For those of you who read my last post and were lucky enough to attend our Full Moon Festival this past Friday, I hope it’s now safe to say that the Smurfs are no longer the only good thing to come out of October 23 milestones.

About 150 Ratchet & Clank and Insomniac fans joined us from as far away as Michigan (thanks Adam!), Texas (thanks Mitch!) and all over California – some waiting in line starting at 5am — to celebrate today’s North American launch of Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. Even Clank himself managed to make an appearance, albeit in the form of talented voice actor David Kaye (who also voices Nathan Hale in the Resistance games). General Alister Azimuth, aka Joey D’Auria, paid a visit along with G4TV’s very own Adam Sessler as part of a “making of A Crack in Time” panel moderated by yours truly. Insomniac founder and CEO Ted Price, gameplay lead Andrew Yount and lead designer Mike Ellis shared their production memories as part of the standing-room only discussion.

During the panel, we showed off some exclusive videos, including the official debut of our Kevin Butler TV spot and a nifty piece highlighting a somewhat overlooked aspect of RCF: A Crack in Time: “My Blaster Runs Hot.” If you like 8-bit games, this mini-game is a must-play. And if you like Captain Qwark, I guarantee you’ll love “MBRH”, as we call it internally.

We also unveiled the official RCF: A Crack in Time launch trailer, which features the whole cast of characters and really captures the heroic, epic tone we were shooting for in the game. (Watch for yourself and let us know what ya think!)

After the panel, we stuffed everyone’s faces with pizza before whisking them upstairs for an autographs session with the entire Insomniac crew. To ward off the threatening post-lunch food comas, we reinvigorated every fan in attendance by giving away a free copy of RCF: A Crack in Time, their choice of exclusive Insomniac-created posters, a Captain Qwark logo T-shirt and…wait for it…an inflatable wrench!

But that wasn’t all! Full Moon Fest concluded with complimentary cocktails and a raffle for PS3 Slims, PSPgos, DualShock controllers, rare Insomniac memorabilia and much, much more. We even auctioned off one set of our exceedingly rare Ratchet, Clank and Qwark vinyls, which generated $400 for the Starlight Foundation.

In the end, our amazing fans were treated to a day they deserve. And everyone at Insomniac was treated to meeting some of the people who inspire us all to make games for a living. A memorable day indeed.

And don’t forget, the second RCF: A Crack in Time demo — the Ratchet demo — hits PSN this Thursday…make sure to check it out!

Throughout history, October 23 has been a pretty dreary day. Aside from the creation of the Smurfs (yes, it’s true) and for some, the Universe itself, October 23 has generally been a good day to crawl under a rock and hide. Seriously, look for yourself.

But all that is about to change on October 23, 2009…because Insomniac’s 2nd Community Day Full Moon Festival (I just made this name up) is going to rock. We will celebrate the North American launch of Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time with YOU, our faithful and fearless fans. And we can’t wait, because we’ve got a solid helping of awesome in store for you. Best of all, it’s free!

Exclusive video reveals? CHECK. Exclusive merchandise? CHECK. Special (non-Insomniac) guest appearances? CHECK, CHECK, and CHECK. Awesome raffle prizes? You know it! Pizza? Tons!

Speaking of raffle prizes, by now you’re probably wondering A) “OMG! Are those Ratchet & Clank vinyls I see?!” and B) “OMG, I can has?!” Yes, and Yes (sort of). If you are fortunate enough to participate in the Full Moon Festival, you can bid to win ONE extremely limited edition set of Ratchet & Clank (and Captain Qwark) vinyls, with all proceeds going to the Starlight Foundation. The vinyls were designed and created by Insomniacs for Insomniacs, so only employees and a very select few others will ever own these beautiful babies. Maybe you’ll be among the lucky ones.

If you already RSVP’d on the Facebook events page and you live 50 or more miles from our Burbank studio, you are guaranteed entry. We’ve got folks flying and driving from all over the country and we definitely don’t want to leave them hanging. If you live within 50 miles of Insomniac, please arrive early to ensure you get in.

Registration will take place beginning at 10 a.m. in the lobby of the Burbank Marriott hotel, which is just a few steps from Insomniac HQ. Don’t worry, we’ll be heading there for lunch and an autographs session after a “Making of A Crack in Time” panel discussion with some familiar faces (and voices). (Speaking of, if you’d like us to ask one of YOUR questions in the panel, ping me @insomniacgames on Twitter. I’ll be moderating the panel.) Then, we’ll be heading back to the hotel for gameplay and a very cool raffle contest with some great prizes. We’ll wrap up the best October 23 ever with cocktails around 3 p.m.

I hope to meet many of you on Community Day. Come by and say hi, and bring your Ratchet & Clank, Resistance and Insomniac merchandise to get signed by the dev team!

See you on October 23!

You’ve heard from James Stevenson in this blog. You’ve heard from Bryan Intihar. You’ve even heard from Ted Price.

But you haven’t heard from me yet! I’m Ryan Schneider, Insomniac’s Community Director (jstevenson’s long lost “stunt double” for you NeoGaf veterans). I want to personally invite you to what I hope becomes a long-standing tradition – our Community Day event at Insomniac HQ in Burbank (Calif.).

Nothing makes us happier at Insomniac than celebrating our accomplishments with our fans. Last year, we hosted our first Community Day here to commemorate the launch of Resistance 2 (see images). We conducted a panel discussion with the dev team, served a gigantic lunch, fragged each other silly in MP/co-op matches and signed a ton of autographs. In short, it was a success.

We want to do it again, only bigger and better. So on Friday, October 23 from 10:30 AM to 4:00 PM, please join us to celebrate the upcoming October 27 North American launch of Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. There will be (rare) swag to give away. There will be autographs to collect – maybe even a couple from some famous non-Insomniacs. There will be food and drink to consume. And there will be many Insomniacs milling about to meet along with possibly another surprise or two.

We hope you can join us! We’ll take care of the event, so all you have to take care of is getting here. The first 120 people will get in, so make sure to arrive early (there’s only so many people we can fit inside the studio). Visit our Facebook event page for details and be kept apprised of event updates (under 18 must have a parent or guardian in attendance). Of course, I’ll be sending updates via our Twitter feed (@insomniacgames) so stay tuned there as well.

Looking forward to meeting you on October 23!