Mike Acton's blog on the Insomniac R&D page.
9/4/07 - 18:00 PST - Posted by Mike Acton, Engine Director
I'm proud to announce the official launch of the Insomniac "R&D" portion of our website, which you can find directly from our homepage at www.insomniacgames.com. The page is for our peers - other developers interested in sharing ideas – as well as the aspiring engine programmers out there who want to know more about how we do things here at Insomniac Games. We’re also posting research and ideas that we think you might be interested in. But really Insomniac’s R&D page is a place where you’ll be able to get a good taste of how our various production team members are working with the PS3.
We've seen the comments around the net on "how hard" it might be to develop for the PlayStation 3, and we thought this would be a good chance for us to share our big secret for making great technology for this platform. Our secret, the really big thing that makes it all possible ...the amazing, crazy idea that drives the technology here at Insomniac is: We have one of the best technology teams in the industry and we try our best to work on things thoughtfully and systematically. That's it. I know it's a bit controversial. But we don't write our code in some special custom language, we don't have special development tools that other developers don't have, and we aren't waiting for someone else to bring us a magic solution. Here at Insomniac, we build what we need and we work hard to understand the platform. Sure, we've spent a lot of effort to build (and are still building!) the totally custom Insomniac engine driving our games, but that's what it takes to make sure we get what we want.
It's also important for us as Insomniacs, and the technology team in particular, to give something back to the industry. Each one of us has learned over the years much of what we know from those who came before us. This industry was built on people sharing ideas and tricks with each other, and we're jumping at the chance to be a part of that. We’re not trying to "Change how games are made forever!" with the R&D page. But I’m sure the page content will be at the very least interesting to our peers and fans, and hopefully occasionally useful.
I know people want to see some massive, ground-breaking things right up front. But those aren't the only things that need to be shared. They may not even be the most valuable. Generally it's the little hints, tips and rules of thumb that you pick up along the way that prove most useful. This page is not just a place for us to discuss the things we've done, but also a place for us to share some of our more un-baked and raw moments.
I'm sure someone's going to ask, "Aren't you afraid of giving away your secrets?"
Well, seriously - if it's a secret, we wouldn't be giving it away. So no, not really. Even still, on the whole, that isn't a major concern. Because understanding how we did something and even understanding why we did something are still very different from actually doing it yourself. Which we encourage everyone to do. And if people do benefit from the things we're going to put on this page, that's a good thing - it's actually the whole point. Working together to make the whole industry better is part of what makes a good game developer.
The Insomniac technology team has built custom engines for multiple generations of PlayStation platforms and our strength is in our experience leveraging the hardware to consistently make great games. I think that fact shows in not just our games, but in these new pages and the ones that will follow from other Insomniac production team members.
So take a look around and let us know what you think! You can post comments to each article, and we’ll be happy to respond.
Mike Acton
Engine Director
Insomniac Games
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