Prerelease:Spyro: Season of Ice

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Spyro: Season of Ice.

To do: The official strategy guide for the game was published back in 2001: https://www.amazon.com/Spyro-Season-Official-Strategy-Guide/dp/0744001315. Such guides always use prerelease versions, so if it gets published online or if you by any chance have it - please, document the information within it!

Scrapped Music

The game's composer, Robert Baffy, shared some unused track he wrote for the game on his official YouTube channel back in November 7, 2020.

He also detailed how his work on the game's music typically went, and whether he had original levels to play before creating the tracks:

"It would depend -- sometimes I'd get early artwork, other times a broad description of what the designer(s) wanted with music for the level. Since the schedule was so compressed, I rarely composed songs after the levels were already done."

Screenshots and Trailer

There's a lot of different screenshots from early builds for almost every level of the game. Some of them are notable for using an entirely different Spyro sprite, but there's only few of them. Most of these screenshots were taken from IGN website, but the manual of the game has interesting prerelease pictures as well!

(Source: https://www.ign.com/games/spyro-the-dragon-season-of-ice)

(Source: https://archive.org/details/spyroice-gba-manual)

The trailer also featured a prerelease build:

(Source: https://archive.org/details/023149)

Sadly, it's in a very bad quality, but it was possible to notice tons of differences.

Mermaid Coast

What the... What is it? Did they plan to add such screens for every conversation/task? Was it in the beginning of the level, just like on Speedway levels?

No such area exists in the final. There's a box that was removed, and the star fish on the sand are missing. The planks were completely redrawn for the retail release, and the supporting wood was removed.

This area does not exist in the final, and the enemy here is not found on this level. The walls are also missing the barnacle decorations.

A few more screenshots with these early walls and unfinished flooring:

Something purple in the lighthouses... Also still no barnacles on the walls.

Prerelease	Final

The texture of the stone thing and flooring are more simple:

Prerelease	Final

There was no fairy in this spot of Mermaid Coast (and most likely it wasn't in the game at all), but looks like the ice of fairies looked a bit different. For some reason, the lighthouse counter is in the upper right corner, not lower right.

Market Mesa

This area does not exist in the final version of the level. The cherry blossoms are only found in Panda Gardens. The flooring has less detail, and the darker markings at the bottom of the building were changed. Finally, the windows are less bright in the final game. Like Spyro, the fairy has an entirely different (and much larger) sprite.

Looks like the trees had one more iteration before their final version. This one here is similar to the cherry blossoms, but green already. The floor is pretty basic here too, most likely a placeholder.

Prerelease	Final

Another area with this unfinished flooring:

Prerelease	Final

This area wasn't in the final version too:

This floor can also be noticed in the manual:

Lava Prairie

Once again, this area does not exist in the final. There's a box similar to the one from the Mermaid Coast screenshot, which was removed from this level as well. The rib cage is floating on lava, whereas all the bones in the final are on land. It was also redrawn and turned upside. There's also a blue gem, which doesn't exist in the final game.

The walls are missing the markings, and the gem is more orange than it is red. The basket here is more rotund than it is in the final, lacking the violet stripes, and the handle is also smaller. The final redrew these completely to more closely resemble the ones found in the PlayStation games. The flooring is also completely different.

Even in the later builds the floor was still unfinished.

Prerelease	Final

One more early screenshot of the level:

Looks like the cacti bombs were different:

Prerelease	Final

Ant Farm

Did you wonder why the leafs on Ant Farm weren't very autumn-like even though the level was in Autumn Fairy Home? Looks like initially the level really was autumn themed. Plus the doors are much more detailed in this version, there's even a keyhole!

Prerelease	Final

Stone Age Speedway

Green gems instead of blue ones and the background is very different:

Prerelease	Final

The screenshot in the manual captured another iteration of the background:

Winter Fairy Home

There's no such area in the final game. Maybe it is, but looks like the devs experimented with the positions of different objects a lot:

Panda Gardens

The lanterns and windows are different in the final, and the wall behind it was changed. This particular area doesn't exist in the final game. Plus the umbrellas of the Rhynocs are pink here. They also seem to have a different AI, because in the final game they always tried to attack Spyro as long as they saw him.

