Jak & Daxter Retrospective

Feb15

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

By: agavin
Comments (43)

Posted in: Games

Tagged as: interview, Jak & Daxter, Naughty Dog, retrospective video, video

Randeep

I love 2 player productions, masters of their craft, just like naughty dog.

In other relevant news: there must be some kind of way to buy those precursor orbs you and naughty dog got for the 10th anniversary?!
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Not that I know of
  - William Errey
    
    just started playing jak & daxter the precursor legacy and its amazingly good
Akira3d

So bummed I couldn’t be a part of this video
Akira3d

I think it is funny that Jason brings up Goldeneye. I still remember the day you walked and yanked it out of the N64 while we played…but then I don’t recall ever seeing the cartridge ever again. What did you do with it? I know you didn’t throw it through the wall like Jason did with his cellphone…
Robert Sebo

This video makes me feel really happy, I can see the love for this game to you guys have feel time ago… and yes, lot of memories… Now, congratulations Naughty Dogs!Best Regards
Robert SE.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Guillermo-Gatell-Platero/1271324600 Guillermo Gatell Platero

You are amazing guys, I hope you and your team go for that way always
Tom Nikolaj

You guys are an amazing team Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin are my biggest influences ever Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter are my favorite games, Tho its been a while since they made a game they have done Flektor and both Andy and Jason did books and comic books, Seeing this video is great and this video shows a lot of love and compassion for these game.
http://haunted360.com/ Haunted360

Why is Evan missing his shoe laces on his converse’s? lol
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  An Evan style statement
Gabriele

I can see on your faces the memories come back quickly to your minds.
This testifies the passion you put in to make the game. Thats why I want to became a Videogame creator!
Ricardo_fernandes Souza

wow tears in my eyes… thanks naughty dog, andy and jason…for a great childhood… =)
you are the best ever!!!
- Winston Brewer
  
  Same here
its_not_a_me_mario

Why do i get the feeling that Andy & Jason will return to ND….soon ?
Agent000

Andy which developer do you think would do the best with Crash Bandicoot? I was thinking Retro Studios, seeing how well they brought back Donkey Kong Country.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I haven’t made a study of developers on order to answer this
  - Agent000
    
    Hm, well, if you haven’t played DK Country Returns or Crash Twinsanity, you should at least see some videos of them. I think Traveler’s Tales or Retro could both do a really great job with the series. (Then again, pretty much anyone other than Radical seems like they could do better.)
Gabriele

Andy What do you think about this HD version of the N. Sanity Beach level made by a fan?
Some images:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3Aow-7QMba8/T0GcqUeFyzI/AAAAAAAAAHE/R_O6v3Phlbk/s1600/WIPNewRender4.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-noTPdwI-aoc/TmDc7y5ehJI/AAAAAAAAAE8/T-k4yyGM5i4/s1600/CrateCollectionWIP.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iRHPlVswsdo/TlrnS1jqcPI/AAAAAAAAAEo/8Z7miiNpW8g/s1600/AkuAkuFinal.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o5BdRkJZ3GI/TjHX_ou_JeI/AAAAAAAAADM/gC-jZvNLRlk/s1600/Blockout.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PwylQFd2Kns/THAj_DsZV7I/AAAAAAAAACc/6G7AsyRUC9g/s1600/Crash+Front.bmp

Official Blog with lots of info and pictures:
http://crashbandicoothd.blogspot.com/
Googer

The first Jak & Daxter game. Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was amazing, One of my favorite video games ever. And Thank you very much Naughty Dog for making such great games. I’m a big fan of the first J&D game. And I’m glad to see the J&D games getting a HD remake. But anyway, thanks a lot Andy Gavin.
its_not_a_me_mario

For everyone who would like to see Jack4 :

Please buy the game! The current ND team cannot develop a (proper)J&D game , but
if the sales get up high i’m sure that they’ll figure a way to bring back the “right tools” for the job(Keywords : Andy , Jason >:D ).
Agent000

Skip to 3:00 in this video:

That part reminds me so much of the music from Temple Ruins and Jaws of Darkness from Crash Bandicoot!
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Cool. That’s because josh (the composer) used a similar percussion based instrumentation
  Sent from my iPad
  - Agent000
    
    Yeah, I loved the heavy emphasis on percussion in Temple Ruins. It’s probably my favorite music in Crash 1, although Road to Nowhere is by far my favorite combination of level and music.
Agent000

Question: Why was Koala Kong effectively replaced with Tiny Tiger?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Just for variety
Googer

Hi, this may seem like a peculiar question, but what happened to the dog Osiris? I certainly know that Osiris appeared in most of the Jak and Daxter games made by Naughty Dog, but I’m just wondering what happened to him, that’s all. I assume Osiris is a dog? And does anybody own Osiris?
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Osiris is my dog. He’s doing fine — although getting up there in years (12.5)
  - Googer
    
