darkSpyro

While searching Spyro stuff on Google, I found this. It was what Check 6 originally wanted to do for Spyro 5 as well as some development facts about Enter the Dragonfly. http://assemblergames.com/l/th...ix-title.57788/
EDIT: CONFIRMED FAKE.

Wow,if this is legit, actually a pretty good find. Sad to see Universal was just as bad as Activision(if not worse,Acti did throw DOTD into EL's hands but at least the game is finished) in some aspects.

Quote:

There was actually supposed to be another breath that we never developed, but had concept art for. If Spyro would use it, musical notes would come out of his mouth and music would speed up in the game, causing enemies in a certain radius to start dancing for a few seconds, giving Spyro time to attack.

C'mon guys no wonder you took more than you can chew,choosing Bubble Breath over a gimmick this nice?

Quote:

We had a prototype running, before we moved platforms very shortly after because Universal wanted to have a "Next Gen Spyro".

So this was Sonic 06 before Sonic 06 was even a thing? Wow.

Man, Elora always gets so close to coming back and never quite makes it. ;_; Still, this was all really cool to read. I hope Dan comes back. It'd be cool if he found the photos from the scrapped project.

Considering he's working on Activision and his team and even job are under NDA, I wonder if he's actually working on Skylanders now - a nice replacement considering how messed up the development for ETD was. Probably not though,Acti has many subsidiaries.

But seriously,the story sounds SO close to Sonic 06's. A team split(06 and the Wii port which would become Secret Rings), characters meant to return but cut at the last second, the company attempting to rush the game out of the door to stick it to another one, even the attempt at a "next gen" title and having to turn small features and characters into full appearances because the build was far from complete. Those who don't learn history are bound to repeat it,indeed.

Yeah they got too ambitious with their work that it ended up being the reason they faltered in the end. Focusing on the primary project first and then start work near the end when certain phases of production were complete.

The possibilities, the craziness of their ambitions of having Spyro 5 consist of 50 levels, now it is known a bit more on what happened behind the scenes of Spyro 4 development. Whenever I have an aching desire to play a new Spyro game that's not going to come, I just play one of the existing Spyro games, consume fancontent, or try to make up game concept ideas for Spyro (one involving a point and click-esque adventure). This notation of new info is spiking my interests at the moment.

If someone would send these questions to this former employee of Check Six Studios (I'm not registered to that forum), that would be great:

• How did Check Six Studios get the Spyro contract from Universal?
  
• How did Stewart Copeland (composer of Spyro 1-3) handle the game during it's development as he was composing? With an educated guess, I would've assumed if the game has a troubled development, the music will suffer as well in not being in-sync to how the game plays. That's probably one of the only good things out of Spyro 4, Spyro music!
  

As of right now, the last post made in that thread was 2015 Sep 01. The date of the creation of the topic is 2015 Aug 20. The last post that the topic creator made was in 2015 Aug 25. So about 2 weeks.

Quote:

How did Stewart Copeland (composer of Spyro 1-3) handle the game during it's development as he was composing?

I think I know to answer that, he actually played the levels when he was composing.




a little off topic, sorry.

@parisruelz12: I'm aware of this tidbit of info. I should clarify my answer a bit more by asking sub-questions:

• Did he do things a bit differently on creating his music on playing Spyro 4?
  
• Was the game buggier compared to the final release when he played the game during development?
  
• In what way did Stewart Copeland have to adjust playing the game in order to get inspiration to create music for that particular level or part of the game?
  

I'm still amazed of the music that came out as great as the previous Spyro music, and even though I haven't played Spyro 4, my favorite song in that game has to be Riptoc Factory Bombing; /so/ energetic, upbeat, yet urgent!

Okay, yeah. That's what I thought. Sorry about that.

Quote:

Back in July 2000, we snagged a contract from Universal for TWO Spyro The Dragon titles.

So, maybe if Check Six studios started development around the time they were given their contract and had never split up their team to start a sequel, we could have had a pretty good Spyro game?

I also found it interesting that Check Six were college students. Imagine the feeling of a group of young, enthusiastic students getting to make a Spyro game. I wonder how they convinced Universal to make games for them.

Interesting. On one hand:

- This guy's name isn't in the credits of EtD, and as-of-yet he has not found out/explained why that is.
- He hasn't posted any concept art or anything yet, despite saying he would. (Probably legally can't, but still) As of right now, all we have to go by is his word.
- Seems a bit too good to be true, with someone who worked on an old Spyro game, who seems interested in reviving the project, and works for Activision, thus having the potential to actually do it.

So I'm a bit suspicious about his legitimacy. But, on the other hand, everything he says seems to match up with what is known about EtD.

