Crash was about being frantic, but at the same time relatively free of frustration (although some Crash 1 levels were too hard). Every pile of boxes, every set of enemies, was carefully placed to try and build a rhythmic pulse to the gameplay. We tried very hard to make every level and every segment of every level evenly paced, addictive, and engaging. Post Naughty Dog Crash games fall down not only in being too goofy, but in gameplay and balance. For me, He’s like the hot high school girlfriend who put on 50 pounds. I don’t pay much attention to recent Crash games. What do you make of Crash Bandicoot today? Are you sad that he’s gone from PlayStation Icon to yesterday’s mascot? ( Maybe also talk about your opinion of non-Naughty Dog Crash endeavours, did they fail?) It’s thematically very different, but the same kind of self-referential meta-cultural quality is there. Crash has a deliberate touch of post-modernity, not unlike other cult favorites like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Our Crash had a certain whimsical edge to him. Given the current Crash games, people forget that he was once cool. That’s what we did with the original Crash and there is no reason it couldn’t be done today - but it would look every bit as good as early Pixar cartoons. I would concentrate on Loony Tunes style animation and really addictive action oriented gameplay. There are very few (almost none) true platform games being made today and it’s a shame, as the mechanics were really fun. At a gameplay level, it would make sense to use a more modern free-roaming style, ala Banjo-Kazooie, but with state of the art graphics. In that context, one could reprise classic Crash 1 and 2 settings and villains. There is an opportunity to reset the history and go back to his creation story and the original conflict with Cortex. As someone who was there at its creation, how do you think the series could be revitalised?Ĭrash needs a total reboot. Since Crash Bandicoot: Warped, the third title in the franchise and Naughty Dog’s final main instalment in the series, gamers have felt that Crash Bandicoot has lost its magic. Our company, first called JAM Software, was soon renamed to Naughty Dog (1987). We made and published six games before the original Crash Bandicoot. This partnership continued all the way through school and beyond. We sold our first professionally in 1985 (at fifteen). Seeing as I was a great programmer and Jason a great artist (by middle school standards), an instant partnership was formed. This was taken just after Jason & I moved to California in 1994Īt the age of twelve, I met Jason Rubin in class (we were both bored and loved games). It may seem overly ambitious to try and recreate D&D as one’s first program, but you have to make what you love. During lunch I typed in and debugged the game, editing my paper copy as needed. I read this and then wrote out longhand a draft of a text-based RPG where you wandered around and fought orcs and trolls for gold and tretchure (I could program, but I couldn’t spell). We were given a single mimeographed sheet of paper with the BASIC commands. In 1980 my science teacher brought into class a Heathkit H8 her husband built. New video game genres were invented all the time. This was a time when there was tremendous experimentation and creativity going on. I played all the arcade classics as they came out and eagerly pestered my dad for an Atari 2600. I was the right age to catch the first big wave of gaming in the late 70s, early 80s. I grew up in the simultaneously cosmopolitan and suburban area of Northern Virginia (just outside of Washington D.C.). ( growing up, interests, coding background) The below is an interview I did earlier this year: Andrew, give us a bit of background about yourself before the days of Naughty Dog.
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