Friday, November 08, 2013

Crash Bandicoot 1 - Iguana

Dated from March 1995 these sketches were part of the early development of the Crash Bandicoot franchise when it was still originally Willy the Wombat. We were in a phase of developing additional secondary characters. I was thinking distinct personality but Naughty Dog wanted straight out simple creatures representative of what we'd see in nature for the most part. This was what I came up with for an iguana. Initially starting out as a punk biker thug and then winding up as a straight forward animal. I don't think this has been published before. Something for the Crash historians.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazing discoveries, I don't have much to say other than thank you so much for all this! So many characters that never saw the light of day, I wonder why ND never used them in future installements. I guess that Crash 1 had enough bosses, but why don't use them in other games like Crash 2 and 3?

Matt said...

I am guessing the Iguana only made an appearance in Crash 2 during the level Unbearable? I could be wrong but that is the only time I can remember seeing them.

SimplyMark said...

Oh that's cool!
Could have been a nice fit in the bike levels of the third sequel.

Unknown said...

Very nice i love the lines of the Iguana resting.

Charles Z said...

I don't know why the character wasn't used guys. In development there's always something that doesn't get through or is changed from its original concept and intent. I didn't think much of the drawing as I wasn't too inspired at this point for some reason. It may have been that I was feeling uncomfortable with the direction I was getting from ND. In any case I'm glad you're enthusiastic about it.

GStick said...

The iguana WAS used though. In the intro video for the game there's a cage labeled "IGUANA", probably a reference to your initial drawing. And in certain levels of the game there are iguanas on all fours that crawl around. There are also iguanas on two legs that jump around.

Intro video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO_nEhqykvc

Iguana: http://youtu.be/1Lv4U_BqzTA?t=1m24s

Charles Z said...

There ya go! Thanks for the links GStick. I was referring to the use of the anthropomorphic characters I was initially developing. Not the natural versions of the characters. In any case the videos are helpful so thanks again.