User:Technobliterator/Workplace/Notes

General notes for things that may apply to multiple pages.

R&C Ted Price playthrough

 * To watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxUfaZuGQKs
 * Devs Play S2E02 · "Ratchet & Clank" with Ted Price and Tim Schafer, DoubleFineProd
 * Insomniac avoided calling R&C a platformer, wanted to avoid being considered a collectathon after making three with Spyro, wanted to take genre in new direction. First few minutes in, can quote directly.
 * Had a huge debate on Ratchet's color: should be blue, purple, and then started off brown, but Sony Japan asked for it to be yellow; Ted Price said "over my dead body" on stripes on his ears and yellow. Dave Guertin designed new design, Ted Price hated it.
 * Started off lizard, became long-eared and cat-like.
 * Burbank has images of old Ratchet.
 * R&C always planned to be released holiday season.
 * Originally bolts for months were not magnetically picked up, thought it would extend length of the game but considered it not fun. Increased magnetic radius, added gadget to increase further.
 * Japan had problem with five fingers, culturally looked weird. Conventional wisdom, not told by Sony.
 * Aimed to make Ratchet anthropomorphic.
 * Draconian with check points.
 * Realization after releasing R&C that strafing should've been in.
 * Proud quick select to help switch weapons.
 * When David Kaye auditioned for Clank, it was immediately right as a robotic voice with no processing.
 * Drek is one of Ted Price's favorite characters. Inspired by movie executives that were close to IG's offices.
 * IG had no idea Naughty Dog were making Jak and Daxter while Ratchet was making Ratchet & Clank. Both developers had similar influences.
 * Exchanged technology in Ratchet's pre-production, after Jason Rubin contacted Ted Price. IG initially started with the Spyro engine, was insufficient.
 * Jim Ward as Qwark in the Metropolis scene advertising Big Al set R&C's humor with the right level of snarkiness vs dry humor.
 * Ted Price animated the vendor, few developers did UI.
 * Metropolis made to show off what R&C could do.
 * Half of Metropolis' front buildings were built at first. Mark Cerny suggested adding plants to buildings.
 * Combo of enemies was learned from Spyro.
 * OmniWrench scaled in size due to comet strike lacking impact.
 * Originally did not keep bolts on death.

R&C UYA developer podcast by uselesspodcasts

 * To watch playlist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8iLxVzeuxI&index=2&list=PL7D649DF9B66678B7

First episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF2Qzi3GTq4
 * Orange HUD was blue for half the development
 * The models used in the chess game were all originally from R&C1
 * Devs were extremely proud of the Secret Agent Clank Maktar Casino cutscene
 * Galactic Rangers originally had a completely monotone voice, changed to an emotional voice after a petition against it
 * Laser beams not subtle at all, disagreements as the animator did not agree with subtlety
 * All Tyhrranoids in all levels were designed by one person, requiring them to pathfind in every situation rather than code over from scratch in each level
 * HALO jump was originally a developer joke as one developer used the debug to cheat himself high up in the air and fall then turned it into a minigame, wanted to get “Ride of the Valkyries” but couldn’t license the music for it
 * Battlefields were a big new feature for UYA as a continuation or replacement of arenas, in spite of arenas still featuring, was a large part of how Deadlocked came about
 * First game using shadow volume effect, seen with Tyhhrranoid disintergration deaths
 * Developers favoured lock strafe mode, included an encounter with a wall in front of a Tyhhranoid fighter to encourage it
 * Galactic President inspired by Bill Clinton, similar voice, is a “Cazare”
 * Flagged crude joke during Nature’s Mysteries

Second episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8iLxVzeuxI
 * New crate ideas were already thought of by IG but they had previously figured there was little more they could do with crates, eventually the jackpot and inferno crates were created'
 * Level editing tool created internally by Insomniac while the level was being done, first level to use this editor tool was Florana (prior to that every tool was built into Maya, tried to build tools in-house as opposed to Maya dependence, pays off to own your tools), though being a work-in-progress tool led to issues as some features were incomplete, hired tools testers because of it, tools included character preview

Third episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-vMQxztxng
 * VG 9000 was originally the GC game pyramid, swapped out late
 * 6 copies of Starship Phoenix level that do different things
 * Developers really proud of Nefarious
 * Different ranks of Tyhrranoids had different eyes, aimed for more consistency with enemy design compared to previous games rather than completely different enemies, saved animation time that way
 * Cut the last 6 eye Tyhrranoid
 * Sony did not allow anyone to ship games if you could break outside of geometry
 * Battlefield/normal level were often managed by totally different people
 * Originally wanted a set of new attacks with the inferno, too difficult for animators
 * Tools of Destruction animators were extremely happy to make a dance animation for every enemy, after they were bored from working on samey Resistance animations
 * Plasma Whip was inspired by both Chainblade and the chain sword Ivy had from Soul Calibur - developers played around with Chainblade’s swords internally to match the swords Ivy had from Soul Calibur, eventually came up with Plasma Whip - a weapon that reacted well to his animations while not being animation driven. Eventually put the weapon on Ratchet instead of an enemy. This was tested in the Insomniac Museum, where Chainblade can still be found when players visit it.
 * A few devs worked on “I8”, the next-gen game, working on a physics system for Resistance.

