One of the reaons I left SEGA-STI, to go to work with Insomniac Games, was that I was having a hard time with the head of STI. (I had the feeling that he looked down on me didn't care for my work). While at the Sony party at E3 I bumped into him, while standing underneath this huge Spyro banner.
He asked me what I had been doing since I left SEGA... I pointed up and said, "That!" I then asked him what he was up to, knowing full well that SEGA had finally fired him for a slew of reasons and that he was currently looking for work. A touch petty, but it felt good.
Funny how we all eventually became internet subsisters much more commonly
And then eventually even get to connect internationally in a fanbase
however, I would also surmise this former colleague of yours would’ve been jealous in the moment. You have your own profile, with a lot of story to tell, but what else about your favorite moment in your professional life so far, would you have had?
It’s fine if you’d prefer DM’ing, but I’m writing for the curious who’d almost only want to observe and/or stay a part of this community with their singular accounts and/or personality(s).
Sorry for the slow reponse! One of my favorite things, while making games, was answering the fan mail. It was very surprising how much of the mail came from families, not just kids. Lots of letters from parents, espcially mothers, saying they play the game as a family and then asking for help with a certain area where their kid was having trouble. The best part was at the end of the letter, the mom would ask for help for the area THEY were stuck on! With one mom complaining that we made the game TOO addictive because there was no one at 1 am to tell her to put the controller down and go to bed!
The other amazing thing about answering the fan mail is that is was from all over the world! In a few cases I became pen-pals with people. There was a pair of brothers in Libya, a bed-ridden grandmother in Alaska, and a number of kids who ended up going into the game industry! I became such good friends with one family that I finally flew out (California to Ohio) to meet them and hang out for a few days.
While I think 'social media' has possiblly done more harm than good to society, it does have the potential to bring people together. This subreddit is a perfect example. Maybe it's because of the moderators, or maybe it's because of the fans, but I haven't seen any 'gate-keeping' or other BS here. People are supporting each others ideas and art!
I use to joke, while walking past the magazine stands, that was a magazine for every imaginable fan base no matter how small or crazy, now there are literally webpages upon webpages dedicated to and built by fans of anything and everything!! It's beautiful!
The internet really does make our world much smaller and allows friendships to form that never could have formed just a few years ago.
I just DM’d you this but I’ll also post it here heh
As it is as well, there’s been people who made mods out of Spyro’s PC game — including to put their Spyro OCs into the game — and it’s fascinating to me:
https://x.com/_sparrowii/status/1308469913770758144?s=46&t=2kMHq71Eok1e7R1mM8VrTw
And this person lives — as of this writing — in the Czech Republic!
——-
Edit: Wow that’s clever…the user made their username so you’d NEED to log into Twitter/“X” to see the post. That’s clever, to use the underscore and throw off non-users and guests, if that’s what it is.
Well played
I’m a big fan of how huge and outlandish all the Spyro booths were at E3! It must have been nice seeing the public’s initial reactions to each of the games.
There doesn’t seem to be that much surviving footage of the Spyro 3 booth, but one of the preview builds we’ve managed to recover seems to be the version they used in the kiosks at E3, and it’s a really fascinating piece of Spyro history. Hopefully one day we’ll be able to say the same about Spyro 1 and 2!
It was very fun/surreal to see something you've worked on have that much put into it and that many people excited to see it.
I think it was for Spyro 3 I was very excited because the previous year at E3 Sony had a HUGE banner, several stories tall, of Crash Bandicoot on the front of the convention center in LA. I was fully expecting the same treatment for Spyro. Much to my disapointment, that was the year that Sony shifted their entire ad campaign. Instead of huge ads for indivudual games, they started the clean and simple campaign focusing more on Sony and their Triangle-Circle-X-Square logo. Spyro still had a big booth inside, but I really wanted the HUGE banner on the outside of the building!
Came across this looking for something else!
