I was Insomniac’s first actual “employee”. I had worked with Mark Cerny at SEGA/STI. When it was time for me to finally leave SEGA, I really wanted to work with Mark again. I started as a contract artist with Insomniac (originally just for a few months to finish up Disruptor) but when the contract was up they asked if I wanted to stay on. It was a game concept I pitched, where you were a dragon, that became Spyro (thanks to Marks suggestions of keeping the dragon the same age throughout the game and making the game ‘family friendly’. It was a great time to be making games and a great time to be at Insomniac.
holyyy! shan should pin this comment. i was born in '04 and grew up on the ps2 ratchet games. thank you for helping create one of the most important experiences of my childhood!
Thank you so much for the insight and for SPYRO Mr. Stitt! I'm sure you've heard this many times, and rightfully so: Spyro was very near and dear to me as a kid (As was another property you helped work on, Sonic 2!). Spyro 2 was the first game I ever popped into my PlayStation - I knew next nothing about it, maybe just the great art/character design of the cover drove me pick it up, haha. Ted and Al were lucky to have found you and after watching hours of interviews for this video - you're not the first to gives glowing sentiments to Mark, no secret he's a brilliant dude!
Sir, you have my deepest thanks for your mark on the company, Spyro is why I am even watching this video. Before Spyro, gaming was distracting point & clicks, "activity" games on PC, and sidescrollers that just felt as flat as they looked. When I first got Spyro on the sole basis of my parents thinking "Well, he likes dragons..." it changed so much more and ran deeper than just a small dragon. Whole worlds were open, they made sense, they were fascinating, and yeah... I could be a dragon. It blew open what gaming really could be, and made me realize where its actual potential was. Everything from just rolling up and down that first hill, to staring at the skyboxes, was magical and part of the adventure. Decades later, I still go back into a game like Dark Souls 2, stop and stare at a starry skybox, and remember doing that with Spyro as well. The character you started is forever part of what gaming, adventure, and wonder means to me. Thank you, Stitt.
Awesome and informative video. I had stopped watching game documentary-type videos just from the amount of retreading content and low-quality commentary out there, but your videos are on fresh topics with great research, professionalism, and even some light humor. Love every upload!
I grew up with Spyro 2 on the PS1 and I considered among my favourites of all time but now that I’ve played the original I consider it my favourite in the series. It’s so fun and its “simplicity” is actually a benefit to it cuz it’s so fun to %100 once you know where everything is. It’s in the same vein of Super Metroid in that way and it’s SO GOOD.
I really miss the Resistance series. I think if they brought it back on modern consoles it would be amazing. Resistance multiplayer all-out war with current console generation FPS innovation as well as character customization and grittiness would be fantastic. The FPS genre has a giant hole in it that Resistance can fill.
It's worth noting that Insomniac is one of the targets of a video game strike spearheaded by the SAG-AFTRA union for AI protections, safe contracts, and wage increase for video game VAs and mocap performers. I'm betting that they'll be the first to cave into SAG-AFTRA's demands while also unionize in the process, but who knows for sure at this point in time.
11:30 this isn’t really true, the name Pete was always considered an internal codename (one they continued to use it for the entire first year of development) rather than his intended name. According to one of the game’s producers, the name was chosen as a reference to Pete’s Dragon, as a way of forcing themselves to think of a real name for the character rather than reusing the codename (think what happened with Project Octopath Traveler). 20:30 the difficulty system actually has three different difficulties and many possible difficulty score settings which determine when your difficulty changes. The difficulty isn't based on how many eggs you've collected or how many deaths you've experienced at all, it's a complicated system that tallies up your performance for every egg in the game so far (based on how fast you completed each one, how many attempts were needed, etc.) against a set of thresholds determined for each one.
Thanks for the insight! I remember having trouble finding info specifically on the Spyro 3 difficulty tuning so my bad for both of these. I'm considering doing a Spyro 3 retrospective-esc vid so I'll have to take a deeper dive on the system myself and address these corrections there
I came here to say the same about the name Pete. I’m the one who pitched the original concept that grew into Spyro. Although I have to add, that while the name Pete was never intended to be the actual name, after calling him “Pete” for the entire development cycle, I didn’t really want to change his name (and it was so hard to find a name everyone liked!!)