Fourth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpHdUUZ2ULE
 * Only 6 enemies on screen allowed at a time
 * Enemies cannot be scripted, meaning battlefields took weeks'
 * Multiplayer a significant factor in the inclusion of lock strafe
 * Refractor was the result of running out of gadgets that were easy to do, and was inspired by Zelda’s light refraction
 * Playtesters could not understand the spider challenge with the refractor on Marcadia
 * Originally a second spider challenge on Marcadia but was cut and replaced with a titanium bolt
 * Shadow volume effect is also used for new teleporters

Fifth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s62d67VM6l4
 * Qwark Vid-Comics were based on Mega Man X but with Qwark, wanted old school throwback to games like Mega Man and Metroid, in 3D
 * Effects were allowed to be much more impressive due to how much less of the CPU was used
 * Reaction among focus testers not too positive to the Qwark Vid-Comics, hence many levels became easier, 2D gameplay even less popular at the time

Sixth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTb9u_w_4Ls
 * Annihilation Nation deathcourse challenges were tested with grey blocks before artists designed them
 * Designers tried to obsolete weapons to encourage new weapons, and drip-feeding upgrades made it more enjoyable
 * The realistic whip that the Resistance devs worked on was used by Helen from the Terrible Two

Ninth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DDVR5E9_Yo
 * Wanted Clank gameplay to have Secret Agent Clank elements, felt Gadgebots were not very interactive and wanted more, therefore involved Skrunch'
 * Tyhrra-guise was close to the original design, originally wanted a rhythm game, inspired by Space Channel 5
 * Aquatos separated in separate game levels, where the submarine transition just pasted over the ship transition
 * Attempted to repeat GC's collectible missions but with fewer resources and the same enemy repeated

Tenth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKB2jOV7pB0
 * Tools of Destruction written from a totally new base code - good side was no hacks plagued it anymore, downside was adjusting for framerates and being time based
 * Enemies/creatures on wheels is simply to avoid foot sliding bugs and path finding issues
 * Arenas in R&C2 were a massive success
 * Placed a pill around the arena, anything that left it died
 * When enemies die, they do not actually die - they just reset

Eleventh episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgIMDg75vtw
 * Maya used as the gameplay editor.
 * Set tyhrranoid colors in different “pVars”, or variables, rather than just assigning color by level.
 * Lots of stuff about enemy programming here.

Twelfth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51tuF5puXGI
 * Buggy was originally used for racing (seen also in Insomniac Museum), no gameplay was finished even though a Florana race track was done, no gameplay finished, was cut. *Ended up being reused for tyhrranosis and non-linear gameplay, difficult to get right.
 * Space combat was originally in the game before it was cut due to differences, after an honest effort was given.
 * Battlefields were always a focus, and led the way to multiplayer after Sony requested it, which factored into features like racing and space combat cut.
 * Battlefields became the focus of Deadlocked.
 * Dedicated multiplayer team.
 * Mother Tyhrranoid took a while due to the transition, several different ideas, Zelda-esque boss.
 * Had an idea for Darla Gratch in R&C1 to be the Amoeboid holding the mic, but could never do it.
 * Negative reaction to the rocket cannons internally due to being difficult to avoid.
 * Difference between making things hard and making them fun.
 * “Snowbeast award” refers to sections frustratingly difficult.

Thirteenth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuKoPASvqds
 * Starship Phoenix was the first attempt by IG to create a hub design more like GTA.
 * Dynamo effect used in hologram.
 * Daxx was named after Daxter from Jak and Daxter as an easter egg.
 * Many designs for the VR training level rejected.
 * Hacker was based on Tempest, instead of a cursor moving around the shape, move shape around the cursor, every hacker level difficulty reduced and the difficulty gets slightly reduced with each fail.
 * Hacker easter egg: if you crouch when entering a Hacker level, the full difficulty will be available regardless.
 * Electrolyzer puzzles took hours and were bug prone, but Hacker puzzles were designed to be easy to author and would be generated easily, hence they appear in the IG museum, used interface similar to Infiltrator.

Fourteenth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNF4yCtBF74
 * Courtney Gears cutscene was one of the staff’s favorites.
 * Originally planned for crate-throwing apes that were cut in favor of Florana bugs, seen in IG museum.
 * Giant robot torso was built out of the crate-throwing monkeys.
 * Lack of “IK” meant enemies were cut.
 * Including breakable crates made levels more fun.
 * Major and minor segments - repeated level has fewer crates, bolts and enemies. *Eventually dropped due to work.
 * Three versions of Dax segment, the one used was a “parody of Ratchet gameplay”.
 * Biobliterator was indeed inspired by Death Star.

