Insomaniac Games was involved in a lot of people's adolescence. With games like the Ratchet and Clank series, they definitely had some of the most fun games out there. But there's one little purple dragon that really started it all for them: Spyro the Dragon.
Speaking in an interview with IGN about their start, rise to fame and continued independence, John Fiorito (perhaps surprisingly) said about the success of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure: "It’s interesting, because looking back, if [Skylander developer Toys for Bob] had done the fourth one and they had done this hugely successful game that blew us away, I might feel kind of bad about that. It was pretty easy to leave it behind.”
The Insomniac developer team was incredibly small ranging from 10 people to about 25 when developing Spyro. And they came out with one game after another, so it's no wonder they were tired of it.
"I think, doing three games in three years, it was just non-stop. It felt really good to do something different. Still though, Insomniac didn't always like what was done with the subsequent games.
“If you’d asked me [how I felt about other developers working on the game] a year ago, I’d probably say something like, ‘Well, look what happened to this stupid franchise. It turned into garbage.’" Fiorito said. "But clearly someone did something really brilliant with it."
Fiorito also added that he wished he could have been a part of Skylanders’ success. "“It’s such a cool idea," but he says "It wouldn’t have worked when we were making Spyro. It’s like the right place at the right time.”
It's great to see that despite losing the IP, Insomniac harbors no ill will toward the success of others. It's also nice to know that the newest Spyro games live up to its creator's hopes, especially when both gave so much to so many.
