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Prerelease:Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

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This page details prerelease information and/or media for Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was Sucker Punch's second game, coming off the heels of Rocket: Robot on Wheels for the N64. Development started as early as January 2000, and the game had several major revisions before its PS2 release in September 2002.[1]

Development Timeline

2000

  • Jan. - The earliest known gameplay footage shows a basic, untextured player model and a simple test level with rudimentary platforming.[1]

2001

  • Mar. - Prerelease footage shows some early level designs, unused game mechanics, and a more cartoony style for Sly's model/animations.[1]
  • May - The development team settles on an art style and core gameplay mechanics. Prerelease footage shows level designs that more closely resemble the final game.[1]
  • Nov. - Prerelease footage shows the game in a state much closer to the final game, albeit with unfinished graphics, lighting, and voice acting.[1]

2002

  • May 15 - Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is officially announced in a press release from Sony Computer Entertainment America, with a September 2002 release date.[2]
  • May 22-24 - Sly Cooper is shown publicly for the first time at E3 2002 alongside Ratchet & Clank.[3][4]
  • Sep. 24 - Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is released for the PlayStation 2.[5]

Sly Cooper Evolution (Jan 2000 - Nov 2001)

A screenshot from the video showing the "Underwater" level in the March 2002 build.
The fish from the Underwater level would be repurposed as a decoration in the final game

Sly Cooper Evolution is an unlockable bonus video in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves. It has footage of Sly Cooper at various stages of development, including clips captured at 10, 16, 18, and 32 months before the game's release.[1]

32 Months (Jan. 2000)

This segment of the video has footage of the earliest known build of the game.

  • Sly's character model is completely untextured, appearing a solid gray color.
  • The character animations are much more rigid, with Sly standing fully upright rather than sneaking around.
  • The level design consists of a cave with various platforming challenges, including:
    • Jumping over boxes and other "ambiguously shaped objects"
    • Climbing a series of platforms over a pool of water
    • Navigating platforms suspended in non-lethal lava
    • Running through a spinning tunnel of rolling boulders

18 Months (Mar. 2001)

This is the longest segment of the video. The footage shows early versions of at least three levels in the episode "Tide of Terror". One of these levels includes elements that would later be used in the level "Gunboat Graveyard".

Sly

  • Sly's jump animation is now accompanied by a cartoony spring sound effect.
  • His eyes glow in the dark so they are always visible.
  • Sly is shown swinging from hooks with his cane, which would remain a staple ability throughout development.
  • In this build, Sly's cane has two as-of-yet unseen abilities
    • It can transform into a tool that fires white sparkles to reveal invisible walls.
    • It can fire a projectile that freezes enemies in an ice block, which Sly can jump on to progress through the level.

GUI

  • In the top-right corner of the screen is an early GUI for the coin counter, which is a green number with a red dollar sign. There are small red bags scattered around the map, and breaking them adds to the count.

Enemies

  • An early crab enemy is shown, which Sly defeats by firing a projectile from his cane. The crabs would be repurposed in the final game for the minigame level "Treasure in the Depths".
  • An early fish enemy is shown, which Sly freezes in a block of ice.

Underwater Level

A fully underwater level is shown that is not present in the final game. The gameplay includes avoiding obstacles while piloting a submarine through an underwater cavern.

  • The submarine had water wings that could be changed out for better maneuverability.
  • One of the obstacles is a large fish. In the final game, this fish was repurposed as a static decoration on a fountain.

16 Months (May 2001)

This short segment shows an early version of "A Stealthy Approach".

  • The terrain of the level is vastly different.
  • The same rigid movement is used for Sly.
  • A submarine model in the level would be replaced with a shipwreck in the final game.

10 Months (Nov. 2001)

This segment most closely resembles the game in its final state. It once again shows an early version of "A Stealthy Approach".

  • Sly's animations are more fluid, more like his movement in the final game.
  • A cutscene with dialogue between Sly and Bentley is shown. Both characters' dialogue would be rewritten and re-recorded before the final release. Bentley's character direction would remain mostly the same, while Sly's personality changed drastically in later builds.
  • In this version of the game, Bentley refers to Sly as "JT". This stands for Jewel Thief, which was Sly's codename for much of development.[6]

E3 2002 (May 2002)

An E3 2002 screenshot showing early textures for Sly, a guard, and clue bottles.

Sly Cooper was shown publicly for the first time at E3 2002, which took place on May 22-24.[3] Before Evolution of Sly came out, the majority of prerelease material came from press coverage of this event.

A playable demo disc was distributed at E3 2002, which is documented here. An internal debug build, documented here, appears to the build used to take gameplay screenshots for the press. These builds contain early levels, voice acting, and abilities, and the latter includes a working debug menu.

Press Coverage

The game was recognized as one of the Top Games of E3 by GameSpot, and included in the PS2 Best of E3 by IGN. Both praised the game for its graphics, level design, and gameplay mechanics.[7][8]

Various other gaming news sites posted early gameplay screenshots of "Tide of Terror" and "Sunset Snake Eyes" levels. [1] [2] [3]


(Image Source: jeuxvideo.com)

SlySchool Ad (Date Unknown)

The screenshots can be seen at the bottom of this ad (click to enlarge).

An ad for SlySchool.com, an official website for Sly Cooper in Europe,[9] includes two screenshots of the level "The Unseen Foe" from an unknown early build of the game. The screenshots show a barrel that Sly would hide inside to avoid being seen by guards. In the final game, the barrel is not present, and you instead use an invisibility powerup.[10]

The reason for this change is that the episode "Fire in the Sky" (which includes the level) was originally intended to be the first episode in the game. After playtesting, it was deemed to be too difficult for beginners, so it was changed to episode four and the invisibility powerup was added as a reward for unlocking the episode.[11]

References