Fiftheenth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1aHFV9EvjE
 * Water was changed for the game. Displacement used in water effects.
 * Name of the song is “Robots of the Galaxy”.

Twenty-first episode

 * Just about health crates and RPG elements, doesn’t seem specific enough.

Twenty-second episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWLrjqF4eX0
 * Getting players to know where to go next was challenging - having the missions highlighted on the map helped this issue.
 * Recoding enemies to work with spherical levels was difficult, orientation and position had to be calculated based on where they were on the planet, work on gravity boots helped with spherical worlds.

Twenty-third episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80pQ92QpnJo
 * SAC Clank levels were able to get away with more obscure mechanics and fight sections.
 * Original Terror of Tanos design was a giant Godzilla puppet with six arms and a robot controlling him from the head, but artists felt it was too difficult.

Twenty-fifth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O6Sf59jBHs
 * Courtney Gears level was the only one where pink effects were permissable.
 * Japanese version had changes in that outside background did not rotate.
 * Reused R&C1 magneboots section.
 * Originally the boss battle was a rhythm based musical boss battle, but there was no time to do another song or a rhythm game. IG were still happy with the results.

Twenty-sixth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpOG3JgeQlg
 * With Ninjas, wanted enemies to be more agile and have more interesting melee combat, originally had even more moves. Cut not because it could not be done, but because it was too different to Ratchet combat due to emphasis on wrench.
 * Rift Inducer was created during pre-production.
 * Plasma Sword/laser sword was created as an afterthought unlock, taken from ninjas.
 * Vid-Comic 3 had a boss originally in caged area. Was one of the first levels designed, first ever level was the pirate level seen in the Museum.
 * New style of space combat, more similar to Star Fox, was designed for UYA, more like the space combat in ToD, would have taken too many resources and game was big enough as it was, and resources dedicated to things like hoverbike racing and space combat were dedicated instead to multiplayer.

Twenty-seventh episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5yjOBGhDBM
 * Developers hacked together several effects that were broken, Idle Minds when remaking the effects would have had a difficult time fixing it.
 * Had to ensure data was written on the right section of the disc to load faster.
 * Targeted a 5 second load time.
 * Game developed specifically around being a DVD and not a blu ray.
 * Idle Minds created new, proper shadows with no shadow volume effects, same with explosions.
 * Transparency, as seen in Going Commando water and Nefarious’ head, was changed. Fog in levels was reduced heavily to allow the player to see further.
 * Could not store all the versions of the Tyhrranoids due to robot Tyhrranoids. Instead, Tyhrranoids were retextured from that point on.
 * Organic enemies more expensive than robots.

Twenty-eighth episode
Pterodactyl is low res texture.
 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUmd21XR-2s
 * Galactic President changing to half-robot was a Bill Clinton joke about triangulation and trying to appease everyone.
 * Vid Comics able to have much higher res textures due to fewer things on screen.

Twenty-ninth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9fTGprPN5Y
 * Had to have a snow level per quota.
 * Lawn Ninjas were a joke in R&C2, liked so much by the developers that they were included in Qwark’s level.
 * Qwark robots crawling were inspired by Terminator.
 * Warp pad was originally a disc that could be thrown out to teleport anywhere, broke levels and was restricted. May have been possible had it been designed from the beginning.
 * CodeBot in R&C1 was planned to do more, instead only opened one door due to time constraints.
 * In the original level, the platform at the start was a Warp Pad segment.
 * VisiBomb in R&C1 was difficult, every level had to account for it.
 * Originally a cutscene before the Clank segment on the Qwark planet, but it was cut due to animation, so a programmed cutscene was used instead to show the player where the crack to enter Clank was.
 * Each level has a certain set of secrets required as of UYA, as opposed to previous games when secrets were not planned and introduced last minute, many secrets came from testers accessing areas that should not be accessed.

Thirtieth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEbk8fEoiv8
 * Music changes with different segments in levels was stopped due to jarring transitions.
 * Soundtrack not released as per Sony’s decision with licensing.
 * Qwark level music was liked enough to be in the IG museum and the cut Qwark level but not to include in the game.

Thirty-third episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GzKbvugV1g
 * Replayability done after beta, bolt multiplier in Going Commando idea came from - RYNO was always expected in R&C1 to be bought on the second playthrough, but nothing was done to help earn it, people looked for locations to cheat to earn bolts, so developers gave incentive instead to grind bolts with the multiplier. IG always intended for there to be more after the game.
 * Originally there was a focus on length of gameplay, now it’s more focused on fun.
 * Spyro/Ratchet skill points inspired achievements?

