From First To Last – Comparing More Developers’ Early Work To Later Work

Recently, we took a look at a handful of highly successful developers and how their games have changed over the years by comparing their first title, to their most recent title. We’re looking at a few more developers to track their progress over their professional lifespan.

Sucker Punch – Rocket: Robot on Wheels / Infamous Second Son
Sucker Punch’s Infamous series is a serious, X-Men-like tale about the dangers or super-powers and the prejudices that result when some people are different. Before diving into the tales of Cole McGrath and Delsin Rowe, Sucker Punch explored a world of anthropomorphic animal thieves in the Sly Cooper series, but before even that, they told the tale of Rocket the robot on wheels in a game called Rocket: Robot on Wheels.

You can still find the game’s old website here, in all of its late ‘90s, “We don’t quite know what a good website looks like,” glory. The game, a Nintendo 64 platformer, was notable for its use of realistic physics, but otherwise was your standard collect this many things to go here platformer.

Insomniac – Disruptor / Sunset Overdrive
Insomniac has a diverse library of games. It made a name for itself with the Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet & Clank games giving it a reputation for cartoonish games and characters. This made it very surprising when Insomniac announced Resistance, which may just be the polar opposite of games like Ratchet and Spyro.

The sharp switch from Ratchet to Resistance is less surprising, however, when you consider the studio’s first game was the PlayStation first-person Doom-esque shooter Disruptor. The studio’s next game, Sunset Overdrive, seems to live in a middle-ground between its more cartoonish games, and its more mature games.

Neversoft – Skeleton Warriors / Call of Duty: Ghosts
Neversoft was recently absorbed into the Call of Duty empire to become part of Infinity Ward. It may not exist in the same way it once did, but the game’s team is still making video games. As a stand-a-lone studio, the company’s last games were Call of Duty: Ghosts and a few Guitar Hero games, and it also made Tony Hawk a video game phenomenon.

Before all that, however, it made a game called Skeleton Warriors based on the Playmates line of toys and cartoon show of the same name. It was originally in development for Genesis before it was cancelled and remade for PlayStation and Sega Saturn.

We recently dove deep into Neversoft’s history, and you can read more about it here.

Crystal Dynamics – Crash N Burn / Tomb Raider
Another developer with a diverse library of games, the studio recently did a fantastic job with the newest entry in the Tomb Raider series, a franchise it took over in 2003 to help return it to its original glory. The studio is also known for its work on Gex and Legacy of Kain series.

Before working with Lara, a mouthy lizard, and vampires, however, it released the 3DO racing launch title called Crash N Burn. Crash N Burn was an impressive-for-the-time 3D racer where drivers could fire guns at one another to gain position. It also featured fantastically cheesy live-action performances with terrible make-up and costuming.

For more on Crystal Dynamics' history, head here.

For more early to late work comparisons of assorted developers, head here.