Shack: A lot of folks were surprised to see Insomniac produce a gritty first-person shooter after nearly a decade of bright and cartoony platformers. However, Insomniac's first title was a first person shooter for the original PlayStation, titled Disruptor. Was Resistance originally pitched as a modern update to Disruptor?

Ryan Schneider: Never. Disruptor is our first game. I know for [chief creative officer] Brian Hastings, [chief technology officer] Al Hastings, [founder and CEO] Ted Price, and [consulant and Cerny Games president] Mark Cerny, it definitely has a special place in their hearts. From the very beginning of Resistance: Fall of Man, back when it was called I-8, it was always meant to be its own franchise and its own universe with its own unique characters. Resistance is not so much a nod to Disruptor, but more of a symbol of how far Insomniac has come as a studio.

Shack: Can you talk about how Resistance evolved during development? At the review event, Ted off-handedly mentioned that it was originally set in the future.

Ryan Schneider: It was more futuristic, it was more of a sci-fi space opera. There were elements of interdimensional travel. It was a very complex universe and story. We wanted to figure out a way to create a more rooted universe that was still foreign and intriguing but somehow familiar and relatable. That's what led us to rooting the Resistance universe on Earth.

Shack: What led to the alternate history angle?

Ryan Schneider: If you look at what the strengths of Insomniac are, especially in terms of weapons design, we wanted to create something that wasn't confined to the technology of the era. We looked at a variety of different eras when creating Resistance, we kind of honed in on post-World War 2 / Korean War, when the Korean War would have been. It just gives us so many more opportunities to mix up the familiar with something you haven't quite seen before.

Shack: Are there plans to revisit Disruptor someday?

Ryan Schneider: I would say it's doubtful. I believe that Universal owns the IP for it, so that would make it very difficult.

Shack: Similar to the situation with Spyro, then?

Ryan Schneider: Yea, exactly. You won't see us making Spyro games again, and I think it's safe to say that you won't see us making Disruptor again.

Shack: Do you know if Universal plans to release either Spyro or Disruptor on the PlayStation store?

Ryan Schneider: I have no idea. We don't actively communicate with Universal/Vivendi on anything, really.

Shack: What was it like to see High Impact Games take on Ratchet and Clank in Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters for PSP?

Ryan Schneider: If anybody's going to work on a Ratchet & Clank game, we want people who have experience creating Ratchet & Clank to do so. The people who are at High Impact, many of them worked on the very earliest versions of Ratchet & Clank. It was cool and amusing to see how the Ratchet & Clank universe would fit into the handheld space. We were kept apprised, on a basic level, [of] what High Impact was up to, and we supported them every step of the way.

Shack: So Insomniac was pretty happy with the way the game turned out?

Ryan Schneider: Absolutely, yea. It seemed like the media was, it seemed like fans were, it seemed like everybody really accepted it into the Ratchet & Clank canon nicely. I think that's because they had a lot of talented people working on it, many of whom, or at least some of whom, had come from Insomniac. It really made for a nice transition.

Shack: Are there plans for any more PSP editions of Insomniac games?

Ryan Schneider: Not at this time.

Shack: Really? I was hoping for another Ratchet & Clank on PSP.

Ryan Schneider: Well, if you're asking me if Insomniac has plans for those, I can say with confidence not at this time. I don't know what High Impact's plans are, there very well may be one. But there isn't going to be an Insomniac handheld game anytime soon.

Shack: I guess I should rephrase the question. Are there any plans for future PSP editions of Insomniac properties?

Ryan Schneider: That's a great way to ask that question. For Ratchet & Clank, you'd have to ask High Impact.

Shack: And for Resistance?

Ryan Schneider: We don't have any plans at this time.

Shack: Insomniac regularly releases one game a year, and that schedule didn't skip a beat when switching between PlayStation 2 and 3. How did the studio handle the challenges of developing Resistance and establishing the technology behind it while sticking to that timeframe?

Ryan Schneider: It's kind of like how we were able to work on Ratchet & Clank Future while working on Resistance, you have different teams working on different things. Over time, we've really been able to perfect our production processes and there's been a lot of trial and error that has gone with that. That's really the short version, there's a lot of trial and error that goes into making games and fine-tuning the process. We're actually at a point now where Ratchet & Clank Future is the smoothest game we've ever made in terms of general production cycle, continuity, and workflow.

It takes a lot of work to get to that point. It really does come down to trial and error, a lot of pre-production planning, being consistent and being disciplined.

Shack: How has the studio setup management adapted to produce that more efficient product cycle?

Ryan Schneider: I think one of the biggest things that Insomniac did over the past few years is introduce and integrate a product management team. They're sort of like our internal producers. They do a great job of keeping the project on-task and fighting the good fight between feature creep and meeting deadlines. That has really helped a lot.

We overhauled our production structure in terms of incorporating project management. We also, through training and development internally, took a hard look at how we made games and figured out where the gaps were and how we could improve upon them.

Shack: With Ratchet & Clank Future out this fall, what's coming next year?

Ryan Schneider: I would love to talk about next year, but I can't. A lot of people are anticipating what we might be doing next. In fact, people are creating fan art already, anticipating what we're doing next, which is really cool, because that shows people are excited about what we may or may not be doing. We can't really talk about exactly what that is just yet.

Shack: Has Insomniac considered developing downloadable PlayStation Network titles?

Ryan Schneider: We're definitely talking about it. We don't have anything to announce right now, but it is something we're interested in. We're watching the PlayStation Network store, we played [Incognito's] Calling All Cars!, we're playing a lot of the downloadable games for that matter. We're still thinking about the best way to maximize the PlayStation Network.

Keep reading for more on Insomniac's design philosophy and the company's involvement with ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.