Jason Rubin

Personal

Born c. 1970. Education: Attended the University of Michigan.

Addresses

Home—Los Angeles, CA. Office—c/o Naughty Dog, Inc., P.O. Box 294, Santa Monica, CA 90406-0294. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Computer game developer. Co-founder and president of Naughty Dog, Inc. (originally Jam Software), 1985.

Credits

COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES; WITH ANDY GAVIN

Ski Crazed, Baudville, 1986.

Dream Zone, Baudville, 1988.

Keef the Thief, Electronic Arts, 1989.

Rings of Power, Electronic Arts, 1991.

Way of the Warrior, Universal Interactive Studios, 1994.

Crash Bandicoot, Universal Interactive Studios (Los Angeles, CA), 1996.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Universal Interactive Studios (Los Angeles, CA), 1997.

Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Universal Interactive Studios (Los Angeles, CA), 1998.

Crash Team Racing, Universal Interactive Studios (Los Angeles, CA), 1999.

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Universal Interactive Studios (Los Angeles, CA), 2001.

Jak II: Renegade, Universal Interactive Studios (Los Angeles, CA), 2003.

Sidelights

"The games developer stereotype is a bespectacled geek programmer with questionable personal hygiene and few social skills," wrote Jason Hill in the Age.com. However, Hill noted at least one exception in computer game creator Jason Rubin. Rubin is the wunderkind computer game developer of the "Crash" series, which sold more than twenty million units worldwide, even breaking into the difficult to probe Japanese market with a million copies sold. Indeed, since out-profiting the movie industry in 2001, the multi-billion dollar games industry is no longer considered geek or niche. Joshua Gliddon, writing in the Bulletin EdDesk, echoed Hill's sentiments. "Rubin doesn't look like your stereo-typical computer-game guy," Gliddon noted. He "comes across as a media hipster, right down to the supple, tooled-leather shoes, funky hair-do and slightly belled blue jeans." Rubin left the computer-game-guy image behind with his early garage projects, written with collaborator Andy Gavin. Friends since they were twelve, the duo sold their first game when they were sixteen, and formed the production company, Naughty Dog, which has created hits such as Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, and Jak II.

In late 2000 Naughty Dog was acquired by Sony, with Rubin staying on as president and his company producing games for Sony's highly profitable PlayStation and PlayStation2 computer entertainment system. Rubin has gone from a kid trying to figure out how to pirate computer games to a company executive managing millions of dollars on design budgets. Yet he is still aware of the "lingering image of games developers and players as social outcasts," as he told a contributor for ZDNet, even though that image has changed drastically. "The guys with the mustard stains on their T-shirts, who didn't bathe very often, those guys are all gone now. You can't make a game with two people anymore. A fifty-person game means a certain social interaction with other people. We have very different people working from when we did Crash; we're hiring from Hollywood, guys from Disney and Pixar and the like." According to Hill, Rubin is "one of video gaming's biggest and brightest stars, complete with a Ferrari parked in the garage of his luxury California pad."

A Childhood Fascination

Rubin, like many others of his generation, quite literally grew up on video and computer games. At seven, he came under the spell of the first Star Wars movie. "Seeing Star Wars changed my life," Rubin told Gliddon. The creative impetus of the film convinced him that he too wanted to be involved in such a world. "From that point on, I was looking for venues to do that and not be a lawyer like my father." His interest in video games was sparked when his grandfather gave him an early, pre-Atari Breakout game system that he had won at a golf tournament. Rubin told Douglass Perry of IGN Insider that he thereafter "missed dinner for weeks playing Breakout." At age twelve, Rubin met Andy Gavin, another student less interested in what was being taught at school than what could be pirated from games played on the Apple II computer. Rubin's understanding of computers began with such tinkering with and tweaking games already developed by others.

Then one weekend in 1985, Rubin and his friend Gavin worked around the clock on their own game, Ski Crazed, which they planned to sell themselves as Jam Software, packaged in a Ziploc bag; however, they ended up selling the product to Baudville publishers for $250. As Rubin noted on the Naughty Dog Home Page, this first game, programmed by Rubin, was "really slow." Then Gavin cleaned up some of the code making it operate more quickly. The game, according to the Naughty Dog Home Page, "almost but not quite, completely failed to evoke the thrill of downhill skiing." The two teenage creators/entrepreneurs spent their entire fee on video games. This was the last game programmed by Rubin; thereafter Gavin has been responsible for writing code while Rubin is responsible for graphics. The duo has continued this shared workload throughout all their collaborative projects.

