Insomniac's Dezern and McCabe talk new North Carolina digs

Insomniac's push eastward was one of last week's most intriguing items of interest, despite a lack of details concerning what exactly the Ratchet & Clank developer has in store for its new Raleigh, NC studio. However, while we don't know exactly what the Burbank, California-based developer has up its sleeves, we figured if anyone had the scoop it would be current Insomniac art director Chad Dezern and gameplay guru Shaun McCabe, both of whom will be given reigns over the company's eastern arm once it opens in January.

We recently spoke with both execs about the new studio, and we couldn't help but kick off the interview by asking the one nagging question on our mind: Why North Carolina?

"We wanted to expand Insomniac's capabilities while retaining the small team culture in Burbank. Opening up an office in The Triangle lets us do that while also offering an alternative for talented people who want to stay on the East Coast," Dezern answered. "Plus, Shaun and I are from the South and we missed the distant strumming of the banjo."

While Dezern will serve as the new establishment's studio director, current gameplay lead and five-year vet McCabe will take up a new role as the studio's production director.

Dezern also confessed to us that the expansion itself was "just a matter of timing" following Insomniac's recent releases, which include such games as PS3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man and last year's Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. Commented the exec, "Insomniac has shipped a string of successful titles and we feel that we've refined our approach to production to the point where we're ready to do this."

Once it's spun up, the new location will feature conservative staff size of just 25 to 30 developers. However, despite this, Dezern notes that "we'll be working on AAA projects with high production values...I just can't share exactly what that means yet." However, the exec did tell us that the group "will be content focused," and will use "tools and technology developed in Burbank."

Nonetheless, it's always interesting when an independent studio like Insomniac first expands to see how much of its company culture and how many familiar faces make the move, versus the studio making its own footprint in unfamiliar soil. To this Dezern responded, "We're hiring new people for the most part, and we're looking for the most obsessively detail-oriented designers, programmers, artists, and animators we can possibly find." Insomniac plans to begin posting ads for positions at the new office as early as this week.

Given the presence of Epic and other established developers in the area, we have to assume that the talent pool in North Carolina won't be especially shallow. But does Insomniac intend to poach employees from neighboring devs in order to fill its east coast ranks? To this production director Shaun McCabe piped up with a resounding 'No.'

"Insomniac has a policy of not actively recruiting employees from other companies, especially small independent developers," he told us. "While there are clearly a lot of great folks at Epic and the other area studios, we like to keep things open and honest when it comes to recruiting and we'll carry that mindset to our North Carolina studio."

Not to say there won't at least be a friendly rivalry in the air, however, once Insomniac's east coast studio is finally up and running. McCabe adds: "When it comes to the Insomniac softball team, Epic should be very, very afraid."