- I remember reading somewhere that EtD is coded in a very basic programming language. The fact that Check Six was mostly college students makes sense.
- The plot of Wedding Crasher, as fanfic-y as it sounds, sounds to me like something the creators of EtD would come up with.
- Check Six Studios was never seen again after this game. Makes sense if the quality didn't match Universal's standards and they were fined more than the company could handle.

If it's true, that a very neat look at what could have been for Spyro EtD and another game by Check Six. Development was clearly a mess, just looking at the final product, but it's neat to see how much was stacked against them that caused it to be this way.

Remember he didn't say he'd revive the project in the usual 'omg let's revive spyro' fashion, he meant the concepts. Seriously,that gimmick of a song breath actually seems amazing - if it's legit they could always use the leftover concept art to do the usual Indie Kickstarter spitirual sucessor to what they could never finish, just with a different character but keeping the world and story themes.

Quote: Bifrost

Considering he's working on Activision and his team and even job are under NDA, I wonder if he's actually working on Skylanders now - a nice replacement considering how messed up the development for ETD was. Probably not though,Acti has many subsidiaries.

But seriously,the story sounds SO close to Sonic 06's. A team split(06 and the Wii port which would become Secret Rings), characters meant to return but cut at the last second, the company attempting to rush the game out of the door to stick it to another one, even the attempt at a "next gen" title and having to turn small features and characters into full appearances because the build was far from complete. Those who don't learn history are bound to repeat it,indeed.

Spyro 06

Quote: ladala

Interesting. On one hand:

- This guy's name isn't in the credits of EtD, and as-of-yet he has not found out/explained why that is.
- He hasn't posted any concept art or anything yet, despite saying he would. (Probably legally can't, but still) As of right now, all we have to go by is his word.
- Seems a bit too good to be true, with someone who worked on an old Spyro game, who seems interested in reviving the project, and works for Activision, thus having the potential to actually do it.

So I'm a bit suspicious about his legitimacy. But, on the other hand, everything he says seems to match up with what is known about EtD.

- I remember reading somewhere that EtD is coded in a very basic programming language. The fact that Check Six was mostly college students makes sense.
- The plot of Wedding Crasher, as fanfic-y as it sounds, sounds to me like something the creators of EtD would come up with.
- Check Six Studios was never seen again after this game. Makes sense if the quality didn't match Universal's standards and they were fined more than the company could handle.

If it's true, that a very neat look at what could have been for Spyro EtD and another game by Check Six. Development was clearly a mess, just looking at the final product, but it's neat to see how much was stacked against them that caused it to be this way.

Read past the first post and you'll see where he said that he and a few other workers weren't in the credits. He never noticed until someone pointed it out.

It actually sickens me just how f-ing stupid Universal is/are. They completely destroyed a series that had so much potential moving in to the 2000's. This is what I had a feeling it would have been like. An absolute tragedy also is how most of the footage/material/art is gone, so we can't actually see much conceptualized.

>We begged Universal to let us have a few more months but they refused.

I hate you, Universal. So much.

Quote: CrystalFissure

It actually sickens me just how f-ing stupid Universal is/are. They completely destroyed a series that had so much potential moving in to the 2000's. This is what I had a feeling it would have been like. An absolute tragedy also is how most of the footage/material/art is gone, so we can't actually see much conceptualized.

>We begged Universal to let us have a few more months but they refused.

I hate you, Universal. So much.

I agree fully :c

While I agree Universal did a pretty bad job here...the team was not innocent, either. Dan admits openly that they were too ambitious and were in breach of their contract. They signed a deal to make a game by that date and they weren't doing it. Universal is still ultimately at fault for hiring an untested dev team to work on a known IP in the first place, but based on these revelations, it looks like the studio was at least half responsible itself for why EtD is so terrible.

Quote: Razz

Man, Elora always gets so close to coming back and never quite makes it. Still, this was all really cool to read. I hope Dan comes back. It'd be cool if he found the photos from the scrapped project.

You play Skylander correct? Once you get Splat in SSC just nickname her Elora! I did that for Slam Bam (Bentley) and Jet Vac (James Byrd)

Well,that OP is still delivering! He posted yesterday - one of his dev team friends appears to have videos still.

Quote:

It was destroyed because it was unofficial, and we developed it in our free time. We could have gotten into license trouble.
My personal opinion, is that Spyro as a series is long dead and buried. Activision owns the IP and has no intention to revive it. Me and many others in the company I work for related to Activision have pitched ideas for revivals at many times. Activision turns every single pitch of a new Spyro title down. I believe I heard down the grapevine at work that Sanzaru Games pitched a new Spyro game for Playstation Vita and Nintendo 3DS, but it was turned down because of Skylanders.

