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Darxae
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Interview with Keith Webb
« Thread Started on Jan 22, 2012, 6:26pm »

Like Crashractehfan made an interview with Brendan O' Brien, I've made an interview too, this time with Keith Webb: he told me more unused ideas, a concept for a Twinsanity's sequel never seen before and more!

1.) In Crash Twinsanity we can see that Crash Bandicoot has a new design, different from the original one: why did you decide to change it and make a new
one?

I joined TT Oxford and began working on Crash Twinsanity back in April 2003. By that time a demo of the game already existed, which used the new Crash
design...so I didn't really have anything to do with that! That was left over from the Crash Evolution days that proceeded it! I think it was a conscious
effort to make Crash a little bit more up to date, with the additional detail in his jeans, and sneakers..but keep his more goofy-esque persona from the
Naughty Dog days! We didn't want to go too far with the change, just modernise him a little bit!

2.) In some of the concept arts (and also in the final 100% bonus video) we can see that Crash holds and uses a sword like those used in the Star Wars films:
was there an idea to make Crash using a sword like this in the real game, or you made these concept art just for fun?

If I remember correctly, there was a piece of concept art, created by the lead artist, Dan Tonkin, which had Crash holding a sword. I think the lightsaber
idea came about from when Crash defeated the ants. I think it was originally concieved that Crash could pick up their laser-swords after they had been
defeated and twirl them around as an additional attack!

3.) From the words of other Crash Twinsanity's concept artists, we saw that a lot of characters were cut from the final version, such as a Good Cortex, an
Evil Coco, Capu Capu and even N.Trance and Fake Crash: have you ever made some concept arts about them or 3D models?

Evil Coco was definitely made as a 3D model. the lead character modeller, Chris Abedelmassieh, built her for sure! I think she appears in a render in one of
the unlockable galleries. She was only going to appear in a cut scene in Twinsanity (but maybe in other games later). N Trance was definitely built as well.
He had new legs if I recall correctly, and a plaster on his head, to show that his egg-head had cracked a little!
Good cortex may have been built, but I don't think Capu Capu was ever built. He does appear in some concept art, at the head of the boat that takes you
between islands! Fake Crash...to be honest, I can't remember if he was built or not?!

4.) This is a question that I don't know if you can answer: it talks about The Wrath of Cortex, a game that was made by a different Traveller's Tales and my,
or better, our question is this: why did you decide to don't follow the Crash Bandicoot's timeline stopped with Crash Bandicoot 3, when Cortex and N.Tropy
were teleported back in time? And why did you decide to make CTR part of the official timeline, with the inclusion of Oxide's cameo in Twinsanity?

We wanted the game to take place directly after Wrath of Cortex, as we needed to intoduce Cortex's Iceberg lair, and as he was encased in ice at the end of
Wrath of Cortex...this made perfect sense! Oxide was just a cool looking character, so we decided to include him as well!

In terms of why Wrath Of Cortex doesn't seem to follow directly after the end of Crash 3, I'm not really sure. That decision was made by the main branch of
Travellers Tales, and so I can't answer that! At Travellers Tales Oxford, we tried to keep everything within the existing canon of the game, and making sure
nothing contradicted, but maybe the main Travellers Tales didn't do that.
If time travel aver exists in another Crash game, I'm sure we could find out more about the period of time when baby Cortex, Uka Uka and baby Ntropy were
back in time, and fit it to the start of Wrath of Coretx! Perhaps Cortex Chaos would have answered these questions

5.) From what we've heard, TT-Oxford had planned three different Crash projects, which were Cortex Chaos, Crash Clash Racing and Evolution and even Crash
Nitro Kart, which was in your original projects, if I'm not mistaken. These last three games were actually "completed" by different teams and with
Twinsanity, but what about Cortex Chaos? Do you ever think that Activision could still use the rights of this old project to make it real? and about CNK and
Clash Racing, have you ever made other concept arts, except those showing Nina and Evil Crash on their karts?

With Cotex Chaos, I'm not really sure who would own the rights to that. I think it was developed at a stage after we had completed Twinsanity, and was
therfore a pitch to, then Universal, to get the go-ahead to make another game. So as we weren't hired by Universal at that time, probably Travellers Tales
still owns the rights to that concept....

Actually, I will make a promise to you now! Last year,I created my own games development Studio, Tanukii Studios Limited! I just developed and released my first game
for the Nintendo DSi and 3DS service. called "Go! Go! Kokopolo". It was featured on IGN's best of 2011 list, as well as Joystiq's recommended for 2011, and
nominated NintendoLife's best DSiWARE game of 2011. Here is a trailer -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_t0MHeJZ10

If I can sell enought copies of my game, to slowly turn Tanukii Studios Limited into a bigger company, I will approach Activision, and see if I can get the
rights to make Cotex Chaos!! (and another Crash game that I will mention below!) I'll seriously do it, I'll try to get as many of the old TT Oxford team together as
well, but first I need to build up my own company before I can do that, and that means getting more Kokopolo fans! So take alook at my game, and if you like
the look of it, buy a copy and tell all other Crash fans about it!!!

In tems of Crash Clash Racing, I'm do remember doing an NTrance kart as well. Let me know if that's not online anywhere, and if it isn't I'll see if I can
dig it up!

6.) Were you angry with the fact that Vicarious Visions used Nina Cortex on their Crash Bandicoot Fusion game, which was released before Twinsanity?

