Insomniac Games

Insomniac Games, Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Video game industry
Founded	1994
Headquarters	Burbank, California, USA
Key people	Ted Price (CEO)
Number of employees	145Kingdom Hearts From Kingdom Hearts WikiJump to: navigation, search This article is about the series. You may be looking for other uses of Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts (キングダムハーツ, Kingudamu Hatsu) is a series of action role-playing games (RPG) developed and published by Square Enix (formerly Squaresoft). It is the result of a collaboration between Square and Disney Interactive Studios and is under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square character designer. Kingdom Hearts is a crossover of various Disney settings based in a universe made specifically for the series. In addition, it has an all-star voice cast which includes many of the Disney characters' official voice actors. Characters from Square Enix's Final Fantasy series make appearances and interact with the player and Disney characters. The series centers around the main character Sora's search for his friends and his encounters with Disney and Final Fantasy characters on their worlds. The Kingdom Hearts series currently consists of four games across different video game platforms, and future titles are planned. Most of the games in the series have been both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, though each installment has seen varying levels of success. As of December 2006, the Kingdom Hearts series has shipped over ten million copies worldwide, with 2.0 million copies in PAL regions, 3.0 million copies in Japan, and 5.6 million copies in North America. There have been several types of merchandise released along with the games, such as soundtracks, figurines, and companion books. In addition, the games have also been adapted into a manga (now at CoM 1/2) series and novels. The theme for Kingdom Hearts is "Simple and Clean" by Utada Hikaru. Contents [hide] 1 Overview 2 Creation and Influence 3 Gameplay 4 Story 5 Timeline 5.1 Final Mixe's and Remake's 6 Trivia edit OverviewFurther information: Characters of Kingdom Hearts Kingdom Hearts features a mixture of familiar Disney and Final Fantasy characters, as well as several new characters designed and created by Nomura. Though the series features locations unique to the Kingdom Hearts franchise, worlds from Disney films are heavily explored. Sora must visit these worlds and interact with popular Disney characters to protect them from enemies. Often, Sora's actions in these worlds follow closely to the storylines featured in their accompanying Disney films. In one of the dialogues, Donald Duck tells Sora not to interfere with the worlds too much, since such interference would cause problems. Moogles, small creatures from Final Fantasy, are another common element in the games. They provide the player with synthesis shops in order to create items for use in the game. edit Creation and Influence The Kingdom Hearts series is directed by Tetsuya Nomura, who also works as the character designer of the games. Nomura has stated that unlike working with Final Fantasy characters, keeping the main character Sora alive and interesting over multiple games is a challenge. He has also stated that though many of the Disney characters are not normally dark and serious, there were not many challenges making them so for the story, and despite this, their personalities shine because they maintain their own characteristics. Though Disney gave Nomura freedom in the characters and worlds used for the games, he and his staff tried to stay within the established roles of characters and boundaries of the worlds. When deciding which worlds to include in the game, the development staff tried to take into account worlds with Disney characters that would be interesting. The inclusion of specific Final Fantasy characters was based on the opinions of fans and the development staff. Another criteria for inclusion was whether the staff felt the characters would fit into the storyline and in the Kingdom Hearts universe. Initially, Nomura was hesitant to use characters he did not design, because he was unfamiliar with the background work of such characters. For Kingdom Hearts II, he changed his mind after receiving pressure from his staff. Throughout the development of the games, Nomura has often left certain events and connections between characters unexplained until the release of future games. Nomura did this because he feels that games should have room for fans to speculate and use their imagination. He stated that with speculation, even though a game gets old, people can still be happy with it. edit GameplayThe Kingdom Hearts series contains both 3rd-person fighting and role-playing game elements. The games are driven by a linear progression to the next story event, usually told in the form of a cutscene, though there are numerous side quests available that provide bonus benefits to the characters. Furthermore, there are allies to aid the main character, Sora. The allies in play rely fully on A.I controls, though players could later modify and customize their ability usage frequency. The combat system takes on real-time, meaning Sora could engage the enemy directly; various actions, such as attack and magic, are executable, during or after the battle. In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the combat system was altered slightly, Sora is no longer aided with his friends, all of his combat commands, are only executable via Cards. The real-time combat system was also taken away, where the scene flashes whenever Sora engages an enemy, taking them to a wider combat field. The Gummi Ship is another common theme in the series, where it serves as a means of transportation for Sora and company to travel towards other worlds. Players can modify and customize these ships via blueprints and selected parts. In the release of Final Mix, the first game contained Gummi Ship side quests. However, due to the criticism regarding the complexity of the Gummi Ship customization, the third game's Gummi Ship was toned down, providing easier and wider modifications, allowing players to customize it into either a small classed battle ship, or a grand carrier. Another recurring element of the Kingdom Hearts series is Jiminy's Journal, which functions as a bestiary and provides hints and simple character information. The journal also records Sora's mini-game results, as well as unfinished side quests, allowing players to have easier resolutions