nice people, so here's the most original thing I can think of.
I don't have a nostalgic attachment to this game—I'm 18 years old and I've only had the game since about 2.1.11 or so, but even then I didn't really start playing it regularly until September of 2016. That's just about a year and a half of SRB2. Compared to the majority, I'm an extremely recent member of the community—and yet today I somehow find myself deeply intertwined with it. I spend a lot of time (admittedly more than I should) chatting with many other players on Discord and creating my own modifications—often doing both at once by means of collaboration projects. (As a side note, about a week from today will mark exactly 1 year since I started Lua scripting for this game). Honestly I don't know whether that's healthy for me or not, but I definitely don't regret letting this game take over my life. It's amazing to be a part of such a dedicated and creative community, and I've learnt so much from it. SRB2 and its fanbase motivates me to create things I never thought I would get to make. If 10-year-old me knew that he'd be able to program characters for a Sonic game in the future, he'd go flippin' nuts.
All this is to say that SRB2 is quite literally a work of art. 2.2 is such a big milestone not only because of the absolute marvel of a project it's turning out to be, but also because of the way in which it touches its players. Your hard work is inspiring to us, not in the least to me, and in my opinion that's one of the greatest achievements anybody can make. It's weird saying that about a Sonic fan game, of all things—but if my life can be impacted so much by SRB2 in as little as a year, I can't imagine what significance it holds to its long time players.
I don't have a nostalgic attachment to this game—I'm 18 years old and I've only had the game since about 2.1.11 or so, but even then I didn't really start playing it regularly until September of 2016. That's just about a year and a half of SRB2. Compared to the majority, I'm an extremely recent member of the community—and yet today I somehow find myself deeply intertwined with it. I spend a lot of time (admittedly more than I should) chatting with many other players on Discord and creating my own modifications—often doing both at once by means of collaboration projects. (As a side note, about a week from today will mark exactly 1 year since I started Lua scripting for this game). Honestly I don't know whether that's healthy for me or not, but I definitely don't regret letting this game take over my life. It's amazing to be a part of such a dedicated and creative community, and I've learnt so much from it. SRB2 and its fanbase motivates me to create things I never thought I would get to make. If 10-year-old me knew that he'd be able to program characters for a Sonic game in the future, he'd go flippin' nuts.
All this is to say that SRB2 is quite literally a work of art. 2.2 is such a big milestone not only because of the absolute marvel of a project it's turning out to be, but also because of the way in which it touches its players. Your hard work is inspiring to us, not in the least to me, and in my opinion that's one of the greatest achievements anybody can make. It's weird saying that about a Sonic fan game, of all things—but if my life can be impacted so much by SRB2 in as little as a year, I can't imagine what significance it holds to its long time players.