Feb 01, 2007 : A New Year a New Game
Community Relations Manager James Stevenson discusses seeing Ratchet & Clank for PS3 coming together, Resistance online, and more.
James Stevenson covered the videogames industry for seven years as a freelance journalist for Cinescape, Computer Games, Surge and Now Playing before joining Insomniac. His blogs will continue to appear on the Insomniac website periodically through the launch of Resistance: Fall of Man and beyond, giving an insider’s look with an outsider’s perspective on working at a game development studio.
Given my games journalism past, I’m pretty familiar with watching games progress or even regress through the last several months of their development. This is thanks to the loan of debug units and getting several copies of the code in the months leading up to the game’s final release. From that aspect, seeing Resistance: Fall of Man complete the final four months of its development wasn’t really a new experience for me.
Keeping an eye on the new Ratchet & Clank game for PlayStation 3 as it comes along has been a new experience for me though. It’s pretty amazing how many things have been going into the game and how rapidly things change.
As you might expect, early in the game development cycle, some things just aren’t even in the game yet. It isn’t optimized, pieces are missing and it’s like watching Bob Ross just beginning to throw some dark green paint down when painting one of his famous “Happy Trees.” As he slowly accents the color, adding a little brown to represent the trunk – suddenly, it begins to resemble a real tree.
All of the hard work put in by the team is really beginning to show and the new production schedule has allowed us to get farther ahead on the game than we’ve ever been before. From my own perspective, as a huge Ratchet & Clank fanboy in the press before working here, I’m really jazzed about this game.
I can’t share any more details than that – but you’ll be learning a lot more about the game in the not too distant future. I’ll be really excited to get on the forums and read the reactions to what the team has been working so hard on.
But while you’re waiting for your next-gen fix of Ratchet & Clank, there are still a lot of other great happenings going on. Our good friends at High Impact Games are getting set to release Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters on PSP, which I think a lot of folks here at Insomniac (myself included) are excited to check out. In addition, the Resistance:FOM online community continues to grow; More than 21,000 people have signed up at MyResistance.net in a little over two months, and you can find tons of games on the online servers!
Speaking of Resistance:FOM online, we’re continuing to support the game well beyond its launch. We released the first patch right before the holidays. While it took a bit of an adjustment for some, we believe it really has made the gameplay experience much more balanced and fun. We’ve got some other plans for Resistance: FOM, including some more downloadable Cloven accessories for members of MyResistance.net and some other stuff we’ll reveal as time goes along.
It’s going to be an exciting year at Insomniac, and we’re looking forward to continuing to share our plans with you as the year unfolds – perhaps even sharing them in some new ways.
But that’s enough teasing for this month, tune back in next month when we should hopefully be able to give you some tantalizing morsels instead of just a whiff.
Community Relations Manager James Stevenson discusses seeing Ratchet & Clank for PS3 coming together, Resistance online, and more.
James Stevenson covered the videogames industry for seven years as a freelance journalist for Cinescape, Computer Games, Surge and Now Playing before joining Insomniac. His blogs will continue to appear on the Insomniac website periodically through the launch of Resistance: Fall of Man and beyond, giving an insider’s look with an outsider’s perspective on working at a game development studio.
Given my games journalism past, I’m pretty familiar with watching games progress or even regress through the last several months of their development. This is thanks to the loan of debug units and getting several copies of the code in the months leading up to the game’s final release. From that aspect, seeing Resistance: Fall of Man complete the final four months of its development wasn’t really a new experience for me.
Keeping an eye on the new Ratchet & Clank game for PlayStation 3 as it comes along has been a new experience for me though. It’s pretty amazing how many things have been going into the game and how rapidly things change.
As you might expect, early in the game development cycle, some things just aren’t even in the game yet. It isn’t optimized, pieces are missing and it’s like watching Bob Ross just beginning to throw some dark green paint down when painting one of his famous “Happy Trees.” As he slowly accents the color, adding a little brown to represent the trunk – suddenly, it begins to resemble a real tree.
All of the hard work put in by the team is really beginning to show and the new production schedule has allowed us to get farther ahead on the game than we’ve ever been before. From my own perspective, as a huge Ratchet & Clank fanboy in the press before working here, I’m really jazzed about this game.
I can’t share any more details than that – but you’ll be learning a lot more about the game in the not too distant future. I’ll be really excited to get on the forums and read the reactions to what the team has been working so hard on.
But while you’re waiting for your next-gen fix of Ratchet & Clank, there are still a lot of other great happenings going on. Our good friends at High Impact Games are getting set to release Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters on PSP, which I think a lot of folks here at Insomniac (myself included) are excited to check out. In addition, the Resistance:FOM online community continues to grow; More than 21,000 people have signed up at MyResistance.net in a little over two months, and you can find tons of games on the online servers!
Speaking of Resistance:FOM online, we’re continuing to support the game well beyond its launch. We released the first patch right before the holidays. While it took a bit of an adjustment for some, we believe it really has made the gameplay experience much more balanced and fun. We’ve got some other plans for Resistance: FOM, including some more downloadable Cloven accessories for members of MyResistance.net and some other stuff we’ll reveal as time goes along.
It’s going to be an exciting year at Insomniac, and we’re looking forward to continuing to share our plans with you as the year unfolds – perhaps even sharing them in some new ways.
But that’s enough teasing for this month, tune back in next month when we should hopefully be able to give you some tantalizing morsels instead of just a whiff.
