RYAN: That's another great example, by the way, of what makes these games so charming It's a great mix of different gameplay mechanics

You have your exploration; you have your puzzle solving; and you have Hulagirl Stella That would have been funnier if I could say her name NICK: Hulaghoul is the — RYAN: Hulaghoul [INTRO MUSIC PLAYING] RYAN: Hello, my friends, and welcome back to PlayStation Underground On today's show we are playing Spyro Reignited Trilogy which is out on PS4 September 21st

I am joined by some Toys For Bob folks, senior producers Peter Kavic and Nick Livingston, and art director Josh Nadelburg Gentlemen, welcome to the program ALL: Hello RYAN: It's good to have all you here We're actually taking a look at Idol Springs which is a level in the second game of the trilogy

And, Nick, if I can start with you This is kind of one of the first deeper dives of game 2 that we're seeing, correct? NICK: Yes it is One of the first levels we're showing off is Idol Springs RYAN: Oh no! NICK: So I wanted to give Foreman Bob a chance to speak and not talk over him But this level is all about foremen who have been wronged by idol monsters

The big thing about Spyro 2,the big difference between Spyro 2 and Spyro 1 is where Spyro 1 was all about collecting dragons and rescuing dragons Spyro 2 introduced this whole other world of NPCs and minigames and challenges to explore and do RYAN: I want to know where that hammer came from by the way Snuck that into his pocket You never know

NICK: The foremen are mysterious and will not share that with you RYAN: Some secrets will go to the grave of the foremen NICK: We've asked them So Spyro 2 also introduced swimming So in Spyro 1 you could not swim

In Spyro 2 you can, obviously as Rustin, who's playing right now and killing it, is showing you RYAN: And Spyro is able to swim safely as a dragon This is good to know He is waterproof PETER: He learned a lot from the first game

RYAN: Okay Got it, Bud The voice is so good Okay, Bud Hold on a second

Quick lore question here: Do all the foremen in the universe have names that start with "B"? NICK: Yeah, yeah, yeah For sure RYAN: I love it NICK: And for us we want to get this right RYAN: The most important thing for all your work is to make sure all the foremen have "B" names

NICK: But truly though, this project has been a particularly challenging and wonderful opportunity for us because fans care so much about every detail, and we do to We want to get it right So all the characters have the same names All the characters have the same names All the art has been lovingly recrafted

PETER: You got this dude NICK: All the levels are — so we actually built a tool for this game so that we could make sure that we were getting all of the gameplay exactly right So we built this tool called Spyroscope which allowed us to — because we didn't have access to the original assets, we had to build this tool internally that allowed us to extract all of the original mesh, original placements, and even the pathing of the characters so we could bring that into this modern recreation that we're doing now I remember when I first saw it at one of our engineer's desks, I was blown away And it's been a huge undertaking for us to get this right

But for us, getting this exactly right for the fans is something we take super seriously RYAN: You know what, Bud I also have a sensitive stomach And I understand Sometimes ten fish, you have to make sure they're all cooked properly

PETER: The idol is very picky NICK: I love the idol And that's another thing The amount of variety in these games is really bananas There are idol monsters

There are hockey players There are — it is just — and no other examples PETER: Nothing else, just hockey players and idols NICK: Josh, could you list some of the things in these games JOSH: Some of the over 400 characters

NICK: It is amazing the amount of content that Josh specifically has led the art direction on JOSH: An amazing team of talented concept artists and modelers and animators I can't tell you how much effort went into bringing this world back to life Like Nick was just saying There's three games with over a hundred levels and 500 plus characters, maybe 600

I haven't counted recently We took the original characters from those games 20 years ago and tried to do our best job of maintaining the spirits of those characters, bringing as much new energy to them as we could And the team really just stepped up RYAN: I kind of want to overemphasize this For our audience, it's not like you guys took the Spyro games and just turned the dial up, and you're like I'm just going to turn up the visuals to 11, and it's going to look way better

NICK: If you're aware of where that dial exists, please let us know RYAN: Please We lost it JOSH: That's exactly what we did RYAN: But Josh, to the point though is, you know, this is very much, as we were talking about before, a craft for your studio

You guys had to go in there and by hand and very meticulously kind of go over everything JOSH: Everything Every inch of the world, every character Like Nick was saying with Spyroscope, we actually extracted the original level meshes so that we could take screenshots of important vistas and paint over them and try to find the best way to enhance it and modernize it We did that with the environments

