Members of the team behind Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart talked about what it was like creating a new Ratchet & Clank story, and designing a new adventure truly intended for PS5.
Last week, Insomniac Games gave CGM a sneak preview into Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart with new gameplay footage and story details. What’s more is that we also got to hear directly from some of the developers behind the next exclusive to come to PS5 about what it was like building and creating a new Ratchet & Clank adventure for PS5.
“We are finally revealing the PS5 for what it is” said Mike Daly, game director at Insomniac Games. Since it’s initial reveal its seemed that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will be a wholly new experience on PS5, not just because of the new advances from the new consoles internal hardware, but because of features like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers in the new Dualsense controller. When talking about how integral the players experience with the Dualsense will be, Daly even went so far as to say “Playing the game without haptics is like playing the game on mute”.
What’s most interesting is how the new technological advances both within the controller and console affected the development, and how they began to learn they could push the console more than they previously thought to deliver a truly next-gen experience. Lindsay Thompson, lead animator on Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart noted how the power of the new hardware and speed of the new SSD enabled them to create a fluid cinematic feeling from cutscenes into gameplay, and a more expansive world than ever with environmental storytelling not seen before in the series. “Players will be treated to visual spectacles on every planet they arrive on”.
Adam Noonchester, lead gameplay programmer for Insomniac Games said “This is the first game I’ve worked on where I haven’t had to tell designers to tone it down with how much goes into each level” when talking about what the new hardware has enabled them to do. It’s exciting to hear developers talk like this, not just for what’s to come with Ratchet & Clank, but also what’s to come from future titles.
While the technological advances that have been made since we last got a new original Ratchet & Clank have created an experience that Marcus Smith, creative director at Insomniac Games said he can’t wait for players to feel, especially regarding the Dualsense, everyone agreed that they can’t wait for fans to meet Rivet more than anything. “We just want everyone to meet our girl” – Lindsay Thompson, lead animator at Insomniac Games.
For more on Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, check out more of our coverage from Insomniac’s press event here. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will launch on PS5’s everywhere on June 11, 2021.
