Ginger Soda...
Jul 30, 2004 16:51:01 GMT -5
Post by medulla on Jul 30, 2004 16:51:01 GMT -5
...and other Gobbo related info...
6: Some of the Croc team's members are fans of Capcom's Rockman/Mega Man series! This was evidenced quite clearly when pictures were shown from an early demo of a game called "Orchid" (though the final version was never released), which was designed by the Lead Designer on the Croc series. In this demo an image of a Servbot (from the MegaMan Legends series) was used as a placeholder image on a character's shirt whilst the final textures were being prepared.
Nic: We were trying to hook Capcom at the time... failed
11: The design document for Croc 2 was around twice the size of the Yellow Pages (a really giant phone directory), and the one for Croc 1 was said to be similar in size. Collectively, around ten pages from each of these documents were used in the creation of each game.
Nic: Hmmmm... I don't really recall writing much of a design for Croc 2... certainly weren't phone book sized (Orchid's design was)... maybe I was shooting my mouth off or something... You know men and the size of their design documents...
16: The background story in the instruction manual for Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was written by one of the writers responsible for scripts in the popular show The Simpsons. The series' Lead Designer was apparently never particularly happy with this version of the story - it can be guessed that this is because the story in the manual does not really fit with the style of the game itself. The manual-story was purely humourous, whereas the style of the game is quite whimsical. This did not happen with the story in the manual for Croc 2 - that story stayed true to the game's style, and was obviously written by somebody else.
Nic: Yup - it sucked... but Fox probably paid a load of money for it
19: Both Croc 1 and 2 almost included parachuting levels (something that fans have requested often), but due to time constraints affecting how many ideas can be included in the games, they were never used.
Nic: I’m trying to remember if this is true... we tried lots of different things that never made it into the games.
23: From "Shouting Lava Lava Lava" (a spoof of a song called 'Born Slippy) on Forest Island, to "Lights, Camel, Action!" (a play on the term "Lights, Camera, Action!") on the Desert Island, to "Crox Interactive" (based on the name of the game's publisher, Fox Interactive) on Crystal Island, nearly all of the level titles in Croc 1 are (sometimes quite bad) puns. This is not the case in Croc 2, however.
Nic: Actually 'Lights, Camel, Action' is a reference to a song by the obscure band 'Stump' called 'Charlton Heston'.
24: Listening to how Croc sounds, and then to how Baron Dante sounds, it might seem hard to believe, but all of the character voices in both Croc 1 and Croc 2 were done by one guy. According to the Croc team, the actor behind Croc, his friends, and his enemies is able to pitch his voice both very high and very low, resulting in only one voice talent being needed for every character in both games.
Nic: And he’s rightly proud of his work.
www.imdb.com/name/nm0034877/
35: The computer-generated artwork used to promote Croc: Pau Pau Island! (the Japanese version of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos) was created by Argonaut, rather than by Fox Interactive (Fox did not publish the Japanese version of Croc 1). It can also be seen during the installation process and game-launcher of the PC version of the game, from any region. The promotional art for the Japanese version of Croc 2, which was titled "Croc Adventure", was simply a combination of polygonal renders from the game itself, and Fox Interactive's artwork for the Western version of the game.
Nic: The Japanese ‘Mitsui’ (sp?) ads for Croc 1 were pretty cute… They are probably on the web somewhere…
37: Croc's arch-nemesis, Baron Dante, was originally called "Denver"! The name was changed when the Lead Designer, who is also a movie fan, joined the Croc team (to quote; "Denver? That sounds rubbish!"). 'Dante' was picked as a name as homage to the movie director, Joe Dante. The 'Baron' part was added "Because it sounds mean".
Nic: Get – out – of – my – head!!!
42: In the promotional literature and manual for Croc 2, it was stated that the new character - a portly feline by the name of Swap Meet Pete - knew more about the game's events than he was letting on. However, it was never really specified what he knew about. He overcharges for some of the supplies he sells, too, the greedy git (it is believed that Swap Meet Pete is actually meant to be a pun on the term "fat cat", which is used to describe money-grabbing businessmen).
Nic: Actually - he was named after our lead animator, Pete. Swap meets are ike car boot sales in the US. Cannon Boat Keith was named after our then development manager. Flavio the thermal fish was named after the project's server, which was named after the F1 guy... I could go on...
47: The binoculars Croc receives at the start of Croc 2 were originally a telescope. Additionally, in the aforementioned earlier versions of Croc 2, the binoculars were actually referred to as binoculars, rather than "Magic Eye Zoomers".
Nic: Which weren’t very magic… or zoomy… that’s Gobbo’s for you!!!
50: The US version of Croc 2 featured a product placement for Nabisco's Gummi Savers candy. This isn't present in the European version of the game, due to Gummi Savers not being sold there.
Nic: But you could buy Croc 2 branded Cadburys Mini Rolls in the UK… yum yum...
If I think of anything not covered (unlikely) I'll post it... you could maybe add...
58: We had a little help from a Japanese designer, who Mitsui sent over, called Aoki Kabuta. Aoki was the designer of 'PC Kid'/'BC Kid' and was an all round top individual. I don't think her ever got a credit
YOU KNOW TOO MUCH!!!!
