Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando

GamePro.com Exclusive! Pre-E3 Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando interview with developer Insomniac.

GamePro sits down and chats with the developers behind Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, just in time for it?s major unveiling at the upcoming 2003 E3 show. Be sure to read our previous coverage for additional background info.

GamePro: Will gamers unfamiliar with the original Ratchet and Clank be able to follow the sequel's story?

Oliver Wade, Animation Director, Insomniac Games: Even if you know nothing of Ratchet and Clank and their universe players should not have any trouble following the story. The story for Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando begins where the last story ended. Ratchet and Clank embark on a brand new adventure in a new galaxy. Ratchet has become a commando this time and is a bit more mature and self-assured than he was in the first Ratchet & Clank. Although a player who hasn?t played the first game may miss out on are a few references to characters from the previous game and may not know the story of how these unlikely heroes got their start, none of that affects the story being told in the sequel. The new characters who Ratchet and Clank encounter are just as colorful as the characters from the first game. Furthermore, we?ve continued to employ humor in every element of the story. Hopefully, new players to the series will enjoy the game enough to go back and play the original.

GP: What is the estimated total play time to complete RC:GC and total time for unlocking/collecting everything in the game?

Brian Allgeier, Design Director: In comparison to Ratchet & Clank, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando is significantly longer. This is due to the fact that the levels are 150 to 200 percent larger, plus there are more levels. Furthermore, players can spend a lot of time playing the maxi-games (fun and addictive challenges that can be played over and over again with different missions and goals each time to allow players the chance to earn extra money and prizes). The results of a recent focus test have shown that players spend the same amount of time playing a maxi-game (maxi-games make up just one part of a level) as they do in a typical level in the first game. It?s always difficult to give accurate numbers for gameplay times due to different play styles. In Ratchet & Clank, it took most players an average of 20-22 hours to complete and well over 40 hours for 100 percent with all the secrets. Since Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando is a lot bigger, players can expect longer completion times.

GP: We know RC:GC will be a much tougher game than the first one, so are there concerns it will be too hard for the general audience?

Mark Cerny, Design Consultant, Cerny Games: If you're doing poorly, the game actually compensates by making Ratchet stronger! Let's say you keep struggling in the levels, killing lots of enemies, but then dying before you complete your mission objectives. Each enemy you kill gives you bolts that allow you to purchase more powerful weapons, just like the first game. We've added more, though. The enemies you kill also give you XP (experience points). If Ratchet gets enough of these XP, then his maximum health increases -- the good players see it double in the first few levels of the game, and the poorer players see it MORE than double. The weapons you use also get XP, so if you use the weapon long enough it will transform into a more powerful weapon!

GP: How did you narrow down what type of weapons would appear in RC:GC?

Colin Munson, Designer, Insomniac Games: After coming up with a solid list of weapons, we began narrowing it down by combining those that were too similar from those in the first game, and throwing out the weapons that would create too much additional work. For example, if we wanted a weapon that would make all the enemies in range dance to disco music, then we would need dancing animations for every enemy in the game. So, the weapons that we ended up with were then prototyped, tweaked, modified then tweaked again. Some weapons sounded great on paper, but ended up not working very well in practice. The Gravity Bomb, for example, was a bomb that unleashed a tiny singularity (black hole), sucking all enemies into its inky black depths. This sounded really cool, but what happens to larger enemies that don't die immediately? How is the damage dealt? What does it look like? We had really cool solutions to these problems, but those solutions ended up causing their own problems. After prototyping each weapon, weeding out those that were ineffective, lame, or too hard to use, we were left with some great weapons. We then took that final list of weapons and devised an upgrade path for each one. The end product was an arsenal of weapons vastly more powerful and cooler than the weapons in the first game.

GP: Were there any weapons that you'd love to have seen get in either two games, but for whatever reasons never made it?

Colin Munson: The cool thing about Insomniac Games is that if anyone is really passionate about a feature, weapon, gadget, animation, or... whatever, then it will probably get done. The weapons that we came up with were put through the same process, and not one weapon that really worked was ignored. But, if I had to pick one weapon that didn't make the grade, then the Gravity Bomb (at least the original version) would be the one.