Rubin and Gavin next worked on Dream Zone, a game brought out again by Baudville in 1988. This graphic adventure was, according to the Naughty Dog Home Page, a "weird game. We were weird kids." A reviewer for Inwards.com noted that the game did show some borrowing of earlier games, and was "a tough adventure game.… [that] should keep you stumped for many, many hours." In the game, if you are having difficulty sleeping, you simply call "Sigmund Fraud" who jolts your body with power so that you literally confront and defeat whatever demons are plaguing you, thus allowing the player to sleep. The same reviewer praised Rubin's graphics, which are, "on the whole very well drawn … [and] maintain a style of their own."

Naughty Dog Is Born

When Rubin and Gavin signed on with the publishers Electronic Arts for the 1989 Keef the Thief, they found a major partner for their work, a game which could be used not only with the Apple II computer as before, but also with a variety of other game devices as well as personal computers. The two teenage game developers also changed the name of their production company to Naughty Dog, Inc. Unlike their earlier products, Keef the Thief had a real impact on the video game market and on its development. A classic sword and sorcery role-playing game, Keef the Thief also incorporated humor into its text, making it one of the first comedy games. The reviewer for Inwards.com felt this was a "rather cool and humorous game," featuring the exiled Keef, who must linger in the wastelands outside of town because of bad behavior. Battles with drunken orcs and headless chickens are part of the tests on the road to becoming God King. The same reviewer had further praise for Rubin's "unique graphics style which complements the game's humor." Naughty Dog also produced the 1991 Rings of Power, another role playing game, for Electronic Arts, before teaming up with Universal Interactive Studios (UIS) in 1993.

By this time, Rubin had gone to California to learn 3-D computer graphics, and Gavin had migrated to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a degree in artificial intelligence. But with the offer from UIS, Rubin went to Boston, where he and Gavin created Way of the Warrior. On the strength of that project, Rubin's Naughty Dog signed a several-project contract with UIS, and the company set up shop in Santa Monica, California.

From Crash to Jak

Real funding allowed Rubin and Gavin to put together a production team, drawing from friends and local Hollywood talent. Their first project would feature the furry creature Crash, whose antics took the team through four different titles, all to be used with the Sony PlayStation. Crash Bandicoot introduces the friendly marsupial who becomes Crash. Transformed into a superhero by a power ray from the dastardly Neo Cortex, Crash sets about righting wrongs and doing battle with his creator. Blending their trademark humor with challenging gaming skills, Rubin and Gavin worked sixteen to eighteen-hour days with their production team for two years, keeping the details of the game a secret even from the PlayStation people at Sony until just before publication. Once released, Crash became an overnight sensation, earning comparison to such popular titles as Mario, at the time one of the premier video games. The adventures of Crash continue in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, and Crash Team Racing, a game inspired by the old arcade racing games. These games quickly became the most popular American-made video game of the day, selling well over twenty million copies.

Crash Team Racing was the last of the "Crash" titles developed by Naughty Dog; thereafter Rubin and his team began producing even more sophisticated interactive games for a more mature audience, using PlayStation2 technology. Meanwhile, Naughty Dog was purchased by Sony, affording even more money to Rubin for his next creation, Jak and Daxter. With a team of over fifty, including graphic artists, Disney cartoonists, Hollywood actors (for voice over), and more than $10 million in the budget, Rubin spent the next two years developing a game that would appeal as much to adults as it would to children. A contributor to ZDNet noted that Jak and Daxter "rotates around the adventures of the silent and muscular Jak, with his passive sidekick Daxter—a witty sort of ferret who just can't stop talking." The same contributor further commented, "The game combines solid platform action, strong vehicular sections, exploration and cute mini games in a continuous rolling experience with Disney-grade graphics."

