Articles: Game On – Interview with Bryan Allgeier and Ryan Schneider of Insomniac Games…

Its not every day you get to catch up with two gods of game design, so when Bryan Allgeier (the creative director of Resistance Fall Of Man and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction) and Ryan Schneider (marketing director of Insomniac Games) blew into town, we dispatched RFoM junkie Pat Pilcher to catch up with them.

TONE: So Guys, what’s your fave gaming genre at the moment?

BRYAN ALLGEIER: That’s a tough one. I enjoy action adventure platformer-type games and have been playing God of War and really enjoyed BioShock. Mario Galaxy should also be huge when it’s out.

RYAN SCHNEIDER: Genres can be bit of a tool for buyers and sellers but as far as my personal preferences go, I really like the versatility of Uncharted’s platform and RPG gameplay, and I also enjoyed BioShocks minigames

TONE How Long have you been in games development?

BA: I’ve been working in the industry for over 16 years. I started out as an animation artist, working on a 2D Hanna-Barbera game. I got the job because I could animate Scooby-Doo – he was only 16 pixels high.

RS: [laughing] He can do a really mean Scooby-Doo laugh, too!

TONE: What’s the most memorable game you’ve both worked on?

BA: Each game is kinda like a baby, so it’s really hard to pick favourites. For me it was the first Ratchet & Clank because it was such a new genre and had really groundbreaking gameplay. I also really enjoyed working on the multiplayer design aspects of Ratchet & Clank 3.

TONE: Speaking Ratchet & Clank 3, how did developing for the PS3 compare with creating games for the PS2?

RS: With Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction we were really freed from the constraints of the PS2

TONE: Such as?

BA: Well, with the PS3, processing power wasn’t an issue, whereas with the PS2, having 10 enemies on the screen meant having to make real compromises with detail levels and other factors such as view distance. With the PS3 these sorts of issues are much less of a problem.

RS: The big leap we’ve made with the PS3 is to create a much more realistic and cohesive world. On Resistance Fall Of Man we learnt a whole lot about the PS3′s hardware so that our next PS3 title, Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, has physics that are four times faster and graphics that are at least twice as fast, so it all comes together for a really amazing HD experience. Another key difference with the PS3 is just how expressive the characters are able to be. Ratchet now has over 90 facial expression joins, whereas with the PS2 there were only 112 for his entire body, so you really do feel like you can relate to the characters, which makes for a much more immersive game.

TONE: Was programming an HD title tricky?

BA: Working in HD meant we had a whole lot more detail to create. A good example is the Metropolis level in Tools of Destruction, where we had a whole lot of flying cars and other things to detail, which can impact on processing speed, so it’s really a balancing act.

TONE: Does all this extra detail and HD make it more expensive to develop games these days?

BA: It does cost more to create each square metre of a game world, but we’ve also been refining how we do this. Plus, we’ve got some great tools we’ve developed, which frees us up to focus on what makes for great game play, rather than getting tied up with what makes the mechanics of the game work.

TONE: What challenges did you encounter in making Resistance Fall Of Man, your first PS3 title?

BA: The PS3 was new hardware and we’d started work in RFOM at least a year before the PS3 had been released, so we had to initially develop it on a PC. One of the key challenges for us was shifting gears from our background in third-person action adventures into a first-person shooter, but we brought in our experience with weapons and tactical game play to make RFOM a well-paced game that had plenty of exciting game play.

TONE: You certainly did that. Resistance Fall Of Man was really intense!

RS: Yeah, a key design goal with Resistance Fall Of Man was to induce shellshock through scenes such as the Manchester open combat level.

TONE: What does the future hold for Resistance Fall Of Man?

RS: We’re launching two new mulitplayer maps that are massively scalable. We’re also releasing a new patch that offers a whole lot of refinements based on fan feedback such as more balanced weapons. We’re still really committed to RFOM and are still supporting it a year after it was released

TONE: What do you see as the future of gaming?

BA: It’s a very exciting time for gamers and game developers. Downloadable titles mean there’s a whole lot more scope for creativity in terms of the types of games and the way in which they’re delivered. There are also a lot more gamers, ranging from casual gamers through to people who’ve grown up all their lives with games, so we’ve got a really broad games culture which gives us some really exciting, creative opportunities. When you take the latest crop of console hardware like the PS3 into account, we can also develop games that are so much more emotionally involving and I think this is really what it’s all about.

Brian Allgeier at a glance

Fav 80′s Arcade game
Um, err, Joust. Oh, hang on! Can I add a runner-up? Zaxxon, that was pretty cool.

Fav Music
Right now I’m into The Shins, they’re kinda cool

Fav DVD
Umm its not really a DVD, more a whole boxed set, but I’m really liking Lost.

Fav PS3 Accessory
PS3 EyeToy

Ryan Schneider at a glance

Fav 80′s Arcade Game
Pole Position

Fav Music
Amy Winehouse

Fav DVD
Band of Brothers

Fav PS3 Accessory
The Sixaxis controller: its great!