Hey folks, James Stevenson, Senior Community Manager here. Over the last couple of months, the burning question amongst all of our fans out there has been, “what’s going on?” As far as I can remember, this is the longest stretch of time without Insomniac having announced a future project, leaving many of you wondering what exactly we’re up to in the walls of our Burbank and Durham studios…

 

…Unfortunately, this blog will not necessarily address your questions. If you’re hoping that I will announce a future title here, you will be disappointed. That will not prevent me from telling you that we are busy working here on some really cool stuff that we can’t wait to show you.

 

What we will tell you is that after the launch of A Crack in Time, there was some well-deserved time off for folks. We began to ramp up on other projects, and are currently underway on more than one game right now (which will be no surprise to anyone who knows how our production pipeline works). We’ve been trying to evolve our production pipeline to give us more time for iteration, as well as better efficiencies along the way.

 

My favorite part about the past few months though has been the initiative our NC Studio and project managers in Burbank have taken to keep everyone updated on what’s going on each week with the titles. We hope to eventually be able to share some of these tidbits (when things are farther along), but it’s pretty awesome to see a bunch of e-mails on Friday detailing new progress, with art, screens and video to show off what’s going on. It’s been really exciting to see our future projects take form.

 

Another big effort around here is to get everyone’s hands on the game a bit more often. We’ve been running weekly playtests to get companywide feedback on our titles. Things are shaping up really well, and it’s pretty incredible to think of where we were in December versus where the games are now.

 

 

 

In December, Director of Brand Development Ryan Schneider and I flew out to Durham, North Carolina to visit Insomniac’s not-so-brand-new-anymore-but-still-has-new-studio-smell office. Despite the fact that we got lost on the empty floor that the elevator deposited us onto, we did eventually find Chad, Shaun, Dave, Greg and the gang who are hard at work on their own game.

 

 

One of the fun parts of that trip was heading out to the Michigan State vs. North Carolina basketball game. As big college sports fans, it was pretty awesome to see a game at the Dean Dome. Ryan and I got there way early, and geeked out over all the history and team photos. The interesting part of the night came when we tried to find a cab back to our hotel. We ended up walking a couple miles along a highway in the dark and cold, while it was raining, before finally getting to a gas station and calling a cab. Folks who follow me on Twitter may remember my plea to call the police if I didn’t tweet within half an hour, as a really sketchy van pulled up with a couple big guys driving it. Fortunately, we made it back to our hotel in one piece and managed to convince the front desk to hook us up with some of the warm chocolate chip cookies.

 

 

All in all, it was a great trip to visit the studio, which is smaller right now than Insomniac Burbank’s smallest wing. Their conference room seats six comfortably, so company meetings are powwows around a nearby T.V. We’re looking forward to showing you more of their studio when we get to the point that we can reveal the game they are working on.

 

 

That’s all for today – I’ve got a second blog coming up soon about the future of the Insomniac Full Moon Show – as well as where you can run into us in the month of March at various conventions (GDC and PAX East!). So stay tuned for that – and be sure to comment below, in the forums, or on Twitter!

 

 

 

Well…the first posting went well! Got positive responses, so I see this as a smashing success!! I’m really excited to be writing this next blog posting – and I feel more in the groove, I kind of get why people write blogs. So we’ll see how this one goes!

 

Topic #2, Blog #2… GDC 2010 (insert “Ride of the Valkyries” music here).

 

GDC 2010 is literally just around the corner – and while I somehow feel like it snuck up on me this year, I am excited and looking forward to it. I think GDC is a great time for everyone to get together under one BIG roof (Thanks Moscone Center!!) to meet, discuss, share stories and exchange ideas. It’s also a great time to catch up with all the industry people who you only really get to see once a year or so, when said GDC happens. I’m sure it is a totally different experience to attend the conference and seminars as it is to be “working” the show. That said- I think there are a couple of hints or tips I want to share – to maybe shed some light on, and help navigate the Career section of the show.

 

1) It’s loud… it’s really loud, (and it might be even louder this year with everyone on one floor!) Sometimes I can hardly hear my own voice – let alone the person who is right in front of me. So if I ask you to repeat yourself –I promise - I did not faze out on you- I just cannot hear a thing going on in there.

