Spyro: Year of the Dragon

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Spyro: Year of the Dragon.

Design DocumentsThe drawing board. Concept ArtConcept art by Oliver Wade. Development InsightsInterviews and anecdotes. Pre-E3 ScreenshotsThe earliest known prerelease build, characterised by the screenshots' frequent use in magazines. Dated around March 27th, 2000. E3 2000Coverage of the April 25th, 2000 build which was publicly playable at E3 on May 11th, 2000. This build also acted as the SCEA "Preview Version" and was seen in a number of magazine and online previews. Gamespot ReleaseA later version of the game shown by Gamespot on June 23rd, 2000. Dated roughly late May 2000. Post-E3 ScreenshotsAnother press screenshot build, dated somewhere from May to June 2000. "Numbered" BuildsAt least two versions of the game which featured a debug display of the adaptive difficulty. One is the July 27th, 2000 build which acted as the SCEE "Preview Version", and the other appears to be a later build dated sometime in August 2000. Review BuildsTwo late development builds used for creating guides and reviews. The September 4th, 2000 build and the September 11th, 2000 build, both of which acted as a "Review Version" for SCEE and SCEA respectively.

Development Timeline#

• November 2nd 1999
  • Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage is released in the USA. Shortly afterwards, development of the third game in the Spyro the Dragon trilogy began.²
• December 3rd, 1999
  • The date seen on the executable in a number of builds of the game, thought to be the creation date for the earliest produced files for the game. Suggests programming began around this point in time.
• January 2000 - Sheila Test Level
  • A likely timeframe for when an early test level for Sheila was created, which was mysteriously included in a much later prototype.
• February 2000
  • The March 2000 issue of Next Generation Magazine (Issue 63) contains interviews with a few developers about the future of gaming and the difficulty of getting into the video game market. In a profile about one of these developers - Ted Price, the founder and CEO of Insomniac Games - it is mentioned that Insomniac are working on a PlayStation title and a PlayStation 2 title, the former of which being the as-of-yet unannounced Spyro: Year of the Dragon.
• March 27th 2000 - Pre-E3 build
  • A likely date for the earliest known build of the game, represented by a particular handful of screenshots.
• April 25th 2000 - SCEA Preview Build
  • The April 25th, 2000 prototype was built around this time, which is the second earliest known build of the game.
  • There are a number of prerelease materials featuring this version.
• May 11th 2000
  • Spyro: Year of the Dragon is announced at E3 2000.
  • A handful of official screenshots are released by a number of news outlets. While only five seem to have been released initially, the batch contained many more screenshots which made their way onto magazines and websites throughout the game's development.³⁴⁵ These screenshots are referred to as the Pre-E3 Screenshots, and they represent the earliest known build of the game.
  • The April 25th build was playable as the event, which acted as the E3 Demo. Although not a great deal of coverage has directly surfaced from E3, it's understood to be the same build sent out to a number of video game previewers, with IGN being perhaps the most notable example. These previews would not be released online until June 23rd of the same year, or in magazines until slightly later into the year.^{6 7 8 9 10}
  • B-Roll footage of the game used occasionally throughout development is also a match for the E3 Demo build. Furthermore, EGM, PSM, DailyRadar, GameInformer, Gamers' Republic, GameFan and GamePro all seem to have previewed this version of the game.
• May 2000 - Electric Playground Interview and GameSpot Build
  • An interview with the Electric Playground that took place in May 2000 shows that the game had progressed somewhat from the version shown at E3.1 Voice lines for Sunny Villa are still being recorded, and would later be heard in the earliest demo build.
  • The GameSpot Build2 3 seems to have likely been built in late May. It was revealed to the internet in a collection of screenshots and videos on June 23rd, 2000. Despite releasing on the same day as previews displaying the E3 Build, this version is clearly a later build of the game. Only one of the five videos of this build has been recovered, with the remaining videos considered lost.
• May 25th 2000 - Demo 1
  • The first demo was built around this time, at the earliest. It appears to be slightly later than the build seen in GameSpot's preview.
• July 27th, 2000 - SCEE Preview Build
  • The July 27th, 2000 prototype was built around this time.
  • There are a number of European magazines featuring this version.
  • An official trailer for the game was produced around this time, which also appears to have used this version.4
• Date Uncertain (~Late July or early August 2000) - Demo 2
  • The second demo of the game, which was later released as a standalone demo, was built sometime after 27th July 2000.
• August 2000 - Demos 3 - 6
  • At least two more demo versions were created, for European and Australian demo discs. These appear to have been built sometime in early August.
  • Crash Bash would be released later in the year (November 6th, 2000), and each version featured a built-in Spyro 3 demo, activated using a cheat code. The demo differs between the European and North American releases of Crash Bash - the North American demo in particular is from a very slightly earlier build than the European version, having only two known differences in total, ignoring usual regional differences. These demos are still based upon unfinished versions of Spyro 3, albeit very late versions - these seem to have been built in the latter half of August 2000.
• Date Uncertain (~August 22nd 2000) - ECTS Build
  • More screenshots of the game are released in the European Computer Trade Show 2000 press kit on September 3rd 2000, featuring a mostly complete version of the game, besides a few differences here and there. If the modification dates on the disc are to be believed, these screenshots were taken on the 22nd of August at the latest. A few of these screenshots still remain on Insomniac's website. They only show the levels which were featured in demos of the game. 5 6
• September 4th 2000 - SCEE Review Build
  • The September 4th, 2000 prototype was built around this time, and was shown in several European magazines.
• September 11th 2000 - SCEA Review Build
  • The September 11th, 2000 prototype was built around this time, and can be spotted in other magazines by a few differences such as some minor cutscene changes and a repositioning of some of the NPCs in Sunrise Spring.
  • An unsourced screenshot showing unfinished (but still slightly later than the Mega Fun build's) cutscenes appears to come from this build of the game, too.
• September 14th 2000
  • Roughly the date of the game's initial completion, according to file modification and EXE build dates. This is further supported by an article with Ted Price claiming the game was finished around the middle of September 2000.¹¹
• September 29th 2000
  • Build date of EU revision 0.
• October 24th 2000
  • The initial release of Spyro: Year of the Dragon in the US.
  • Also the build date of EU revision 1.
• October 31st 2000
  • Build date of NA revision 1, often known as the "Greatest Hits" release (though this version did feature on some black-label releases).
• November 10th 2000
  • The initial release of Spyro: Year of the Dragon in Europe.

References#