Yeah, I actually remember when we first found out about that! I was looking through some of the newly released screenshots from Crash Fusion, and could just
make out the image of Nina Cortex's portait on the Hud (If I'm remembering correctly!). I went over to the lead designer, and the producer, and pointed this
out to them, and they were shocked! Apparently they knew nothing about it!
It probably hit the lead Game Designer, Paul Gardner, the most...as he was really fond of the character Nina Cortex, and was responsible for a lot of the
characterisation and development of her...so I think he probably felt annoyed that she was going to appear in another game first, when Twinsanit was supposed
to be her debut!

7.) This is what I found using the "Levitation code" in Twinsanity, a code that let's you go out of the levels: a cut island behind the Totem Hokum level,
right before you enter on the village. I made a comparison with that one that shows Fake Crash on the island in the concept art and strangely, it is very
similar. So, was this island supposed to be used for the Fake Crash cameo, or was only cut because there wasn't space for it?
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/80/oh0gzt.jpg/

Ah, as I recall that was nothing to do with the Fake Crash island, however the Fake Crash Island does have a bit of a backstory. When we were brainstorming
how he Battleship stage should play, I came up with a few ideas in regards to the progression of that stage. I thought it would be cool, if once you borded
the battleship, that it set sail ans everytime you went up to the deck, you would be in a different environment (couldn't interact with it just see it in the
background) At one of those points, you would see the island that Fake Crash was marooned on, waving for help. This of course was a little too complicated to
be implemented at that time, and so wasn't included, but I decided to put it in the world concept art as a tribute.
Interestingly, also, I think the end of the NGin boss fight on the battleship was going to have him knocked off the crows nest by an overhanging iceberg
too, If I remember correctly. Or at least that was suggested at one point!

8.) Were there any other cancelled projects after Cortex Chaos and Crash Clash Racing?

If we were going to get to do a proper sequel to Twisanity, there was talk going round of doing a new game based on a Television show premise. Cortex would
deliver a new TV and remote control to Crash's house disguised as a gift. When Crash switched it on, he would have been sucked into various TV shows, and
each level would have been a different show...like a wild west show, or a black and white old cartoon. The one that was brainstormed the most was that Crash
would get sucked into a medical drama, and would involve enemies coming at him with big needles...and rolling through the corridors on hostpital beds. I
think Rusty Walrus (my favorite character, BTW!) would have had his own cooking show as well, with more crazy chasing action!!

9.) Only with your permission, do you think it is possible to try a beta version of Crash Twinsanity (I mean the same version that has the Gone a Bit Coco
level, showed in this video: http://youtu.be/u9-t_qSjmMY )?

Ah, unfortunately that is not possible from my perspective... all the code would have been kept with the orignal Travellers Tales. I think maybe what is
shown in that video is all of what was made for Gone A Bit Coco, but I can't be sure! The Demo version may be around somewhere, I will ask around. The voice
of Cortex in that Demo version was actually the voice of the Lead Artist, Dan Tonkin, as we didn't have the proper voice overs through yet! But it was a very
good likeness of Coretx!

10.) How was your reaction when you saw that most of the fans loved this game? Also, has
Crash Twinsanity got good sales back in 2004?

Well, I think we didn't actually know about the reaction 'til a few years later..maybe after TT Oxford had closed down, and we'd all gone our seperate ways!
I do keep in touch with most of the old TT Oxford team, and have in the past watched some of the YouTube videos with the programmers, of all the bugs fond in
the game, and have a good laugh!
I think we tried to keep as close to the original Naught Dog style as much as possible, whilst adding in more humor, and I
think everyone who worked on the game, really enjoyed working on it for the mst part. There were arguments involved (lots of them, lol), but that s because
everyone was so passionate about making a good game! No individual got the game they set out to make, but it was a collaborative process in that everyone
got a least something in the game they wanted. In that respect, we are glad that the game is well liked! Also, I don't know sales figures, but I am aware
that since it's release, it has sold a good number of copies worldwide!

I've also showed to him the 50 concept arts of the Crash 2010 project with the three animated videos and this is what he said:

It's very possible this new game suffered the same fate that Twinsanity was very close to suffering at various different times. Becuase we were taking so
long with the development, there were a few times when it looked like Twinsanity would be cancelled! But we mnaged to make it through somehow. I think it's
good that Radical managed to get out as much information to the fans as possible...so that is wasn't forgotten...and it's good that the fans have kept hold
of it, just in case it is possible for development to ever start on it again!
From what I saw of the game, I liked it a lot. It seemed t have a good balance of the previous games, with some Twinsanity-esque stuff included in it as
well! It probably just becme too expensive for Activision to continue with it, and unless your petition has over a 100,000 signatures on it, Activison
probably wont be in a hurry to react, unfortunately

Parts of the Crash 2010 game will probably be used in another game, depending on which team develops it. We, at Travellers Tales Oxford, were always very
considirate in looking to the previous game, and including a lot of fan-service in our game, to please the fans. Hopefully th next team that take on Crash
think like this as well, and if that's the case, a lot of the Crash 2010 designs and concepts may see the light of day at some point in the not too distant
future

....and if not, well, at least all the material still lives on in the fans hearts and memories, and nothing can take that away, ever!

« Last Edit: Jan 22, 2012, 6:29pm by Darxae »