| |
| 08-94 | The entire staff of Naughty Dog, Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin, move from Boston, Massachusetts to Los Angeles, California. Somewhere near Gary, Indiana, the driving technology behind the Crash Bandicoot series is born. By Colorado, a rough game theory is designed. The previous game design, "Al O. Saurus and Dinestein" based on side scrolling, time traveling, scientists genetically merged with dinosaurs, is thrown out. Andy and Jason are fined heavily for littering. |
| |
| 08-94 | Naughty Dog unpacks in its new offices, the 447 building on Universal Studios' Backlot in Los Angeles. The dogs meet Mark Cerny, then newly installed VP of Universal Interactive Studios. The design is discussed, and agreement to go into production is made. |
| |
| 09-94 | NDI decides to go PlayStation. Sony sends Naughty Dog its first development boxes. They are the size of small refrigerators. Jason starts character design. The Suzanne Somers show starts filming nearby. After dating a member of the staff, Jason manages to get a "Thighmaster" signed by Suzanne herself. |
| |
| 11-94 | Two months into production Naughty Dog hires its first employee: Dave Baggett, a friend of Andy's from MIT. At this point there are more programmers than artists on the project. The average Naughty Dog IQ is at its highest. The softball team is at its worst. |
| |
| 01-95 | Fearing that the programmer/artist ratio is making him smarter, Jason hires two additional artists, Bob Rafei and Taylor Kurosaki. Their first day of work is at CES (the then-big game show) in Las Vegas, and entails attending game industry parties and other "interesting" evening spots in BOTH the city with the lowest moral standards, and the most traveled to family destination, in America. |
| |
| 03-95 | Design of Crash and his pantheon of friends nears completion. Charles Zembillas and Joe Pearson, two professional cartoon designers, meet with the Dogs weekly and together they create the characters we all know so well. Justin Monast and Dan Kollmorgen are added to the team. |
| |
| 04-95 | After returning to Los Angeles, the original five members of Naughty Dog spend three solid months working on the game. Sometime in April, the game becomes functional. It will be a long two months, however, until it becomes playable. |
| |
| 05-95 | Sony unveils the PlayStation at E3 in LA. The world is stunned. This will be the only E3 without a Crash product. The Naughty Dogs vow to bring a project to every subsequent E3. |
| |
| 06-95 | Crash reaches first playable. 10 months into production the first level that will be in the final game begins construction. To this date, it has all been technology. Now, there must be a game. That, of course, will help sales! |
| |
| 07-95 | Naughty Dog moves to bigger and better space in the 488 building on the Universal lot. |
| |
| 08-95 | The first three levels that will be in the final game have been completed. They are judged later to be too difficult to start the game so they end up on the third island, in the power plant. 12 months from the beginning of the game it is obvious to the whole team that Crash Bandicoot will be a hit. But the rest of the world does not yet know what is in store for them. Charlotte Francis joins the team. |
| |
| 09-95 | The curtain of silence is removed. Over a year after production the first videotape of Crash Bandicoot is made. Sony is shown behind closed doors. |
| |
| 11-95 | Sony becomes the first publisher to place their hands on Crash Bandicoot. Many of the levels are completed by now. They are excited by the game's potential. |
| |
| 01-96 | The first "crate" is placed in the game. 16 months after its inception, the primary gameplay element is discovered. Jason, first proponent of the crate, explains the deep logic behind the addition: "people like breaking stuff." The crates and Crash's spinning destruction of said cubes would eventually lead to his name. |
| |
| 03-96 | Sony places its name on the dotted line. They will publish Crash Bandicoot. There are little more than two months for Sony to prepare for E3. As they have then and every time since, they come through with style. |
| |
| 04-96 | Crash goes Alpha. |
| |
| 05-96 | The first Crash E3. Crash Bandicoot is on everyone's must-play list. Early reaction is awesome. |
| |
| 08-96 | After months of playtesting, Sony gives Crash a thumbs up. All systems are go for release. A massive bash is thrown in New York. Recent hiree Stephen White gets his first taste of the big apple along with the rest of the team. "Exploring" the subway system, the team is almost wiped out. Later, Jason gets a cab driver to hit 90 mph (144 kph) on 5th Avenue at 4am. Again, part of the team comes near extinction. Greg Omi co-author of the 3DO M2 operating system joins Naughty Dog. |