    I’m very glad to see your dog Osiris is doing fine.
Googer

I’m sorry for double posting, but I would also like to know about Pogo the dog. I assume Pogo belongs to someone? And I do remember Pogo appearing in the Jak 3 credits. Pogo and Trumpet are the main Naughty Dog “Dog” mascots now I believe, as Pogo and Trumpet appeared in the end credits of Uncharted 2.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Pogo is Evan Wells’ dog and Trumpet Christophe Balestra’s.
Gabriele

I’m posting this question here because you seems to not answer in that site:
Why you decided to do Crash Team Racing as the 4th and last game aof the series except of a new platform game, maybe with a multyplayer gameplay like Super Mario World
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  I don’t understand the question. Why we didn’t do a fifth Crash game?
  - Gabriele
    
    Sorry if my english isn’t so well developed, i’m italian .
    However I mean: Why you decided to do a racing game (Crash Team Racing) after Crash 3 except of a new adventure game?
    - http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
      
      We wanted to try something different
      - Gabriele
        
        Oh well I think that you made a longer and better version of Mario Kart. think that if you had continued to develop the saga today Crash could be the only competitor character for Super Mario. Do you think Crash should return to be a PlayStation esclusive in an ipotetical new game?
topgamesoftheyear

vERY nICE sITE AND rEVIEWS, pLZ ALSO sEE
[ http://www.topgamesoftheyear.com ]
Reviews of Top games of The year and PC System Requirements
Gabriele

Can I ask you some other questions?
1. After the developement of Crash1, when you saw what Nintendo did with Super Mario 64 why didn’t you tried to do something like that for Crash? Spyro had the free-roaming too so it wasn’ t impossible to make a free-roaming game for the PSX.2. What do you think of the redesigns of the character of the series in the non-ND games? There is a design that you like or hate?3. What do you want to see in a new Crash Bandicoot game? Would you like to be involved in the development?Thank you and sorry if my english isn’ t taht good.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  If we had gone “free roaming” for Crash it wouldn’t have had that lush look. That just wasn’t possible on the PS1 (nor did Mario have it). We tried with Crash 2 a pair of things (I’ll write about it one of these days), 1 worked, 1 didn’t. Wed loosened up the camera so it could look around more. We also tried to make it so the camera could go all the way around and look in both directions, but it took too much memory.
  Jak & Daxter was more our Mario type game.
  - Gabriele
    
    Thanks for the answer
    Somewere you wrote that you changed Jak and Daxter because at that time you were influenced by GTA and games like that. Do you think you wold have changed also Crash that way?
    Some friends and I wanted to hack the PSX Crash games like some people do with Super Mario 64 (Someone created a total new game with new levels and stuff hacking models and codes) is it possible for us to do that? If yes what programs can we use to open the files (Like the .BIG file that no one seems to know how to open)?
Andrea

Ehi Andy, I would like to say that I’ve tried and finished both Jak 2 and Jak
3 and I really loved them. At first, when I’ve seen the European cover of Jak 2
I thought: “Ah, Naughty Dog, why did you do that? Jak was already amazing, why
did you change him?” Then I’ve tried it and even if the places were a bit darker
than the first game, I loved them, especially the Strip Mine, the Pumping
Station, the Mountain Temple and, the one that I loved the most and that became
my favourite place of the Jak’s series, the Haven Forest: yeah, every time that
I go there I always stop on every single piece of grass, flowers or watching the
butterflies flying in the place. Yeah, that was something that I’ve never
expected to see in a mature game. I wish you would have made a place similar to
that forest in Jak 3 too: I know that there is the Autumn Forest, but the one
from Jak 2 was more “relaxing” to me

Oh, and I liked the fact that you chose a Greek name for the Baron (Praxis):
since I study Greek and Latin in the school that I attend here in Italy, the
first time that I heard the name, I said: “I must have heard that name somewhere
before”, then I opened my Greek’s vocabulary and found the name “Praxis, -eos”.
I had a good laugh in that moment XD

I have a question: do you think there’s a possibility that someday we could
get a game similar to the first Jak and Daxter, like a prequel or an adventure
that stays between the end of Jak 1 and the beginning of Jak 2? I would really
like to see an extension of this series and it’s a bit of a shame to see that
you have been interested on the mature Jak than the old Jak from the first
game…
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Game Informer talks about new J&D’s here: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/02/06/naughty-dog-almost-made-a-new-jak-and-daxter.aspx
winston Brewer

Hi sir, I just wanted to say that I love the jak and daxer franchise. It is by far my favoriate franchise for the gaming consoles.

I have a question thats been bugging me for a while though. Which do you think is better jak 1 or 2. Personally I thought jack 2 was the best out of all of them. With being in an underground rebellion, everything about Haven city and just Jak’s whole badass attitude throughout the game. Though jak 3 was very exciting with the whole idea of a war taking place in Haven city.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  It’s a tough call. Jak 1 has that cool open feel, but jak 2 has a much better integrated plot
  Sent from my iPad