TIRMINYL REGULATION » Ratchet and Clank http://tirminyl.net/blog Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:00:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= PSN Store Update 11/12: Braid, Star Trek, Pinball Heroes & Bubble Trubble http://tirminyl.net/blog/2009/11/psn-store-update-1112-braid-star-trek-pinball-heroes-bubble-trubble/ http://tirminyl.net/blog/2009/11/psn-store-update-1112-braid-star-trek-pinball-heroes-bubble-trubble/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:15:36 +0000 tirminyl http://tirminyl.net/blog/?p=2233 Continue reading →]]>

PSN

A nice store update for you this week! Braid has finally made its way to PSN. Unfortunately, I never had a chance to play it but had the pleasure of having the game spoiled for me. Either way, I will be picking this up. We also get a Ratchet & Clank dynamic theme. Video for you to view it in action is below.

Price Drop

  • Tank Battles Price Drop ($6.99)

PS3 Games

  • Braid ($14.99)
  • Star Trek: D-A-C ($9.99)

PS3 Demos

  • Inferno Pool Demo
  • NCAA Basketball 10 Demo
  • MX Vs. ATV Reflex Demo
  • Star Trek: D-A-C Demo

PS3 Dyamic Theme

  • Ratchet & Clank Dynamic Theme ($2.99) (video)

PSOne

  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert ($5.99)

PSP Games

  • Pinball Heroes – High Velocity Bowling ($3.99)
  • Pinball Heroes – Hot Shots Golf ($3.99)
  • Pinball Heroes – PAIN ($3.99)
  • Pinball Heroes – UNCHARTED ($3.99)
  • Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble ($39.99)

PSP Minis

  • Bubble Trubble ($4.99)


]]> http://tirminyl.net/blog/2009/11/psn-store-update-1112-braid-star-trek-pinball-heroes-bubble-trubble/feed/ 0 Get Ratchet & Clank Future: ACiT For $45 http://tirminyl.net/blog/2009/11/get-ratchet-clank-future-acit-for-45/ http://tirminyl.net/blog/2009/11/get-ratchet-clank-future-acit-for-45/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:00:55 +0000 tirminyl http://tirminyl.net/blog/?p=2199 Continue reading →]]>

If you somehow suffered through my impressions of A Crack In Time then you know Amazon is discounting the title to $49.99. Well, if you use code “RATCHET3“ you get an extra $5 off the price. Try it out and let me know if it works!

]]> http://tirminyl.net/blog/2009/11/get-ratchet-clank-future-acit-for-45/feed/ 0 Ratchet & Clank: Why You Should Replay Crack In Time http://tirminyl.net/blog/2009/10/ratchet-clank-why-you-should-replay-crack-in-time/ http://tirminyl.net/blog/2009/10/ratchet-clank-why-you-should-replay-crack-in-time/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:30:22 +0000 tirminyl http://tirminyl.net/blog/?p=2055

On rare occasions do I find myself replaying a game I had just beaten. Though, with all the extras Insomniac is adding to their game, it is kinda hard to say no.

]]> http://tirminyl.net/blog/2009/10/ratchet-clank-why-you-should-replay-crack-in-time/feed/ 0 Postmortem: Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction http://tirminyl.net/blog/2008/12/postmortem-ratchet-and-clank-future-tools-of-destruction/ http://tirminyl.net/blog/2008/12/postmortem-ratchet-and-clank-future-tools-of-destruction/#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:45:20 +0000 tirminyl http://tirminyl.net/blog/?p=465 Continue reading →]]>

Gamasutra has posted a great article regarding Ratchet and Clank Future by Insomniac Games.  In this articule Insomniac details development of Ratchet and what some of their challenges were. If you have ever been interested in knowing some of the things that goes on in making a game, this is definitely a read for you.  

rcf

During pre-production Ratchet seemed very ambitious as I am sure all titles are. Just to quote a section of the article, you will see what the plans were for Ratchet regarding features and environments, and how they were cut due to resources and time:

At the end of preproduction RCF’s design called for 25 unique planets, 5 space combat missions, 1 hour of cinematic cut scenes, a hazily-defined co-op mode, and an even more ambiguous online component.

We wanted the game experience to last about 15 hours — and we achieved this — but the final scope of our game was 16 planets, 3 space combat missions, 45 minutes of cinematic animation, and single player mode only.

Further more, Insomniac speaks about development on two games at a time and following their PS1 and PS2 development scheme.  With improvements being made to their development process, they learn and apply to their next game.  This has surely allowed Insomniac to release triple A titles on the PS3 including a PSN expansion of Ratchet.

Ratchet By The Numbers

 

Game Data

Developer: Insomniac Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Release Date: October 23rd, 2007
Platform: PlayStation 3

Number of Developers: 70 full-time, 30 shared, 25 contractors (music, voice acting, testing, localization).

Length of Development: 23 months: 11 months preproduction, 12 months production.

Hardware Used: Artist workstation: Dell Xeon 3.2G with Quadro FX3400. Programmer workstation: Quadcore PC with as much memory crammed into it as possible.

Software Used: Proprietary engine and development tools. Artist software: Maya, Photoshop, ZBrush, Turtle. Asset management and revision control: Perforce. Design/gameplay scripting: Lua. Compiler: custom GCC compiler provided by Sony. Character lip synching: Annisoft.

Number of Times Art Director Spoke Ill of Dragons: Zero — for he is crunchy and good with ketchup.

Technologies Licensed: SpeedTree, Bink, Microsoft Visual Studio, Anark (UI menus), DevTrack (bug database).

Project Size

Game size: 22.5gb
Project size: 1000gb
Bugs: 16,000
Source Files: 4429
Lines of code: 980,184

Receiving data like this about game development projects is fantastic.  I sure hope other developers can be as revealing as Insomniac. As a SCM guy, I do feel the pain as I am currently working on a project with 5600+ source code files. Makes me want to pull a line count…

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