We did that with the characters We did that with literally everything The animations, we looked at what the original animation looks like, and we riffed off of that We were trying to be as referential to the original stuff as we could possibly be And there was some cases where we took our liberties where we thought we could improve upon things or make things more fun and playful because that's kind of what Toys For Bob is about, finding great wacky things that get us psyched

So, for example, we just saw the idol who had a metal shield These guys all have marshmallows on sticks, so we turned his metal shield into the top of a barbecue RYAN: Of course because why wouldn't you JOSH: Why wouldn't an idol who has a hot dog on a stick not also have a barbecue RYAN: Yeah

Of course Peter, maybe you can speak to this too because you've been awfully quiet other there I know that exploration is key in this game Is that something that you guys embraced during the development process? PETER: Yeah That's part of the heart of what made the original games, especially for me

I can speak clearly for me But it's this world of awe and wonder You're a little kid out there saving all the dragons and helping all these worlds become free So making sure that all the pieces were coming together to give you the sense of wonder and awe as you're exploring and finding these new places in this gigantic world was key RYAN: Now, we're going to see another little puzzle action

Oh, Bud Can we install this giant glowing stone dance floor into my home? That would be really nice It would really bring the room together I think I like that it also gives you difficultly levels for the challenges NICK: It does

RYAN: You're like, "and we chose those at random There's no rhyme or reason to the difficultly setting at all" NICK: That's right We just feel it out So this game, just the amount of puzzles to solve and unique challenges

All the levels have these, like, crazy, unique challenges And the original game was all about rescuing dragons; this is all about challenges And the amount of NPCs too There so many different — we were talking about foremen JOSH: Ice monsters

RYAN: Spoilers Now I know there's ice monsters Thanks, guys JOSH: Ice builders I'm sorry

NICK: And the ice monsters are ghosts the entire time RYAN: Wow I would have never known Yeah It's gorgeous and it's really cool to see something that has such a history and such a huge fandom kind of get the loving treatment from your studio that it deserves

NICK: We're just three dudes here, but we represent a huge group of incredibly talented people who work so hard on this JOSH: Super passionate about this NICK: It's really important for us to get this right RYAN: So that's why everyone's names are the same? That was the number one thing on the list You didn't change Spyro's name to Frank

NICK: Frank the dragon RYAN: Doesn't have the same ring to it NICK: It doesn't JOSH: It was truly a labor of love Everyone was just so excited when we found out we had the opportunity to make this game

RYAN: This still gets me I've seen this already and it's so good He's just bashing his head with it NICK: I would like to say to Peter's point earlier about going through the world and having that sense of awe Moments like that are everywhere in this game

Every level has that level of surprising thing that will make you laugh RYAN: When you say this game, you're not just talking about Spyro 2, you're talking about the whole trilogy PETER: The entire Reignited Trilogy NICK: All of them The amount of work, this is a handcrafted effort

RYAN: Would you say it's an artisanal effort? NICK: I would say it's artisanal It is free range as well RYAN: I'm happy to announce here on PlayStation Underground that Spyro Reignited Trilogy is organic and farm-to-fork video gaming All right We're nearing the end of the demo too

PETER: We have a little dancing section NICK: Oh, this is the best part RYAN: Ladies and gentlemen, it's all been leading up to this You got a little platforming action in there That's another great example, by the way, of what makes these games so charming is that it's a great mix of different gameplay mechanics

You have your exploration; you have your puzzle solving; and you have Hulagirl Stella That would have been funnier if I could say it right NICK: Hulaghoul [LAUGHTER] RYAN: Hulaghoul NICK: Seriously

The games are all about exploration and discovery and puzzle solving and for us when remastering this, we wanted the Reignited Trilogy to honor the original game So the gameplay perspective, we wanted to keep it the same because the game's already fun People love these games, so we wanted to find ways to modernize it and improve things where we could So, for example, we now have camera control on the right stick, and we just made some choices to honor the originals, but they're amazing games already RYAN: Now we can celebrate with a dance routine

Ladies and gentlemen, this has been an amazing look at Spyro Reignited Spyro Reignited Trilogy is out September 21st on PS4 Peter, Nick, and Josh, thank you, gentlemen, so much for joining me on the program And until next time, this has been PlayStation Underground We'll is see you soon

[OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING]