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!

Yesterday I had the privilege of talking with Insomniac’s Brian Allgeier, Creative Director on the Ratchet and Clank series. Brian took the time to answer all manner of your questions, ranging from difficulty to side missions to the art in the instruction booklet, along with video to back it up.

If you’re planning on attending this morning’s Insomniac Community Day #2 in Burbank, CA – here’s the info.

PROTIP: get there early.

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!

Also to celebrate the launch, you’ve been invited to Insomniac Games’ Community Day as well as the PlayStation Home space for Ratchet & Clank. We’ve even dropped the price of Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty!

And the hits keep coming, as I’m happy to announce today that this Thursday on the PlayStation Store, you’ll be able to download the first of TWO Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time demos and we’re inviting you to check out the Clank Demo.

In this demo, you’ll take get to take control of Clank as he explores the Great Clock learning more about his past and his new time-based abilities that you’ll need to utilize to solve puzzles and defeat some of Dr. Nefarious’ minions. This is some brand new gameplay that Insomniac Games is introducing to the series and we all hope you enjoy it!

Details on the second demo, the Ratchet Demo, will be coming in the next few days, so keep an eye out! In the meantime, check out these sweet videos showing off some of Ratchet’s new arsenal and giving you more information about the Constructo line of weapons!

And this week, Insomniac Games Creative Director Brian Allgeier will be stopping by PlayStation.Blog for a PlayStation Eye Chat. So make sure to ask your questions in the comments section!

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!

There will be much new content hitting over the next couple of weeks – including some special coverage on G4’s X-Play where you’ll see one of our time travel levels for the first time.

In the meantime though, head over to Game Informer to check out this special video we put together for their recent site re-launch. It’s all about the replay mode in the game. We spent a lot of time adding extra replay features, a special uber-boss you have to collect all of the Zoni to fight, the Insomniac Museum, optional super-hard Clank puzzles, and of course trophies, which are in addition to the Insomniac-created “Skill Points” we’ve had in all of our games since Spyro: Ripto’s Rage.

That’s all for now – if you haven’t pre-ordered the game already, we have some great in-game pre-order bonuses from our various retail partners Gamestop, Amazon, Best Buy and Game Crazy. And if you haven’t checked out the Future series of games yet, Tools of Destruction is available as a Greatest Hits title now at $29.99 – so you have a couple weeks to catch up (when you’re not playing UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves, of course).

If you have any questions, post them below and I’ll do my best to answer as many as I can!

October 27 is fast approaching, so don’t forget about the pre-order bonuses!

If that’s not enough, we’re offering some cool Ratchet & Clank goodies for those who pre-order their copy of the game. Here’s a highlight of some of the items you’ll receive when you pre-order Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time from participating retailers:

‘Discovery Package’ – Explore the Insomniac Moon with a special level that resembles the layout of Insomniac Games’ studio offices. A fan favorite, the Moon is filled with content that didn’t quite make the final game, sort of like deleted scenes on DVDs. You can earn this unlockable on your own, but Insomniac certainly won’t make it easy for ya!

‘Power Package’ – Up your arsenal with an exclusive weapon skin for one of Ratchet’s weapons along with extra hit points and Ratchet’s brand new Cryo Mine Glove.

‘Bolt Package’ – Bolster your bolt count with 5,000 free bolts care of Ratchet’s most bolt-centric power-ups, the Bolt Magnetizer and Box Basher.

‘Space Package’ – Drift off into space with an exclusive hot rod skin for Ratchet’s ship, the Aphelion, along with 5,000 free bolts and an exclusive Ratchet & Clank PlayStation Home Avatar skin

For those of you attending PAX this week, a quick reminder to stop by the Unicorn Theatre on Friday, September 4 from 1:30-2:30 p.m. You’ll be treated to a panel presentation by Insomniac’s Creative Director Brian Allgeier on the history of Ratchet & Clank weapons, as well as the unveiling of a few new ones.

Also, make sure to tune into GTTV on Spike this Thursday at 12:30 am for an all-new special cinematic unveil. For those who miss the show, check it out this weekend at GameTrailers.com.

We have a lot more in the pipeline for the weeks ahead, so please stay tuned!

But don’t take our word for it! We also had IGN into our studio earlier this week to check it out and get some extensive hands-on in one of the space sectors – you can read all of their thoughts here.

One of our favorite parts of space gameplay is how it really rewards you for exploring. The various spherical moons contain Zoni, which allow you to upgrade your ship’s abilities and weapons, and are also required to face-off against our final uber-boss in replay mode (that’s right, hardcore fans, a special boss you’ll need to get beat to get the last trophy). There’s also a huge incentive to explore in that you can discover new mods for your constructo weapons. We’re also really excited because the designers have created some excellent platforming and hoverbooting moons –and some of them, especially later in the game, will challenge long-time platformer fans. 

The other star of the show is Space Radio with its zany commercials, and movie trailers, and fun DJs (like Captain Slag and Rusty Pete on Pirate Radio). Fans paying attention to the news reports will also discover answers to some of their biggest questions about the Ratchet & Clank universe, providing plenty of incentive to tune in while you’re exploring space.

We’re excited about this brand new space gameplay as we are continuing to push hard to wrap up the game. For fans traveling to PAX in Seattle next week – make sure you stop by the Sony booth and check out both the Krell Canyon and Great Clock demos. We’ll also have Ratchet in costume, and we will be handing out the mega-popular Comic-Con swag inflatable wrenches. Creative Director Brian Allgeier will also be giving a presentation about the history of Ratchet & Clank weapons (along with some new ones) called Weapons 101.  You can catch that presentation Friday, from 2-3pm in the Unicorn Theatre.

