Andy Gavin
Andy Gavin | |
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![]() Gavin in 2009 | |
Born | Andrew Scott Gavin June 11, 1970 |
Occupation |
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Years active | 1984–present |
Employer | Maker Studios/Disney Digital Network (2015–present) Naughty Dog (1984–2004) |
Andrew Scott Gavin (born June 11, 1970) is an American video game programmer, entrepreneur, and novelist. Gavin co-founded the video game company Naughty Dog with childhood friend Jason Rubin in 1986, which released games including Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter.[1] Prior to founding Naughty Dog, Gavin worked in LISP at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.[2]
Education[]
Gavin earned a Bachelor of Science in Neurobiological Science from Haverford College.[3] He studied for a Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, conducting research for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the Mars Rover Vision Project, under advisor Rod Brooks.[4] As a student, Gavin learned the LISP computer programming language, and developed a number of custom programming languages that were later used for the graphics, controls, sounds, and artificial intelligence in Naughty Dog video games.
Career[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Ndwrapscott.jpg/220px-Ndwrapscott.jpg)
Gavin and Rubin sold their first video game, Math Jam, in 1985. In 1989, they sold Keef the Thief to Electronic Arts.[5] In the early 1990s, their fighting game, Way of the Warrior, led to a multi-title deal with Universal Interactive Studios.[6] Under the auspices of this Universal deal they produced the Crash Bandicoot series from 1994 until 1999, and later the Jak and Daxter series. At the end of 2000, Rubin and Gavin sold Naughty Dog to Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), having released 14 Naughty Dog games, which together sold over 35 million units and generated over $1 billion in revenue.[7]
While at Naughty Dog, Gavin developed two LISP dialects for use in game development, Game Object Oriented Lisp (GOOL) and its successor Game Oriented Assembly Lisp (GOAL). These included innovations in terms of language choice and design.[8]
Shortly after leaving Naughty Dog in 2004, Gavin and Rubin co-founded a new Internet startup called Flektor with former HBO executive Jason R. Kay. In May 2007, the company was sold to Fox Interactive Media, a division of News Corp.[9] Fox described the company as "a next-generation Web site that provides users with a suite of Web-based tools to transform their photos and videos into dynamic slideshows, postcards, live interactive presentations, and video mash-ups." In October 2007, Flektor partnered sister company MySpace, and MTV to provide instant audience feedback via polls for the interactive MySpace / MTV Presidential Dialogues series with Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama.[10]
Gavin left Fox Interactive Media in 2008. In 2009, he and Rubin announced a new social game startup called , which was working on a new version of Snood along with a casual word game called MonkWerks.[11]
Gavin also released a dark historical fantasy novel, , published in December 2011.[12] His second novel , which involves time travel, was released on December 19, 2012.[13]
Works[]
Gameography[]
Game Title | Release | Platform | Role |
---|---|---|---|
Math Jam | 1985 | Apple II | Programmer |
Ski Crazed[14] | 1986 | Apple II | Programmer |
Dream Zone | 1987 | Commodore Amiga, Apple II | Programmer |
Keef the Thief | 1989 | Commodore Amiga, Apple II, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis | Programmer |
Rings of Power | 1991 | Sega Mega Drive/Genesis | Programmer/Designer |
Way of the Warrior | 1994 | 3DO | Producer/Programmer/Designer |
Crash Bandicoot | 1996 | PlayStation | Producer/Lead Programmer/Designer |
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back | 1997 | PlayStation | Producer/Lead Programmer/Designer |
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped | 1998 | PlayStation | Producer/Lead Programmer/Designer |
Crash Team Racing | 1999 | PlayStation | Chief Technology Officer |
Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy | 2001 | PlayStation 2 | Producer/Lead Programmer/Designer |
Jak II | 2003 | PlayStation 2 | Producer/Lead Programmer/Designer |
Jak 3 | 2004 | PlayStation 2 | Producer/Lead Programmer/Designer |
Jak X: Combat Racing | 2005 | PlayStation 2 | Extra Special Thanks |
Daxter | 2006 | PlayStation Portable | Special Thanks |
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune | 2007 | PlayStation 3 | Special Thanks |
Bibliography[]
Title | Release | Genre |
---|---|---|
The Darkening Dream | 2011 | Dark fantasy |
Untimed | 2012 | Time travel |
References[]
- ^ "Death Match: The Hit Squad". Wired (9.05). May 2001.
- ^ "Franz Inc Customer Applications: Naughty Dog Software". Franz.com. Retrieved 2016-03-29.
- ^ Kim Pallister. "Rendering to Texture Surfaces Using DirectX 7". Gamasutra.
- ^ "Bio". November 12, 2011.
- ^ "Keef the Thief: A Boy and His Lockpick for Amiga (1989)". MobyGames. Retrieved 2016-03-29.
- ^ Meston, Zach (February 1995). "Electric Word: Naughty Dog Does Good". Wired (3.02).
- ^ Purchese, Robert. "Devs don't need producers – Naughty Dog". Eurogamer.
- ^ Stephen White. "Postmortem: Naughty Dog's Jak and Daxter: the Precursor Legacy". Gamasutra.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 16, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2009.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- ^ "Barack Obama Fields Tough Questions At MTV/MySpace Forum". MTV. 2007-10-29. Retrieved 2016-03-29.
- ^ "Crash Bandicoot creators speak out on forming new game company | GamesBeat | Games | by Dean Takahashi". Venturebeat.com. 2009-05-14. Retrieved 2016-03-29.
- ^ "The Darkening Dream". All Things Andy Gavin. Retrieved 2016-03-29.
- ^ "Untimed". All Things Andy Gavin. Retrieved 2016-03-29.
- ^ "Way of the Warrior – The Lost Interview". November 2, 2011.
- 1970 births
- 21st-century American novelists
- American video game designers
- American male novelists
- Haverford College alumni
- Living people
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
- American video game programmers
- Lisp (programming language) people
- American computer businesspeople
- Naughty Dog people
- 21st-century American male writers