Greetings

Krokus · Feb 19, 2008 5:17 PM

Spyro · Feb 19, 2008 10:28 PM

Hello, Mr. Schebek!

I couldn't have imagined you'd join my forum! What an honor!

Well, of course there's all sorts of things I'd like to ask but I'm sure none of them are "allowable". Ever since I heard that you had three concepts rejected for a fourth GBA Spyro, I have wondered what those concepts entailed. Why did Sierra reject them? Especially when what got created in its place (Cortex Conspiracy) was inferior to any of the work Digtial Eclipse had done. After Cortex Conspiracy were you (or the Spyro team) ever approached again to make another Spyro GBA game or no? Were there any levels or characters designed that got cut out (I know you mentioned wanting to include Elora) but was there anything else? Have you kept up with Spyro since then? Seen how they rebooted the series and are starting over? The most recent Spyro GBA game...Eternal Night...was actually one of the most highly critically acclaimed Spyro games since Digtial Eclipse left. Have you seen it/played it?

That's all for now...I'm happy you joined our Spyro community here and look forward to your input on what you did with Spyro.

-Neal Patten

Krokus · Feb 20, 2008 4:21 AM

Trainer_Spyro · Feb 20, 2008 5:25 PM

No offense but I didn't like Season of Ice all that much. But I have to admit it was more entertaining than "VV's" GBA games. Not to mention the design was better.
Vivendi's games are way too easy. There's no challenge.
Only one of the many aspects that Spyro games have lost over the years. sad

Krokus · Feb 21, 2008 9:03 AM

Well, we all do our best with what we have and the time made available to us. smile

Personally, Season of Ice is my least favourite of the three, undoubtedly because it was our first GBA game at the time and a lot of processes and tools just didn't exist, which meant much of the work was done manually. Still, I think it was comparable to similar types of games at the time, though perhaps I may have an understandably skewed perspective on that.

With Season of Flame, our primary goal was to make everything about the game better than Season of Ice, and we took a lot of feedback from various forums into account as well. Season of Flame had a re-designed and rewritten engine, particle systems, proportional text display, etc.

Attack of the Rhynocs was again the same deal. We wanted to out-do Season of Flame. I even spent some time with the audio engineer imposing certain technical restrictions on his song tempos because I wanted to be able to animate objects or change colours in sync with the music. The journal was rather more complicated to write compared to the Atlases in the previous games.

When you take into account that each successive Spyro game had to be created in less time than the previous one (and with fewer programmers each time), you generally don't bother with such details unless you're really determined to make a better game. smile

Determining how difficult to make a game is harder than one might think. Individual members of the team itself have differing opinions on whether some part of the game is too easy or too hard. Ultimately, it's the publisher's decision to establish how difficult the game is going to be. I thought the nine-square puzzles in AotR were ridiculously easy. Originally they were much more difficult. We were told to make them easy - say, two or three moves away from solved - and so that's what we did. An individual may know just how difficult a game should be for their own self, but when it comes to pleasing the masses, it requires a very good feel for the target audience as a whole. It's often decided by play-testers selected from the target audience, but not always.

Razz · Feb 21, 2008 11:38 PM

Welcome to Spyroforum, Mr. Schebek/Krokus! smile

Wow, I'm learning more about the Spyro GBA titles than I ever would have thought (I can't play hand held systems, so I've missed out on those titles).

I'm a big Elora fan and it's always seemed a bit sad that she hasn't been seen since YotD. I read on your site that you had wanted to put Elora into AotR but were unable to. Can you tell us any of the plans you had for her that didn't come to fruition? Are you hoping she'll show up in any future titles?

Krokus · Feb 22, 2008 4:59 PM

The decision to put Elora in the game was not actually a company decision as much as the idea of one or two people on the team, as a lot of such ideas were (and still are). The "official" design for the AotR journal said nothing about anything animating in sync with the music - that was something I wanted to do because I thought it was neat and would be fun to write.

Adding Elora to the game was one of our initial goals simply because people on the forums were asking for Elora and, as you said, she hasn't been seen very much. As with the soup kitchen mini-game, however, it was just one of many such ideas that were cut to fit the time schedule. Sometimes, it helps if you can present the design team with a convincing means of implementing a particular feature. Often, though, everybody's plate is already rather full of other things that require more attention.

Putting Elora in the game was a very early idea and as such, it did not get fully fleshed out. If implemented, Elora could have been anything from a fully playable character to simply one of the NPCs you talk to somewhere in the game.

cynderfan · Feb 27, 2008 8:13 AM

What a honor, welcome!

