With Resistance Fall of Man’s huge success and Rachet And Clank hotly tipped as one of the next big titles to blow us all away, you can appreciate that the Insomniac team are a busy bunch at the minute.
Well, not only have we managed to pin them down, we’ve also been granted the opportunity put some questions over to their development team. And, because we’re so nice over here at Three Speech, we’ve decided to offer this opportunity back to you guys.
So, have a think and let us know what questions you’d like to ask the developers over at Insomniac? Obviously we can’t guarantee that we can get them all answered, so make sure they’re good!
Let us know by posting a comment, or e-mailing us at blog@threespeech.com.
My first and only question:
Why does resistance offer split-screen offline collaborative gameplay, but no online collaborative? I’d love to be able to play the whole campaign with a friend, but I can’t stand splitscreen… Oldies like Hexxen (yikes, 1994) had LAN two players cooperative gameplay…
Please, bring us online cooperative!
Comment by olivier — Apr 23, 2007 @ 12:08 pm
Will there be any new mutiplayer modes in Resistance:FOM?
PSN: TheDirector
Comment by thedirector — Apr 23, 2007 @ 12:35 pm
My question would be:
“I love R:FoM and it is far and away my most consistently played game on PS3 (both on and off line) - what can we expect from R:FoM 2 that will take the game to that next level, and what do you have planned for the current version to keep me hooked until the sequel comes out!”
Comment by Fid — Apr 23, 2007 @ 12:39 pm
Ratchet and R:FOM are great but so is originality. Are Insomniac planning any new IPs? They’ve proven themselves in two totally different genres, I’d be interested to see what they can do with maybe the RPG genre.
Comment by Ben Furneaux — Apr 23, 2007 @ 12:49 pm
Do you have any plans to develop downloadable PSN titles..?
Comment by Steve — Apr 23, 2007 @ 12:58 pm
What are some features that you would like to put in a sequel to Resistance that couldn’t be made for the original because of time constraints?
Comment by Devin — Apr 23, 2007 @ 1:06 pm
Olivier; You can find an answer to your question here:
http://www.ps3blog.net/2007/04/12/insomniac-interview-part-ii/
We got the opportunity to ask insomniac some questions and they are a very thorough and welcoming bunch of people.
My question:
“Is Clank going to play a bigger role in R&CF:ToD compared to the previous games? Personally, I didn’t enjoy playing as Giant Clank as it got pretty repetitive, pretty fast but the missions where you controlled regular sized Clank was a lot of fun.
Comment by Gary — Apr 23, 2007 @ 1:11 pm
Actually, the answer to your question Olivier is in part 1:
http://www.ps3blog.net/2007/04/11/insomniac-interview-part-i/
Sorry.
Comment by Gary — Apr 23, 2007 @ 1:13 pm
First I would like to commend you for your awesome podcast and website. Now, can you explain your opinions on how much you are pushing the PS3 at this point in time. I know it’s a little early in the cycle, but if you have tools that tell you how much you are getting out the PS3, what kind of power (loose term) are you getting? Or, best, give a % of what you think you are tapping out of the PS3. Thank you and keep up the great work.
Comment by Dave — Apr 23, 2007 @ 1:34 pm
Will R&C Tools have online play, and do you plan downloadable content like R:FOM?
I love this in R:FOM and i understand that the online play in the last R&C wasn’t exactly flooded with players but i would love to see the same game modes from R:FOM with Ratchet and Clank characters.
Comment by Nathaniel — Apr 23, 2007 @ 2:24 pm
Thank you for making most excellent games. Unfortunately, I am one of the many who purchased a projection HDTV that does not support 720p (only 1080i). That means I cannot play any of your 720p games in HD because they get downscaled to 480p. My questions:
Will R&C: TOD be in native 1080?
Do you plan on patching R:FOM to accommodate the thousands of PS3 owners who were early adopters of HDTV? My tv isn’t even 3 years old yet.
Comment by Dave — Apr 23, 2007 @ 2:57 pm
Have you decided that 1080i only users are insignifigant? Do you really think they will enjoy your games fully when they can only play them in a last-gen 480p?
Do you think Sony will address the 1080i issue themselves?
Insomniac is my biggest PS3 dissapointment.
Comment by MrME — Apr 23, 2007 @ 3:54 pm
Mouse and keyboard support for Resistance? That would be nice.
Is there any technical reason why you did not implement a sixaxis view/aim control feature (Resistance)? That probably would kick mouse/keyboard ass.