| |
| 10-96 | Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back begins. All of the "should haves" and "could haves" discovered during the creation of Crash 1 are put into the brand new, shiny Crash 2 engine. It is more than three times as fast overall, and can handle 10 times the animation frames, and twice the polygon count. The artists cry. |
| |
| 11-96 | Crash 1 launches in Europe. Sales of the title are record breaking in many territories. Naughty Dog reaches 10 employees with the hiring of Eric Iwasaki. Andy and Jason do a Japanese press tour. |
| |
| 12-96 | Crash 1 launches in Japan. Sales are huge. Sony Computer Entertainment's advertising campaign and positioning are perfect. Crash 1 will go on to be the best selling foreign developed title on the Next Generation Consoles... until Crash 2 arrives. |
| |
| 02-97 | Erick Pangilinan joins the Naughty Dog art staff. |
| |
| 03-97 | Rob Titus joins the Naughty Dog art staff. The softball team improves. Joe Labbe joins Naughty Dog. We all learn to Rap. Naughty Dog decides to keep our day job. |
| |
| 05-97 | Crash 1 receives a "Gold Prize" in Japan for sales of more than 500,000 units. It is the only foreign developed title to do so. WORLDWIDE SALES OF Crash 1 REACH NEARLY 2 MILLION. |
| |
| 06-97 | Crash 2 is unveiled in Atlanta, Georgia. Again, the industry is awed. Naughty Dog's party antics at E3 reaffirm the teams naming. |
| |
| 08-97 | Crash 2 goes Alpha. Dan Arey, lead designer of Gex 2, decides to join Naughty Dog. Level design is streamlined, and the refinement process becomes smoother. |
| |
| 09-97 | Crash 1 joins Sony's "Greatest Hits" series in the US. Sales jump greatly. Jason does a press tour of Europe. |
| |
| 11-97 | Crash 2 ships in the US. Initial sales are excellent. Naughty Dog takes temporary residence at 10 Universal City Plaza as their new office space in Santa Monica is being completed. |
| |
| 12-97 | Crash 2 ships in Europe and Japan. Again, Jason and Andy tour Japan on a press tour. The rest of the Dogs take a month to recover...for some, the first break in three years. |
| |
| 01-98 | Based on continuing sales of Crash 1, as well as the smash sales of Crash 2 worldwide, THE CRASH SERIES REACHES 5 MILLION UNITS! Naughty Dog thanks Sony for its incredible run. Naughty Dog begins Crash Bandicoot: Warped. |
| |
| 02-98 | Malcolm Hee joins Naughty Dog as a texture artist as Charlotte Francis takes leave to have a baby. The dress code and language around Naughty Dog take a serious dive. Further, the baby is not named "Crash" as expected. Charlotte will return, with baby in tow, three months later. Dress and Language do not improve prompting some to fear the change is permanent. |
| |
| 03-98 | Crash 1 becomes the #1 selling PlayStation title in America. Sales top 1.5 million in this territory alone. FFVII and NFL Gameday are #2 and #3. |
| |
| 04-98 | Again, Naughty Dog receives the "Gold Prize" in Japan for sales of over 500,000 units. Crash 2 replaces Crash 1 as the best selling foreign developed Next Generation Console title in Japan. Sales of Crash 2 top 800,000, while Crash 1 settles at over 600,000. Danny Chan and Evan Wells, lead programmer and lead designer of the recently completed Gex 2, join Naughty Dog. Discussions of the future begin. |
| |
| 05-98 | Naughty Dog moves to an office overlooking Santa Monica's Third Street Prominade. Half the team's commute improves, the other half worsens. But everyone likes the new digs. Business along the Prominade picks up, Naughty Dog productivity slows. We learn to deal with the "distractions." |
| |
| 06-98 | A small sampling of Crash 3 levels are prominently displayed at Sony's E3 booth in Atlanta, Georgia. The industry wonders if Crash 3 is just more of the same. We let them wonder. The Naughty Dogs leave their mark throughout the city. Next year E3 moves back to L.A. Any connection? |
| |
| 07-98 | Naughty Dog begins "Project X." It will be a high tech, free roaming, multiplayer PlayStation tour-de-force. It will not be a character based platform game...and Crash may not be the star. This is the first time two projects are concurrently in development at Naughty Dog. |
| |
| 08-98 | The Japanese Crash Bandicoot visits the Naughty Dog dog house. Jason takes possession of his Ferrari F355GTS. Driving games become a popular topic of discussion around the office. |
| |
| 09-98 | Crash 2 joins the "Greatest Hits" lineup and sales spike. Crash 2 returns to the TRSTS top 10. After nearly two years in the top 20, Crash 1 finally drops off the list. Running Wild is released. Contrary to the claim made on its cover, Naughty Dog had nothing to do with it. |