to track the game. In Kingdom Hearts II, the battle system introduced a new gameplay element: Drive Forms, which allow Sora to gain access to new abilities via his combat garment, and wielding two Keyblades for a limited time. (However, only several forms have this ability). Magics are simpler to execute, and Sora's MP gauge will recharge automatically one it is used up. Another gameplay element introduced in the third series of the franchise is the Reaction Command, various combat abilities only executable via several situations. The games are influenced by their parent franchise, Final Fantasy, and carry its gameplay elements over into their own action-based, hack-and-slash system. Like many traditional role-playing games, Kingdom Hearts features an experience point system which determines character development. As enemies are defeated, the player gains experience which culminate in a "level-up", where the characters grow stronger and gain access to new abilities. The amount of experience is shared with all party members and each character grows stronger as experience is gained. edit StoryThe three main games in Kingdom Hearts series focus on the adventures of Sora and his search for his friends, Kairi and Riku. The first game shows how Sora is separated from his friends when their world is invaded by an army of corrupted hearts known as the Heartless. During the invasion, he obtains a special weapon known as a Keyblade. Soon after, Sora meets Donald Duck, the Disney Castle court magician, and Goofy, the Disney Castle captain of the Royal Guards. Donald and Goofy are searching for the "key" per instructions from King Mickey. The three band together and travel to different Disney-themed worlds, sealing the hearts of the worlds to prevent more Heartless invasions. Along the way they encounter a group of Disney villains, led by Maleficent, who are controlling the Heartless. The three eventually discover that a man named Ansem is the true antagonist. Ansem's plan is to open the door to Kingdom Hearts. Sora, Donald, and Goofy defeat Ansem, and seal the door with the help of Riku and King Mickey on the other side of the door. After sealing the door to Kingdom Hearts, the three begin searching for Riku and King Mickey. They encounter a mysterious fortress called Castle Oblivion. Upon entering the fortress, they begin to lose their memories. The three encounter a group of dark hooded villains referred to as the Organization. After defeating the Organization members in the castle, Sora learns his memories have been manipulated by a girl named Naminé who is controlled by the Organization. To allow them to regain their memories, Naminé puts Sora, Donald, and Goofy to sleep for a year. While the three are ascending to the top floor of the castle, Riku and King Mickey arrive in the basement and begin traveling to the top as well. Riku fights the darkness in his heart and learns to accept his dual nature between light and dark. A year later, Sora, Donald, and Goofy awaken and continue their search for Riku and King Mickey. They learn of the Nobodies and their leaders, Organization XIII. Afterwards, Maleficent is resurrected and joins with Pete, another Disney villain, to continue her quest for power. Sora once again travels to many Disney-themed worlds and resolves the troubles caused by Organization XIII, the Heartless, Maleficent and Pete, and local villains. Meanwhile, Kairi is kidnapped by the Organization. They meet King Mickey, who reveals the true nature of Ansem, the antagonist of Kingdom Hearts. The Ansem who Sora defeated was actually the Heartless of Xehanort, a student of Ansem the Wise. Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII, reveals himself to be the Nobody of Xehanort. The three arrive at the headquarters of Organization XIII, with Kingdom Hearts looming overhead. Ansem the Wise uses a device that dissipates some of Kingdom Hearts' power, but a system overload causes the machine to explode and kill Ansem. At the top of Organization XIII's castle, Sora and his friends battle Xemnas, who uses the remnants of Kingdom Hearts to fight them. After Xemnas' death, Sora and Riku are reunited with their friends at Destiny Islands, their home. edit TimelineThe series is mostly in sequential order. The first game in the timeline is Birth by Sleep, telling the story of three keybearers during the Keyblade War. 10 years later is where the first Kingdom Hearts picks up, revolving around the first adventure of Sora. Next is Chain of Memories, taking place in between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. It also takes place during parts of 358/2 Days. Kingdom Hearts II follows Chain of Memories, and takes place one year after Kingdom Hearts though it is more so a sequel to Kingdom Hearts rather than the Gameboy Advance game. Finally, there is Coded, which takes place right where Kingdom Hearts II left off. 358/2 Days doesn't have a real spot in the timeline, for it takes place from the time Sora turned into a Heartless, to right before the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II, which is 358 days. The 7 days of Kingdom Hearts 2's prequel can be an extension to the DS game. So from when Sora sacrifices himself to when he wakes up is a little more than a year, if you still count the time between the events of Hollow Bastion and the ending of Kingdom Hearts. 358 is also a sequel to Chain of Memories, since the GBA game mentioned "the other side of Sora's heart," and it takes place right after Riku's story, telling what happened from when Riku joined DiZ to his disappearance and search for Roxas. This is the order of the games released in chronological order within the series, along with the main class of enemies encountered. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PSP) (Unbirths) Kingdom Hearts (PS2) (Heartless) Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (GBA & PS2) (Heartless and Nobody) Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (NDS) (Heartless and Nobody) Kingdom Hearts II (PS2) (Heartless and Nobody) Kingdom Hearts coded (C) (Heartless) [edit] Final Mixe's and Remake'sTwo games in the series have been rereleased with bonus content, and one game was remade completely. Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix (Japanese release only) Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ (Japanese release only) Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories 3D remake of Chain of Memories (Japanese and US releases)
Parent	Sony Computer Entertainment
Website	www.insomniacgames.com

