Here's a couple more drawings of Coco Bandicoot and Pura from the development of Crash 3. They're dated January 29 1998. These are xerox copies. The originals are online but placing these images here on the blog helps to keep the presentation and historical archiving of Crash art going. This completes the collection of concept drawings featuring Coco and Pura in each other's company.
I remember these from the original site. Great concepts.
ReplyDeleteHere I think Pura looks more like a male for sure.
ReplyDeleteAh, the ones from the ND site.
ReplyDeleteSo Charles, Naughty Dog must've kept the original copies (the ones I posted before) and you have the xerox copies, huh? Smart thinkin'!
I made quick copies at the end of the day so I could have a record of what I did. It was a good idea in retrospect. At least I have something to reference from this phase of Crash.
ReplyDeleteWhat contributes to the uncertainty of Pura is the character's name. It was simply a tiger cub that I was designing at the time. "Pura" has more of feminine sensibilty to it and that affected gender perception.
Hey Charles, do you have drawings of Coco on her jet ski? I would like to see them.
ReplyDeleteHey Charles, this little interview popped up today about how ND risen to fame. Thought you might wanna take a look:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-25-the-rise-of-naughty-dog-part-1
Now this is interesting Charles, when ND announced that they wouldn't renew the developing licenses for Crash, Universal went out of their way by treating them like crap. How they did it was that they wouldn't pay of the AC and ND suffered the extreme temperatures of LA why working in Universal's HQ.
As I recall Charles, you said you enjoyed working in the high rises of Universal HQ when developing Crash 3. Did Universal treated you differently than ND was treated?
Hi David. I don't have anything with Coco and her jet ski. I don't think I worked on it. That was something ND came up with.
ReplyDeletePat, thanks for the link. I'll follow up after I read the interview.
You didn't work on the jet ski? So who did it? I thought you are the only designer who designed all the things that ND came up with. Can you find the drawings of Coco on the jet ski or ask the person who made them and upload them in your blog? And also, do you have more skecthces of Coco and Crash for the development of Crash 3?
ReplyDeleteI have drawings of Crash and Coco from Crash 3 that I'll be following up with soon.
ReplyDeleteI don't have images of Coco with her jet ski. I don't know who came up with it at ND. Probably Bob Rafei. I haven't been in touch with anyone from ND in years. I suggest contacting those guys on your own and maybe they can provide the images you're looking for. Good luck!
Pat I read the interview at the link you provided. I learned a lot about how ND came to be. Much of that info I hadn't heard before. What I did know slightly contradicts what Jason said. Both contradictory versions come from Jason and that's the problem I have. I don't know what is the truth and what is propaganda or spin.
ReplyDeleteFrom my own experience I tend to question what he says in public. I lost trust in his version of things a long time ago.
As far as how Universal and Naughty Dog got along at the end of their relationship I can't say. I know that their crew always worked long hours to get a quality game produced. They got bonuses as well for the hard work they put in. Not from Universal but from ND.
My feeling is that ND and Universal were made for each other. They had a lot in common, not the least of which was a shared dysfunction of some sort. I don't know why ND left. I had the feeling they wanted to prove to the world they were grown up and didn't need Universal. As far as Universal goes, from my experience with them, I felt they could have done much more with Crash than what they did. The property was not handled as well as it could have been and that goes for ND as well.
Also, I would really like to get Universal's story on what happened. I think it would help in determining what went on at that time.
In any case, ND's success was due in large part to the people who helped them at the start of their grand projects. Namely Joe Pearson and myself and other individuals at Universal. With Jak and Daxter they were desperate to get things going and bring in Sony which is where I came in and contributed greatly to saving their skin.
Anything I read about the success of ND I view with an entirely different perspective since I was there and witnessed what was going on at the inception of their projects. The one essential element that ND always lacked while under the control of Jason and Andy was the ability to create and develop their own character based marquis properties in house. They didn't have an art development team in house and both properties, Crash and J&D, had to be created by artists they contracted who were not officially employees of ND. That's a significant aspect of a video game company's success. The ability to create. ND under Jason and Andy never had the internal resource to come up with original compelling design. That part of their operation had to be outsourced.
Meanwhile I'm looking forward to part 2 of the interview. I'm interested to get his take on the purchase of ND by Sony in 2001 and why the principals of ND were let go in 2004. Let me know when it's published if you would please. Thanks for letting me know about this.
Here's part 2 Charles, it mainly details about Jak and Uncharted:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-28-the-rise-of-naughty-dog-part-2
Charles, I tought that you and Joe Parson were the only people who worked in the design of the Crash games; you in the characters and Joe in the environments. Now you tell me that there were other people who were involved in the design of the game and made drawings like Bob Rafei. So, how many people actually worked and made drawings like you did for the Crash games of the ND era? Speaking of Bob Rafei, I went to his web site to find pictures of Coco on her jet ski, but I only found pictures of environments for the levels of Crash 2, 3 and Team Racing. He only made characters in Team Racing, he created Oxide. Just take a look: http://www.bobrafei.com/home.htm
ReplyDeleteI tought that Joe Parson made the environments of the levels, but now I found that Bob made them, so what did Joe do exactly? I think that Joe did the environments just for the first Crash game, isn't that right? And whose are the other guys that I can contact with? Give me their e-mails, web sites or Facebook acounts (don't give me Twitter acounts because I don't use Twitter) or anything else if you can, so I can talk to them and ask them the images I'm looking for. If you don't mind.
Personal email addresses are not something I give out. I don't know their addresses anyway. Try contacting Naughty Dog for Bob Rafei and Tripod Entertainment for Joe Pearson.
ReplyDeleteJoe and I created Crash from the ground up. By the later games Bob Rafei started getting involved on small things after Crash 3. Mostly on Team Racing. I didn't work on Crash for ND after Crash 3. Bob was my student in character design after that on two occasions at my school prior to Jak and Daxter.
Thanks for the link to the second part of the interview Pat.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe some of what he says. I know him and his methods too well. Some of what he describes is in contradiction to what I heard years ago when it was happening. I think there wasn't a will on Sony's part to keep him on after his contract expired in 2004. My feeling is that he's making it seem like it was his decision to leave. If that's the case then why did he go on a campaign that year arguing that creative people in gaming don't get the credit they deserve. If the face of what I and others experienced with him on Crash and also on J&D it was quite absurd.
Informative interview none the less. Maybe everyone can put it all to rest now. Good luck to him.
Thanks for sharing all this information with us Charles. Looks like Jason was the one that caused the more controversy at ND at the time you worked with them.
ReplyDelete