Comment by LastNinja — Apr 23, 2007 @ 4:15 pm
R:FoM is one of my favorite PS3 games so far–especially that teams can be divided into squads. However, I don’t see many people using the squads, so are you planning on implementing any game types that are more squad-based?
Comment by Hiroken — Apr 23, 2007 @ 6:22 pm
of all the 1080i TFT displays in the world 80% of them also support 720p better
Comment by mark — Apr 23, 2007 @ 9:18 pm
1. Will there be any larger Team Battle multiplayer maps.
2. Is there any plan to incorporate vehicles in Multiplayer?
Comment by Anthony — Apr 23, 2007 @ 9:39 pm
Well, I was a little bit let down by Resistance’s ending, but damn that was a fine game, I hope you guys keep story a strong focus for this series-it satisfies many more people that way!
Question-How far are you going with motion control for Ratchet and Clank? I personally think it really enhances games, and little stuff like shaking the controller was great, but we need more.
Comment by Jarod — Apr 23, 2007 @ 10:08 pm
First off, thanks for the opportunity.
As for my question, I would like to know if Insomniac takes inspiration for some of its weapons (especially in Resistance) from real world weapons.
I do recall reading somewhere that the German military invented a gun that could shoot around corners during WWII (although not as cool and particle based as the Bullseye from Resistance.)
Secondly, I’d like to know if Insomniac collaborated with High Impact Games for Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters (sorry, I don’t own the game yet, but I did Beta test it)
Comment by Xanog — Apr 23, 2007 @ 10:10 pm
Hello Insomniac developers. I have a simple question actually. In the past you have released Disruptor. Which was your first game and it was an FPS. Later you came with the almighty dragon game Spyro which was your first Adventure game.
Later on the PS2 you kinda combined those two genres and the formula had Ratchet and Clank as the output of it.
Now for the PS3 you’re developing another part of the succesfull Ratchet and Clank series. So finally my question is: Will there ever be any other game that has another genre than shooting and adventure?
Comment by Medsha — Apr 23, 2007 @ 10:21 pm
What tools and projects would you suggest for a hobbyist game programmer?
Comment by aspiringdev — Apr 24, 2007 @ 1:07 am
Any chance an update to R:FoM will switch to use the unified buddy list rather than your own?
Will R:FoM2 use a more elaborate color pallet?
Any chance of a level editor in R:FoM2?
(Or any user created content)
Comment by Techni — Apr 24, 2007 @ 3:11 am
Talking about development, I would like to go further than aspiringdev…has Insomniac any plans of opening new studios accross Europe? Barcelona is a nice city lo live!! Please, open a new studio here, it’s cheaper than the rest of Europe, and the professional skills here (programming, graphic artists, designers, etc.) are very good, and hire me!
Comment by rom — Apr 24, 2007 @ 9:30 am
hi, i was wondering if you could make a weapon that constructs a black hole for me, it could be like a secondary fire function like in say: HL2’s plasma rifle. it could fire like a grenade shell and detonate upon contact. then you could make like a “suction area” within the blast radius that sucks anything pyshics based in the game into it, including players, chairs, street signs etc.
that would be so fucking cool for real
Comment by whatdafunk — Apr 24, 2007 @ 3:44 pm
remember to put draft on nearby fog and dust for extra FX
Comment by whatdafunk — Apr 24, 2007 @ 3:46 pm
RFoM is really nice. Just clean up textures a little bit and use ragdoll or something else for dead characters, so they don’t look like made of wood…
As per the question, here it is:
could you implement in RFoM 2 a cooperative multiplayer online and most of all for the offline cooperative campaign, could you add a 3rd person view and get rid of the split screen, just use a wider angle camera when they get distant from each other and use the split screen if they take 2 different paths and only until they rejoin the route…
Cheers
Comment by Jan_Solo — Apr 24, 2007 @ 5:02 pm
1) Why did you choose not to include the more traditional mouse&keyboard support for R:FoM? Are you thinking of adding that functionality with a later patch
2)How much world building was done for R:FoM? It looks like you have worked on the background for a long time. Will the series always take place in the 50s? Storyline contains hints of past events. Will we ever see a Resistance game set in middle ages or in a fictional 80s or 70s?
3)Will you keep your engine in-house or license it to other companies for a fee? And why?
Thank you…
Comment by Fasih — Apr 24, 2007 @ 9:25 pm
Before I ask you a question, i’d just like to say that Insoniac is one of my top 3 developers, Spyro the dragon was the game of my childhood, ratchet and clank was the games of my early teens and hopefully resistance will be the games of my late teens.
