STACK April 2016 Issue 138

98 / 98

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The Pixeliser is the best
weapon I’ve seen so far –
where did the idea for that
come from?
We loved the visual idea of
reducing enemies to their 8-bit
components. When we started
making the weapon, gameplay
programmer Joel Bartley
realized that it’s really fun to
turn enemies into colourful voxel cubes,
and then submit the cubes to the physics
system. The result is a weapon with a
lot of toy-factor; it’s fun to see what each
enemy looks like in its pixelated form, and
then reduce it to a shower of bouncing
cubes!
Where do the different dance moves
for each of the monsters come from?
Is this something that’s thought of
when they’re designed (provided the
Groovitron is always included) or is it
conceived after?
We have an awesome animation team,
and every animator contributes dance
moves for the enemy they’re working on,
from concept to final. It’s not uncommon
to see animators dancing in the mirror to
get the subtleties just right. This is a fun
place to work, but it’s also sometimes
highly disturbing.
Is the levelling/XP system the same in
this game?
The levelling system is an evolution
of our best work. It uses the “level as
you use it” system from the Future
series, coupled with the “choose your
own Raritanium upgrades” system from
Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus.
Do the Smuggler and his parrot make
a return, or is he being replaced by the
Telepathopus guy?
Not just yet - Ratchet’s origin story
takes place in the Solana Galaxy, while the
Smuggler hails from the Polaris galaxy.
There’s no replacing the Smuggler, but as
you note there is a Blargian brain scientist
who would love to get his hands on some
Telepathopus brains. I wonder if he has
any exotic tech to trade?
Ratchet & Clank manages to find
the middle between simple and
challenging – is it difficult to
achieve this?
It is. We spend a lot of time
playing the game ourselves,
then making it much too hard
because we play it every day.
Then we watch other people
play and tune it properly over
many, many weeks. A lot of
our systems are designed to
let us tweak right up until the very end;
we want the game to require skill and be
challenging, but never frustrating.
Given your venture into the VR market,
will we see any form of Ratchet and
Clank in that department?
Hmm. That’s an interesting idea. It
sounds mind-blowing. It’s hard to even
think about our next projects; we’re still
focused on this one!
Where does the franchise go from
here?
We’re still thinking about Ratchet &
Clank PS4. We can’t wait for the movie
to come out, and we can’t wait to get the
game into players’ hands. After that - and
after we’ve had some sleep
- we’ll think about what’s
next!
• Ratchet &
Clank
is out on
April 20