BTS - Crash Twinsanity Revisit (156) (Patreon)

G'day people, today we're gonna go through and discuss the making-of 2022's first episode of the year; a return to Crash Twinsanity! This was a great way to kick things off after a rough 2021, going back to basics and focusing on an old favorite. So let's get into it!

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How did this episode come to be?
Out of my entire collection of original Crash episodes from back in 2014 and 2015, Twinsanity is the one I've wanted to revisit for the longest time. I don't exactly remember when it started, but this has been on my mind for a solid 3 years at this point. I was not happy with the old episode offering ZERO to the conversation on this game and I mean honestly, all of those old videos could be remade at some point I suppose but this game is the only one that my opinions had drastically changed (score wise anyway).
Late in 2021 I had one of my hard drives of game archive footage corrupt and I lost heaps of data for pretty much every single Crash game. Some was just a few levels, others like Crash 2 were the ENTIRE GAME. It's an effort to recapture all of that so I was pissed. But I was drawn to Twinsanity first. While I only lost about 25% of the game, it's so brief I figured I may as well play through it and quickly I found myself in the mood to review it. So I started taking notes!

Logos and Animation work:
The hardest thing to execute with the episode for me was always going to be the logo. It's one of my absolute favs of all time and I just love going back to games I covered years ago and getting to make new logos for them! My biggest concern as creating an animation for the portal effect seen on the title screen.

I started off just making various swirly patterns in photoshop and layering them with various glows and such until I got to a pattern I was happy with but it still didn't look right. Without the actual in game portal effects, it just looked weak in comparison but I thought ahead while playing and attempted a solution.
In the 10th dimension before entering the final level, there is a very clear portal you can use to teleport between areas. So I simple crouch in front of it for a long cycle, then I masked and chroma keyed it out to blend it in with the rest of what I created. The final result was excellent if I do say so myself!

As for the actual text stuff, that was super simple! I've done enough Crash logos to be able to pump things out from scratch incredibly efficient. For the Twinsanity font, Petronious put me on to the Grinch font he used when he covered the game which fit very well. The text portion of this logo was completed in a mere 10 minutes. Then the entire thing was animated with keyframes over the original intro. 

Cut intro plans:
The original plan for the intro was to repeat my intro from my 2014 review, where the game floats onto the beach akin to frozen Cortex in the game and I'd match it shot for shot and be all like "Not again! 😩" but in the end I decided against it. As much as I still want the freedom to do fun camera segments and callback to old videos. That is such an old video I was mostly worried most people watching wouldn't remember or wouldn't give a shit, especially new viewers. So at this point with all the work I'd done on the logo, I opted instead to replicate the fly over animation. This was achieved sneakily, but VERY easily by using the in game camera.
Tip for aspiring creators: Always remember to treat your in game camera, as if you would a real life camera. That's important to remember while playing the game as best you can, as it keeps things watchable. But it's a tool like a real camera, so learning to manipulate it to achieve certain shots is something you need to open your mind too!

I took Crash out over the water and while crouching down, used the camera to pan over. Thankfully capturing birds flying at the perfect time and then I just cropped it to 16:9 so Crash wasn't visible, slapped my logo stuff on top and there you have it. The big crazy journey to creating the logo for this episode using a little bit of creative thinking!

Pre-release content and research:
The big point I wanted to try and get across coming back to the game is that while very cool and interesting to discuss, Twinsanity cannot be judged based on what could have been. I see it a lot among the fanbase, my old 2014 self included, where the potential the game had tends to outweigh negative critique on the finished product. So doing as much research as I could, I tried my best to find examples of pre-release content that may have NOT been a positive had it been fully realized. My boyfriend Don was a big help as a big fan of the franchise too. He recalled seeing some images of pre-release levels and upon searching, stumbled into this HUGE reddit post by u/CrashDashSmashBash detailing much of this content, including a heap of legitimate info from developers I'd never seen before, along with fan theories and such. It was a fascinating read honestly!

So I made sure to reference this and link it under the video for people to read. But it really showcases how simple explanations for things, such as N.Tropy overhearing a conversation about the Evil Twins treasure was planned but ultimately cut from the final game. Leaving it just that extra level of confusing when he randomly appears. I was going to mention this particular exclusion but I was trying to keep the episode as short and digestible as possible.

Definitely give it a read if you're interested!

Rewriting the script:
Given that I wanted to mention this stuff as little as possible, I didn't want the review to focus too heavily but the first version of the script... I barely talked about the fucking game. I believe it was only like a page and a half without much of any critique before I moved into a large segment on cut content... just like my original episode. It really showed me that Twinsanity is one of the hardest games to discuss and analyze. Second revision I went back through and made a real point to raise pros and cons with specific elements, targeting the best and worst of both levels, new mechanics and just general things. Such as praising the soundtrack in my personal preference, but also shitting on the poor quality of how this mess of a game was poorly stitched together. And then comparing the final product with cut content made for a much more effective segment in my opinion.

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That's a WRAP!
Honestly this was a simple episode to work on, just what I needed at the time. Everything in regards to filming and editing was very standard and straight forward. My proudest accomplishment is another solid logo job under my belt and honestly... getting back to just having fun making a review on a game I've loved for so many years. It reminded me why I fell in love with this format all those years ago. It was the spark in my tummy that I greatly needed!

So that does it everyone, thank you all so much for reading. I'm happy to answer any additional questions you may have and until next time, I hope you all have a great fucking day. Cheers! 😄