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Insomniac prototyping new 'Fuse experiences'
It would seem Insomniac Games is "just getting started" with Fuse, CEO Ted Price claims in a missive on the company blog. Price says that the team is already working on the next experience in the Fuse world - and he's not talking about DLC. "We've already begun expanding what we've begun with Fuse. Right now as I write this we're taking the core concepts behind Fuse and prototyping new stuff ... stuff that leverages this bizarre alien substance which is at the heart of the game. No, I'm not talking about DLC. I'm talking about new Fuse experiences altogether," Price said. "What's wonderful about creating and owning one's IP is that you can take it any direction you want. And that's what we're going to do. Stay tuned!" Fuse launched earlier this week on Xbox 360 and PS3. It's a co-op arcade shooter published under the EA Partners program. Our time with the game may not have been the most enjoyable, but there's certainly room for improvement there.
Insurmountable odds in Fuse's wave-based 'Echelon Mode'
Echelon mode in Fuse is what Insomniac CEO Ted Price calls "co-opetitive," a variant on the Gears of War 'Horde' mode. Players must survive twelve waves of increasingly more difficult enemies – the exact configuration of each wave is randomized, though you're always guaranteed two boss battle waves.Price calls Echelon "co-opetitive" because while you're ultimately working together to ensure group survival, the constant money drops – essentially experience points – are something teammates will scramble to grab. With collected cash, players can purchase and upgrade abilities, and progress in Fuse carries across all game modes."Part of our goal here is to make this a friendly game – if you've had experiences in multiplayer games before where you jumped in and had your head blown off in the first couple seconds, we don't want that to happen in Fuse," Insomniac CEO Ted Price told Joystiq. "We want Fuse to be a game where you're actually working with players and competing for cash and status. But it's always a friendly competition."
Insomniac boss Ted Price explains Fuse's box art
As soon as it was revealed, commenters on popular gaming websites and communities around the internet called the Fuse box art out, citing its odd aesthetic of cutting off the four main characters' faces and intense use of the color orange."I'm very clear on what the reaction has been from some of our critics to the cover, but we wanted to pull attention to the Fuse weapons: the Xenotech. That's why they're featured prominently," Insomniac CEO Ted Price told Joystiq during a Fuse preview event showcasing the multiplayer mode Echelon."Fuse is – the game revolves around 'Fuse,' storywise and gameplaywise. I think that we wanted to do something that was different. Cutting off characters' heads is not something you see in other game covers. The standard approach is to have the full character, front and center, right in the middle of the box – and we took some creative risks with that. I think some people have spoken out about the fact that we took a creative risk. Some people liked it, some people didn't."The cover itself was created in collaboration with Petrol Advertising, an LA-based outfit whose clients include Activision, Capcom, Konami, Nintendo and numerous other gaming entities. "We worked with them and came up with a whole bunch of different approaches," Price admits. Eventually both parties decided on the image above."Our goal was to very clearly indicate that this is a four-player game, a four-character game. We also didn't want to do something that looked like Charlie's Angels," Price joked. "I think the temptation with four characters sometimes is to have a very high-action shot where they're posing. And we would've been raked over the coals for that."
