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 or

Making Crash Bandicoot, How Do I Get a Job in Video Games, and WOW Endgame Analysis.

Or find out what I have in development right now!

Game Shop Crash

December 2, 2012
5

Game Shop is a cute little episodic SitCom that takes place in a mall video game store. Episode six is all about none other than Crash Bandicoot!

WOW Endgames – Cataclysm

November 28, 2012
19

Blizzard, never afraid to shake things up, literally rocked the whole vanilla world of Azeroth and rebuilt not only the endgame but the rest of the game as well…

World of Warcraft 8th Anniversary

November 20, 2012
4

Blizzard released this cool 8 year anniversary video, which is sort of a walk down memory lane. Given that I’ve been writing up my giant endgame comparison post series, I thought it apropos…

By the end of Lich King, nearly all the major mechanics that Blizzard introduced during the course of WOW evolution had come into play: Badges, the dungeon finder, dailies, reputation hubs, tier acceleration, split difficulties, split raid sizes, profession currencies, separate pvp/pve tracks, achievements, and more…

WOW Endgames – Burning Crusade

November 7, 2012
9

In many ways, The Burning Crusade was my favorite endgame. Not only was it fun (and hard), but it was a time of heavy design experimentation where the Fel Reaver’s share of new gameplay ideas were introduced…

WOW Endgames – Vanilla

October 29, 2012
47

In this detailed post series, I discuss the evolution of the five World of Warcraft endgames from both a player and game design perspective. We start with Vanilla…

Mists of Pandaria Leveling

October 15, 2012
3

I wasn’t originally going to play Mists of Pandaria, but once I zoned into the gorgeous Jade Forest it was hard to stop…

Jak & Daxter Q&A

September 12, 2012
57

A series of questions and answers about the origin of Jak & Daxter…

The Last of Us – 15 min of Gameplay

September 8, 2012
10

Fifteen minutes of official gameplay footage…

The Last of Us – August Teaser

August 15, 2012
10

August arrives, and with it another teaser. This continues that cool creepy vibe driven by the bluegrass soundtrack.

Video Games, Novels, and Ideas

August 1, 2012
15

Since I’ve created thirteen video games and written two novels I’m often asked how the process compares between the two. This is a complex topic, but here goes one stab at it, focusing on the generation of the idea. The…

Crash Bandicoot Fan Film

July 27, 2012
17

One of Crash’s more dedicated fans used the action figure toys to create this crazy little stop motion fan film set in the Crash Universe…

Diablo 3 – The Infernal Barbarian

July 6, 2012
4

Life for the Barbarian in Diablo 3 Inferno mode is brutal. Close in, you have to take the hits, and the hits are hard…

Diablo 3 – Barbarian 1-60

June 8, 2012
14

I played through all five classes in beta and decided to level the Barbarian first. Herein lies my detailed chronicle of the 1-60 level experience and thoughts on Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno…

The Last of Us – E3 Gameplay Coverage

June 6, 2012
11

E3 has bought us an extensive new gameplay video for Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic survival game, The Last of Us. Aside from the recently released Diablo III, this is my most anticipated upcoming game, and I suspect I’m not alone.

New Last of Us Trailer

May 16, 2012
30

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
2

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.

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
11

The geek watch countdown! The new Diablo III commercial.

Diablo 3 – Beta Preview

April 19, 2012
12

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
13

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
44

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
13

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
4

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
20

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
142

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
51

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
26

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.