King Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!
Art Blast

By Daniel Wade - May 27, 2021

The story of Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! began with us wanting to build a new “mobile runner game” something that pushes the boundaries of what is typically available. Given that we’re part of the Activision Blizzard and had access to the Crash Bandicoot IP, it really became a no-brainer. When we announced, it’s fair to say that initially there was a lot of scepticism amongst the hardcore fanbase, with early game footage generating strong reactions.

This passion is something we really took notice of as we dived deep into the lore of the Crash Bandicoot universe, we spent a lot of effort uncovering levels and characters that would delight and surprise, as we wanted to make this “the Crashiest Crash game ever”. It’s important for us to let the fans know that we’re with them, many of us grew up with the franchise since early PlayStation days, we love Crash Bandicoot and are fans too! As we continued to develop and release more footage of the game, the fan reaction became overwhelmingly positive, it was great for us to see the scepticism turn into excitement for the game.

Taking a well-loved console game to mobile was always going to be a challenge and we had to stop and think about what’s really important. We simply couldn’t follow the same art direction for previous games, a lot of the visual detail would have simply not worked on a mobile device, The handheld, play anywhere, small screen form factor dramatically impacted the approach we need to take. Added to this, we support a vast array of mobile devices, getting the game looking this good on a 7 year old device certainly provided an interesting challenge.

Ensuring the world was vibrant and rich with colour, whilst supporting the gameplay by making the character readable at all times, was central to the artistic direction. For this, we went back to the origins of Crash Bandicoot and made our decisions from there, allowing us to focus on the visual core rather than get lost in technological implementation. It was key that we respect the IP and make sure that we reimagined rather than re-wrote the art direction to suit the mobile platform. We also wanted to push for console quality animations, bringing the characters to life and ensuring their personality comes through is critical to making the game feel true to its origins and feel like a valued addition to the franchise rather than a spin-off.

We’re all extremely proud of Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! and we’d like to take a moment to thank every single person on the team. Making games is always challenging, but seeing how the team rallied and supported each other was amazing, especially since most of the development was done remotely due to COVID-19. It’s also important to thank King as a company for supporting us through this time and Toys for Bob for their insights and thoughts whilst they were creating Crash Bandicoot 4. Below you will find a selection of artwork from the super-talented Art team at King.

Peter Ridgway
Senior Director of Technical Art, King
On behalf of Crash Bandicoot: On the Run! Art Team