Even after Overstrike, Insomniac's Fuse continues to change
Even if you happen to be the biggest fan of Insomniac's Fuse, formerly called Overstrike and coming to consoles next year, you may have missed one little detail in the brand new video released by Insomniac and EA yesterday. Izzy Sinclair, the hacking and healing main character, has a brand new look to her clothing, something that's a little more casual than the tactical gear she was wearing on the previous preview footage.That's a change that came directly from player feedback, Insomniac's Ted Price told Joystiq yesterday, and he says there may be more coming. "We're continuing to tweak the game's look and colors," he suggested. Insomniac's fans have been very vocal about the change from the game's original concept back when it was called Overstrike, and Price admits that "there are always going to be questions about our tone shift and that's just something we accept."But Price also says that despite the back and forth about the game's tone, the development team is also getting clear input about the gameplay itself. "The most gratifying feedback we have gotten recently, he says, "has been from our playtests, where we see both the press here and overseas and then occasionally consumers play the game. We've been really positively surprised with how quickly people pick it up, how readily they begin working as a team and just how happy with how much fun they're having."%Gallery-168274%
Breaking free with your own IP: Insomniac's CEO on what's next (besides Ratchet & Clank)
There's a big craze these days with independent developers, though the idea isn't all that crazy. Developers, as it turns out, like to own the stuff they create – Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games is no different. And here's something you might not know about Insomniac: the studio owns virtually none of the iconic characters or worlds it's created. Not Ratchet, not Clank, not the world of Spyro the Dragon. That last one cuts especially deep considering the vast riches Activision's reaped from its Spyro-based Skylanders game. The former two are Sony-owned.With Fuse (which we think used to be Overstrike) and Outernauts, Insomniac is pushing in a new direction. "For us, we're at the point in our growth as a company where we can own our intellectual property," Insomniac president and CEO Ted Price told us in an interview last week. "That's been gratifying for us because, as creators, controlling your own destiny – controlling the IP that you build – is important." Beyond its financial importance, owning IP also means unfortunate spin-offs of properties you created can't be farmed out to other studios (see: Resistance: Burning Skies).It's important to note what Price says about his studio not being able to own its previous projects. When Insomniac started in 1994, it produced only franchises owned by its publishers. Quite literally everything the company created up until Outernauts and Overstrike/Fuse was owned by outside forces. That's why you will assuredly see more Resistance games, despite Insomniac outright stating it won't work on any more (at least any time soon) – Sony owns the IP rights to the Resistance franchise and can do with them as it pleases.
Insomniac's 'Fuse' likely to be a reworked 'Overstrike'
With Insomniac president and CEO Ted Price obliquely teasing an unknown project called "Fuse" during his PAX Prime 2012 keynote last week, it wasn't too difficult to put together the teaser image he produced and the teaser video released last year (above) for EA Partners project Overstrike. Price wouldn't admit as much to us during a followup interview last week, but he didn't really need to."I'm gonna point you to Fusegame.com," Price answered when asked about Overstrike's long absence from the public eye. Is it still a current-gen game (it was originally announced for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3)? He wouldn't say. When directly asked whether Overstrike and Fuse are the same game: "I'm being cagey here because I want to be consistent with how we're answering these questions," he said, deferring to his PR manager.The PR man offered a bit more than Price would. "We're very deliberate in what we're showing right now, and that's why we're just pointing people to the website and saying, 'Hey, this is a process. We're going to share more information with you, stay tuned.'" That said, why in the world would the two guys be pointing us to a website for Fuse when we're asking about Overstrike? The answer seems pretty clear to us.Price additionally refused to answer whether Fuse is an EA Partners project – Overstrike is an EA Partners-published four player co-op game.Unsurprisingly, Game Informer is also positing that Overstrike is now named Fuse, calling it a "reworking" of the originally announced concept (what that means is up to your own interpretation). We'll presumably find out for sure when the Fuse website's countdown clock runs out in another seven days.And wouldn't you know it, there's an upcoming Insomniac press event offering hands-on time with an unannounced game. Sounds like we'll find out what the mystery is all about soon enough.
'Fuse' teased by Insomniac CEO
Details are seriously lacking, but Insomniac Games founder Ted Price announced something called Fuse at PAX Prime today.All the info we have right now on the game includes the screenshot above and an 11-day countdown clock.The man in the Fuse image is wearing a similar suit to that of a character from Insomniac's previously announced game Overstrike. We haven't heard anything about that game in over a year. So, this could just be a name change. We should have more details later Pacific time.
Insomniac and EA's Outernauts begin Facebook exploration today
Outernauts, the adventure RPG from developer Insomniac (Ratchet and Clank, Resistance series) and publisher EA, launched today on the solar system's most used social networking site. The game sounds like Facebook Pokémon, as players "capture and train exotic alien beasts for battle.""By bringing the breadth and elements of console gaming to a social game, we hope to give our fans – both old and new – a unique gaming experience on Facebook," said Insomniac founder Ted Price.Go ahead and try out the game now while your teacher or boss is distracted.