Insomniac Games, Inc. is an independent American video game developer founded in 1994 that has released titles for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 video game consoles. They created Disruptor, the first three hugely successful Spyro the Dragon games, and the Ratchet & Clank franchise, which have combined to sell over 25 million copies worldwide and have won dozens of awards. Insomniac released Resistance: Fall of Man in 2006, a first-person shooter and PlayStation 3 launch game. In 2007, Insomniac released Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, their first Ratchet & Clank title for the PlayStation 3. In 2008, the company released their first title for the PlayStation Network, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty, and their third PlayStation 3 title, Resistance 2. At the moment they are currently developing a sequel to Quest for Booty. Insomniac Games have sold a total of 32 million games for the PlayStation series.

Company overview

File:Insomniac Games Logo.png

The original logo for Insomniac Games

Insomniac was founded in 1994 as an independent video game developer and is now based in Burbank, California. Its initial game, a first-person shooter called Disruptor for the PlayStation, was released on November 20, 1996, and received critical success. Since then, the company has released eight more games in two series (both of which were created by the company) for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 and all have been both critical and commercial successes. After the company produced the first three Spyro the Dragon games, the company sold the Spyro license to Universal Interactive, now know as Vivendi Games. They later went on to create the Ratchet & Clank series. The first Ratchet & Clank has the notable distinction of being the first western-produced game to be officially bundled with the PlayStation 2 in Japan. This was a result of Ratchet & Clank being the first western video game to make Japan's top 100 list.

The company has been named as one of the top 10 Best Small Companies to work for in America for 3 years in a row for their relaxed environment and flexible hours.

In 2003, a few of Insomniac's staff members, left the company to create a new company called High Impact Games.

In 2006, Insomniac released a comparatively mature, M-rated PlayStation 3 first-person shooter, very unlike its other works. Its name during production was I-8, but it was later renamed Resistance: Fall of Man. The game's futuristic weapons seem to be influenced by the company's Ratchet & Clank series.

