All Things Andy Gavin

As co-creator of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter

I have dozens of posts on making video games

and author of

and

Jak & Daxter Retrospective

February 15, 2012

The video interviews of myself and other members of the Jak & Daxter team talking about the game 10 years later.

Brace yourself for Hardcover

February 12, 2012

My publisher might be small (one book released and another in the queue) but I was determined to produce a hardcover edition for my debut novel. Find out why and how below the fold.

Drive

February 23, 2012

This one of these movies where everything goes a really wrong – for everyone – except the audience.

Q&A on Reddit

February 9, 2012

A Twitter friend during on big promo push for The Darkening Dream that I create an AMA on Reddit. I had no idea what this is, but I looked it up and it sounded like fun.

On February 7 and 8 I put The Darkening Dream on 48 hours of Kindle Select free promo. The book tore through the charts to “sell” (I mean give away) over 21,000 copies. In the first 24 hours it propelled itself to…

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Game of Thrones – Invitation to the Set

February 21, 2012

As we ramp into GOT season 2, HBO releases yet more and more goodies. Here we have one of those overwhelmingly positive video previews – but with lots of good footage. Enjoy.

Jak & Daxter Return

February 6, 2012

A couple of weeks ago I went back to Naughty Dog to do some interviews for the Jak & Daxter Collection, which releases tomorrow (February 7). And of course you should go buy this right away, only one click AFTER you buy…

The Darkening Dream – Free on Kindle

February 7, 2012

The title pretty much says it all. The Darkening Dream, my dark fantasy novel, is free on Amazon for the Kindle for just 48 hours — all of February 7 and 8, 2012.

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Game of Thrones – Iceland

February 16, 2012

Another interesting production video on filming beyond the wall (Iceland).

Games, Novels, and Story

February 3, 2012

Modern man has a wide variety of storytelling mediums, including film, long form television, novels, and video games. Having created over a dozen hit video games and written two novels I look at some of the similarities and differences.

Order the Hardcover – sort of

February 5, 2012

Amazon has put up the hardcover. More or less. They have a page, and you can order, but they list it as “Temporarily out of stock.” Still, I’m sure if you do order they’ll ship in a couple of days…

Great Free Fiction

February 8, 2012

Who doesn’t love FREE books? My novel The Darkening Dream is still free on Kindle until midnight. So if you missed it, grab it now! Yesterday it enjoyed massive success reaching rates of over 20 copies downloaded per minute and hitting…

Round 1 Winner Selected!

January 17, 2012

I’ve official “sold” all 100 tickets in ROUND ONE of the Naughty Dark Contest and randomly selected a winner! Plus, there’s been another special prize winner in the meantime.

The Flash Ad

February 4, 2012

In keeping with my goal of keeping you all informed about every little detail of the creation process — which you readers probably don’t care about but my writer followers might — I had to create a Flash ad for The Darkening…

Breaking Bad – Season 3

January 31, 2012

Part of this show’s strength is the standout character writing and acting. Season 3 starts out building this character driven momentum and then races through the second half to end with… literally… a bang.

Crash goes to Japan – part 1

January 11, 2012

It’s probably hard for younger gamers to recognize the position in gaming that Japan occupied from the mid eighties to the late 90s. First of all, after video games rose like a phoenix from the “great crash of ’82″ (in which the classic…

Hardcover Proof & Paperback Giveaway

February 1, 2012

The hardcover proof came in yesterday and it looks awesome! Now I just have to get it up on Amazon. As it’s printed via LightningSource this might take a few days. And I’m also running a giveaway of twenty free books…

Game of Thrones – Season 2 Trailer

January 29, 2012

HBO just released a new trailer for Game of Thrones Season 2. This one finally contains a good bit of footage from the new season itself, so check it out.

Parlez vous Crash

January 6, 2012

At Naughty Dog, we pioneered the idea of simultaneous international release. It took a little while to perfect, but by Crash 2 and Crash 3 the same exact code ran all the worldwide versions. Both the games themselves and the marketing was highly localized and targeted. This attention after finishing the game to really polishing it up for the world really paid off in international sales.

Price is Going Up Soon

January 29, 2012

I want to give you all warning that the price of my novel, The Darkening Dream, is going to rise shortly to $4.99. The hardcover is almost ready and I’m about done with the introductory period. So grab it now!

Tempest

January 27, 2012

This new YA time travel novel has a bit of buzz and I read it because of the superficial similarities to my second novel, Untimed. Both are YA time travel, both have a male protagonist but that’s about where it ends.

Special Prize Winners

January 3, 2012

The first round of the crazy Naughty Dark Contest already has not one, but two special prize winners! Both winners also wanted signed copies of the original Crash Bandicoot. Thank you!!

Hardcover Mechanical

January 25, 2012

The The Darkening Dream’s hardcover mechanical came in and I submitted a proof. This is the third version of the book, the e-book and the trade paperback already being for sale.

The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack

January 24, 2012

This is certainly not your everyday read, although it’s certainly a good one. Set in 1861, the protagonist is Sir Richard Francis Burton, the explorer, not the actor. But then enter, among other things, Spring-Heeled Jack, crazy time traveler, and a host of steampunk altered villains including a double-brain grafted Charles Darwin and an Iron Golemized Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Announcing the Naughty Dark Contest

January 2, 2012

This is the kickoff post for my new experimental — and hopefully permanent – giveaway program. Via this contest you, dear reader, will have the opportunity to win signed copies of Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter games as well as my…

Observe the all important Ram in the Thicket (lower right)

The Magic of The Darkening Dream

January 23, 2012

In constructing The Darkening Dream I wanted a meta-story that at the high level, played off conventional tropes. Broadly, a cabal of ancient supernatural beings has sent one of their number to recover an artifact needed to destroy the world. But as preposterous as this scenario is, I also wanted to ground it in real history and legend. Read about how…

Forbidden Mind

January 20, 2012

She reads minds. He controls minds. Together, they might get out alive.

Naughty Dog – 25 Years!

December 23, 2011

There’s been a few anniversaries in the gaming world this past year: Ubisoft’s 25th, Blizzard’s 20th. But it seems there may have been one that slipped under the radar, which is a big surprise considering this studio is now perhaps one of the most widely-recognised on the triple-A scene.
Naughty Dog is 25 years old this year.

The Trade Paperback is Launched!

January 17, 2012

I got the latest proofs back from CreateSpace for my novel, The Darkening Dream, and they are looking great. While there are perhaps a few little tweaks possible to make them perfect, the presses are ready to roll, so I turned it on.