00:00I'm outside, one of the most successful independent game studios out there.
00:06That's right, Insomniac Games.
00:08You know them from series like Ratchet & Clank, Resistance, Sunset Overdrive, and the upcoming Song of the Deep.
00:14So what are we waiting for? Let's go inside and check it out.
00:26Welcome to Insomniac.
00:27Well, I'm super pumped to go check everything out. Is there something I should go check out first?
00:32Well, we've opened up the studio to you, so go check it all out.
00:45So I heard, Brian, sorry to interrupt you.
00:48Hi, hello.
00:49We're on a little studio tour, and your desk was not to be missed because of all the amazing artwork.
00:54I mean, look at this. This is quite an impressive collection.
00:56Yeah, you could say it's my wall of fame, I guess.
00:59These are images from all the games that I've worked on over the last, I don't know, 15 years.
01:03That's a lot of games. That's a lot of Ratchet games.
01:05Absolutely. It's been my whole career.
01:07I've been the Ratchet & Clank director, design director, creative director on most of them.
01:14I'm here with Al Hastings, employee number two here at Insomniac. That is a lot of years under your belt.
01:20What's it been like working with the company for so long?
01:23It's been awesome. It was just me and Ted and a couch at the start, and, you know, obviously it's
01:29changed a lot.
01:30We're much bigger. It still feels like a close-knit family.
01:39This is probably the most magical area. You turn, and you get food. Look at this. Chocolate-covered almonds.
01:47Notice how it says caution, because these are dangerous.
01:54I'm in the QA department. That stands for Quality Assurance.
01:57These guys are playing the game over and over again to find bugs, so that way the developers can put
02:02that extra polish on it before it gets to you.
02:10One of the major titles coming from Insomniac is Song of the Deep, and we're in their creative space right
02:15now.
02:15So, let's go talk to some of the key players.
02:17Oh, hey, you mind if I borrow this?
02:19Yeah, go for it.
02:25We're here inside the studio, and you can see behind me, it's the Song of the Deep creative team.
02:29They frequently do these morning meetings so they can get together and collaborate on the creative process.
02:39What normally happens in these meetings?
02:42Normally, we all get together, kind of give the updates on any of the big topics that are going on,
02:46and then afterwards we kind of go do a roundabout and everyone kind of talks about what they're working on.
02:50It kind of helps to keep everyone informed about each and individual aspect of what's going on in the game.
03:01With Song of the Deep, this is a game, it's all about courage, it's all about taking a stand, it's
03:07about this girl trying to find her father lost at sea.
03:10And it's a creative risk for us, and it's wonderful that GameStop is embracing this independent spirit of this game.
03:21I'm in a portion of the studio where people are working on top secret games.
03:25They won't tell me any details yet, but hopefully we'll find out soon.
03:33Marcus, the creative director on Sunset Overdrive, a recent big title that Insomniac launched.
03:38So, what do you do these days, Marcus?
03:41I can't really talk about that, I'm working on an unannounced title at the moment.
03:44Oh, I thought I was going to get some sneaky answers from you.
03:48A lot of people think that video games are made by, like, on computers and creative process.
03:53It's not, it's peanut butter and apples.
03:55What do you love about working at Insomniac?
03:58I love that it's a, um, it's a small environment.
04:01We're, we're basically a family of creators for here.
04:03And the, the great thing is that when you have a small team, everybody's a storyteller.
04:08You know, we all have our, our own tools that we use to make the games, but our, our overall
04:12goal is to tell great stories.
04:13And I think Insomniac is one of the greatest places to do that.
04:16I, I think it's just the people.
04:17Everybody here is really nice and, and every day is a new adventure.
04:21We all feel pretty invested in, in it.
04:24And like, we all have a bit of ownership.
04:26And then we all just kind of work together to, to see where it goes.
04:30Uh, each game is kind of a fun journey like that.
04:32People send in from across the world just saying, hey, we love your games.
04:36Thank you.
04:37It, it changed my life in, in X amount of ways.
04:40Uh, and that's amazing to us.
04:41Like, that is why we do it.
04:43That's why we create the games is so we affect people, you know, we're, we're storytellers
04:46and we want people to, uh, get joy out of our games.
04:51I mean, I've just really been, um, happy to have been here for so long and to have worked
04:54on so many imaginative projects with such inventive gameplay.
04:57It's such a cool place to be.
04:59Big thank you to Ted Price and the entire team here at Insomniac Games.
05:03I got to go behind the scenes and see lots of cool artwork, talk to members of the team
05:08and you guys, I am pretty pumped for Song of the Deep and I hope you are too.
05:12That's a wrap.
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