GP: Will there be playable characters other than Ratchet or Clank?

Ted Price, President/CEO Insomniac Games: No. But we?ve got some new challenges for Clank that players should find pretty exciting.

GP: Can you explain the idea behind the Maxi games?

Brian Allgeier: Maxi-games are challenges that can be played and replayed to earn money and upgrade health. They have more depth and replayability than the standard mini-game in that they have multiple, differentiated challenges. For example in one of the gladiator maxi-games, Ratchet can defeat hordes of gladiators within a time limit, fight enemies around flame jets and spinning baldes, battle gladiator bosses, etc. As challenges are completed, more challenges are unlocked giving the player different choices for their next battle. There are more than 10 challenges just within that one gladiator maxi-game. Other examples of maxi-games in Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando include space combat and hoverbike races.

GP: What was the starting point for RC:GC? Did work begin during the original?

Ted Price: We began working on visual concepts for the new worlds in Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando as soon as we hit alpha for Ratchet & Clank. That was back in August of 2002. Even though we still had two months of debugging and polishing left on Ratchet & Clank, we knew that to get Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando done in less than a year, we?d have to get a head start.

GP: When developing a sequel, what area do you concentrate on first? What area gets the most attention overall?

Brian Hastings, VP Programming, Insomniac Games: When we start working on a sequel, we first try to come up with a few "Big Ideas". These are the things we think will really grab people's attention and give the game that Wow-Factor. In the case of Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando the big ideas were RPG elements (like weapon upgrades and health upgrades), spherical planets and space combat. In reality there are literally hundreds of other improvements that set it apart from the original, but these were the ones we really focused on in the early design stages. Fortunately, each of those ideas ended up working and being fun. If we had gotten halfway through development and those ideas had turned out to suck, then we probably would have had to delay the whole project. The two areas that get the most attention are technology and story. Improving technology is absolutely critical if you want to stay competitive. We're spending several man-years on this project alone just improving the tech. The lighting has been vastly improved, the polygon count has been raised, and we're able to do a ton of cool new effects on the environment that were impossible in Ratchet & Clank. As a random example, we now have the ability to take an arbitrarily large section of the world (like a giant spaceship that you can walk into and explore) and move it around the rest of the world with the lighting and physics all updating in real time, whether you are in the ship or not. It's just a small example, but those are the kinds of technological advances that help make a sequel feel fresh. The story is the other area where we spend the most time. Like the original, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando is a fully story-driven game. This means we have to create a plot that gives the characters real reasons to go to each planet and to tackle each challenge. We can't just say "this door will open when you have 150 gramufabits." We have more than an hour of scripts that have to be written, edited, recorded, and fully animated in the span of about eight months. It's one of the most stressful aspects of the project. Fortunately, the story has a lot of humor in it so it's always one of the most fun things to work on.

GP: Is RC planned as a finite series of games on the PS2? Do you think RC will continue on in the next generation of hardware several years from now?

Ted Price: I think that if you look at any successful franchise, it?s never limited by hardware. Over the past ten years there have been tons of characters who?ve straddled multiple generations of hardware. So if we have the good fortune to enjoy continued success with Ratchet, I?d hope that we could bring Ratchet along when we make the move onto whatever comes next.

GP: Is it possible we'll see a RC game next year or do you think there will be at least a year in between 2 and 3?

Ted Price: For this one I had to consult my magic 8 ball. It said, "Ask again later?"

GP: Any worries about RC:GC going up against Jak II this fall?

Ted Price: I think we?re all excited more than worried about it. Jak II is shaping up to be a beautiful game as well, but I think the two are different enough that consumers will have legitimate reasons to buy both. It?ll probably be hard to avoid a "battle of the mascots" in the press, yet ultimately that?s good for both games. What?s even more interesting is that at this point there seem to be a lot fewer games in this genre scheduled for Christmas release than there were last year?

Thanks to the team at Insomniac for their time in answering our questions.

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