 

2) For Insomniac Games – we are going to ask you to apply directly to our website. This is not a personal thing – it’s a green thing. We could/would be shipping home crate after crate of paper and plastics… and risk losing all that vital info in the mail - so we ask you to submit on-line. Go GREEN! (This will also save you from lugging around a huge backpack of paperwork too!)

 

3) There are lots of people. LOTS. I would love to spend all the time I can with everyone who comes up to the booth – but it’s just not possible. Both Julie (our HR rep in the NC office) and I would love to gab for days – but there are just TONS of people… Come on by, we are there to see you, we WANT chat with you – but know that this is not the time for an in depth interview- we’ll call you after the show for that!

 

4) A pet-peeve of mine that happens every year, one person will come up to the booth and ask “So... Insomniac Games… what do you do?” Now if you are reading this blog- you are well informed! But just feel my pain on that one for a moment. I will be honest … I usually claim something crazy, and then say the truth. “We make mind controlled peripherals that can only be used at night hence the name … but we are really known for Ratchet and Clank, Spyro and Resistance”… it might be wrong – but it is funny. So check out who is going to be there – and if you don’t recognize the name – look them up - the internet is pretty handy for that. Every exhibitor is listed on the GDC website.

 

5) Enjoy yourself! Have fun – talk with every booth, get as much info as you can, absorb everything. We are there for three days! There is plenty of time to take it all in. We work in an amazing industry, and we are really lucky that we get to get together like this!

 

 

Until next time…

 

 

 

It’s a new year, and a new decade so in honor of that, we are starting something new here as well. HOORAY! Welcome to the inaugural edition of a new blog here on the Insomniac Games website, called “Baker’s Dozen”! First – let me introduce myself- I’m Angela Baker – the HR Generalist/Recruiter/cat-herder here in the Burbank office, and I will be the primary voice/sanity check for this space. A little bit about me- I’ve been with Insomniac for 3+ years now, and before that I was at G4TV, a major publisher, and major talent agency.

 

I have always worked in HR, and have seen some CRAZY things happen- some in a good way- getting caught up in a Royal Family members security detail (good) and some not so great- seeing friends (and myself) go through layoffs. The idea behind this blog is to share what info I and the whole team here have on subjects like:

 

• What to include on a resume

• What to put on a reel (or to have a totally awesome reel)

• What’s the difference between an internship and a co-op

• Interview attire

• Why “sexybeast@gmail “ is not really a great email address when looking for a job

• Why or why not attend game conferences

• Why companies send out tests

• Are game colleges hooey

• Why 6% of our company got engaged over the weekend

• What hiring managers are looking for, etc…

 

There is tons of stuff to cover – and we are going to try and cover all of it. Some of it will be serious info, some not so serious, and other bits will be downright useless (but only in a funny “makes me say huh?” way). I hope you find the info helpful, insightful or at least mildly entertaining.

 

I have to be honest- I’ve never done anything like this – I usually shy away from having anything written and then sent out into the blogosphere – but I think there is a lot of good and bad info out there, and it’s important to be part of the dialogue. So here we go!

 

Before I forget – if you have any questions, feedback, or just want to comment on whatever nonsense you think I’m sharing – your space is here. You can also shoot an email to bakersdozen@insomniacgames.com and I’ll hit you back with a response- but be kind – I did admit to being new to all this.

 

The first topic I’ll tackle here is a basic one – and an easy one. It’s about email addresses and outgoing voice mail messages when looking for a job. My two cents on the whole situation is this: You want to get hired. You want to appear as capable and hardworking as possible. Having an email address that is “golddigger@yahoo” or “iseenakedpeople@aol” is not really what you want to project. Ditto for voicemail messages. Screaming into the phone and saying “YO YO YO playa …whatz up?” is not really what I want to hear either when calling you about coming in for an interview or to ask for references. I suggest (and I did do research on this – so thanks to the other recruiters I talked with!) that for the purposes of job hunting – you select an email address that is yourname@hotmail or firstinitiallastname@aol, etc… just something simple, to the point, and easy to identify. Use it just for job hunting. Again – ditto for the voicemail- “Hi, you’ve reached John, please leave a message and I’ll get back to you”… much easier to digest and listen to.

 

Then once you have the job, be my guest to have whatever you want for an email address and voicemail message– the crazier the better…

 

More to come in the following months- and looking forward to the conversations to come!

 

 

We're going to start a recruiting-driven blog soon, led by our amazing HR team.  Watch this space in the future.