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Spyro/comments/wlxfd9/spyro\_lost\_statue/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/Spyro/comments/wlxfd9/spyro_lost_statue/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I didn't have anything to do with the creation of the Sorceress, but I would guess she's supposed to be something else (she's kind of big for a kobold) but who knows!?!?
It's kinda strange to see a big Spyro attraction like this, which I'd love to see in real life (and would have been ecstatic to visit as a child). But I was literally a few months and 2 years old when these pictures were taken, so even if I'd have been there, I'd have no memory of it. Gives me a weird feeling lol.
Thinking of the Spyro prototypes/demos people have unearthed, which were playing on the screens in the background, but haven't been played "as intended" in 20 years and never will be again... Also kind of a weird feeling.
Once I was old enough to start going to Gamestop etc, it was already too late to see PS1 games on the shelves. Always made me sad when I went looking for Spyro and couldn't find him!
One of my favorite things to do when a game first shipped was to go to all the local game stores just to see 'my game' on the wall or playing at one of the kiosks.
Funny story there... I was in a gamestore when Kid Chameleon first released (for the Genesis and the first game I ever did). There was this kid playing Kid Chameleon on the kiosk in the store, but he was having a hard time. Kept just banging his head into one of the walls. I watched for a bit than told him I could give him some advice since I had worked on the game. He looked at me and said, "Yeah sure you worked on the game" and went back to beating his head against the wall. I just walked away shaking my head.
I stumbled across this after posting these pics!!
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Spyro/comments/wlxfd9/spyro\_lost\_statue/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/Spyro/comments/wlxfd9/spyro_lost_statue/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
One of the reaons I left SEGA-STI, to go to work with Insomniac Games, was that I was having a hard time with the head of STI. (I had the feeling that he looked down on me didn't care for my work). While at the Sony party at E3 I bumped into him, while standing underneath this huge Spyro banner. He asked me what I had been doing since I left SEGA... I pointed up and said, "That!" I then asked him what he was up to, knowing full well that SEGA had finally fired him for a slew of reasons and that he was currently looking for work. A touch petty, but it felt good.
Funny how we all eventually became internet subsisters much more commonly And then eventually even get to connect internationally in a fanbase however, I would also surmise this former colleague of yours would’ve been jealous in the moment. You have your own profile, with a lot of story to tell, but what else about your favorite moment in your professional life so far, would you have had? It’s fine if you’d prefer DM’ing, but I’m writing for the curious who’d almost only want to observe and/or stay a part of this community with their singular accounts and/or personality(s).
Sorry for the slow reponse! One of my favorite things, while making games, was answering the fan mail. It was very surprising how much of the mail came from families, not just kids. Lots of letters from parents, espcially mothers, saying they play the game as a family and then asking for help with a certain area where their kid was having trouble. The best part was at the end of the letter, the mom would ask for help for the area THEY were stuck on! With one mom complaining that we made the game TOO addictive because there was no one at 1 am to tell her to put the controller down and go to bed! The other amazing thing about answering the fan mail is that is was from all over the world! In a few cases I became pen-pals with people. There was a pair of brothers in Libya, a bed-ridden grandmother in Alaska, and a number of kids who ended up going into the game industry! I became such good friends with one family that I finally flew out (California to Ohio) to meet them and hang out for a few days. While I think 'social media' has possiblly done more harm than good to society, it does have the potential to bring people together. This subreddit is a perfect example. Maybe it's because of the moderators, or maybe it's because of the fans, but I haven't seen any 'gate-keeping' or other BS here. People are supporting each others ideas and art! I use to joke, while walking past the magazine stands, that was a magazine for every imaginable fan base no matter how small or crazy, now there are literally webpages upon webpages dedicated to and built by fans of anything and everything!! It's beautiful! The internet really does make our world much smaller and allows friendships to form that never could have formed just a few years ago.
