Concept and creation
One of the main reasons Naughty Dog chose to develop Crash Bandicoot (at the time jokingly codenamed "Sonic's Ass Game") for the Sony PlayStation was Sony's lack of an existing mascot character that could compete with Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog and Nintendo's Mario. By this time video game mascots were seen as increasingly unimportant, since they were overshadowed by cross-licensing and the aging games market meant most gamers were too old to find mascots appealing, but Sony were nonetheless interested in covering all bases.[1] In Japan, Sony had used Captain Rock from Motor Toon Grand Prix as a de facto mascot during PlayStation's launch, although SCEA chose not to[2] and instead introduced the purpose-made Polygon Man. Following a negative reception, SCEA picked Sofia from Battle Arena Toshinden as a mascot.[3][4] Later in Japan, MuuMuu from Jumping Flash! was a de facto mascot.[5] Sony brought out their in-house Mario/Sonic-like platformer, Hermie Hopperhead: Scrap Panic, in 1995, but this was not released outside Japan due to SCEA's strict policy at the time against releasing 2D games for the American market.[6]
For the game's lead character, Naughty Dog wanted to do what Sega and Warner Bros. did while designing their respective characters – Sonic the Hedgehog and Taz the Tasmanian Devil – and incorporate an existing animal that was appealing and obscure. The team purchased a field guide on Tasmanian mammals and selected the wombat, potoroo, and bandicoot as options. Gavin and Rubin went with "Willy the Wombat" as a temporary name for the starring character of the game. They never intended the name to be final due both to the name sounding "too dorky" and to the existence of a non-video game property of the same name; the name was also used by Hudson Soft for its Japan-exclusive Sega Saturn role-playing game Willy Wombat.[7] The character was effectively a bandicoot by October 1994, but was still referred to as "Willie the Wombat" because a final name had not been formulated yet. Wanting their mascot game to be multi-dimensional in character depth as well as gameplay, Gavin and Rubin chose not to base Crash around one attribute such as "fast" or "cute".[8]
Epoch Ink artist Joe Pearson and American Exitus artist Charles Zembillas were hired and met with Naughty Dog weekly to design and develop Crash and the other characters of the game. Zembillas' initial sketches of Crash depicted him as a "squat, hunkered-down" character. After Pearson drew a version of Crash that was leaner, had a larger nose and wore a Zorro-like mask, Zembillas began drawing Crash as "a little more manic and insane".[9] Naughty Dog decided early on that there would be no connection between a real animal and Crash's final design, which would instead be determined "51% by technical and visual necessity and 49% by inspiration". Gavin determined Crash's fur color by creating a list of popular characters and their colors, and then making a list of earthly background possibilities (such as forests, deserts, beaches, etc.). Colors that would not look good on the screen were strictly outlawed, such as red, which would bleed on older televisions. Orange was selected by process of elimination. Crash's head was made large and neckless to counter the low resolution of the screen and allow his facial expressions to be discernible.[8] Jason Rubin noted the increased difficulty in turning Crash's head with this type of design. Small details such as the gloves, the spots on Crash's back and a light-colored chest were added to help the player determine what side of Crash was visible based on color.[8] Crash was not given a tail or any flappy straps of clothing due to the PlayStation's inability to properly display such pixels without flickering. The length of Crash's pants was shortened to keep his ankles from flickering as they would with longer pants. Andy Gavin owns the original ink sketches of Crash by Charles Zembillas.
Crash's final game model was made from 512 polygons with the only textures being for the spots on his back and his shoelaces. It took Andy Gavin a month to settle on that number of polygons. Because of the game's use of vertex animation, Crash was capable of more facial expressions than other video game characters at or before the time. Crash's jumping, spinning and bonking mechanisms were refined as the Naughty Dog team developed the levels "Heavy Machinery" and "Generator Room". While preparing for the game's demonstration at E3 1996, the team decided to finally rename the title character "Crash Bandicoot", a name credited to Kurosaki and Dave Baggett. The character's name was based on his species and the visceral reaction to his destruction of boxes. The names "Dash", "Smash", and "Bash" were also considered. The marketing director of Universal Interactive Studios insisted that the game and character be named "Wez/Wezzy/Wuzzle the Wombat" or "Ozzie the Otzel".[8] The name Crash Bandicoot prevailed after Naughty Dog threatened to leave the production.
After Naughty Dog presented Crash Bandicoot to Sony's Japanese division, the executives of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan stated their dislike of the character and were unimpressed by the renderings of the character made specifically for the meeting. During a break following the initial meeting, Andy Gavin approached Charlotte Francis, the artist responsible for the renderings, and gave her fifteen minutes to close Crash's huge, smiling mouth to make him seem less aggressive, change his eyes from green to "two small black "Pac-Man" shapes" and make his spike of hair smaller. Sony Japan bought Crash Bandicoot for Japanese distribution after being shown the modified printout. The Japanese television advertising campaign for Crash Bandicoot included a dance performed by a costumed Crash Bandicoot mascot; the dance was created by Sony Japan's marketing manager Megumi Hosoya. The success of the campaign influenced Naughty Dog to incorporate the dance into the games.[12][13][14] In 1997, Sony Computer Entertainment America signed a deal making Crash a licensed character with the expectation of making it their third and new mascot.[4]
Post Naughty Dog designs
Crash served as a mascot for Sony Computer Entertainment from his creation until September 2000 when Universal Interactive Studios and Konami entered an agreement that would enable Konami to publish a Crash Bandicoot game (which would later become Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex) for next-generation game systems, with Universal Interactive handling the production of the games; the agreement served to break the Crash Bandicoot franchise's exclusivity to Sony-produced consoles and effectively made Crash Bandicoot a mascot character for Universal rather than Sony. Crash's game model in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex was composed of approximately 1,800 polygons, which allowed an increase in detail compared to past models, including a more complex and realistic tuft of hair, a visible uvula, stitching on his jeans and shoes and a designer label on his pants.
Upon beginning development of Crash Nitro Kart, Vicarious Visions chief executive officer and chief creative officer Karthik Bala noted that Crash's physical appearance had been inconsistent since his debut in 1996 and decided to "explore the original vision of the character" in an attempt to bring him back to his roots. Charles Zembillas and Joe Pearson were tracked down and enlisted for guidance during development of the game and were faced with the challenge of evolving the character and the franchise visually while retaining their "cartoon-like charm". To redesign Crash and the other mainstay characters of the series for Crash Nitro Kart, the Vicarious Visions team reviewed a number of original development sketches from Zembillas's archives and then redesigned the main characters by incorporating details from the concept art and adding girth to the characters; Crash's appearance in the game, compared to the previous two games, sports a slightly larger nose, fuller eyebrows, and a far more textured body. Zembillas noted that "Crash is slimmer and more appealing now. There's also more emphasis on his eyes, and you can see the craftiness in his personality. That's Crash to me, and he's alive again in Nitro Kart". Crash and the rest of the series' cast were redesigned for Crash of the Titans