I really wish Toys for Bob kept the goofiness of the original Spyro games. The character designs feel too generic at times. But the level designs are great
Insomniac Games should buy the PC Rights to Spyro The Dragon and Out Of Activision’s and Microsoft’s clutches and they could work with Toys For Bob So Insomniac Games and Toys For Bob Could Develop the new SPYRO 4 and they Should Add In Spyro’s Ability to Fly Anytime Any Level Without Limitations But with New Rewarding Challenges Badder Boss Battles And New Upgradeable Qualities That Should Occur in The New SPYRO 4
Eventually, yes I'd love to dive into Crash or Naughty Dog as a whole! I remember as a kid not being able to sleep the night before my parents told me we'd be going to Circuit City the next morning to pick up Crash Bash (Not Naughty Dog but still a classic). And CTR is likely in my top 10 games of all time.
@@Shanmania its so funny even as an adult i cannot stop loving these games. have replayed them various times and keep coming back to them. i love other platformers like mario, zelda, and banjo kazooie, and a bunch of different cartoon games. and the analysis videos are always interesting
I was Insomniac’s first actual “employee”. I had worked with Mark Cerny at SEGA/STI. When it was time for me to finally leave SEGA, I really wanted to work with Mark again. I started as a contract artist with Insomniac (originally just for a few months to finish up Disruptor) but when the contract was up they asked if I wanted to stay on.
It was a game concept I pitched, where you were a dragon, that became Spyro (thanks to Marks suggestions of keeping the dragon the same age throughout the game and making the game ‘family friendly’.
It was a great time to be making games and a great time to be at Insomniac.
holyyy! shan should pin this comment. i was born in '04 and grew up on the ps2 ratchet games. thank you for helping create one of the most important experiences of my childhood!
Thank you so much for the insight and for SPYRO Mr. Stitt! I'm sure you've heard this many times, and rightfully so: Spyro was very near and dear to me as a kid (As was another property you helped work on, Sonic 2!). Spyro 2 was the first game I ever popped into my PlayStation - I knew next nothing about it, maybe just the great art/character design of the cover drove me pick it up, haha.
Ted and Al were lucky to have found you and after watching hours of interviews for this video - you're not the first to gives glowing sentiments to Mark, no secret he's a brilliant dude!
Sir, you have my deepest thanks for your mark on the company, Spyro is why I am even watching this video. Before Spyro, gaming was distracting point & clicks, "activity" games on PC, and sidescrollers that just felt as flat as they looked. When I first got Spyro on the sole basis of my parents thinking "Well, he likes dragons..." it changed so much more and ran deeper than just a small dragon. Whole worlds were open, they made sense, they were fascinating, and yeah... I could be a dragon. It blew open what gaming really could be, and made me realize where its actual potential was. Everything from just rolling up and down that first hill, to staring at the skyboxes, was magical and part of the adventure. Decades later, I still go back into a game like Dark Souls 2, stop and stare at a starry skybox, and remember doing that with Spyro as well. The character you started is forever part of what gaming, adventure, and wonder means to me. Thank you, Stitt.
So you’re responsible for my entire childhood golden years, thank you!
Thank you for Spyro
Great video man, grew up with Spyro/Ratchet as a kid in the 90s/00's all the way thru current 👍 thank u for making the video my friend 😊
Awesome and informative video. I had stopped watching game documentary-type videos just from the amount of retreading content and low-quality commentary out there, but your videos are on fresh topics with great research, professionalism, and even some light humor. Love every upload!
I grew up with Spyro 2 on the PS1 and I considered among my favourites of all time but now that I’ve played the original I consider it my favourite in the series. It’s so fun and its “simplicity” is actually a benefit to it cuz it’s so fun to %100 once you know where everything is. It’s in the same vein of Super Metroid in that way and it’s SO GOOD.
Thanks for making this! Insomniac has been my favorite studio for a long time, and even I learned quite a few things!
Caught that Mass Effect track at the 30 minute mark, nice. This was fun to watch, thanks for putting it together my man.