Nic.
6: Some of the Croc team's members are fans of Capcom's Rockman/Mega Man series! This was evidenced quite clearly when pictures were shown from an early demo of a game called "Orchid" (though the final version was never released), which was designed by the Lead Designer on the Croc series. In this demo an image of a Servbot (from the MegaMan Legends series) was used as a placeholder image on a character's shirt whilst the final textures were being prepared.
Nic: We were trying to hook Capcom at the time... failed
11: The design document for Croc 2 was around twice the size of the Yellow Pages (a really giant phone directory), and the one for Croc 1 was said to be similar in size. Collectively, around ten pages from each of these documents were used in the creation of each game.
Nic: Hmmmm... I don't really recall writing much of a design for Croc 2... certainly weren't phone book sized (Orchid's design was)... maybe I was shooting my mouth off or something... You know men and the size of their design documents...
16: The background story in the instruction manual for Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was written by one of the writers responsible for scripts in the popular show The Simpsons. The series' Lead Designer was apparently never particularly happy with this version of the story - it can be guessed that this is because the story in the manual does not really fit with the style of the game itself. The manual-story was purely humourous, whereas the style of the game is quite whimsical. This did not happen with the story in the manual for Croc 2 - that story stayed true to the game's style, and was obviously written by somebody else.
Nic: Yup - it sucked... but Fox probably paid a load of money for it
19: Both Croc 1 and 2 almost included parachuting levels (something that fans have requested often), but due to time constraints affecting how many ideas can be included in the games, they were never used.
Nic: I’m trying to remember if this is true... we tried lots of different things that never made it into the games.
23: From "Shouting Lava Lava Lava" (a spoof of a song called 'Born Slippy) on Forest Island, to "Lights, Camel, Action!" (a play on the term "Lights, Camera, Action!") on the Desert Island, to "Crox Interactive" (based on the name of the game's publisher, Fox Interactive) on Crystal Island, nearly all of the level titles in Croc 1 are (sometimes quite bad) puns. This is not the case in Croc 2, however.
Nic: Actually 'Lights, Camel, Action' is a reference to a song by the obscure band 'Stump' called 'Charlton Heston'.
24: Listening to how Croc sounds, and then to how Baron Dante sounds, it might seem hard to believe, but all of the character voices in both Croc 1 and Croc 2 were done by one guy. According to the Croc team, the actor behind Croc, his friends, and his enemies is able to pitch his voice both very high and very low, resulting in only one voice talent being needed for every character in both games.
Nic: And he’s rightly proud of his work.
www.imdb.com/name/nm0034877/
35: The computer-generated artwork used to promote Croc: Pau Pau Island! (the Japanese version of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos) was created by Argonaut, rather than by Fox Interactive (Fox did not publish the Japanese version of Croc 1). It can also be seen during the installation process and game-launcher of the PC version of the game, from any region. The promotional art for the Japanese version of Croc 2, which was titled "Croc Adventure", was simply a combination of polygonal renders from the game itself, and Fox Interactive's artwork for the Western version of the game.
Nic: The Japanese ‘Mitsui’ (sp?) ads for Croc 1 were pretty cute… They are probably on the web somewhere…
37: Croc's arch-nemesis, Baron Dante, was originally called "Denver"! The name was changed when the Lead Designer, who is also a movie fan, joined the Croc team (to quote; "Denver? That sounds rubbish!"). 'Dante' was picked as a name as homage to the movie director, Joe Dante. The 'Baron' part was added "Because it sounds mean".
Nic: Get – out – of – my – head!!!
42: In the promotional literature and manual for Croc 2, it was stated that the new character - a portly feline by the name of Swap Meet Pete - knew more about the game's events than he was letting on. However, it was never really specified what he knew about. He overcharges for some of the supplies he sells, too, the greedy git (it is believed that Swap Meet Pete is actually meant to be a pun on the term "fat cat", which is used to describe money-grabbing businessmen).
Nic: Actually - he was named after our lead animator, Pete. Swap meets are ike car boot sales in the US. Cannon Boat Keith was named after our then development manager. Flavio the thermal fish was named after the project's server, which was named after the F1 guy... I could go on...
47: The binoculars Croc receives at the start of Croc 2 were originally a telescope. Additionally, in the aforementioned earlier versions of Croc 2, the binoculars were actually referred to as binoculars, rather than "Magic Eye Zoomers".
Nic: Which weren’t very magic… or zoomy… that’s Gobbo’s for you!!!
50: The US version of Croc 2 featured a product placement for Nabisco's Gummi Savers candy. This isn't present in the European version of the game, due to Gummi Savers not being sold there.
Nic: But you could buy Croc 2 branded Cadburys Mini Rolls in the UK… yum yum...
If I think of anything not covered (unlikely) I'll post it... you could maybe add...
58: We had a little help from a Japanese designer, who Mitsui sent over, called Aoki Kabuta. Aoki was the designer of 'PC Kid'/'BC Kid' and was an all round top individual. I don't think her ever got a credit
YOU KNOW TOO MUCH!!!!
Nic.
I just have a good memory. ^.^;;;
They seemed to just disappear... 
It seems like I just posted that about 2 seconds ago, and you've already answered! 
