All Things Andy Gavin

New Last of Us Trailer

May 16, 2012 | 5 Comments

The Last of Us, Naughty Dog’s new game in development, has a cool new trailer. Check it out!

What is Diablo 3?

May 12, 2012 | 1 Comments

Only three days to go until D3-day, and in case you don’t know what that means, this little video from Blizzard does a nice job summarizing the game.

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Diablo III: Wrath

May 8, 2012 | 3 Comments

Blizzard has released Wrath, an animated short by directory Peter Chung (Aeon Flux) depicting an ancient battle between the angels of Sanctuary and Diablo. Pretty cool.

Diablo 3 – Commercial

April 29, 2012 | 10 Comments

The geek watch countdown! The new Diablo III commercial.

Finally, the Diablo 3 beta invite showed up in my mailbox. Unfortunately, by the time I got it downloaded and installed I was headed to Vegas for the weekend, but as soon as I returned, I fired it up, rolled a toon, and cranked through the 1.5-2 hours it took to defeat the Skeleton King and “finish” the beta. Then I rolled another class. Then another.

PostDesk Interview

March 16, 2012 | 8 Comments

I reflect on Crash Bandicoot and Naughty Dog. And also offer some interesting perspectives on the games industry, drawing from my experiences – finally going on to talk about what I’m doing now, as a novelist – and how creating worlds has always been one of my great passions.

More Special Prize Winners!

March 14, 2012 | 0 Comments

The second round of the crazy Naughty Dark Contest now has three special prize winners! Unfortunately, my broken wrist has slowed down my mailing speed, but I’m finally getting some of this off my plate.

Jak & Daxter Retrospective

February 15, 2012 | 38 Comments

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

Q&A on Reddit

February 9, 2012 | 0 Comments

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.

Jak & Daxter Return

February 6, 2012 | 12 Comments

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…

Games, Novels, and Story

February 3, 2012 | 3 Comments

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.

Round 1 Winner Selected!

January 17, 2012 | 19 Comments

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.

Crash goes to Japan – part 1

January 11, 2012 | 46 Comments

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…

Parlez vous Crash

January 6, 2012 | 37 Comments

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.

Special Prize Winners

January 3, 2012 | 1 Comments

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!!

Announcing the Naughty Dark Contest

January 2, 2012 | 5 Comments

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…

Naughty Dog – 25 Years!

December 23, 2011 | 14 Comments

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.

Diablo 3 Opening Cinematic

December 11, 2011 | 1 Comments

Today is a double nerdgasm day. Not only did Naughty Dog announce it’s new game, The Last of Us, but the Diablo 3 opening cinematic was released.

New Naughty Dog Franchise – The Last of Us

December 11, 2011 | 22 Comments

Naughty Dog, the company I founded, has just released the trailer for their new game — and new franchise! I have to say the new one looks totally awesome because it’s well — post apocalyptic zombie (which I love) — and in true Naughty Dog fashion totally gorgeous.

Naughty Dog – A Pedigree Breed

December 8, 2011 | 2 Comments

Founded by aspiring game developers Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin back in 1986, the pair knocked together a number of little-known titles on the Apple II and Amiga before changing their company’s name to Naughty Dog. A four-game deal with Universal Interactive Studios, starting with Way of the Warrior – a Mortal Kombat-style fighting game for 3DO created using footage crudely filmed in an apartment led to none other than Crash Bandicoot on PSone.