Shack: What led to the creation of the Resistance-oriented community site MyResistance.net?

Ryan Schneider: MyResistance.net started with a vision that a tiny group of us had for creating the ultimate in-game driven community that could become kind of like a MySpace destination, but for the Resistance universe. We have steadily worked with that vision in mind, and it took us about a year and a half to get it to where it is now. We still have a long, long way to go though.

There was a lot of work that went into building MyResistance.net. We had to figure out how we could borrow resources -- without hurting the project -- from the production team. That was a challenging process, but we were able to do that. Then, we hired a community manager to devote more time specifically to growing and supporting our fan base. That has been integral in helping take the community to another level from a participation standpoint and that's also really helped drive MyResistance's overall success. In addition, we have a lot of mods here from Insomniac and all over who are active on the boards. You have to be dedicated to giving fans what they deserve, and that's the best possible game-enhanced experience.

Overall, it has been a team effort. In addition to the moderators and core MyResistance team members, there have been all sorts of production-side team members who have donated their time to help make the site better.

The philosophy of the website, at least for us, is that the definition of games themselves is changing. While disc content is the key foundation for a console game, we want to extend people's perceptions of the overall game experience. MyResistance is our attempt to expand the game universe into something far bigger. It's going to live on long-term, and this is only the beginning for how we're going to grow it.

Shack: Not to mention the mythology-expanding hints and tidbits.

Ryan Schneider: There's two big sites [for Resistance]. There's the official website, RFoM.com. That had the timeline aspect of the Resistance universe leading up to July 11, 1951, when the game takes place. That was something I was very proud to be involved with. We wanted to give people a universe for the taking. If you want to get more out of the game experience than what's on the disc, then RFoM.com will help you do that and help you understand how the Resistance universe came to be from an alternate history standpoint.

MyResistance.net essentially picks up after you dive into the game. Think of RFoM.com as pre-game and MyResistance.net as in-game and beyond-game. They really are good bookends.

As a developer, it's pretty rare that you've got a three-person team that is devoted, more or less, to building community. We're also devoted to building the Insomniac brand and supporting each title we create through working with Sony on the PR and marketing, but community-building runs through all these facets. Normally, you see that kind of commitment at the publisher level, but we're an independent developer doing that. I think that gamers who really appreciate good games and great game experiences are the ones who really latch on to Insomniac because we're doing something that hardly any other developer out there does, with the exception of some of the biggest names that everyone knows. I think the most vocal fans respond so passionately to what we're doing because they're clamoring to something they don't get to see a lot of or enough of in our industry.

Shack: What inspires Insomniac to to take such an active interest in the online community? Obviously, projects like MyResistance and the Full Moon Show podcast require a substantial amount of effort.

Ryan Schneider: We want to have a relationship with our fans. It feels good to connect with the people who are playing our games, and it's great to hear their stories. It's also great to get their input. It helps us keep in touch with what the gaming community wants. It's nice to be able to have the kind of open, fun, and honest relationship that we have with our fans, and it's cool to see that relationship grow. We just surpassed one million posts on Insomniac's site. We've got almost 80,000 members on MyResistance.net. Our newsletter that we send out for our podcast and monthly updates is growing and growing and into the six figures.

People want this sort of interaction, and we want to give it to them. [With the Full Moon Show podcast,] we are the only developer that has consistently made an effort on an in-house level to consistently update our fans during production. Not only that, but we're taking their input and it's affecting gameplay. That's why there are penguins in the Transmorpher, because of a fan poll. It goes back to our community philosophy, which basically is the closer to our fans, the better.

We want our fans to feel like they're a part of the experience and that they're contributing to gameplay. We have among the most passionate gamers in the industry, I'm sure, and it's our way of rewarding them. The podcast is not a small effort. [Community relations manager] James Stevenson had to learn sound editing on his own, which isn't an easy task. [Systems engineer] Corey Garnett has been instrumental in putting together a real easy-to-access site and updating it with new content.

We take the podcast very seriously. We meet every week basically to talk about Mystery Guests, whom we want to bring on the show. We've recently been debating with each other about whether we want this to be a Sony-centric experience or an industry-wide experience. Based on the fan feedback we get, we've concluded that it's best to have multiple perspectives from multiple platforms. On our most recent podcast, we had the creator of the Resident Evil franchise [Shinji Mikami] as well as Suda51. Past Mystery Guests have included David Jaffe, Mark Cerny, Evan Wells from Naughty Dog, [thatgamecompany president]Kellee [Santiago], Game Head host and journalist Geoff Keighley, and of course we had Lesley Mathieson from High Impact Games on. We also recently had the co-presidents of Bioware join us, and it's to the point where other developers and media are asking us if they can be Mystery Guests. This is just the beginning though. We just want people to keep listening and passing it on to their friends.

It seems like people who are really interested in learning how to make games are really gravitating to this podcast. It's exciting to see. It's a popular show, and it's growing, and we really appreciate the support that we've been getting so far.

Shack: With those "I Want Your Job" segments, I'm not surprised that to hear that aspiring game developers are checking it out.

Ryan Schneider: I think this past segment was especially helpful for people who feel stuck in their careers. We've got a designer here named Drew Murray, who once was a corporate mergers and acquisitions attorney. He quit his job, went to SMU's Guildhall, learned how to design games, and ultimately got a job as a level designer at Insomniac. He was the lead level designer for the Metropolis level featured in the E3 demo. It can happen, and I think that's a message worth repeating with the community. If this is what you want to do, you can do it. It may take a lot of work, and you need to have certain skills to be able to do it, but it is possible. If you're passionate about games, if you have artistic or mathematics or computer skills and the drive to stick with it, then there may be a place for you at Insomniac.