1) Is there any chance of you buying back the Spyro franchise because the Spyro games made after you sold the franchise were kinda crap(year of the dragon was the best by far!!!)?
2) What has been your favourite ps3 game currently out (not including R:FOM!!)?
3) What is your view on videogame violence and the effects of it?
4) Do the staff at Insomniac games watch Blu-Ray movies?
5) Apart from the Playsations 1-3 (and PSP), what has been your favourite console ever and why?
6) What is your view on so many PS3 games being delayed and being of inferior graphical quality compared to the XBOX 360 version?
7) What is your view on people who sit around in their desks just comparing screenshots and commenting on the lighting being crap and the textures being crap on PS3 games, whilst not actually playing the game?
Comment by Solid Snake — Apr 25, 2007 @ 1:03 am
1) What are your relations with Naughty Dog nowadays? Are you guys sharing tech like you did on the PS2?
2) How much can you crank up the resolutions of the textures with texture streaming, which you apparently now have implemented in your engine? Also how much does the progressive mesh differ from the original PS2 R&C-engine in terms of scale?
3) For the original R&C-engine you guys used (And ND) Game Object Oriented Assembly-language, which was something unique i believe, are you taking a similar approach with the PS3 and the new engine to get the utmost out of it or is it mainly C/C++ ?
Comment by morlock — Apr 25, 2007 @ 2:12 am
Hiya, firstly R:FOM, brilliant! However, there are a couple of NiceToHave’s that would be nice to have. Vehicle use online, which would be just ace. I’d also like to decide what species the play on the ranked games. I just prefer playing as a human, you see. I’d love to see a map maker (obviously, ha ha ha!)
Purely as a nosey bugger, what sort of finacial and manpower details can you share? i.e. what sort of budget was needed to create something like R:FOM? How many people worked on it, and what sort of disciplines? How long did it take from the word Go? I ask, because I feel that people miss the growing complexity and associated risk in developing the modern game.
In terms of online useability of R:FOM, I tip my hat. The speed with which I can jump into a new ranked game is very satisfying. It’s a no messing, right good giggle, and I’m sure others will agree that this ease is what makes the online gaming quite so approachable. So, will this formula be extended to your future products, and what changes can you see being needed?
Comment by LordOfRuin — Apr 25, 2007 @ 2:32 pm
Ah, rubbish, I’ve just read that PS3blog.net interview, and it answers one or two of my questions. Ah well, ask the other ones please!
Comment by LordOfRuin — Apr 25, 2007 @ 2:39 pm
I first what to say Insomniac you guys makes great games and I can’t wait to see how games you make on the PS3 turn out.
I want to know is there any chance that you guys would ever make another Disruptor game. Be it for the PSP or PS3.
Also any chance the PS1 version could come out on the PlaySation Network as a game download that you could play on the PSP.
Comment by Joe — Apr 25, 2007 @ 7:10 pm
you know everybody loves eastereggs…
how about putting a hidden scenario where you play from alien point of view,
something ala Assignment Ada from rez4…
or mr blonds revenge from n64?
we love such things, puts some depth in the storyline you know
Comment by whatdafunk — Apr 25, 2007 @ 10:40 pm
So… any Game 3.0 plans?
Comment by EC — Apr 25, 2007 @ 11:23 pm
Will there be a PSN demo of the new R&C, and if so when will that be available relative to the release of the game?
Comment by milla — Apr 26, 2007 @ 8:24 pm
first, i love REsistance, my favorite game, no lie
but what is the number of your folding team? and will you make (or have a hand in producing) the resistance and/or R&C figures/statuettes that you have talked about in your podcast? Also, what online features will R&CF:ToD have?
thank you
Comment by markus — Jun 1, 2007 @ 1:32 am
I love Ratchet and clank ive got every game so far can u make a movie Ratchet and clank cuz i want toy of Ratchet and clank and clothes little figgers would be so coo im not that cool but i just want toy of Ratchet and Clank to play with all day in australia oh and i want posters and cool Ratchet and Clank stuff im such a BIG FAN there my child hood friend even if im only 11 years old please make a movie please
and im not a super nerd thanxs bye
ps make a movie please
Comment by Monique — Dec 31, 2008 @ 10:47 am
Make a movie about Ratchet and clank NOW PLEASE
Comment by Monique — Jan 1, 2009 @ 2:17 am
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