Surprising no one. Acti STILL has no reason to sit on IPs, and apparently never heard of standalone games for certain characters. But hey, this week we learned Universal was also a greedy company that killed the IP to begin with by starting the downfall with christmas rushing, it's a depressing choice of events either way; I wouldn't be surprised if Spyro would've gone the way of Crash had TFB not given them a money printing opportunity. As I said in threads before, at least there's something left instead of nothing with no chance of ever returning in this decade.

But I wonder if anyone tried to pitch a Spyro game in Skylanders' universe? I'm sure it must be "painful" to leave the nostalgia goggles behind and try to work with a lore that you've been probably rejecting out of pride, but it's not exactly working with another IP; and if it's a handheld or mobile it wouldn't be taking space from the console games.

I have to agree. as much as I don't want to, but yes, Spyro as a series is dead. the character is a alive and well, which is honestly ore important to me then anything else. CYnder, Malefor, Sparx and in a way Moneybags are alive too.

Would it have been to hard to just call Auric "Moneybags'?


Also I'd LOVE to see a spin off of Spyro in the Skylanders Universe. Add in a few other Skylanders (One or two of each element maybe?) with cutscenes featuring them. Maybe even just remake the first three games and add in a completed version of Enter the Dragonfly.


If something original just have a new original villain trying to do something bad (How about trying to wake up a ancient monster to destroy Skylands?Lets say have Spyro, Gill Grunt, Countdown, Hex, Jet Vac Fire Kracken Nightmare Astro Blast, Terrafin Stealth Elf and Pop Fizz go as a small group to stop the villain?

I think we've been suggesting smaller roster spinoff games since SSA came out, but nothing until now. Doesn't help that the devs there must be trying to revive old Spyro and TLOS, not try to work with what they've got - and looking at the AAA industry right now,unfortunately plataformers,especially 3D ones, are not the 'in' genre and dead to the higher-ups. Can't expect your childhood to rise from the ashes exactly like it used to be like.

Quote: Razz

While I agree Universal did a pretty bad job here...the team was not innocent, either. Dan admits openly that they were too ambitious and were in breach of their contract. They signed a deal to make a game by that date and they weren't doing it. Universal is still ultimately at fault for hiring an untested dev team to work on a known IP in the first place, but based on these revelations, it looks like the studio was at least half responsible itself for why EtD is so terrible.

Thiiiiiisssss ____^

Having recently graduated from a VFX and gaming college, I can tell you deadlines mean EVERYTHING.

While you're working on the game, the company meanwhile is making deals with retailers and advertisements, and they've promised the game to be out by a certain date, just have you have promised to have the game done by a certain date. You absolutely cannot just "beg for a couple more months" when you've failed to meet that deadline.

It sounds harsh, but that's not just Universal, that's the whole industry. Be it for games, movies or TV, you've got to manage your time well (Like, not taking the time to program a personal copy of your unfinished game for the Dreamcast just for ~funnsys~ for example) , not bite off more then you can chew so you can make those deadlines in any way possible.

Yeah,but release a game that's only 15% complete? The fact it bombed was more than predictable. Cancelling should've been the better way.

'Spyro: When Villains Collide' and 'Spyro: Wedding Crasher'? They both sound awesome. If only we got the full 'When Villains Collide' rather than the incomplete version known as 'Enter the Dragonfly'. CURSE YOU, UNIVERSAL!
Cancelling would have been the better choice in this case.


I wonder if any companies are willing to remake EtD in the way it should have been...

Upon looking at it further, I think I'm gonna need some more proof about whether this is real. Some of the info is a bit suspicious. He says they didn't use existing Spyro graphics, but in the game you can see the exact same textures for some stuff.

Quote: CrystalFissure

Upon looking at it further, I think I'm gonna need some more proof about whether this is real. Some of the info is a bit suspicious. He says they didn't use existing Spyro graphics, but in the game you can see the exact same textures for some stuff.

The plots on the ideas of the potential Spyro games seem way too much like Spyro fanfics.

I find this hard to believe until proven otherwise.

Though when you look at it,the known original plot for ETD where every villain would team up against the 'Spyro problem' would be kinda fanfic-y. But yeah, until adding this to places about the game and such, it's better to wait for that footage and concept art to surface.

The reason Universal didn't cancel EtD outright when the deadline came up is because they would have lost all the money they'd spent hiring a dev team that was in breach of contract. I don't have any sympathy for the team on this one; they were hired to do a job and they didn't do it. You can't get away with that in creative industry. Universal wanted their money back and they'd promised people a Spyro game by December of that year (which the devs were supposed to actually have done by then and would have had they kept their priorities straight). To make back some of that lost money, Universal had no option other than to release this unfinished game made by developers who weren't known in the industry at all (I'm still mystified that they went with this team of unknowns for such a popular franchise).

