In the 1990s, when game production technology was rapidly developing, it was interesting that players at this time were also receptive to new things, but even so, it was difficult to have such an extremely innovative game as "Wolf of the Ancients", and it was even once considered the mascot of Sony PlayStation. So why is the ancient wolf so sought after?
Speaking of the wolf, it is necessary to introduce the two elders who founded the Naughty Dog Company at the age of 16, Andrew Gavin and Jensen Rubin, who developed games such as "Rogue Keefe" and "Ring of Strength" in the mid-90s. However, it was not until the university era that there was a game that really landed on the 3DO console platform - "The Way of the Samurai", and it was this game that attracted a small publishing company "Universal Interactive Studios", because of this opportunity, Naughty Dog signed a contract with Universal Interactive for three games.
The next thing is how to fulfill the requirements of the contract, a little understanding or everyone knows that the graphics of the games in the mid-90s have slowly transformed from 2D to 3D, such as "Ridge Racing", "VR Racing", "VR Warrior", but at that time, 3DO, Sega and Nintendo were mainly based on 2D graphics, but this game trend of using polygon rendering was unstoppable, sony PlayStation was one of them, because it had just broken with Nintendo and was ready to go it alone.
Andrew and Rubin also worried about their new game because they did not have good ideas, the two had previously signed a contract with Universal to move the company from Boston to Los Angeles, a long journey, relying on McDonald's to feed, and there was a Labrador ridgeback hybrid dog, which was strange to say, watching the dog's ass for a long time actually came to the inspiration, the two people pondered, if the game character for a long time ass to the player will look like, if the entire game is 3D, the character modeling will also become 3D. Because of sega Sonic's image reference, the duo call this idea "Sonic's Ass" game, well..... It looks like a good idea. When they got to Los Angeles, they first told the vice president of Universal and the new employees of Naughty Dog about their ideas. Everyone thinks the concept is very novel, and no other similar game has appeared yet.
Since the two of them want to start with 3D games, they can't start with these game companies. Nintendo is still playing 2D games, 3DO has been half dead, the performance is not strong, Sega's various "continuation" peripherals Sega 32X is extremely chaotic, the look and feel of the seven pieces, and the upcoming Release of Sega Saturn, the development tools are extremely poor, although they are based on the game industry "old fritters", but the brothers still set their sights on the first time into the video game industry Sony, because of the sony console mysterious architecture and data specifications let the two immediately decide to make games on the ps console.
Because Naughty Dogs has its own ambitions, Sega has Sonic the Hedgehog, Nintendo has Mario the Plumber, and we also have to make a "mascot" on the PlayStation, and the reason why we didn't want to be in Sega before was that even if it was made, it would be covered by Sonic's light.
They referenced sega and Warner Bros. characters: Sonic and Big Mouth Monster to make the game characters, Sonic everyone knows, Big Mouth Needs to introduce: it first appeared in the 50s animated short film "Bugs Bunny Meets Big Mouth Monster", super athletic, running will set off a whirlwind, when he turns around will eat everything he passes by.
"Wombat Willie", hmmm.... It seems that the protagonist has been born, the naughty dog seems to have been very cold to the furry guy, so the two began to write a story with "Willy's Wombat" as the protagonist - the crazy doctor wants to use the power of the crystal to create a mutant animal army to rule the world, after catching the wombat Willy, ready to test it, halfway through the test, the wombat Willy, who has greatly increased his strength, escapes the laboratory, but the female kangaroo boy who comes to rescue him is caught, in order to defeat the doctor to save the world, Willy the Wombat began collecting crystals and fighting with an army of mutant animals on the island with his mutated body.
The production process of the game is not introduced much, but based on the functional limitations of ps, the number of monsters on the same screen is impossible to put too much, so came up with a setting similar to the Marioli bricks, set 100 peaches to reward a life, put various types of boxes in the game, as long as you break the box can get different numbers of peaches, such as question mark wooden boxes, ordinary wooden boxes, spring wooden boxes, TNT wooden boxes, tin boxes, etc., which rarely occupy engine resources. Because "Willie the Wombat" needs to destroy various chests, it eventually gave it a very destructive name "Carsh Bandicoot".
On August 31, 1996, "Ancient Puzzle Wolf" was officially released on PS1, Naughty Dog can be said to have started a beautiful first battle, sales soon exceeded one million, and finally won the number one masterpiece on the PS platform with sales of seven million copies, "Ancient Puzzle Wolf" as the first work of Naughty Dog and Sony, which is of great significance.
The naughty dog who earned a lot of pots immediately started the sequel of the ancient wolf, optimized the game engine with sufficient funds, basically squeezed out all the functions of PS, modeled more delicately, and the gameplay was also diverse, adding gem hidden levels, diving, air combat, motorcycles, yachts, etc., which greatly improved the playability of the game.
Sometimes looking back, if the ancient wolf was replaced by wombat Willy, it would not be so successful.