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault is Insomniac's next PSN game, arriving this fall
Ratchet & Clank are heading once more into the space breach, this time waging a "Full Frontal Assault" against space crabs with gatling guns, it seems. Insomniac head (and general nice dude) Ted Price took to the US PlayStation Blog this afternoon to announce "Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault" for PlayStation Network, alongside plans to launch the game "this holiday season."Aside from the artwork you see above and the logo we've dropped in the gallery below, Price offered few details on the game. He said it'll be a "fun-sized" R&C title (like Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty before it), and that the game will return to "the series' classic feel, camera, controls, and weapons, while innovating and giving you a whole new way to play." What that means is another question altogether. Price also said that the game will feature online co-op, but kept details similarly slim.%Gallery-156436%
Price: Insomniac is done with Resistance, Sony isn't
Insomniac CEO Ted Price went to the YouTubes for a "face to face" with Resistance fans about his declaration that the developer is done with the franchise. There was apparently some confusion with fans that believed the series, owned by Sony, would end after Insomniac moved on."We believe that Resistance has reached its logical conclusion, in terms of the story we wanted to tell," Price said. "However, that doesn't mean the Resistance franchise isn't continuing. It's already in the capable hands of Nihilistic. And with Sony's shepherding we know it will continue to live on and expand."Nihilistic is currently working on Resistance: Burning Skies for Vita, available sometime this summer. Insomniac is moving on to multiplatform co-op shooter Overstrike.
What's in a Name: Insomniac Games
We were unable to sleep while wondering about the origin story of Insomniac Games' name, but now we've got the answer from CEO and President Ted Price. Time to make that warm glass of milk and go to bed: It was the spring of 1996 and we were getting ready to announce our first game (Disruptor) at E3. At the time, we were doing business as Xtreme Software. But, right before we began working on the press release for the game, we found out that an Arizona database company was also called Xtreme. I don't know how they found us, but I remember getting a letter from a lawyer explaining that we couldn't use their name. Suddenly we had a few days to find a new moniker. We put up a white board and started writing down every name we could think of. We had about 100 that seemed viable. Some of the more popular ones were Ragnarok, Black Sun, Monument, Planet X and Firestorm. My personal favorite was one that [Chief Creative Officer] Brian Hastings had suggested - Ice-9. We liked it so much that we got permission from Kurt Vonnegut to use it. Ironically, it turned out that someone who HADN'T gotten permission from Kurt was already using it. And similarly all of our other favorites were in use. With about 24 hours to go Insomniac Games popped up. It made sense given we weren't sleeping much anyway. And incredibly, no one else was using it. Since then our logo has changed a couple of times. But fortunately the name has stuck. Insomniac Games' next two titles, Resistance 3 and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, are scheduled for later this year on PlayStation 3. Like this feature? Be sure to check out the What's In A Name Archives.
