To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ratchet & Clank, and to help usher in the upcoming release of the Ratchet & Clank HD Collection on PS3, Chief Operating Officer at Insomniac Games John Fiorito took the time to put together an illuminating post looking at the history and creation of the original game in pictures. Specifically, the pictures in question are a number of scans of vintage concept art, depicting early representations of the game's main characters, environments and other game assets.
The post, brought to our attention via a quick announcement on PlayStation.Blog, contains a compilation of images and other material that go all the way back to 2002, some of which demonstrate the early planning stages for the game.
The image shown above is actually an unfinished sketch by Fiorito , depicting "further exploration that would become our style: exotic alien vegetation, craters, and retro-futuristic structures with rounded aerodynamic forms. Eventually this concept evolved into planet Novalis- Tobruk Crater, the first full campaign level in Ratchet & Clank.”
Other images, like the one below, show off different running ideas for what the characters should look like:
“Dave [Guertin]’s first designs for Clank were also very different. In this sketch, Clank appears to be a mechanical lizard. Only his eyes and articulated legs carried through to the final design," explains Fiorito.
Scrolling down the page, the post also reveals the videos the company presented to Sony to get the project greenlit, basically plotting a timeline for the game's evolution through the use of videos and concept art images. We see the change as the ideas get more refined, the art more sophisticated, eventually transforming into the Ratchet & Clank we know today.
Take a look at the opened time capsule here.
Ratchet & Clank HD Collection launches on PS3 and PS Vita on August 28 in North America. It is already available in Europe.