However, on this screenshot, these lanterns and umbrellas are already the same as in the final game:

The Pandas on Panda Gardens level were much bigger:

Prerelease	Final

Honey Marsh

The Professor on Honey Marsh level was bigger as well, the walls were green. It seems that characters didn't turn around to always look at Spyro.

Prerelease	Final

By the way, the flowers were red:

Prerelease	Final

A couple of more screenshots demonstrating those green walls:

Hummingbird Fort

The tents on Hummingbird Fort level were red, but also you can notice some birdhouse here. These birdhouses were on the concept art of the level, but not in the final game:

Prerelease	Final

The birds on Hummingbird Fort level are green in the trailer and their cages are yellow. Oddly enough, they were green on their dialogue picture in the Japanese version of the game, while their sprites still were red... By the way, another birdhouse!

Prerelease	Final

One more area with another yellow caged green bird and a red tent:

Red tents can also be noticed in the manual:

Wasp City

The walls are different:

Prerelease	Final

Ice Age Speedway

A different background on Ice Age Speedway plus no tutorial, instead just a "press A to start" screen. Actually, it's this exact background in the final version, but it's closer and more contrast.

Prerelease	Final

Also looks like Spyro's animations on Speedways were much more complicated. He never changes his idle flight animation in the final game! Plus there were blue gems in the hoops, not green.

Spring Fairy Home

The grass on Spring Fairy home looks much simpler and the castle walls are different:

Prerelease	Final

Weirdly enough, the castle looks already finished on this screenshot, but it's in a different place. Most likely, they planned to use both versions:

The fairies were bigger, just like other characters:

Prerelease	Final

Summer Fairy Home

The portals had a different effect:

Prerelease	Final

Beetle Burrows

The walls were differently colored and the spiders are green, which made them much more similar to the same spiders from the Insomniac's Spyro games. Also the gem counter is in the lower left corner, not upper left:

Prerelease	Final

Interestingly enough, you still can see the final blue-brown spiders in the same video footage of the trailer. Did the devs plan to make more variations of the same enemies?

Space Age Speedway

Space Age Speedway used the boss from Stone Age Speedway level:

Prerelease	Final

Misc

Sparx was used as a cursor in atlas and the text color was different. Autumn Fairy Home and Market Mesa had 200 gems instead of 300.

Prerelease	Final

There's also some picture with character models from the game before they were pixelated. Spyro's model looks like it's from that earlier build:

Concept Art

Many different concept arts were leaked:

Characters

Most likely a bird from the Hummingbird Fort level:

A bee Rhynoc from the Honey Marsh level:

A Jetpack Rhynoc from the Star Park level:

That's a skunk from the Dusty Trails level, but it doesn't wear any clothes on the concept art.

Concept Art	Game

Levels

Fairy Castles from every homeworld (Autumn, Spring, Winter and Summer). It's not likely these castles were in the game at all...

Honey Marsh. Oddly enough, this file was called Honeycomb Marsh, just like the one with the bee Rhynoc. Most likely the early title of the level.

Hummingbird Fort is called Hummingbird Village on the art. Maybe they didn't plan to use that military theme from Year of the Dragon on this level... Anyway it looks really different and there were no birdhouses in the final game, only on the prerelease screenshot. Also look at the ladder. Did they plan to add Spyro his climbing ability from Ripto's Rage?

Lava Prairie. Looks less blocky, but the geysers can already be seen here.

Roman City. Looks really different. There were no Spyro statues (and why should they be there?). Also looks like the devs already planned to add moving platforms in this game, but it was first introduced in the sequel - Season of Flame.

Star Park. Looks completely different as well. No snow, the overall design is not the same at all. Also look at the box with arrow. Did they plan to make a puzzle where you need to push boxes in the right order?