According to programmer Peter Hastings, NASA rocket scientist Matt Whiting was hired to program Spyro's controls so that he could move as smoothly as possible. Spyro was given the ability to glide infinitely to give him "something he could do that no other platformer could", making the game's worlds significantly larger and providing more incentive for exploration. He was made younger to appeal to children, needing "to be cute, but at the same time, mischievous, bratty, unpredictable, and something of an upstart." His color was changed to purple so as to avoid blending in with any grassy areas. Spyro was originally named "Pete" and colored green during development, but the name was dropped to avoid infringing on the trademark Pete's Dragon, which was owned by The Walt Disney Company. Zembillas had previously designed Crash for Naughty Dog, whose offices were just across the hall from Insomniac's at Universal Interactive Studios. Both characters were owned by Universal Studios, under the former video game division Universal Interactive and have since become an intellectual property of Activision, through the merger between Vivendi Universal Games and Activision to create Activision Blizzard.Īfter developing Disruptor, Insomniac president, Ted Price, contacted Zembillas to design a playable dragon character for a video game.
The character has endured in popular culture as a mascot of the PlayStation video game console alongside Crash Bandicoot, having appeared in several games together with him. Spyro was designed and created by Charles Zembillas for Insomniac Games, the developers of the first three games in the series. Spyro is often accompanied by his best friend Sparx, who is a dragonfly.
He is known for his ability to defeat enemies by breathing fire and charging at them, and his ability to glide to otherwise unreachable areas in the game world. Spyro is a cute energetic young male purple dragon. That can be a rare feat for a Free-to-Play game and some paid titles so here’s hoping that KartRider: Drift lives up to that promise, giving fans a really fun racer that can be downloaded at no extra cost.įor more State of Play news, check out the announced Bugsnax expansion, as well as the new Star Ocean game that was revealed.Spyro is the titular main character and protagonist of the Spyro video game series, including The Legend of Spyro, and a guest character in the Skylanders series, first appearing in Spyro the Dragon in 1998. While microtransactions in KartRider: Drift are expected, Nexon did state that there would be no pay-to-win elements or any form of paywalls, so anyone who just wants to have some kart racer fun won’t have any issue with the game.
KartRider: Drift will also have extensive customization for karts and characters, as mentioned earlier, and we assume that this is where some of the game’s microtransactions will make their presence known, being a Free-to-Play title. Specific details on the KartRider: Drift closed beta haven’t been revealed yet, but gamers will be happy to know that cross-play has been confirmed, so you will be able to race any of your friends, regardless of platform. KartRider: Drift is Coming to PlayStation 4, Closed Beta Coming in December