Prerelease:Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.

To do: The structure of the ship at Sentinel Beach was different in some gameplay video, need to research this. The mountains/landscape was different, need to look into it. There is video footage of prerelease music in action. Forbidden Jungle for example. A blue eco cluster that doesn't appear in the final version appears at around 2:35 in this video: https://youtu.be/39Z7ZMee_nw

Level Differences

Levels Changes that took place specific to each level.

Development Timeline

1999

• January - Development begins on Naughty Dog's "Project Y".

2000

• January - Following the release of Crash Team Racing, Naughty Dog focuses all their attention on the new title.

2001

• May 14 - The new game is officially announced to be called Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, following a teaser trailer a few days prior.
• May 17 - A playable demo is featured at E3 2001.
• September 18 - A demo build is produced and distributed a few weeks later.
• October 30 - The game's final build is produced.
• December 3 - The game is released in the USA with European and Japanese releases following later in the same month.

Development History

Early sketches of the protagonist by Charles Zembillas.

After developing the Crash Bandicoot series throughout the 1990s, Naughty Dog planned to develop a new franchise for the upcoming PlayStation 2 console. Development of the new title started in January 1999 with only two programmers working on the game, as the rest of the team were still developing Crash Team Racing. The game, a platformer, was codenamed "Project Y" in its earliest stages. Throughout 1999, only the technical development of the game took place. Following the release of Crash Team Racing in September 1999, the rest of the team began work on the new title in January 2000.

Naughty Dog's intention was for the new series to step up from Crash Bandicoot and other well-renowned platformers by creating a single, immersive world where each level was interconnected without loading times. Another element they wanted to improve upon was character development. Most platformers at the time focused primarily on gameplay with minimal storyline and from the very start of development, the characters of the new series were presented as animated, entertaining and with individual personalities.

The first character developed for the game was named "Boxman", who would later become Jak. The early models for this character were used in engine demonstrations. Naughty Dog were unsure of how they wanted this character to look, so artist Charles Zembillas produced numerous sketches in 2000 where he went through various redesigns, including many with animal-like appearances. The character's garb designs also varied and were based on many traditions including royalty, martial arts and Native American. The design process was eventually passed on to other staff members with John Kim creating an early concept of what would eventually become the final design, which he nicknamed "BAM!". By March 2000, Jak's appearance had been finalised, with Bob Rafei designing the official concept art.

Early sketch of the sidekick by Rob Titus.

Early sketches of the sidekick by Zembillas.

Zembillas was also tasked with designing the sidekick who would become Daxter. Daxter's earlier designs were based on numerous animals, including squirrels and monkeys. When Zembillas came up with a weasel-like appearance, he developed this idea further and by May 2000, Daxter was finalised by Rafei, who also based the design on an otter-like animal sketched by character artist Rob Titus.

Lead designer Evan Wells stated in an interview that Naughty Dog planned to include a third main character who would evolve during the game in a similar way to Tamagotchi but the character was scrapped in order to give more focus on the two main protagonists. However, in a later interview, producer Andy Gavin stated that there were no serious plans for a third character, adding that they intended for Daxter to have a larger role:

[...] we had more ambitious plans for Daxter in the beginning. He was supposed to be able to hop off your shoulder and run around and do stuff. That didn’t happen until the second game. Same with the vehicle stuff. We squeezed the racer in, but barely, and we had much more aggressive plans for it.

Most of the tools used for creation were custom-made, using Lisp and Allegro CL. This included a new programming language created by Andy Gavin called Game-Oriented Assembly Lisp (GOAL). The use of these tools allowed for the game to support the singular world and no load times, along with detailed graphics and a large number of objects to interact with the player.

Early Concept Art

Concept art by Bob Rafei and Mark Koerner show early ideas that either weren't implemented or went through significant changes:

Early lurker designs.

(Source: Mark Koerner)

Technology, likely from lurkers.

(Source: Bob Rafei, The Art of Naughty Dog)

Artwork of the fisherman's boat, suggesting that it originally belonged to the farmer who would have boarded it with Jak.

(Source: Bob Rafei)

General

Lighting

When levels were at their earliest development stages, the lighting had more contrast. This was also the case with some levels during later development stages, such as Mountain Pass and Volcanic Crater.

Pre-release	Final

(Source: Demo disc trailer)

Water

Ocean water was a more grey color in the earliest footage.

At some stages, water such as rivers would be missing. The below screenshot shows Forbidden Jungle with a missing river, although in earlier footage of the same place, the water was visible.

Power Cells

At an early stage the camera did not move to the front of Jak during a Power Cell collection cutscene.

(Source: Sony E3 2001 Press Conference)

Collecting a Power Cell on the A-Grav Zoomer did not produce a cutscene. If it was collected at full speed on a trans-pad, then Jak would have to drive back to the pad to disembark from the zoomer.

(Source: PlayStation Underground)

Debug

Two debug features have been shown in pre-release videos. The first is a free camera function used at the E3 2001 Sony press conference to demonstrate the structure of the levels. The second is the text "outside of bsp" appearing on the screen. The debug function that allows these features is still present in the final game.