Insomniac details canceled 'Girl With a Stick' project
There are still many questions surrounding Insomniac's mysterious new multiplatform game with EA Partners. Perhaps that's why Insomniac Games released a new episode of the Full Moon Show podcast all about its canceled game, code-named I:5, or Girl With a Stick. (Embedded after the break.) Comparisons can be drawn between the company then and now. Company head Ted Price explained that after "several years of just making sequels" the opportunity to work on something new was quite exciting. "I think we were all looking for something different, because we've been working on Spyro for years, and we were thinking 'we got to branch out,'" he explained in the show. Making "a brand new IP on a new platform was a big challenge, especially since we made the decision to try and avoid platformers." Insomniac clearly had some ambitious ideas for Girl With a Stick, described most succinctly as "Tomb Raider meets Zelda." Even now, the concept sounds very different from any game Insomniac has released. "I think we had a very conscious line we drew where they couldn't have technology," John Fiorito explained. "Very different from Ratchet and away from Spyro, which had castles and other fantastic things. This was much more primitive." But why didn't it end up seeing the light of day? "It wasn't fun." [Thanks, djpenny]
Interview: Insomniac Games' Ted Price on going multiplatform, EA Partners
After announcing a new Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 project with EA Partners, Insomniac Games faces a bombardment of questions from fans and press. We fired off some of our own earlier today in an interview with Insomniac CEO Ted Price and EA Partners' Global Marketing VP, Craig Rechenmacher, and while the prolific developer remains tight-lipped when it comes to discussing the details of the new project, we learned more about the partnership's motivation and scope. Joystiq: This announcement, is this for a single game? Or is this for the entire franchise? Ted Price: This is for a single game. Why not a franchise? Why start with a single game deal? Ted: At Insomniac we actually tend to do game to game deals. We do one deal at a time and our goal is, though, to have a longterm relationship with anybody we work with. As you know we worked with Sony for 14 years and it has been great, and we're looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with EAP as well. Craig Rechenmacher (EAP): Yeah, from our standpoint, we're announcing a one-game deal, but our job is to make this first product a massive success. And if we do that, this is gonna be a long-term relationship. With this announcement, is Insomniac creating more games or spending more individual time on each game it ships? Ted: Well, it's easy for me to answer the last question -- we are definitely spending more time on games these days than we used to. As you may remember, back in the PlayStation One and PlayStation 2 days, we had one team and we were releasing a game a year. And that was a pretty brutal pace for us. However, as the year stretched on, we began to increase the size of the teams and lengthen our production time to add more polish to the game and have more time to tune them. And now we're continuing to do that, making sure the games we release are the absolute best they can be. Having multiple teams also gives us the luxury of sort of leapfrogging -- having staggered releases -- so that we can have a consistent stream of releases over the years. However, as we've moved into the PlayStation 3, we have lengthened our development times.
Insomniac Games joins EA Partners for new PS3 and Xbox 360 project
Insomniac Games' Ted Price has announced a new direction for the company: a multi-platform one. Best known for their PlayStation exclusives (Resistance, Ratchet and Clank), the company has announced a "brand new universe and franchise ... to experience in the coming years." With the goal of providing an "awesome experience for as many players as possible," the game will appear on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, courtesy of Insomniac's new partnership with EA Partners. While PlayStation fans may be stunned by the team's decision to work with a new publisher, Price reassured fans in a blog post that Insomniac's "relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment is still very strong" with "additional projects" planned "exclusively for PlayStation 3." It appears Insomniac's relationship can be considered analogous to that of Bungie's with Microsoft -- Bungie recently signed with Activision to develop multi-platform titles, while still working on the Xbox-exclusive Halo: Reach. Working on Xbox 360 games isn't the only planned change for Insomniac games. While famous for its ability to produce games on an annual cycle, Price says that Insomniac will give focus on spending "more development time to iterate and polish our games." According to Price, "all future Insomniac titles will benefit from longer development cycles, which will directly benefit you, our fans."
Insomniac CEO creates Ratchet & Clank girlfriends in ModNation Racers
Sorry to disappoint you, Ratchet & Clank yaoi fans (warning: link NSFW). But what if Insomniac's famed duo had girlfriends? Insomniac CEO Ted Price brings that concept to life through the character creator featured in ModNation Racers. To showcase the creator's versatility, Price created female companions for Ratchet and Clank (like the bikini-clad lombax pictured above). "I think over the next few years, we'll see more and more examples of really great player tools appearing in games," Price says in the video demonstration (embedded after the break). "I certainly hope that happens. I know that we're inspired by what [United Front Games has] done."
