Andy Gavin: Video Game Creator

I started programming video games in 1980 and along with my partner, Jason Rubin, founded Naughty Dog, Inc. in 1985. We ran the company for almost twenty years and I designed/co-directed/produced the following games: Math Jam, Ski Crazed, Dream Zone, Keef the Thief, Rings of Power, Way of the Warrior, Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Crash Bandicoot: Warped!, Crash Team Racing, Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak II, and Jak 3. I was lead programmer (and sometimes sole programmer) on all of these games except for Crash Team Racing.

Overall, games I’ve been lead programmer on have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.

More detail about this and the rest of my life can be found in my bio.

I have all sorts of information on making video games (including mine) on the site. Some favorites are in the righthand sidebar and recent topics are below.

The sorted archive of historic video game posts is here.

Includes series like Making Crash Bandicoot and How do I become a Video Games Programmer.

Or find out what I have in development right now!

New Last of Us Trailer

May 16, 2012
5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Jak & Daxter Collection

November 22, 2011
23

I’m happy to announce that Jak & Daxter will make its PS3 debut this February with the launch of the Jak and Daxter Collection. This is an awesome way for a new generation of gamers to experience (or re-experience) three of Naughty Dog’s PS2 masterpieces.

Dark Souls

November 11, 2011
4

Dark Souls is an interesting entry into the 2011 holiday game rush. At one level, it has state of the art graphics and physics-based ultra-visceral hand-to-hand fantasy combat. But it’s also a throwback to old school RPG game design. Relentlessly cruel, but I can’t help but want to keep playing.

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Way of the Warrior – The Lost Interview

November 2, 2011
0

A Twitter friend of mine dug up this ancient and forgotten interview that I gave from my Cambridge Mass apartment in 1994, during the development of our 3DO fighting game, Way of the Warrior. The original post can be found here, but…

Uncharted 3 Reviews Live

October 27, 2011
5

Reviews have started pouring in for Naughty Dog’s latest masterpiece, Uncharted 3. Given that this is the sequel to Uncharted 2, the multiple game of the year hit of 2009, one might’ve worried that there was nowhere to go but down. But…

Crash for Charity

October 26, 2011
12

PlayStation Museum has organized a charity auction of all four Naughty Dog Crash Bandicoot games, signed by yours truly and Jason Rubin. The auction link can be found here. All proceeds go to the American Cancer Society. Go bid! For…

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Expansion of the WOW Factor

October 26, 2011
1

I was once a very hardcore WOW (World of Warcraft) player. And although I burned out and haven’t been playing this year (after reaching 85 with my main, I just lost interest), but I still follow the news. Blizzard just released…

Ready Player One

September 20, 2011
3

I read this after two different friends recommended it in the same week. Wow! If you’re one of my (presumably) many readers who love video games. Go buy and read it. This is pretty much the ultimate classic video games novel!

Crash Launch Commercials

September 15, 2011
16

In honor of the recent 15th Anniversary of my baby Crash Bandicoot, I present collected together the original suite of American TV Ads which premiered in September of 1996. It’s the suit that helped make the Bandicoot what he was. Thanks to…

So you want to be a video game programmer? – part 5 – The Method

September 11, 2011
29

This post is presents an algorithm of sorts for learning to program. It applies not only to the fundamentals, but to all aspects, including the acquisition of small component skills. Thirty years after learning, I still follow the same basic procedure. To tell the truth, modified, it works for leaning most things.

Crash Memories

September 9, 2011
97

In honor of Crash’s 15th Anniversary I wanted to make a post whose primary purpose is to serve as a repository for comments from you — the fans — about your first and favorite Crash Bandicoot impressions. Please make them…

So you want to be a video game programmer? – part 4 – School

September 1, 2011
15

There are two basic approaches: home training and school. Personally I’d recommend both.
Let’s talk school. In my day (1980s) pre-collegiate computer classes barely existed, and if they did they were mostly about Pascal programming and data-structures. They often used p-System pascal, an old-school predecessor to Java!

So you want to be a video game programmer? – part 3 – Getting Started

August 30, 2011
17

Some kid is always asking me, “I love video games, how do I learn to program them?”
First of all, a warning. Reaching the skill level to be a professional video games programmer takes years. There are no shortcuts. You can not possibly go from nothing to professional grade skills in less than perhaps 2-3 years — and for that you’d have to be an uber-genius — usually it takes 5-10.

So you want to be a video game programmer? – part 1 – Why

August 29, 2011
14

This post is a sequel of sorts to my How do I get a job designing video games. The good new is — if you’re a programmer — that nearly all video game companies are hiring programmers at all times. Demand is never…

So you want to be a video game programmer? – part 2 – Specs

August 28, 2011
39

There are a couple of broad categories of programmers working on video game teams. If programmer is your player class, then the following types are your spec. Programmers are all warlocks and mages so instead of “demonology” or “frost” you can choose from below. This is the real world however, and many programmers dual (or even triple) spec — i.e. they handle multiple specialties.

Old Crash 20 Questions

August 17, 2011
4

This is an old Crash Bandicoot 20 questions that used to be on Naughty Dog‘s site a long time ago. I’ve gotten a lot of messages looking for them, so I dug them up, but I haven’t done any editing…

Crash Bandicoot – Interviews “R” us

August 13, 2011
50

These are answers (of mine) to a series of interview questions from Russian game site www.crash-bandicoot.ru. They’re a major Russian Crash fan site, hence the bad pun in my title. If you happen to speak Russian, they’ve it here. The questions…

Programmed by Andy Gavin

Andy Gavin: Video Game Creator

Andy Gavin

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