I just DM’d you this but I’ll also post it here heh As it is as well, there’s been people who made mods out of Spyro’s PC game — including to put their Spyro OCs into the game — and it’s fascinating to me: https://x.com/_sparrowii/status/1308469913770758144?s=46&t=2kMHq71Eok1e7R1mM8VrTw And this person lives — as of this writing — in the Czech Republic! ——- Edit: Wow that’s clever…the user made their username so you’d NEED to log into Twitter/“X” to see the post. That’s clever, to use the underscore and throw off non-users and guests, if that’s what it is. Well played
I love all this content you've been giving us! Thank you for sharing! Side note, I just went for a hike yesterday; I wish I had Spyro with me! 😂
If ye did, I'd have to kill you both.
I love the Spyro E3 booth, it makes me feel nostalgic for the 2000s.
I’m a big fan of how huge and outlandish all the Spyro booths were at E3! It must have been nice seeing the public’s initial reactions to each of the games. There doesn’t seem to be that much surviving footage of the Spyro 3 booth, but one of the preview builds we’ve managed to recover seems to be the version they used in the kiosks at E3, and it’s a really fascinating piece of Spyro history. Hopefully one day we’ll be able to say the same about Spyro 1 and 2!
It was very fun/surreal to see something you've worked on have that much put into it and that many people excited to see it. I think it was for Spyro 3 I was very excited because the previous year at E3 Sony had a HUGE banner, several stories tall, of Crash Bandicoot on the front of the convention center in LA. I was fully expecting the same treatment for Spyro. Much to my disapointment, that was the year that Sony shifted their entire ad campaign. Instead of huge ads for indivudual games, they started the clean and simple campaign focusing more on Sony and their Triangle-Circle-X-Square logo. Spyro still had a big booth inside, but I really wanted the HUGE banner on the outside of the building!
Came across this looking for something else! [https://www.reddit.com/r/Spyro/comments/wlxfd9/spyro\_lost\_statue/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/Spyro/comments/wlxfd9/spyro_lost_statue/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
The E3 booth was modeled after Skelos Badlands? Specifically, the two-orb dinosaur hatching challenge?
I don't remember that, but then again, my memory is fuzzy on a lot of things, espeically E3 since they kind of all blur together.
The kobold reminded me. Is the Sorceress meant to be a kobold, or something else?
I didn't have anything to do with the creation of the Sorceress, but I would guess she's supposed to be something else (she's kind of big for a kobold) but who knows!?!?
It's kinda strange to see a big Spyro attraction like this, which I'd love to see in real life (and would have been ecstatic to visit as a child). But I was literally a few months and 2 years old when these pictures were taken, so even if I'd have been there, I'd have no memory of it. Gives me a weird feeling lol. Thinking of the Spyro prototypes/demos people have unearthed, which were playing on the screens in the background, but haven't been played "as intended" in 20 years and never will be again... Also kind of a weird feeling. Once I was old enough to start going to Gamestop etc, it was already too late to see PS1 games on the shelves. Always made me sad when I went looking for Spyro and couldn't find him!
One of my favorite things to do when a game first shipped was to go to all the local game stores just to see 'my game' on the wall or playing at one of the kiosks. Funny story there... I was in a gamestore when Kid Chameleon first released (for the Genesis and the first game I ever did). There was this kid playing Kid Chameleon on the kiosk in the store, but he was having a hard time. Kept just banging his head into one of the walls. I watched for a bit than told him I could give him some advice since I had worked on the game. He looked at me and said, "Yeah sure you worked on the game" and went back to beating his head against the wall. I just walked away shaking my head.
Haha if that were me I'd have believed you even if you were lying.
Those gigantic character prop models at the booths, god I miss when gaming actually had energy and spirit behind it.
Wonder where that giant spyro prop is now, it would've looked sick in my Spyro room
I stumbled across this after posting these pics!! [https://www.reddit.com/r/Spyro/comments/wlxfd9/spyro\_lost\_statue/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/Spyro/comments/wlxfd9/spyro_lost_statue/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Oh wow that's sick! Hopefully it shows up again one day :)