| |
| 10-98 | Crash 3 goes gold just nine months and eight days after production started. Crash 1 & 2 become the number one and number two best selling PlayStation titles of all-time in North America. Andy gets his Mercedes. |
| |
| 11-98 | Gavin James joins Naughty Dog's programming staff. Crash 3 hits store shelves accompanied by mega-marketing campaigns by Sony and Pizza Hut. Artists start work on "Project X." Naughty Dog attends PlayStation's Anniversary / Spyro's Launch party in Las Vegas. |
| |
| 12-98 | Though some Dogs sleep the month away, others work hard to finish the engine for "Project X." Crash 3 launches huge in Japan and Europe. As Crash 3 tops one million units in the U.S., WORLDWIDE SALES OF THE TRILOGY SURPASS 10 MILLION! |
| |
| 01-99 | Returning from vacation, rejuvinated Dogs help shift "Project X" development into high gear. Crash 3 becomes the first foreign-developed title to pass the one million mark in Japan. Crash 2 is not far behind. |
| |
| 02-99 | Scott Patterson becomes Naughty Dog's first dedicated sound programmer since Crash 1 days. Eric and Greg breathe a sigh of relief. |
| |
| 03-99 | Gregg Tavares joins the programming staff and artist Bruce Straley quickly signs aboard to maintain the delicate technical / creative balance. |
| |
| 04-99 | Sony announces PlayStation 2. Jason and Andy start discussing Naughty Dog's expansion. |
| |
| 05-99 | Naughty Dog surprises and awes the industry by debuting CTR (Crash Team Racing) at E3. The show's return to L.A. dashes everyone's late night party plans. To compensate, Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games host their first annual E3 party at the House of Blues. And, once again, Sony invites the Dogs to their annual bash. |
| |
| 06-99 | Crash 3 earns Naughty Dog the "Platinum Prize" in Japan for sales of over 1,000,000 units. |
| |
| 08-99 | CTR goes alpha. |
| |
| 09-99 | CTR goes beta. Crash 3 joins Sony's "Greatest Hits" lineup as PlayStation's price drops to $99. Sales spike. With the hiring of coders Didier Malenfant and Pål-Kristian Engstad, the creative staff worries that programmers plan to procedurally generate art for future projects. Animator E.I. learns melScript for job security. With further expansion imminent, Naughty Dog leases additional office space. Jason insists that this is not to accommodate more toys. |
| |
| 10-99 | CTR ships to stores across North America accompanied by another stellar advertising campaign from Sony. Animator John Kim signs aboard to ease art staff concerns. Jason flies solo on a European press tour. The WB show "Felicity" features a storyline where characters Elena and Noel become obsessed with completing Crash 3. |
| |
| 11-99 | Pizza Hut once again features Crash in TV spots and on millions of demo discs. CTR goes gold in Europe. To celebrate, the Naughty Dogs go "shifter kart" racing. Surprisingly, no one gets hurt. Eddie Edwards joins the programming staff. |
| |
| 12-99 | The staff takes a month to re-energize its creative batteries while Jason and Andy tour Japan. Upon returning to the States, Andy adopts Osiris. As CBR (Crash Bandicoot Racing) reaches Japanese consumers, Naughty Dog officially says farewell to the bandicoot. It's hard to say goodbye...especially since all four Crash games continue to sell well. |
| |
| 01-00 | The Y2K bug fails to show, but three new artists do. Mark Koerner, Mike Gasaway, and Jane Mullaney bring balance to our PS2 development force. Naughty Dog's staff now spreads across two floors. Our post-Crash era has begun! |
|
|
| 02-00 | Two new people enter the scene at Naughty Dog; Ammie Puckett adds some needed organization to the team, reintroducing such invaluable tools as silverware, napkins and human interaction to the Dogs. Christine Haas arrives to help Jason take care of business so that he can get his hands dirty in the game making process again. Naughty Dog is not yet done growing... |
|
|
| 05-00 | The Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles (E3) is a great success, although Naughty Dog lays low and builds steam towards their unveiled project. The the Dogs soak up the buzz and look towards E3 2001 when they will be back with a BAMMM !!! |
|
|
| 06-00 | Sadly, Scott Patterson and Mike Gasaway leave Naughty Dog for different walks of life. Mike has gone to follow his dream of becoming a filmmaker. Scott and his wife have moved to Sydney, Australia to raise their family and spread the gaming talent 'down under'. We will miss them both... |
| |
"Crash Bandicoot" and the Crash Bandicoot logo are trademarks and copyrighted properties of Universal Interactive Studios, Inc. Playstation and the Playstation logos are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.