With today marking 19 years since the release of the seminal platformer – and iconic mascot – Crash Bandicoot on the original PlayStation, we’ve dug up a whole load of early design and concept sketches, courtesy of Crash 1’s producer David Siller.
The sketches – many of which have never previously been published – showcase numerous concepts and early level designs for stages that made it into either the first game in the series or one of its successors, and were created by Universal-contracted designers Charles Zembillas, Joe Pearson and Siller himself.
Unfortunately, the circumstances of the release of the images in question are not entirely related to jovial birthday celebrations for the fuzzy orange marsupial. As we exclusively reported last week, Siller has recently begun a campaign via social media to have the efforts of Zembillas, Pearson and himself properly recognised, as he believes the trio have been “totally forgotten about” and “systematically eliminated” from the history of the series by Naughty Dog co-founders Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin, along with former Universal head Mark Cerny.
We have been in contact with Andy Gavin in the hopes of obtaining a response to the allegations, but he has declined to speak on the record as of the time of writing.