Describing Jak and Daxter to a contributor for CVG, Rubin drew comparisons to other video games. "Jak and Daxter mixes Zelda-type adventuring, Mario-type exploration, and Crash-style focused game-play," he explained. "The elements are mixed pretty evenly throughout the game, even within specific areas." Rubin further explained, "For example, you start in a village filled with villagers. They all have challenges for you to complete. Some of them require you to bring items back to them while others do not. Finding your way from the villager to the task, which is in another area, is adventure-style, but on the way you might need to pass a platform challenge, or fight some enemies in close quarters, just like the Crash games." This blending of formats proved popular with game buyers and reviewers. The contributor for ZDNet praised the "inspired and appropriate" sound, as well as the "excellent" writing, which has a "rather unexpected non-politically correct edge." The same reviewer concluded, "Overall, Jak and Daxter is a supremely well-crafted adventure game." Doug Flowe, writing for Armchair Empire, also had praise for the game, noting that it is "simple enough for kids and complex enough for older gamers," and a "godsend to the waning platform gaming world."

When Rubin and Naughty Dog set out to make a sequel to this game, they made the conscious decision to change the formula somewhat, making a darker and edgier game with Jak II: Renegade. Not only is there a darker physical look to the game, but also a darker subject matter, influenced by the trend inspired by such games as Grand Theft Auto with its emphasis on violence. While Rubin did not intend to push his game that far in terms of violent content, he did decide to give it a non-Disney look, taking it "closer to anime, closer to adult," as he told the contributor to ZDNet. Also, in Jak II characters get killed, and the language is stronger than in earlier games. Additionally, Jak received a new weapon and vehicle. His sidearm morphs, and he travels about on a hoverboard, a sort of floating skateboard. Ben Turner of GameSpy.com called Rubin's sequel "graphically stunning." Rubin also told Turner that the largest improvement was the ability for players "to use all of the mechanics that we give them on all of the levels all of the time," making the game seem more like an interactive animated movie.

Rubin continues to pioneer new directions in computer and video games for Naughty Dog, though he has come to realize that creation is no longer a matter of a couple of kids playing around with programming. Now it takes a team of dozens of highly skilled and paid creators to come up with modern effects. But for Rubin, the fun of playing such games is still there. As he told the ZDNet interviewer, "I'll be eighty, ninety, and still playing games."

If you enjoy the works of Jason Rubin, you might want to check out the following video games:

Ratchet and Clank, Sony Computer Entertainment, 2002.

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, Ubi Soft, 2003.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Sony Computer Entertainment, 2002.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Detroit Free Press, July 31, 2003, Heather Newman, "Game Producer Is One of the Top Dogs," p. A2; August 31, 2003, Heather Newman, "Game Creator Shares His Mastery."

Los Angeles Times, April 7, 2002, Alex Pham, "Video Game Maker Finds Shock Value," p. C1.

Mirror (London, England), January 15, 2000, "Meet Mr. Crash: Who's His Next Fantastic Hero?," p. 31; January 19, 2002, Fiona Parker, review of Jak and Daxter: The Precursors Legacy, p. 35.

New York Times, March 7, 2002, Chris Gaither, "Far from the Market, Game Designers Dissect What Fizzles," p. G6.

ONLINE

Age.comhttp://www.theage.com/ (July 10, 2003), Jason Hill, "Naughty Dog Let off the Chain."

Armchair Empire,http://www.armchairempire.com/ (January 8, 2002), Doug Flowe, "Jason Rubin Interview."

Bulletin EdDesk,http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/ (September 13, 2003), Joshua Gliddon, "Jason Rubin."

CVG,http://www.computerandvideogames.com/ (June 20, 2001), "Jak and Daxter: Rubin Speaks."

GamePower.com,http://www.gamepower.com/ (September 27, 2003), Adam Washington, "Naughty Dog: Jak and Daxter Exclusive Interview."

GameSpy.com,http://www.gamespy.com/ (March 18, 2003), Ben Turner, "Naughty Dog's Co-Founder Talks about Jak II, Platformers, and Cultivating Lovely Locks."

IGN Insider,http://psx.ign.com/ (October 19, 1999), Douglass Perry, "Interview with Jason Rubin."

Inwards.com,http://www.inwards.com/ (December 22, 2003), review of Dream Zone and Keef the Thief.

LadyDragon.com,http://www.ladydragon.com/ (January 22, 2001), "Sony Acquires Naughty Dog."

MyCoolCareer.com,http://www.mycoolcareer.com/ (November 27, 2002), "Computer Game Designer Jason Rubin."

Naughty Dog Home Page,http://www.naughtydog.com/ (September 12, 2003).

ZDNet,http://www.zdnet.com.au/ (January 17, 2002), review of Jak and Daxter; (March 20, 2003) review of Jak II; (June 27, 2003) "Jak II Developer Interview."^*