You can tell some serious work went into this video! Super informative and I love the humor. ❤️ OGSP
Man I love when big content creators can shine a light on indie studios like this. Thank you Shanmania!!
Wait since when was insomniac indie??
Gotta be joking lol
I always loved their games, ratchet and clank being one of my all time favorites.
This video rocks. I'd watch more like this for other Sony developers. Good stuff!
I really miss the Resistance series. I think if they brought it back on modern consoles it would be amazing. Resistance multiplayer all-out war with current console generation FPS innovation as well as character customization and grittiness would be fantastic. The FPS genre has a giant hole in it that Resistance can fill.
It's worth noting that Insomniac is one of the targets of a video game strike spearheaded by the SAG-AFTRA union for AI protections, safe contracts, and wage increase for video game VAs and mocap performers. I'm betting that they'll be the first to cave into SAG-AFTRA's demands while also unionize in the process, but who knows for sure at this point in time.
I'm a little disappointed (but not surprised) to learn about the direction Insomniac chose to go in after the Ratchet and Clank IP was established.
This is an awesome video and channel. Thank you!!
Great video 🕷️
11:30 this isn’t really true, the name Pete was always considered an internal codename (one they continued to use it for the entire first year of development) rather than his intended name. According to one of the game’s producers, the name was chosen as a reference to Pete’s Dragon, as a way of forcing themselves to think of a real name for the character rather than reusing the codename (think what happened with Project Octopath Traveler).
20:30 the difficulty system actually has three different difficulties and many possible difficulty score settings which determine when your difficulty changes. The difficulty isn't based on how many eggs you've collected or how many deaths you've experienced at all, it's a complicated system that tallies up your performance for every egg in the game so far (based on how fast you completed each one, how many attempts were needed, etc.) against a set of thresholds determined for each one.
Thanks for the insight! I remember having trouble finding info specifically on the Spyro 3 difficulty tuning so my bad for both of these.
I'm considering doing a Spyro 3 retrospective-esc vid so I'll have to take a deeper dive on the system myself and address these corrections there
@@Shanmania if you ever need someone to provide more insight on the more technical aspects of Spyro 3 I’d be happy to help!
I came here to say the same about the name Pete. I’m the one who pitched the original concept that grew into Spyro.
Although I have to add, that while the name Pete was never intended to be the actual name, after calling him “Pete” for the entire development cycle, I didn’t really want to change his name (and it was so hard to find a name everyone liked!!)
@@gospyro hi Craig! I hope you’re doing well!
Not to take away from your amazing narration, but you put Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X music in the background and I'll listen to anything
Wasn't ready for that ending segment
I really wish Toys for Bob kept the goofiness of the original Spyro games. The character designs feel too generic at times. But the level designs are great
Really stellar video
A crack in time!!!!
Commenting before the algorithm recommends this to everyone like it did to me
Hey what the heck, you can't just say Disruptor got praise from John Romero himself and then not provide specifics! I gotta know what he thought!
Insomniac Games should buy the PC Rights to
Spyro The Dragon and Out Of Activision’s and
Microsoft’s clutches and they could work with
Toys For Bob
So Insomniac Games and Toys For Bob
Could Develop the new SPYRO 4 and they
Should Add In Spyro’s Ability to Fly
Anytime Any Level Without Limitations
But with New Rewarding Challenges
Badder Boss Battles And New
Upgradeable Qualities That Should
Occur in The New
SPYRO 4
BarooOOO
are you going to make a video on crash games?
Eventually, yes I'd love to dive into Crash or Naughty Dog as a whole!
I remember as a kid not being able to sleep the night before my parents told me we'd be going to Circuit City the next morning to pick up Crash Bash (Not Naughty Dog but still a classic). And CTR is likely in my top 10 games of all time.
@@Shanmania its so funny even as an adult i cannot stop loving these games. have replayed them various times and keep coming back to them. i love other platformers like mario, zelda, and banjo kazooie, and a bunch of different cartoon games. and the analysis videos are always interesting
Daddy sony
Teddy Price 4 prez
They just keep getting worse. xD
I always loved their games, ratchet and clank being one of my all time favorites.