(Source: Sony E3 2001 Press Conference, Demo disc trailer)

Characters

In early footage including the E3 demo, Daxter is shown climbing and lying on Jak's head when Jak is swimming. In the final game he remains on Jak's shoulder and shivers.

(Source: IGN)

Daxter had a giant grin in the game's earliest footage, both in gameplay and in some cutscenes. It was replaced with his normal smile by the time of the E3 demo.

(Source: PlayZone)

Characters had simple circular shadows for a large portion of development before they became fully detailed. In the September 2001 demo, lurkers still have these early shadows.

Pre-release	Final game

Characters such as the Sculptor and Fisherman didn't have pupils throughout a large part of development.

Pre-release	Final game

(Source: PlayStation Underground (1) (2))

HUD

Eco Meter

The eco meter had significantly different designs throughout development. The most notable difference is how in early footage, including the E3 2001 demo, there was a counter in the corner which increased as more clusters were picked up. It's unclear what the purpose of this counter was for but gameplay footage shows Jak picking up a single cluster of blue eco without any significant change, so it's possible that his powers would have increased the more eco was picked up. This footage also shows that when a single cluster was picked up, the whole meter would be filled instead of a small portion. At later stages of development, the meter maintained the same design but removed the counter, with eco clusters filling the same portions as the final game. It was eventually redesigned in the latest stages into how it looks in the final product. In some footage, most likely from the earliest stages, there is no meter. The "eco level" mechanic is still present and used in the final game, but completely hidden away and provides no actual gameplay mechanics.

(Source: PlayStation Underground)

Early meter (c. E3 2001 demo)	Mid-development meter	Final meter

Health Meter

The health meter consistently remained the same throughout known development all the way up to the September 2001 demo. It was given a last minute redesign in time for the final build.

Mid-development meter	September 2001 demo meter	Final meter

Text

The game had a completely different font in much of its earlier stages before changing to the font used in the final game at an unknown point. It is styled after the precursor text present in various structures throughout the game. At a later stage, by which point the final font was used with a white color, the symbols used to represent the buttons (✕, ◻, ○, △) was a simple white circle with the symbol inside.

Pre-release font	Pre-release text with final font	Final game

Progress Menu

In one screenshot from a pre-release version, the menu looks largely the same as the final game but with a decimal percentage counter within a yellow circle and smaller, different looking text for "options". The percentage counter in the September 2001 demo is very similar looking.

Pre-release design	September 2001 design	Final design

(Source: Sony E3 2001 Press Conference)

Missions

Drilling lurkers

Concept art by Mark Koerner depicts a group of lurkers using a drill to collect Dark Eco.

In the final game, there is unused text which may describe the corresponding mission titled "STOP THE DRILLING LURKERS" and in the September 2001 demo, an unused audio file with dialogue by Keira appears to describe this mission and suggests that it would have involved the A-Grav Zoomer:

Sound File	Line
	Great flying! Those drillers were gathering a lot of Dark Eco. We have to keep the lurkers away from as much of it as possible. Good work!

It is unclear how far this mission made it in development or what level it would have appeared in but the most likely candidate is Misty Island due to the water-based Zoomer section involving lurkers.

Objects

Dark Eco Boxes

Dark Eco boxes went through at least two redesigns. The original boxes had a red outline with a yellow inner color and a black colored Dark Eco symbol. The second known design had a yellow outline with a black interior and white Dark Eco symbol. The final design has a yellow outline, gold inner color and black Dark Eco symbol.

Early design	Mid-development design	Final design

Platforms

Most platforms, such as the blue eco-powered ones, had slight shifts in design. The earlier design for the blue eco platform was still used in the September 2001 demo. The early design for the generic platform is used on Gol and Maia's Citadel in the final game.

General platforms:

Pre-release	Final game

Blue Eco platforms:

Pre-release	September 2001 demo	Final

(Source: IGN)

Eco Vents

The Precursor text color on the interiors of eco vents was black instead of the color of the respective eco. This was the case for both vents with or without caps. The Blue Eco vent on Geyser Rock still uses the black text in the final game.

Pre-release	Final game

Metal Objects

Metallic objects had more realistic looking textures in the earlier footage, the most prominent example being the Forbidden Temple.

Pre-release	Final game

(Source: Playscope)

Scout Flies

At an early stage, Scout Flies were contained within regular wooden boxes that any attack could break.

(Source: Sony E3 2001 Press Conference)

Audio

Most audio, including dialogue, appears to be largely unchanged throughout development, although this may be due to a lack of footage with in-game audio.

In the E3 demo, collecting Precursor Orbs produced the same audio as the final game but at a lower frequency or pitch. In addition, only one audio sample played like in the September 2001 demo, while two audio samples play in the final game.

Jak's battle grunts from around the time of the E3 demo are also noticeably different. They strongly resemble his voice used in the Japanese version of the game, provided by Shotaro Morikubo, but it is unclear if Morikubo's voice is used in the pre-release footage, his portrayal is based on the voice used in the footage or the similarities are coincidental.