>Dream Team: Lumina Flowlight, Void, NiGHTS, Reala, Ariem. These are characters from Sonic Shuffle, NiGHTS Into Dreams, and Sonic Dream Team, for that sweet cross promotion with a recently released game. They're all dream-themed games, and these are characters who only exist in dreams, and their Chao and Garden can have theming that reflects that.
>Fang's Gang: Fang, Bean, Bark, Rough, Tumble. These characters have been associated with Fang in recent Sonic the Hedgehog comics. They're secondary antagonists. Hooligans. Their Chao and Gardens reflect their mischievous nature.
>Diamond Cutters: Tangle, Whisper, Lanolin, Jewel, Belle. Characters who are a team in recent Sonic comics, some of whom have been featured in recent mobile games. Cross media synergy.
>Team Hench-Bot: Dr. Starline, Orbot, Cubot. Eggman's sidekicks in recent games, and in recent comics. Starline is a comic exclusive character, but other characters from his series have been used in recent mobile games.
>Team Echidna: Tikal, Chaos 0, Pachacmac
>Team Nocturnus: Shade, Emerl, Gemerl (the last two are the same character but that doesn't matter. You could sell him twice even though it's just a different color palette).
>Team Surge: Surge, Kit, Mimic. Recent characters from the comics. Other characters from their series are in recent mobile games. Surge and Kit are evil Sonic and Tails. Mimic doesn't have much to do with them, but whatever.
>If we can convince Sega to allow use of more cross-media characters, much more money can be made, with teams (and Gardens that reflect their series of origin) such as...
>SSSSS Squad: Scratch, Grounder, Coconuts, Snivley, Sleet, Dingo, Bocoe, Decoe
>The Freedom Fighters: Sally, Rotor, Antoine, Bunnie, Nicole, Dulcy, Uncle Chuck.
>The Sonic Underground: Manic, Sonia, Aleena, Bartleby.
>The Warriors: Tom, Maddie, Wade, maybe Chris Thorndyke and Grampa Chuck
>Team UK: Johnny Lightfoot, Porker Lewis, Shortfuse, Tekno
>Teams from each of the different universes from Sonic Prime. Throw in Sticks since she doesn't belong anywhere else.
>The Suppression Squad: Scourge, Miles, Alicia, Patch, Boomer. Sega might be nervous about this one, due to a certain litigious former employee. But they might also be in the mood to asset authority over characters who are literally just evil versions of their own characters. A certain segment of the internet would give lots of free advertising if this happened.
>Other characters/teams can also be added to cross-promote other Sega games. For example:
>Team Sega: Beat (Jet Set Radio), Kiryu (Like a Dragon), Axel (Crazy Taxi)
>Or perhaps whole teams for individual Sega franchises, if that's what Sega prefers.
>This is a very non-exhaustive list of characters. New characters can be added to previously existing Teams, but new Teams can just be made up whenever, and each can be a selling point.
>In the original Chao Garden games, you could make Chao that look like Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Chaos, and Nights. Here that can be expanded to more characters.
>Getting a Chao to be of a certain Team can be one prerequisite to making a Chao that looks like a particular character, to encourage use of more characters.
>More Trainers can be unlocked by completing challenges, such as Chao Races, visiting certain locations at certain times, breeding/training a certain type of chao, etc.
>Of course, you can also pay a microtransaction if you want.
>The effects of Trainers aren't just visual, but also statistical.
>If Sonic is the assigned trainer, then Chao you interact with will get some extra Speed EXP when you give them items, but perhaps would receive less Swim EXP than usual, for example. Different trainers impact different stats differently.
>But appeal to the fan dedication by being careful about it. For example, E-102 Gamma could interact with Chao in Sonic Adventure, but died at the end of the game (and became a bird). Gamma is in the game, but as a bird. The bird doesn't talk. Fans will talk positively about that on the internet and give you free marketing.
>Be sure to give all the characters unique dialogue. Even if it's only text, fans love that. It will get the internet talking.
>Characters who are "Small Animals" or are themselves Chao, aren't trainers, but are utilized differently.
>This includes Gamma and Beta (who are birds now), Birdie (Sonic Adventure), Birdie (Boscage Maze, Sonic Prime), Froggy, Omochao, Cheese, Chocola, and perhaps more.
>You can assign them to different Chao Gardens, and they supervise and train Chao when you aren't directly interacting with them. Leave Froggy in a Chao Garden and those Chao will get a passive gradual boost to their Swim stat, for example. Gamma boosts Fly and Pow (Fly moreso), while Beta boosts Pow and Fly (Pow moreso).
>Everything builds up to Chao Races.
>There are two types of Chao Races. The first is just the simple type from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, where you watch the creature you raised, but don't really interact very directly during the race.
>The second type of Chao Race is actually the player racing. Players can face challenges which are essentially time trials, asking them to move a certain distance in a certain time.
>Special races can be begun by going to certain locations, akin to Poke Stops in Pokemon Go. These locations tell you the best times of people who began races at that location, so you're essentially racing against them. Those races can give better bonuses.
>To be clear, these are real races. Players are actually running and checking their best times. Different races can be set up for sprinting and long distance.
>Players are asked their age at the beginning of the game, and this impacts their standards for races, so kids aren't just getting beaten by adults.
>Perhaps other factors can be considered, with optional information given by the player, such as height and weight. This is marketed as a Fitness tracker function, tracking estimated burned calories, for example.
>When you play a race, you choose a Chao to play as.The Chao's stats then impact your races. You get bonuses to your in-game speed depending on the Chao's stats and your location.
>Equip a chao with a higher Swim stat and the game acts as if you're running faster when near a body of water, or in precipitation.
>Higher speed stat only helps in completely neutral conditions and locations.
>Climb stat helps on inclines.
>Fly helps in areas with curved pathways, or offroad locations.[Expand Post]
>Stamina affects all Chao. Whenever you're doing a race with a Chao equipped, the stamina bar lowers. When it runs out the bonuses turn off until the Chao's stamina recovers.
>All of these AR Races give significant rewards compared to Classic Chao Races and simple exploration, so as to encourage this otherwise more physically taxing challenge. Even if you get a very low rank compared to other players, you are rewarded relatively significantly just for trying.
>Chao Karate can also be included. Fitting that in with the AR elements might be harder, but making it work exactly as in Sonic Adventure 2 would be fine.
>It can be made multiplayer by having your Chao fight other Chao who can be left at special locations, again like Pokemon Gyms in Pokemon Go.
>This does not preclude single-player Chao Karate against AI opponents, which can be done anywhere.
>I can't yet think of how to include player movement more directly in Chao Karate, but we should consider how that may be accomplished.
>Other Chao minigames akin to Racing and Karate can be incorporated. More can even be added to the game post-release.
>Perhaps players can also challenge others to Chao Karate, and maybe even Chao Races, in the area in a proximity-based system.
>This system can also be used to trade items.
Fans have been clamoring for a Chao Garden for decades. Everything in it can be paid for with MTX. It's the perfect monkey's paw.