Regarding Elora and Splat: Superchargers is the first Skylanders game I want to get since Giants and the first one I'll play (if I can get it) since Spyro's Adventure. XD If I can just get my mostly ladies collection of Skylanders back from New Mexico, I'll have everything I need. XD

Quote: Razz

The reason Universal didn't cancel EtD outright when the deadline came up is because they would have lost all the money they'd spent hiring a dev team that was in breach of contract. I don't have any sympathy for the team on this one; they were hired to do a job and they didn't do it. You can't get away with that in creative industry. Universal wanted their money back and they'd promised people a Spyro game by December of that year (which the devs were supposed to actually have done by then and would have had they kept their priorities straight). To make back some of that lost money, Universal had no option other than to release this unfinished game made by developers who weren't known in the industry at all (I'm still mystified that they went with this team of unknowns for such a popular franchise).

Bingo! Another point for Razz!

As for HOW they went with a team of unknowns, there's a couple likely theories on how that'd happen:

1: Connections and word of mouth in the industry is VERY powerful. One or more of those students might have had a friend or family member working in Universal, whom being a friend would recommend them for a job. In turn, the students could also be asked if they'd recommend anyone, and they could recommend their college friends until you got yourself a team of unknowns to the public, but known people to the industry.

2: Said students might have graduated from a very renowned college. The college I went to (the DAVE school) is well known for getting new graduates into big industries, and is often sought out by said companies for new potential employees, many of witch ended up working on huge movies like The Avengers, Godzilla or Pacific Rim.

or 3: The members of the team really just were good students with super amazing demo reels that were just put onto the same team. But if that was the case, why'd the project flop? It could be that the team, in one way or another, was just not compatible with each other in a professional field (Something that actually ALMOST caused our class to fail), or maybe they were all just riding on the high of getting a job and potentially paying off all those crippling student loans.

Whatever it was, the fact that they were unknowns, or college students doesn't excuse what went down, they only have themselves and their time management skills to blame for it. Sad the way it turned out, but hopefully this was a huge sobering lesson for them to help them improve in the future.

...

(Again, giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming this is all legit)

Yeah, the Portal team has proven that a group of kids straight out of college CAN do something very worthwhile. But if this is really legit, the EtD team is the example of why it's a bad idea to put your popular franchise in the hands of complete unknowns.

Someone on Facebook said that Dan Capman is known troll who trolls about Check Six Spyro stuff and that he did it before. Can anyone find evidence of this?

Never heard of it or any fake stuff of his showing up in General.

Could also be someone salty about something he said,so both sides have to be taken with a grain of salt.

Looks like ccrogers strikes again. For those who don't know, ccrogers is known for spreading false game rumors and information on Spyro and other games to troll others. He was also once a user here on the forums until he was banned.

wh-wh-what?! this http://assemblergames.com/l/th...ix-title.57788/ was all a lie?! Darn it was so belivable!

*edit* yes, it was indeed a scam after all. I came here reading all the information on the provided website (link: http://assemblergames.com/l/th...ix-title.57788/ ) and am dissapointed someone would spread false rumors just for the kick of it. I am embarrased I even fell for such a scam.

Looking on the good side,it was pretty believable, and not the usual "insomniac said a thing! new Spyro game confirmed!". But I guess this topic has no reason to stay up now.

All this was a lie?

Wow, alright then.. XD

I agree with Bifrost, we should look on the bright side of this. I mean what if Enchanted Forest was for the second level? it does sound reasonable. And Bifrost's has a point with people saying " "insomniac said a thing! new Spyro game confirmed!" not happening with this scam, which usually happens. It would probably be for the good to close this topic, as we don't want people to be mislead.

Yep. Someone on the thread pointed out signs in the info that were misleading. I'll make a few edits so people can know it's fake.
EDIT: And now I just found out I can't strike through text and can't edit topic titles. All I could do was edit the first post.

You should be able to edit your topic title since you created this topic. You also can close your own topics after a certain amount of time has passed.

Welp. That was pretty believable, but I can't help but think it must be so sad to be ccrogers. What a miserable life with nothing better to do but imagine fake game concepts that maybe five people will discuss/care about at all. XD And going through so much effort to "troll" the Spyro fandom, of all things. XD Believe me, it doesn't take that much effort to troll this fandom (sorry guys, it's true; I've done it multiple times without even intending to). XD

Ccrogers came on and said he isn't DanCapman since he has moved on from trolling years ago and is now focusing on school. And that someone else had used his name out of spite for what he did to them years ago.

Doing nothing but waste people's time to get revenge against a troll? It's immaturity all the way down.

Quote: Aura24

You should be able to edit your topic title since you created this topic. You also can close your own topics after a certain amount of time has passed.

Well, for some reason it won't let me. I'll just close the topic instead.
EDIT: Nevermind! Figured it out.