Thirty-fifth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeAFCYPyhkg
 * Final level had to include all gadgets.
 * Tyhrraguise level originally had turrets right after gravity boots section, led to many deaths in testing as users did not understand.

Thirty-sixth episode

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Fss5LOvY8
 * All effects for Nefarious were decided to be red and black randomly after a conversation with a non-employee due to no ideas, scheme kept for ACiT.
 * Drek in R&C1 considered too hard, Protopet in R&C2 too easy, had to find middle ground. All Nefarious’ attacks are in a pattern and telegraphed so they can be learnt, allowing it to still be fun.
 * Biobliterator was decided to be a simple fight, but many in the team favored it being a bigger fight and being the "real" final boss fight.
 * Many at Insomniac considered bringing Drek back, but staff often said "no, Drek is dead".
 * Snowbeast cameoed in SAC, and helicopter model reused for it.

Special Feature w/ Ted Price

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85U3N8vfpAc
 * R&C UYA was Insomniac's fastest selling game ever made, helped by marketing.
 * R&C used as an opportunity to expand the platformer genre, avoided cliche and enjoyed flexibility, UYA took it further with multiplayer.
 * Believe its success is due to being so different and Sony's marketing supporting.
 * Core gameplay and humor popular among IG devs.

Interview 1

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZKXooqPue0
 * UI changed significantly.
 * Swingshot was originally just the base swingshot and not the combined hypershot, Dynamo still appears to be in separately, on Daxx.
 * Marcadia Refractor area changed greatly.
 * Devs most excited for multiplayer.
 * Old Rangers look grey-ish?
 * Old Infector seems more similar to the Lava Gun.

Interview 2

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OlepUIvwnQ
 * Originally R&C at the start were not in their Megacorp appartment on Endako?

GameSpot Interview 1

 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_9_I6-oOso
 * Began with story idea of Ratchet being kidnapped and forcced to compete in a combat sport.
 * Aimed for more consistent and coherent design throughout.
 * Combat bots originally had legs?

IGN interview

 * http://me.ign.com/en/ratchet-deadlocked-ps2/46392/video/video-interview - this video is not working?

R&C OG development notes

 * First level ever shown to Sony was Metropolis. All buildings were cardboard cutouts with no backs, Ratchet had a Pyrociter and Suck Cannon.
 * First level ever shown to Sony was Metropolis. All buildings were cardboard cutouts with no backs, Ratchet had a Pyrociter and Suck Cannon.

R&C ToD development notes

 * Tools of Destruction written from a totally new base code - good side was no hacks plagued it anymore, downside was adjusting for framerates and being time based, per R&C UYA deve podcast episode 10

Ideas that had been floated long before ToD
Following ideas that were implemented in ToD had been floated long before it:
 * The Groovitron.
 * The Star Fox-esque space combat.

The Art of Ratchet & Clank

 * First pages from 3-4 talk about Girl With a Stick, how it was a very grounded fantasy game more grounded than Spyro, but was scrapped. Explains how team had more possibilities with Ratchet due to him having hands.
 * Pages 7-8 talk about another IG idea aside from Girl With a Stick, a knight named "Madi" who could catch and grow creatures which would transform and grow as the game progressed; inspired Ratchet's weapons.
 * Page 12, Brian Hastings: "Wouldn't it be great to play a fuzzy space alien and his robot friend, and travel the galaxy from planet to planet collecting weapons and gadgets?"
 * Page 12, Groovitron was an idea that they'd had RIGHT FROM THE START but was impossible!!
 * Page 15-16, Clank's head was inspired by Ratchet's first reptillian design.
 * Page 17, explored the idea of a young playmate for Clank to show his youthful side.
 * Page 19, inspired by Metroid and Mega Man.
 * Page 21, Clank served as the weapon supplier transforming into the Suck Cannon, Suck Cannon was originally the "Boom Ball Gun".
 * Page 21: Devastator is named PX6 Devastator.
 * Page 22, Clank became focused on traversal gadgets later just for clarity.
 * Page 24, Lancer was going to be in Up Your Arsenal.
 * Page 24, created the concept of a flamethrower weapon in Going Commando, it was removed likely due to Lava Gun.
 * Page 28, Ratchet's tonal shift in Deadlocked was a problem for devs.
 * Page 29, weapon designs for Tools of Destruction became more elaborate to take advantage of PS3 polygon count. Darren Quach provided designs introducing detail clusters and a material contrast to fun designs of past games.
 * Page 33, mayhem and visual spectacle important for weapons.
 * Page 36, tons of different designs for the eventual A Crack in Time RYNO V shape.
 * Page 39, concept for weapon called the Zombitron in Into the Nexus.
 * Page 44, inspired by '50s and '60s sci fi settings.
 * Page 48, PS2's density had a huge impact in the decision.