That’s all for now, hope you like the space gameplay. I’ll be happy to try and answer your questions about in the comments below!

Throughout the course of the show, attendees could check out the Krell Canyon demo at the PlayStation booth. There were also photo opportunities with Ratchet himself, as well as swag: an inflatable replica of Ratchet’s Omniwrench 2000.

All of this built up to Sunday, when we revealed all of this and much more to the public in our panel session. Creative Director Brian Allgeier, Project Manager Bryan Bernal, and Writer Todd Fixman were joined by voice actors James Arnold Taylor (Ratchet), Armin Shimerman (Dr. Nefarious), and Joey D’Auria (Allister Azimuth). The panel was moderated by Gamespot Editor-In-Chief Ricardo Torres.

We led off with some exclusive videos that those of you playing at home won’t be able to see until the final game releases, one involving Captain Qwark, and the other an unlockable video about the Agorian Warriors. Allgeier and company then discussed the story, and its theme of “throwing caution to the wind,” especially relating to the effect of Ratchet being with an older Lombax for the first time. One of the early highlights involved a verbal spar between Taylor and Shimerman, using the voices of Ratchet and Dr. Nefarious, respectively, as they sat together on stage talk about Nefarious’s temperament issues.

Discussion then turned to Clank and his whereabouts after being kidnapped at the end of Tools of Destruction. Bernal revealed that Clank is being held at the center of the universe (give or take fifty feet), in a secret facility known as the Great Clock. Clank gains new time abilities and has some brand new indie-inspired time gameplay.

For more about Clank and the first footage of his gameplay, check out this video:

Next came a topic that is a series standby: weapons. The beginning of the discussion centered on the Weapons Contest event that occurred on Wednesday evening. The Spiral of Death was revisited and shown in case attendees hadn’t seen it. Winning fan designer Jackson Finley was recognized by Bernal, and the crowd gave him a huge round of applause. If you haven’t seen the Spiral of Death in action, check this video out:

Torres then moved onto the world reveal of a brand new line of weapons for A Crack in Time, The Constructo weapons. Brian Allgeier discussed how fans really enjoyed the ability to specifically tailor weapons to their own playing-style with modifications in Deadlocked and Up Your Arsenal. He announced two new weapons, the Constructo Pistol and Constructo Bomb Glove, and revealed some mods that longtime series fans will love – the video below shows and explains more.

The voice actors discussed their work on the game and how much fun they have had working with these characters over the years. James Arnold Taylor discussed how Ratchet’s voice is really his voice, and as such it’s really one of his easiest characters to jump into (which he did repeatedly throughout the panel). He also mentioned that it was only during this past year that he met David Kaye, the actor who voices Clank, as game voice actors typically record their sessions separately.

Armin Shimerman told attendees he generally has to take the next day off after recording Nefarious due to the amount of screaming a session involves, especially due to his perception of Nefarious screaming a lot more in this game. However, this didn’t dissuade him from screaming for the audience, including the classic yelling at his butler, “LAAAAAAAAWREEEEEENCE.” Newcomer to the franchise Joey D’Auria discussed voicing the first new male Lombax in the series, and how much he’s learned from the other voice actors, particularly Taylor. He also discussed how Azimuth’s character arc and how impressed he has been with the evolution of gaming as a storytelling medium.

We recently announced that we were partnering with DC Direct to bring fans the first Ratchet & Clank action figures. These long-awaited figures, including Ratchet, Clank, Nefarious and Qwark, were brought on stage to give fans a chance to see them before their release on December 2nd.

Before the Q&A, attendees were treated to the world premiere of the brand new trailer for the game, which you can watch below. The trailer includes the first glimpse at a new level in the game, Axiom City.

Finally, the group then took some fan questions. Highlights included a young fan who asked about the RYNO. Before anyone on the panel could answer, the fan proceeded to remind the panel of what each RYNO from each game did to crowd laughter and applause. Allgeier confirmed the RYNO as well as the Tools of Destruction fan-favorite, the Groovitron, will return in A Crack in Time. A fan asked if multiplayer would be included, to which Allgeier said the team was focused on closing the story arc started in Tools of Destruction and Quest For Booty while creating an epic single-player experience (also bringing applause). Another fan asked if The Plumber would return, to which Fixman revealed that he indeed would.

Everyone on the panel had a fantastic time. We here at Insomniac want to send a big thank you to all of our fans who came to see us and asked questions and came up afterwards to chat with us, ask for autographs, and take photos. We also want to send out a big thank you to James, Armin and Joey for taking the time to participate and see their fans. A huge thank you goes out to Ricardo Torres for moderating the panel, as well. We also are grateful to everyone at Comic-Con for giving us the opportunity and space to present new features and video directly to our fans. Finally, we want to thank everyone at Sony Computer Entertainment who helped put this together, including all of our PR/Marketing folks as well as all of the event folks who helped us out on the floor when trying to hand out thousands of inflatable wrenches.

That’s all for now – we hope you enjoyed this recap of the panel and the videos. Next up for us is GamesCom in Cologne, Germany, where we will reveal a bunch more new stuff, including the first look at our Space gameplay.

We’ll try to answer your questions in the comments – but as I’m writing this from a plane, Bryan Intihar may chime in as well.

Thanks for all your support! It was great to see so many of you at Comic-Con!
JS