"spyro the dragon" started development following the release of insomniac's debut game, "disruptor", which sold poorly but was generally praised by critics, impressing universal interactive enough to encourage them to make a second game. artist craig stitt suggested a game about a dragon, and work began on a new game. taking inspiration from the film "dragonheart", the game started out as a more mature title with a dark and realistic approach, but the direction was shifted to have a more whimsical and light-hearted tone in order to appeal to a wider market of consumers. the game was one of the first on the playstation to utilize shifting levels of detail among rendered objects, thanks to a panoramic engine developed by alex hastings which allowed the game's open-ended nature to be fully realized. stewart copeland, the former drummer for the police, composed the game's music, and the titular character was voice acted by carlos alazraqui, alongside additional voices done by clancy brown, michael gough and jamie alcroft.