Spyrojoe19 · Feb 28, 2008 2:19 AM

Hey, Mr.Schebek or Krokus, whichever you perfer. Welcome to the board! Thanks for your part in the making of the Spyro GBA games. They were very enjoyable!!!!

Krokus · Feb 28, 2008 10:16 AM

Thanks, I had fun working on them. smile

TrueSpyroFAN · Mar 20, 2008 4:48 PM

Hi Krokus! smile

Nice to see you are new here! big_smile

Want to be friends?

ratchet · Mar 20, 2008 10:06 PM

Hello Mr. Schebek, I Found SOF Awesome, SOI was alright and AOTR is good to. My only complains are really the fact that if you fall in the water once, you die, would've there been a way where you could jump out if you want like the swamp in Spyro 1 or acid in Spyro 3 or is it too hard to program. I find it interesting that Radical were going to get in on the act because I find the later crash games very disappointing and Orange was disappointing itself, i wonder what would of happened if Radical Did Orange.

Krokus · Mar 22, 2008 7:47 AM

Spyro · Mar 22, 2008 4:29 PM

If you were given the chance to do another Spyro game, would you do it even now, five years later?

I heard that when a company gets an idea from a fan, they can't even hear of it/read it due to legal restrictions. Is this true? Many years ago when I was naive and young I emailed Digital Eclipse my idea for a fourth Spyro GBA game called "Spyro: Revenge of the Riptocs". The title was supposed to be similar to "Attack of the Rynocs" and be a direct sequel to it. I realize how silly I was to think it might actually be read!

Do you know if there was concept art and/or models created that were never released to the public?

You said ideas like Elora were just ideas of a team member or two, not the company. Besides Elora and Momkey, do you recall anything else that was cut out - minigame concepts, characters (and their names), levels, etc. Would you be able to describe other aspects that were cut out?

Finally, can a game only be made by the publisher coming to the developer, or could Digital Eclipse actually go and request to make another Spyro game?

ratchet · Mar 23, 2008 1:02 AM

Thanks, Krokus, that was very informative. However, I was actually asking about the fact that you just die as soon as you enter the water, instead of how like the artisan waterfall in Spyro 1 - how you could quickly jump out, much like the lava levels in SoF. Sorry, if I am a bit confusing...

Krokus · Mar 23, 2008 7:57 AM

ratchet · Mar 23, 2008 9:06 AM

Heh, I don't mind the length, I find your comments very interesting. Well, it's sad that you didn't put that in because I found that the only annoying part out of SoI, SoF and AotR - other than that, the game was awesome.

Reivan · Mar 23, 2008 9:33 AM

Ratchet being confusing is one of your many traits. People just get used to it

ratchet · Mar 23, 2008 10:58 AM

I don't realize that I'm confusing until I re-read my posts, heh, I'm like that. I am still 13 and human remember! lol

ice_missle · May 15, 2008 4:21 PM

Hi and welcome to the forum. And I agree with Reivan. ratchet you can be a little confusing at times. But you always have some interesting points.

ratchet · Jun 15, 2008 1:48 AM

Wow thanx, I guess its just my english >_<.

Yeah, i guess the main things i didn;t like about the GBA games were:
1.Repetative landscape
2.Cant bounce out of water

But, they were fun!

Spyro the wise · Jun 15, 2008 11:44 PM

Hello I'm new,Glad to be here

Cynder794 · Jun 16, 2008 12:08 AM

Hello, I'm Cynder794! I support SpyroXCynder!!!

Dragonz · Jun 16, 2008 12:10 AM

Hi there! I am new to Spyroforum(Only been here a few days! lol) Thanks for the information!

#1 Feb 19, 2008 5:17 PM

Greetings

#2 Feb 19, 2008 10:28 PM

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#3 Feb 20, 2008 4:21 AM

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#4 Feb 20, 2008 5:25 PM

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#5 Feb 21, 2008 9:03 AM

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#6 Feb 21, 2008 11:38 PM

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#7 Feb 22, 2008 4:59 PM

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#8 Feb 27, 2008 8:13 AM

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#9 Feb 28, 2008 2:19 AM

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#10 Feb 28, 2008 10:16 AM

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#11 Mar 20, 2008 4:48 PM

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#18 Mar 23, 2008 9:33 AM

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#20 May 15, 2008 4:21 PM

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#21 Jun 15, 2008 1:48 AM

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