At the 2008 Game Developers Conference, Insomniac announced a new project titled the Nocturnal Initiative. This is a free wiki based project designed to encourage the distribution of development technologies which may be used in other games. Insomniac has shared technology they developed for use in titles such as Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Resistance 2.

In an interview with GameDaily BIZ in June 2008, Ted Price announced that Insomniac Games plans to expand and open a sister studio in North Carolina, with Chad Dezern taking on the role of studio director. Dezern will be hiring twenty-five to thirty new developers and will prepare the studio to begin work on games based on new and existing intellectual properties.

In Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando and Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, the player can visit an easter egg known as the "Insomniac Museum". This is located on the planets Dantopia (a reference to Dan Johnson who has since passed away) and Burbank (a reference to the company's location). The museum lets players find items, enemies, objects and conceptions that did not make it into the final resulting games. The Insomniac Museum in both games has the actual layout of the Insomniac Games offices.

Games

Insomniac Games have released twelve games since the company was formed, with one currently in development.

Game Title	US Release Date	Platform
Disruptor	November 20, 1996	PlayStation
Spyro the Dragon	September 10, 1998	PlayStation
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!	November 2, 1999	PlayStation
Spyro: Year of the Dragon	October 11, 2000	PlayStation
Ratchet & Clank	November 7, 2002	PlayStation 2
Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando	November 11, 2003	PlayStation 2
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal	November 2, 2004	PlayStation 2
Ratchet: Deadlocked	October 25, 2005	PlayStation 2
Resistance: Fall of Man	November 17, 2006	PlayStation 3
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction	October 23, 2007	PlayStation 3
Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty	August 21, 2008	PlayStation 3
Resistance 2	November 4, 2008	PlayStation 3
Ratchet & Clank Future: (TBA)	Fall, 2009	PlayStation 3

People

• Ted Price (President & CEO)
• Alex Hastings (Chief Technology Officer)
• Brian Hastings (Chief Creative Officer)
• Chad Dezern (Art Director)
• See also: Team members

The Full Moon Show

On the first and third Thursday of every month, Insomniac Games releases a new episode of The Full Moon Show, which lets gamers know what is happening in the world of Insomniac Games, along with community updates regarding Resistance: Fall of Man and their online community. Episodes can be downloaded either from the Insomniac website, iTunes, or the Zune marketplace. Insomniac Games has started to include members of their community in their podcasts.

Relationships with other developers

Naughty Dog

Insomniac has had a close relationship with developer Naughty Dog from when the two companies worked together in the same building on a Universal Studios back-lot. The company makes games that are similar in style, which sometimes contain references to each other. Demos for one company's games often appear on the other's releases. For example, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! contained a demo of Crash Team Racing. Because of their friendship, many fans have wondered if the two companies would collaborate on a game. However, it has been publicly stated that the two companies do not have plans for making a game together, although both Jak II and Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando feature billboard cameos of each others heroes (and a scene in Going Commando shows Ratchet playing both Jak games). This is taken one step further in Jak X: Combat Racing and Ratchet: Deadlocked as both feature Ratchet and Jak respectively as unlockable skins/characters. In the game Daxter, a Ratchet and a Clank mask can be found.

Contrary to popular belief, Insomniac never borrowed any part or form of the PlayStation 2 engine code or technology from Naughty Dog to use on the Ratchet & Clank games. As for the two companies' direct involvement, Naughty Dog's Richard Lemarchand said: "We don't really trade anything concrete in terms of technology, but we definitely compare war stories of life in the trenches, and try and learn from each other's experiences." Ted Price described Insomniac's stance on engine technology, saying:

"We've always developed all our own technology. It's been a little frustrating in the past for us to hear people say, 'Oh yeah, the Insomniac game is running on the Naughty Dog engine.' People assumed that we were using Naughty Dog's engine for Ratchet, and that was not true. We shared some technology with Naughty Dog way back when, and that was great, but we are a company that puts stock in developing specialized technology and we will continue to do so." -- Ted Price, Independent PlayStation Magazine, September 2006

High Impact Games

High Impact Games is a company formed by ex-Insomniac staff. They have released the titles Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters and Secret Agent Clank for the PlayStation Portable, as well as a PlayStation 2 port of Size Matters.

External links

• Official website