Marble Madness creator Mark Cerny to be inducted into AIAS Hall of Fame
It may have been a quarter century since Mark Cerny's groundbreaking arcade game Marble Madness was first developed, but this year the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences will give the influential developer an induction into its Hall of Fame. On February 18 in Las Vegas, Cerny will become the 13th member of the AIAS' small club -- a club that includes development bigwigs like Will Wright and Shigeru Miyamoto, among others. For those of you who don't know, Cerny's been hard at work behind the scenes of some of our favorite games throughout the years. The developer's had a hand in everything from Sonic 2 through God of War 3, with his influential "Cerny Method" of tenacious development being passed down to modern day big boys like Insomniac's Ted Price and Naughty Dog's Evan Wells. "Mark has left an indelible mark on all of the games he's been a part of, the developers that he's collaborated with, and most importantly the individuals that he's worked along-side of," Wells said in the press release (warning: PDF link). For Cerny's part, he said he's "thrilled to accept this award" and humbly offloaded some respect to past colleagues that he's "had the pleasure to work with over the years." We're looking forward to witnessing the "Cerny Method" in action during his acceptance speech, wherein he only allows himself 30 seconds to catch our interest before reevaluating the entire thing.
Insomniac's Ted Price says multiplatform development is 'fantastic'
Insomniac has been a terrific supporter of Sony platforms. Although not owned by Sony, the independent developer has crafted a number of hit titles for PlayStation systems, from Spyro to Ratchet & Clank to Resistance. The partnership between Sony and Insomniac has been quite beneficial for both parties -- Sony gets exclusive AAA titles to market for their platform, while Insomniac gets the resources of Sony. Unlike other publishers, Sony isn't overbearing as well: "Our relationship with Sony is one where we develop autonomously. Sony certainly gives us great feedback on the games, but we're in control of the development process, and that is a great place to be. Especially with a partner as powerful as Sony."Being an exclusive developer has given much more attention to Insomniac's games. For example, could Resistance have done as well were it a multiplatform FPS game? "Because we were a launch title, we did get a lot of additional exposure simply because it was synonymous with the PlayStation 3. And it's hard to break into the genre; and it's cool that we were able to do it with a brand new entry."However, the success of multiplatform titles does appear lucrative to Price. Speaking to Gamasutra, he also adds that We see games that are multiplatform succeeding wildly, and doing great, and that too is a fantastic place to be." That doesn't mean Insomniac is planning on making games on Xbox 360 any time soon -- however, as an independent studio, they're certainly free to keep that option available.[Via 1UP]
Insomniac's Ted Price speaks out against video game legislation
Insomniac's CEO Ted Price knows about fun and games. However, he takes the issue of games legislation quite seriously. "I think video game legislation has no place in America," Ted Price told Shacknews in an interview. "It saddens me to see legislators stomping all over our First Amendment rights for their own specific interests."Although they may be most famous for Ratchet & Clank, Insomniac is no stranger to creating games meant for adults. Their PS3 launch title, Resistance has sold millions of copies, with a sequel being readied for launch in November.He believes that video games are being painted as the "scapegoat" of society's problems, much like movies, radio and even books in the past. Just like in the past, it will take some time before this attitude is rectified. "It won't be until we have more gamers running for office that this will calm down," he added. "It's something that we'll weather, because we are right, what we do is defensible under the Constitution and shouldn't be regulated by the government."[Via GameDaily]
Ted Price: Resistance 2 is 'just about finished'
With Resistance 2 expected to drop into Chimera-occupied Chicago in early November, Ted Price, Insomniac's president and CEO, has come forward to confirm that the game is nearly complete. "The game is just about finished," commented Price in a recent interview with GameSpot, adding that the final three to four week push, dedicated to fine tuning and squashing bugs, is "always the most difficult." Price also adds that the team has been "loath to cut any corners during development," making simply getting to the finish line with Resistance 2 something of a challenge for the developers. We appreciate the effort, honestly; the last thing we want to worry about when facing down an impossibly huge leviathan is if our game will freeze before we can bring the massive baddie to his equally gargantuan knees.
Couldn't go to E3? No problem, Ted Price goes in-depth with Resistance 2
How many of you went to E3? Okay, by the show of hands, not too many. Thankfully, Insomniac's Ted Price brings E3 to you with this comprehensive video that chronicles everything they showed off at E3. You'll get to see how much progress has been made on the Resistance franchise since its debut as a launch title. It's interesting to see the game really start from where the first one ends, oh-so-seamlessly. Seeing the massive new enemies and environments in action will convince you (like it did us) that you should be very excited for this game.[Thanks, frankym!]
